By: Lauren Ibach, Communications and Outreach Intern
For as long as I can remember my days have always included a glass of milk. Yes, I am a dairy lover. I just can't make it through the day without a glass of cold 2% milk. When I think back and try to discover where my love for milk came from one incident sticks out that sparked my addiction. That incident occurred in kindergarten, you see around Christmas time I was playing in my living room at home. I had been to little girls cheer camp earlier that morning and discovered a new activity called "the cartwheel" and like any 5 year old girl I was eager to try it. I decided that the best way to go about this activity was to first find the perfect spot to practice. I was looking everywhere in the house for a place big enough to perform this stunt when it happened...I fell of the back of the couch and broke both of the bones in my right arm. From that moment forward I was forced to drink milk with the hopes that my arm would heal quicker, and from there on my love of milk has continued.
When I learned that June was Dairy Month you can only imagine my excitement. Naturally with my current internship I think about corn 24/7 so I was interested in figuring out how corn is related to the dairy industry. I knew from growing up on a farm that the cows were most likely eating corn in their daily ration but how much corn do they eat? This is a hard question to answer because the amount of corn or distillers grains in rations tends to vary but I did learn that the average dairy cow consumes 1,000 pounds of feed a year. There are also around 61,000 head of dairy cows in Nebraska alone. Without doing all the math I quickly realized that dairy cows consume a lot of corn and distillers grains.
After doing some research to figure out how much a dairy cow eats I became interested in other dairy facts. I decided to narrow my search to strictly Nebraska dairy facts at first. It turns out that Nebraska is the 27th largest dairy producing state, we produce around 138 million gallons of milk annually, and there are 205 licensed dairy herds in Nebraska. This came as a surprise to me because I tend to not imagine Nebraska as being a very big dairy state. To finish up my research of the dairy industry I decided to take a look at the industry from a national perspective. It didn't take me long to learn that the estimated economic impact of the dairy industry is $140 billion, and dairy farmers and companies are a lifeline to 900,000 jobs in the United States. The dairy industry alone has a huge impact on our national economy and provides many Americans with stable jobs. If you are still curious about the dairy industry I encourage you to visit Midwest Dairy Association's website for some fun facts and a further look into the dairy industry.
When I think back now that rough night successfully ended my future career as a professional cartwheelist, but it led me to develop an appreciation for milk which has inspired me to learn more about this wonderful industry and for that I am thankful.
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