Experiencing the dairy industry around the world

ABBOTSFORD, Wis. – When John Bigham Jr. moved from Ohio to central Wisconsin to begin his career as an organic dairy farmer, adding world traveler to his resume was not something he was expecting to do.
Then, he read about a scholarship to take part in a regional understanding tour being offered by the CROPP Cooperative through Organic Valley.
“In a million years, I never figured I would be chosen for the scholarship; I just applied because I never figured I would be selected,” Bigham said. “Imagine my surprise when I was notified I was indeed selected. My first response was panic. ... I had to find someone to do my chores.”
Bigham milks 40 cows on an organic dairy farm near Abbotsford. Bigham is transitioning into ownership of the farm.
With not much more than 60 days of notice, preparation for the trip went into full speed. Bigham procured chore help in preparation for leaving the country for the two-week trip to visit organic farms in Ireland and Scotland.
“It was the first time I’ve ever left North America,” Bigham said. “We spent six days touring Ireland and then moved onto Scotland for another six days.”
Bigham departed the U.S. from Dulles Airport in Virginia and flew to Dublin. Despite the six- hour time difference and six-hour flight, Bigham hit the ground in Ireland ready to take on the forthcoming adventure.
“One of the first things that struck me on the trip was how hard it was to find a taxi at the airport,” Bigham said. “Nothing really opens before 9 a.m. either. It was hard to find breakfast in the mornings before the tours left.”
Once in Dublin, Bigham met up with the rest of the tour group, which consisted of about 30 organic farmers.
Throughout the 12-day tour, the group visited a dozen farms.
“In Ireland, there are 11,000 dairy farms,” Bigham said. “There were cows everywhere, it seemed. The average herd is about 90 cows or so. The herd size has increased since the European Union did away with the milk quota system. Now, the size of the dairies are more limited by their land base and the equipment needed to farm.”
Bigham said Irish dairy farms do not feed a lot of grain, and that the focus of the dairy farms is on keeping inputs as low as possible.
“One thing that surprised me is that out of all those farms, there are only about 70 that are certified organic,” Bigham said. “While they are very conscientious about their C02 emissions, being certified organic is not as common as it is here.”
According to Bigham, the Irish dairy industry is almost exclusively an export market, with little product being used for domestic consumption.
As a grazier himself, Bigham took great interest in how the Irish dairymen utilize grazing on their dairies. Bigham learned that the climate of Ireland allows for a much longer grazing season than is available in Wisconsin. Bigham said Irish dairies typically graze between 280 to 300 days a year, and Scottish dairies have a grazing season more similar to that of Wisconsin’s.
“They rely a lot on rye grass there,” Bigham said. “However, it was really hot and dry there this summer, so we didn’t see a lot of grass. I’m not sure if it was just because of the drought, but they tend to graze much shorter than we do here.”
On-farm processing was a theme among some of the farms Bigham had the chance to visit on the tour. Farms produced everything from cheese and ice cream to gelato with their milk.
One of Bigham’s favorite stops was at Forest Farm Dairy in northeast Scotland in Aberdeenshire, where the Willis family milks about 150 cows and makes yogurt and gelato as well as operating an on-farm specialty store, gelateria and coffee shop.
“They had diversified their on-farm processing to retail milk using Scotland’s first milking vending machines,” Bigham said. “Those were really neat. People brought their bottles in and dispensed the milk into the bottles.”                                                                                            
With all of the on-farm processing and diversification, Bigham said the organic milk price paid to the Irish and Scottish dairy farmers equated to $20-$26 per hundredweight.
Besides touring the farms, Bigham said the group had ample opportunities to take in the countryside and enjoy the culture of the two countries. The group traveled as far southwest in Ireland as the town of Limerick and Adare and as far northeast in Scotland as the town of Aberdeen.
“We visited the Cliffs of Moher; it was the first time I had ever been to the ocean,” Bigham said. “I was really struck by how windy it was. One thing that amazed me is that they grazed sheep right up to the edge of the ocean.”
Bigham said he enjoyed soaking in the culture of both countries.
“The people in Ireland were super nice everywhere you went,” Bigham said. “In Scotland, the farmers we met and visited with were really nice, but the locals in the towns we stayed in were not nearly as hospitable.”
The amount of history in the two countries struck Bigham too.
“Everything there is just so old,” he said. “All the buildings, the streets, the architecture. There is so much history in everything around you. It is pretty astounding to think that all those places are thousands of years old when everything here in the U.S. is relatively new, comparatively. I’m so grateful that I was selected to receive the scholarship and have this opportunity. It was really a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me.”