Cora and Jerry Johnston in front of their new facility
I am bearing witness to a huge dream becoming real, and it’s been a very long process. Jerry and Cora Johnston had a small dairy farm with pastured, grass-fed dairy cows and a cheese license, something unique in St. Louis County. Jerry moved the grazing herd of twenty-seven four times each day and brought them in for milking twice a day. Cora made cheese: aged Gouda in flavors like tomato basil and garden, and Farmhouse Cheddar. They chose bulls carefully to breed dairy cows able to produce milk on grass and to withstand Minnesota winters. And then they got a call that changed everything.
Dahl’s Sunrise Dairy was going out of business and was looking for a farmer to buy the bottling plant. Jerry and Cora prayed about it and decided to go ahead. That meant moving to a bigger farm, getting financing to build a large facility, and painstakingly disassembling, transporting and reassembling each piece of machinery from Babbitt to Floodwood. It’s all there now, including a massive butter churn. They’ve taken on debt and are selling cows to get by during the years-long process. The dream is to rebuild the herd and re-apply for the cheese license and the permits necessary to run the bottling plant on this 200-acre farm.
In the interim, Johnston’s Riverview Farm milk is being produced by Crystal Ball Farms in Osceola, Wisconsin, an organic dairy. I love the name crystal ball—it echoes the vision that the Johnstons have of their dream. Twice each week, Jerry picks up empty bottles at nineteen locations selling their milk, takes them to Osceola and picks up a load to bring back and deliver. They would love to do home deliveries, but that’s in the future when the local plant is up and running. That future is hopefully 2023 if all goes well.
The 102x40 foot building has been constructed, complete with loading area and walk-in coolers, a bottle-washing room, and a milk-processing suite. They plan to make cheese again, and cream and butter in addition to milk. Johnston’s Riverview Farm milk is not homogenized—meaning that each bottle has cream on the top. Customers sometimes think the milk is bad and call to check. But non-homogenized milk just needs to be shaken. Homogenization is an additional processing step requiring lots of extra energy to pulverize the cream into small enough droplets to stay suspended in the milk.
Butter churn being readied for use
The dream involves a herd of about sixty dairy cows, several bulls to crossbreed for desirable traits such as good milk production on grass and weather tolerance. The cows, as on their former farm, will get no antibiotics, no growth hormones, and they’ll get plenty of grass and fresh air, moving four times each day to fresh grazing ground. The Johnstons will bottle once per day and do home deliveries of their milk, cream, butter, and cheese. I’ll be standing in line for that cheese especially! I hope they’re also able to sell at local farmers markets.
The Johnstons have crafted their dream in accordance with their values. Their website introduces them by saying “We have a passion for a simple way of life and raising our own food. We homeschool our five children which allows them to help with the farm chores and be a part of our family business. Our long-term goal is to make our main income from our family farm.” There is, of course, another way to do dairy: total confinement and zero-grazing. AgriSearch research fellow in international dairy production at the QUB (Queens University Belfast) Institute of Global Food tackled the question “total confinement vs. pasture systems: what does the science say?” And the science says, it depends. There are advantages and disadvantages of each system. Total confinement gives the farmer complete control—of the nutrition, the weather, and the breeding. It can yield higher levels of milk. It costs more than pasturing, but, with increasing herd sizes, those costs can be lowered somewhat. On the other hand, grass is the cheapest feed available, cows on pasture experience decreased lameness, mastitis, mortality, and aggression. They demonstrate increased comfort/lying behavior, increased fertility, improved milk content, and lower environmental impacts. (https://www.thedairysite.com/articles/3778/total-confinement-vs-pasture-systems-what-does-the-science-say)
USDA photo of dairy cow on pasture
The Journal of Dairy Science in 2002 published an article measuring milk production and economic measures, comparing confinement and pasture systems. They also compared two breeds of cows, Jerseys and Holsteins, which complicates the results a bit. But here they are, straight from the research: “In this 4-yr seasonal calving study, pasture-fed cows produced less milk, had lower feed costs, and lower culling costs compared with the confinement-fed cows. Jerseys produced less milk, had higher protein and fat percentages, and lower culling costs than the Holsteins. Overall, there was not a significant difference for income over feed costs between the confinement-fed and pasture-fed cows. Holsteins consistently had higher milk income over feed costs than Jerseys. Other factors such as manure management, labor, and some investments are projected to favor the pasture-based feeding system, but land needed for forage production may be less in a confinement system. Although many factors contribute to the economic success of dairy farm businesses, results from the current study indicate that pasture based dairy production can potentially be an economically competitive management system.” (White, et al, “Milk Production and Economic Measures in Confinement or Pasture Systems Using Seasonally Calved Holstein and Jersey Cows,” Journal of Dairy Science, 85:96-104, 2002)
These studies come from the farmer perspective. What about consumers of dairy products? Well, there’s research on that, too. The New Zealand Veterinary Journal in 2020 published a study “Assessing whether dairy cow welfare is “better” in pasture-based than in confinement-based management systems.” Twenty-first century consumers are interested in the conditions under which animals who provide their food have been kept. Vegetarians and vegans, of course, reject all animal use. But for carnivores, the animal welfare is a key factor. This study acknowledges the current reality of dairy farming: both systems are heterogeneous and continually evolving. Some confinement operations allow cows out to pasture periodically. Some pasture operations provide winter shelter and, especially in northern Minnesota, supplemental grass products during the winter. Between the extremes of total confinement and total pasture, there may be “the optimal system [which] gives cows an element of choice between both environments.” (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00480169.2020.1721034 )
But the labeling can be confusing to consumers. Is there a difference between grass-fed and pasture-raised? Yes, there is. Grass-fed defines what an animal eats. Pasture-raised defines where they eat it. Some consumers make choices on this basis. And in northern Minnesota with brutal winters, these choices are real. You can’t have animals graze on fresh grass in the snow. So, farmers who graze must import baled grass, raised to their standards, to supplement. Farmers who use confinement methods also must purchase feed….and that’s where consumers can ask whether the dairy cow was fed hay/sileage (leaves and stems from corn, wheat, and oats) or something else. It’s really a values choice. Consumers are increasingly choosing food according to their values IF they can afford to make such choices. And that is the topic of another article!
For the Johnstons, the dream is in sight and the hard work continues. But the result will be a dairy farm that is unique for our area and local cheese! I wish them well!
Milk bottling equipment being readied for use at Johnston’s Riverview Farm