Debbie Snapp
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Douglas Walker and Ronnie Walker, Jefferson County dairy farmers, produce milk for the milk market in Florida, and they produce it by the gallons.
The milk produced on the Walker & Sons Farm is marketed and sold to big chain stores like Publix, Borden’s, Deans and Winn-Dixie. Any surplus milk is sent to plants to be processed into cheese and butter.
Even though social distancing is normal working conditions for dairy farmers, they have still felt the effects of COVID-19.
As schools and food-industry businesses shut down or limit purchases, milk prices have dropped as well, creating a surplus of milk for farmers around the country. With less milk being purchased in stores, dairy farmers have had no outlet for selling the milk produced by the cows in their herds.
Across the nation, farmers have had to dump milk, and Douglas Walker says that Walker & Sons also had to dispose of some of their milk, as they were unable to sell all of their supply.
The milk that was dumped resulted in significant income loss, as dairy farmers were not paid for their product.
Walker adds that it was very upsetting when grocery stores put limits on the amount of milk and other dairy products that one person could buy, when there was plenty of milk that needed to be sold.
While the COVID-19 and purchase-limits have hurt farmers and dairy ranchers, Walker says he and his family are doing their best to survive.
“We are working just as hard as we can,” says Douglas Walker. While other businesses were able to limit working hours, shorten their staff or take breaks, dairy farmers cannot scale down or cut back... they have to work 24-hours a day, seven days a week; through hurricanes, droughts, freezing weather and Florida’s summer heat. The cows have to be milked twice a day, 365 days a year.
Even with the difficulties that COVID-19 has introduced, the Walker & Sons Dairy must continue working.
In 1989, Douglas Walker contacted the University of Florida Dairy Science Department. “I asked them to send me everything they had on running a dairy. They sent me a stack of information that took me six months to read, but I read it all and figured out what I needed to do to run a dairy.”
Now the company operates two dairy farms in Jefferson County with a combined milking herd of over 2,000 cows and 38 employees. They raise all of their dairy heifers and harvest 1,100 acres of corn each year to feed the cows.
The most important thing to the Walkers is to provide high quality, affordable nutrition for their consumers. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication and even more love for the business to be a dairy farmer. And that’s just what Douglas and Ronnie pride themselves on being...the best dairy farmers in all of Jefferson County!
The Walker family are tireless advocates for the dairy industry as well as all agriculture. They have been recognized by several groups, organizations and peers for their efforts and dedication to daily farming.
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