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Bryan Warman only had one item on his wishlist for Christmas this year — reading materials about agriculture. Warman is serving his third tour of duty in Afghanistan and will not be able to come home for the holidays.
This request was made to Mary Magathan. Mary and her husband have known Bryan for nearly 10 years. Bryan lived with the dairy couple from Cedar Point, Kansas, and even worked on their farm.
We asked some of our Proud to Dairy bloggers to provide their favorite dairy-related Christmas memories. We featured a few of these in Issue 18 of Progressive Dairyman, including responses from Katie Dotterer-Pyle, Barbara Martin and Ashley Sears.
The following is an excerpt from a blog posted by blogger and Proud to Dairy member Nancy Grossi.
The North Bay Dairy Women was established in 1965 and is a local organization, with the purpose behind it being to educate consumers about dairy and dairy farms and to promote the dairy industry.
Away in a manger,
No crib for His bed
The little Lord Jesus
Laid down His sweet head
The stars in the bright sky
Looked down where He lay
The little Lord Jesus
Asleep on the hay
The cattle are lowing
The poor Baby wakes
But little Lord Jesus
No crying He makes …
Christians around the world will sing those phrases this Christmas season. Many will do so standing together in their house of worship. As they close their eyes, images of a nativity scene will take them to this moment. The congregation of Portage Presbyterian needs only to look around to see a manger, the stars in the bright sky, and the cattle that are lowing.
Todd Grimes has been dairying for less than two years, but the 43-year-old former electrical lineman from Maryland, now an Iowa dairy producer, says he’s already learned that bad stuff happens in sets of three on his dairy.
Like many, Grimes’ February 2009 milk check was a record low, squeezing his 60-cow dairy’s profitability. Then, later that summer, five confirmed pregnant cows died suddenly within a few weeks from complications due to heat stress. He couldn’t afford to replace them. Yet it was the year’s triple-play of misfortune that nearly took his life.
Dairyman Steve Hanson doesn’t like to wait. But, right now, he’s at the U.S.-Mexico border waiting to get approval to take supplies like clothes, food and building materials into the country. Just 10 miles from the border are 100 children who are also waiting.
Hanson has driven five-and-a-half hours from his dairy in Clovis, New Mexico, to deliver much-needed supplies to the children at Bethel Orphanage in Juarez, Mexico. This is one of the almost-monthly trips Hanson has made to the orphanage for the past five years. On his first trip, he was just accompanying a friend.
“My wife and I were close with a couple, and the wife’s mother had started the orphanage,” he says. “They were coming down and asked if we wanted to come. We were interested in where she grew up, so we said ‘yes.’”
Paul Dotterer and Sons Dairy Farm was established by Paul and Jean Dotterer in 1951, when they purchased a 130-acre farm near Mill Hall, Pennsylvania, and began dairying with 15 cows.
Paul and Jean raised their six children on the farm, and two sons chose to remain and grow their lives and families there as well. Larry Dotterer became the dairy herd manager, while John Dotterer assumed management of the crops. Now, the third generation is gradually taking the reins.
Candice Dotterer (pictured at right), daughter of Larry, oversees the herds’ reproduction, fresh cows, sick-cow care, maternity barn, milkers and milking equipment.
About 140 women gathered for the fourth Women in Dairy Conference, held in Camp Hill, Pennyslvania, November 9, 2010.
This conference began in 2004 and has been held every other year since then. With each conference, attedance continues to increase, says Dr. Lisa Holden, chair of the planning committee.
Doris Mold got her start as a 4-H and FFA member in east-central Minnesota. Because of the generosity of the adult volunteers who helped her then, she is now paying it forward tenfold.
From dairy promotion and food safety to statistics and women’s leadership, this dairywoman balances it all while teaching, consulting, farming and being a wife and mother.
“It is important for people to be involved and have a voice in what’s going on,” says Doris, who has been involved in a lot of different things over the years.
Cows moo in the barn, and a cat meows a sound of surprise. Schoolchildren chatter while sitting on the grass eating a picnic lunch. And Tina Hinchley is in the midst of it all.
“Can you hear the noise in the background here?” Tina asks with a laugh. “Those are my tour kids, trying to corral the cat in the yard.”
Probably not the everyday sounds to come from a dairy farm, but it is just a typical day for Tina and her husband, Duane Hinchley, on their dairy in Cambridge, Wisconsin.
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