News and Events
Dairy Farms of the Eastern Shore
October 14, 2009
Following the crop farm tours, Chesapeake Semester students visited with varying dairy farm operations as they delved deeper in the farming community of the Eastern Shore. The first stop was at St. Brigid's Dairy Farm of Kennedyville, MD in Kent County with owners Judy Gifford and Bob Fry.
Judy Gifford begins the tour of St. Brigid's Farm with an introduction to the milking parlor. At St. Brigid's the Jersey cows are milked twice a day.
Laura Lazenby '11 gets acquainted with a veal calf.
At St. Brigid's the cows are fed on pasture consisting of a variety of grasses. Bob Fry takes a moment to break down the composition of grasses on the 56 acres of pasture as well as how the rotational grazing works.
On such a small farm intimately knowing each cow is inevitable and necessary for ideal health of the animals. Judy knows all her cows by name.
Danielle Bellezza '11 and Director of Chesapeake Semester John Seidel coaxing the relaxed animals to come closer for a shake.
Did you know grass is the most efficient way to get milk from the sun? To maintain such a plush pad of grass Bob and Judy apply appropriate amounts of fertilizer as needed.
The milk produced on St. Brigid's farm goes into the conventionally produced milk stream. The grass fed beef raised on the farm is being marketed to local restaurants like Brooks Tavern in Chestertown.
After the St. Brigid's Farm tour, students traveled northward to Massey, MD to the Jones Family Farm, the home of Sean and Tammy Jones. Here the students witnessed a 24-hour milking operation with efficient computerization and mechanization of the milking process. The milking parlor runs 24 hours per day with workers on three separate 8-hour shifts. Each cow wears a collar that enables a computer to identify any anomalies in the cow's production. If a cow is identified it is automatically corralled into a separate pen where it can receive assistance from the Jones Family Farm staff.
The students started the tour looking down on the milking parlor with owner Sean Jones. Each of the 1,200 milking cows on the Jones Family Farm is milked 3 times, with each cow producing roughly 80 gallons of milk per day. The Jones Family Farm is almost entirely self-contained with the only significant inputs coming onto the farm being fuel, soy, and semen and the outputs leaving the farm are milk and bull calves, which have little to no use in a diary operation. A study to derive energy from the methane produced on the farm has been done, but has not proven to be economically viable at this time. Potential for the future does exist.
Danielle Bellezza '11 getting acquainted with the cows.
Danielle Bellezza 'll and Kelsey Hallowell '12. Cows are calved on the farm with pregnancies happening everyday. By paying careful attention to each animal's genetics, the Jones have an opportunity to select for the best animals that display the most desirable traits.
Part of the grain grown on the farm is stored in these silos and mixed into the complex animal feed which has been determine for optimal health and milk production for the animals.
The other grains grown on the farm are chopped and put into silage bins where a tractor compacts the silage to prevent aerobic digestion and fungal growth.