Angel Ishmael

My first farm tour

One of the most interesting things to me on this farm was the lack of flies, I saw maybe two flies the whole time we were there. Mrs. Martz told us that they have wasps delivered weekly which eat the fly larvae, thus controlling the flies without the use of pesticides.

It’s a family farm

At Larson farms we were greeted with open arms by the Martz family and grandma even had a pot of coffee ready for us. Larson Farms was huge to say the least, 6,350 acres plus 3,500 head of cattle. This farm operates with 4 generations of family, even little Jaxson was present for our tour.

Careful cattle

As BIG as a cow is, it was afraid of me. We walked thru the cattle and were surprised at how they (weighing on average 900-1,000 lbs) were afraid of us moms.

Cattle stay in social groups

Cows have a "pecking order." We learned that those that come to the farm together, always stay together.

The farmers know their animals

The dairy calves were absolutely adorable and you could tell that these were Linda’s babies, she had little stories about each of them.

I had questions on rBST

Our questions were answered openly and honestly even their veterinarian stopped by to chime in on the concern with hormones. Read more +

The Drendels went on to say that they drink their own milk and that we all have to make our own choice as to whether we feel we need to drink milk that was not treated with hormones.

Linda Drendel shared:

*1. Cows naturally produce BST, a growth hormone that stimulates milk production. Therefore, any glass of milk has BST. A scientist nor a consumer can tell the difference between a glass of milk with BST and one without rBST. There are NO definitive studies that show harmful effects from rBST milk.

*2. NOT every cow in our herd (or any herd) is given rBST. She must be in good physical condition and be in good health. She first receives rBST 90 -100 days into her lactation; the dose is mere milliliters compared to her weight of 1500 pounds plus it is given once every two weeks and it continues to the end of her lactation.

*3. About it being a choice to make: We agree; however, it is NOT a choice between a healthy, safe glass of milk without rBST and one with rBST incorrectly assuming it is not as safe, healthy. It is a choice between paying a higher price (usually if not always) for organic. Also it can be said that virtually all milk (organic or not) is labeled as rBST free.
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