Note: The following is an opinion commentary. I am excited about being in a growing and prosperous dairy industry. Yes, I know, there are many that think our industry is in terrible shape, but they are dead wrong! Let’s think about it. 1. Sure, we have fewer dairy farms and cows today, but we have become much better farm managers and more efficient ones. In 1950, we had 22 million cows producing 5,134 pounds of milk per cow per year – totaling 116.6 billion pounds per year.

Editor’s note: The following opinion was submitted by the author in response to current dairy reform proposals. The world is running out of food Back in 1954, I was a young hired hand working for Law-nel Farms, a large (for that era), 65-cow dairy farm. The owner, Nelson Smith, was a former county agent and I was a “green” college graduate. After milking the cows, the breakfast table was always a feast of Rella Smith’s delicious breakfast and a treasure of Nelson Smith’s conversation and wisdom.