Obviously COVID-19 is on everyone’s minds right now. Our farm has not been called on to dump milk but seeing others in that position and seeing the milk markets drop as they have is very unsettling. We are of course taking extra precautions like limiting visitors and making sure our employees can reasonably social distance while still caring for the animals here. We want to make sure everyone on the farm stays healthy.
There has been a lot said about essential workers and we fall under that heading. We know we are on the front lines, but we think of ourselves as more of the people supporting everyone else. As farmers, it is our job to make the products so that grocery stores and restaurants can supply everyone else with the food they need. We are just one link in the chain and we are doing our best to keep our link strong.
On the farm, it is mostly business as usual. From a day to day perspective our focus is the task at hand, caring for our animals, and gearing up for spring planting, so life feels mostly normal. Things have definitely changed, our milk market, the dynamics of our industry, we’ve been thrown a wild card, but everybody’s been thrown a wild card no matter what job you’re in.
I think our current state has been a bit of a wake-up call for all of us. We are so used to being able to get just about anything we want at the grocery store, order something from Amazon and have it on our doorstep the next day. From the outside it looks simple, don’t have to get off the couch or get in the car and we have the world at our fingertips. But our current situation has really brought supply chains and how complex they are to the forefront and people are seeing that life isn’t quite as simple as it seemed. Maybe we will walk away from this a little more grounded and with more understanding of our world.