Conservation Field Day
Whether you are engaged in commercial agriculture or just interested in on-the-ground regenerative practices in a farm setting, save Thursday, June 4, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on your calendar.
The Natural Bridge Soil and Water Conservation District (NBSWCD) will be hosting a Conservation Field Day beginning at Palmer Community Center (1230 Blue Grass Trail) and touring conservation practices on Ingleside Dairy Farm. The field day will focus on cover crops, nutrient management applications, current farm economic issues, and how these are all integrated into conservation of a working landscape.
Registration is required, but attendance is free. Lunch will be provided. More details and a registration link can be found at the NBSWCD website, www.naturalbridgeswcd.org under the “News & Events” tab. You can also register for the field day by calling (540) 319-6453.
Ingleside Dairy is one of three remaining commercial dairy operations in Rockbridge County. Just 10 years ago there were eight and 25 years ago there were a dozen full-time commercial dairy operations in Rockbridge. For most of the 20th century, milk was a regional agriculture product due to its perishability that favored dairy farms closer to populations centers. Advances in food science technology and changes in consumer preferences from fluid milk to more shelf stable products like cheese and yogurt have contributed to concentration of dairy farming and relying on massive production and distribution facilities.
Dairy production has been migrating to areas of the U.S. with lower population density and land resources that allow individual farms to house and feed thousands of milk cows on a single farm. These farms are most often family owned and operated but these families are located in areas with contiguous cropland and water resources that made those locations conducive to expansion. Large retailers such as Walmart, Kroger, and Costco favor these large dairy operations because they now represent such a significant portion of the total supply and efficiencies they capture in transportation and processing.
Virginia is a lot more like Ireland than it is Iowa and perhaps this is nowhere more evident than when we consider how dairy production in the United States has changed. Virginia’s beautiful countryside and pattern of land ownership is not conducive to assembling and managing thousands of milk cows at a single location.
Virginia dairies like Ingleside consistently match or exceed the on-farm efficiency benchmarks of the ultra-large Midwest dairies such as milk production per cow and total milk shipped per full time worker.
The field day on June 4 will allow participants to see how Ingleside Dairy has successfully integrated water resource protection and soil health improvement while striving to remain profitable and competitive in a challenging dairy industry.
