Dunbar 1

Orion Dunbar
Mrs. Foults
English IV
23 September 2016
Rough Draft
Got milk? Whenever one hears this question, they inevitably recall the Dairy
Associations commercial, featuring celebrities with milk mustaches. This 20 plus year campaign
helped dairymen across the nation sell their product. Since the dawn of man, milk has been a
staple nutrient for countries around the world. Because of its widespread consumption, the job of
a dairy farmer continues to be necessary.
The job of a dairy farmer extends beyond just cows. Although dairy farmers first
concern is the production of high-grade milk, they also raise corn and grain to provide feed for
their animals. Dairy farmers must be able to repair the many kinds of equipment essential to their
business and know about diseases, sanitation, and methods of improving the quantity and quality
of the milk (farmers 262).
For thousands of years, cows have been providing people with food (milk and meat), clothing
(leather), labor (plowing), and fuel and fertilizer (manure).
Up until the late 1800s cows were milked by hand. Cows were brought into a barn, and tied up
or held in place with stanchions. Cows were milked from the side, which was safer, cleaner,
more comfortable, kept the tail out of the milk pail and the farmers face, and made it harder for
the cow to kick the farmer.
Dairy production is multi-faceted, as milk processors provide a large range of products.

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These products include: liquid milk, fermented milks, cheeses, butter, condensed milk,
evaporated, dry or powdered milks, as well as whey and casein products (types and
characteristics). Even though there's a large list of products liquid milk, cheese, and butter are
the most consumed. A cow produces an average of 6.3 gallons of milk dairy and 350,000 glasses
of milk in a lifetime. Cheeses are produced though the coagulation of milk protein (casein),
which is separated from the milks whey. Hundreds of varieties of cheese are produced, many of
them being characteristic to a particular region of the globe(types and characteristics). There ar
In today's farming world, cows are milked using automatic suction. These machines milk
cows twice a day and records are kept of each cow's milk production. The machines have to be
sanitized with boiling water. It is also required that dairy farmers certify their cattle to be disease
free by the US Department of Health (Farmers even 263).
After the cows are milked by the automatic milking machines their milk is collected in a large
tanker where it is taken to be pasteurized. This is a process where milk is heated to destroy
pathogens it is heating every particle of milk on milk product (pasteurization). After
pasteurization, the milk is then shipped in a tanker to a milk facility. One local farm in Western
North Carolina is Tap Root Dairy Farm. Tap Root delivers their milk to Milkco Inc, where it is
processed and placed in stores for selling. Milkco Inc. is the only dairy plant in Western North
Carolina. Most of the raw milk supply comes from within a 150 mile radius of Milkcos facility
and when ready the finished product ships throughout the Southeast.
Even though milk production is a constant in society, it does require a great deal of
learning and experience to produce this nutritious staple. Students in high school should take
classes such as math, accounting, and business to prepare for the management responsibilities
of running a farm (Farmers 263). Other classes should include chemistry, biology, and earth

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science classes. For the agricultural, portion, shop machinery classes will also help. Once a
farmer, successful dairymen also need to know soil preparation and cultivation, disease control,
and machinery maintenance (Farmers 463). Even though a college degree is not required, Dairy
science is a post secondary training program. Although milk in a highly produced commodity;
there is some controversy surrounding this staple in Americans diets due to the incorporation of
Genetically Engineered Recombinant Bovine growth Hormones or rBGH or rBST. These are
banned in most countries; however, not in America. rBGH is injected into dairy cows to increase
milk production. Many scientist believe that these added hormones increase the milk for certain
cancers, including breast, prostate, colon, and lung. It is also believed that milk injected with
rBGH has lowered nutritional value, increased antibiotics and make pus from infected
udders(Institute for Responsible Technology online).
Place for interview..