SUSQUEHANNA, Pa. — Tis the season of Thanksgiving! What better to be thankful for than our dairy farmers! Our farmers work every day, rain or shine, they don’t take a break for sick days or even on holidays. Farmers work at all different hours of the day to make sure the cows that produce the delicious milk are well fed, kept healthy, and cared for.
When you think of the title “Dairy Farmer,” you might think it’s just a person who milks cows, but there’s so much more to the job than that! They have to know what to do when a cow gets sick, a machine doesn’t work properly, know what to feed the animals, and so much more. Did you know that the average dairy farmer works at least 50 hours a week and most weeks many more hours! Wow, isn’t that a lot? It’s more than most other peoples’ jobs require. They do so much just to make sure we have safe, delicious milk to drink and milk to produce into so many other dairy products.
Even though you might not be able to visit a farmer and say thank you in person, you can just think about all the hard work that went into that glass of milk you enjoy every morning, the yogurt at lunch, the sour cream on your baked potato, or the ice cream you enjoyed for dessert.
Another way you could thank a farmer this Thanksgiving season is by purchasing locally produced milk! If the plant code on the milk jug is the number 42, that means your drinking locally produced, Pennsylvania milk, by a farmer you might just know!
I hope everyone finds a way to thank a dairy farmer this holiday season!
Holly Harvatine, Susquehanna County Dairy Ambassador