Farmers Dairy: A Family Affair

For most people, milk is simply something that fills your glass; best paired with cookies and breakfast. It’s a daily source of calcium, a refreshing treat, a way to brighten up your morning coffee. But for my uncle Barry Maxner, a dairy farmer in Windsor, Nova Scotia, that milk in your glass came from Ruby, Stella, Nelly and Winnie. It arrived at your grocery store with 30 years of 4 am mornings helping it get there. And it tastes as good and refreshing as it does because of his respect for both the animals and the end product.

This respect is something that has been passed down through the Maxner family. In fact, it was a core principle of my great uncle, Watson Maxner, who was one of the founders of Twin Cities Cooperative Dairy, which eventually became Farmer’s Dairy Cooperative Ltd.

My uncle Barry Maxner, a dairy farmer in Windsor, Nova Scotia with my mom, Judith O’Hara (Maxner)

Watson believed in controlling the quality of the milk from “the teat to the teacup” and it was this principle that led him and several other independent farmers to come together and form a dairy cooperative; an organization that was started over conversations in what is now Barry’s dining room.

When I recently visited Farmer’s corporate offices and processing plant, it was clear that this extraordinary commitment to quality continues today. At every point, the safety of the milk is protected. At the farm, the milk is tested for bacteria and the absolute absence of antibiotics. The same day at the plant, the milk is tested again. No milk is moved from the tanker trucks into the holding silos without 100% assurance that it’s safe. Within 24 hours, it’s processed into delicious milk, cheese, ice cream, sour cream and other dairy products.

Then it’s on its way to be distributed across the province. In one week, one million litres of fluid milk will go through the organization’s doors.

But for my uncle Barry, and the 200 other Nova Scotian farmers who supply the Dairy, the quality of the milk begins long before it ever arrives at the plant. While every farmer does things a little differently, at the Maxner farm it all starts with a simple principle that came from my grandfather, Robie Maxner: treat the cows well and they’ll treat you well in return.

One of the newest additions to the Maxner farm

“Every time you take stress off a cow and make them more comfortable, they reward you with more milk,” Barry says.

It’s not about forcing milk production, it’s about creating the conditions for nature to do what it does best. That means ensuring the 138 lbs of feed each cow eats every day is perfectly balanced (and they have a nutritionist that tests to be sure that it is). It also means making sure their water supply is the best possible quality. And it means giving the cows a comfortable place to live – complete with mattresses to sleep on, padded floors in the milking parlour, and a fluffy massage brush hanging in the barn.

It all sounds pretty kushy, some may even call it over the top, but when I heard Barry talk about his approach, it became clear that dairy farming, like any farming, is both a business and a way of life. It’s a personal commitment to nature, to the animals, and to the people who consume the food you farm. And that commitment shows in the end product.

I can remember sitting at the dining room table of my grandparent’s home, eating my poached eggs on toast and patiently waiting for Granddad to arrive home from his morning chores at the barn. He would have been up and gone long before I had ever considered stirring, and by breakfast he had done what most people would consider a day’s worth of work. I remember him in his smelly barn clothes and black rubber boots. He would walk in with a big smile, more fulfilled by his cows than most people are with their spouses. The jars in the milk basket would clank together, almost celebrating their contents.

The milk basket that my grandfather used to bring milk home from the farm and old milk cap covers from the Maxner farms

Although today I get my milk from the grocery store in its clank-free packaging, when I pick up a Farmer’s milk carton, I still beam with pride and smile remembering the joy that farming brought my grandfather and continues to bring my uncle Barry. In every carton of Farmers milk, every block of cheese, every container of ice cream, you’ll find a piece of my family’s history. It’s a history that’s filled with decades of hard work, resilience, perseverance, pride and love. And to that, I joyfully raise a glass.

An aerial shot of the Maxner farm, taken in the 80s