STARR – Call it good luck, being business savvy, a blessing or something else, Milky Way Farm – the last dairy farm in Anderson County – is expanding in a year that many companies couldn’t dream of big investments.
In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic boosted farm sales, as demand for milk remained stable, while inventory on supermarket shelves declined in the spring.
“The pandemic has greatly increased our sales of raw milk because, when it came, it reached the point where there was no milk in stores,” said LD Peeler. “People were looking for milk, and I think some people had the courage to try raw milk. And sales have not dropped, so they must be loving it.”
LD Peeler and his son Davis reduced the size of the herd and took steps to add robotic milkers and a milk factory on the farm – an investment of about $ 1 million, he said – in the summer of 2019.
The tanks are installed and one of the milkers has been delivered. The dairy factory provides processing for dairy products in the Milky Way, although raw milk is still bottled on site.
The farm is known for its raw milk, which is neither pasteurized nor homogenized, leaving all natural enzymes intact.
It is one of the main reasons why some of Peeler’s customers can digest Milky Way products, where versions on store shelves can cause gastrointestinal problems.
“Raw milk is as clean as what’s in the store, and it’s not pasteurized, which means that all the live enzymes that the cow put there and all the vitamins that she put there are still there because it hasn’t been heated and everything killed, “said Peeler. “This is what helps to digest food. Several people had to stop drinking milk because they couldn’t drink the product at the store, but they had no problem drinking raw milk.”
Almost uninterrupted
Many modern industries have forced workers to work in tight spaces to increase productivity and decrease indirect costs.
That was never the case on a farm, said Peeler.
“I don’t know if the pandemic really – I can’t tell row farmers – but when it comes to the workforce involved, it’s still pretty much the same,” he said. “When you are out in the field in the summer harvesting hay, you are alone on a tractor. You are distancing yourself socially, whether in 2019, 2020 or 2021 – you don’t have many people around you.”
His family remained healthy during the pandemic, said Peeler, and continued to work on his regular farm schedule. The same goes for most farms in Anderson County, according to 4H agent Sam Quinney.
“I know people are still fighting, but as far as I know, no farm has been closed,” said Quinney. “We saw a large number of small farms show up because everyone – when everything went wrong in the supermarkets – decided, ‘Well, I need to get some chickens and goats and some cows and try to feed.’
Farms that can process their own products have not suffered a major drop, said Peeler, noting that many meat producers have been delayed in processing facilities. With minimal processing at Milky Way Farm and bottling on site, they were able to continue almost uninterrupted.
Demand for diversity
Peeler always said he would set up a dairy if his sons returned to the farm, and Davis returned in 2004. His daughter started discussing the possibility of returning in early 2019, so he bought the first of two automatic milkers.
Then, in August 2019, the local cooperative that bought your product stopped.
“I had to look for other ways to try to make money and not have to send milk, because they wouldn’t take it anyway,” said Peeler. “That was when we started talking about adding the cream.”
Then the pandemic came.
Stress levels are normally very high for farmers, Peeler said, but this year he saw the situation “explode” with the added concern of keeping his family and two other employees safe. The Pay Check Protection Program didn’t offer much help with such a small payroll, he said, and he has a hard time finding reliable part-time workers.
But the increase in demand – for raw milk and pasteurized versions – has reassured him that he will continue to install the cream, said Peeler. If all goes well, it should be working by the end of this year.
There are 73 cows that appear twice a day, every day, to be milked at 4:30 am. To keep the refrigerators filled with butter and chocolate milk that he plans to add to the Milky Way brand, he may have to add a few girls back to the initial lineup.
“We started milking a few more cows to get what we need to increase sales, so moving ahead with the dairy industry will also increase milking,” said Peeler.
The cows know nothing about COVID-19, delivery protocol or milk prices. They still expect two milking a day, every day. The mental burden of worrying and planning for the unknown – as farmers have been doing for generations – lies with the Peelers.
“I don’t know what this latest COVID flood is going to do with the cold weather and everything now,” said Peeler. “We will continue to do what we do, I think.”