~by Mary Weaver
“Hey diddle diddle, the cat, and the fiddle. The cow jumped over the moon.”
I remember my mom reading that nursery rhyme to me, and there was a drawing of the cow jumping over the moon. It seemed unrealistic, but it rhymed, and the sing song drone of words lulled me into my afternoon nap as a preschooler.
At about the same period in my young life, my uncle had one cow he milked. The barn cats would gather and occasionally he would give the closest one a squirt of fresh milk, and she always was able to “catch” the stream of milk. Churning homemade butter from the cream that cow produced with my Grandma Dorris is a long ago, but satisfying memory.
This past month was Dairy Month. It started almost 100 years ago in 1937 as a grocery/milk promotion. Dairy Month continues to serve as a reminder of the health benefits of dairy products.
A historical note of interest: the first cattle came to the Americas in 1525 landing in Mexico, but some swam across the Rio Grande to proliferate in the west. They were identified as “Texas Cattle.”
Predicting a strong economic impact on the surrounding areas, the city of Boone announced in April that Daisy Dairy is investing $627 million to build a dairy processing facility. This expansion will bring jobs, eventually expanding to 255 employees, processing cottage cheese, sour cream, and dip products. The average employee salary will be $28.85 per hour along with health benefits.
Along with additional staff it is expected that 43,000 cows will be needed. A cow can turn grass into milk in 2-3 days. A lactating cow typically will produce about 6-7 gallons of milk per day, 2,000 gallons per year and nearly 10,000 gallons during the 2-4 year lifetime of an “industrial” milking cow.
Iowa is ranked 11th in the U.S. for total milk production, and has 242,000 milk cows according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some Greene County farmers may have a cow for their personal and family milk supply, but the USDA reports Greene County had no milking cows that produced calves this past reporting season.
Greene County’s unemployment rate for April of 2024 was 1.6 percent.
Which brings us to the question of the severe need for labor in this rural central Iowa area. Who will milk the 43,000 cows? Where will they live? Construction of the plant will not be completed until 2027, and the implementation of making sour cream will not occur until 2029. There is time to create state policies that welcome international workers into the Iowa labor force.
Cheryl Tevis, who currently resides near Boxholm, a former farm management editor for Successful Farming and current contributor to Iowa Substack, reports that in Wisconsin and California, and in northwest Iowa, most dairy workers are immigrants. They are allowed to own cars and trucks, but Iowa is one of the 19 states that does not allow undocumented individuals to have a driver’s license. Our elected officials need to be questioned regarding their beliefs and values about welcoming immigrants into the Iowa labor market. Additional workers will improve Iowa’s and Daisy Dairy’s success for our future.
Tevis projects a positive futuristic suggestion: “Eighty farmers could provide homes for the 43,000 cows. Envision farm families with children enrolled in local schools, families attending local community events, and in general contributing to Iowa’s economy, children who would grow up to become the next Iowa leaders.”
Implementation of international workers into the workforce should not be considered as farfetched as the “cow jumping over the moon, while the dish ran away with the spoon.”
VIEW FROM MY WINDOW is written by Mary Weaver, from her rural home near Rippey.
