Development of industrial dairies and their regional implications in Tulare County, San Joaquin Valley, California

Abstract

Dairying in Tulare County was started as part of general farming coinciding with the development stage of agriculture in California. As "grain raising was a gamble and fruit raising was a speculation," a dairy herd paid every 30 days, not on a very large scale but steadily. By working hard in dairies as a milker and saving money, an immigrant was able to start an independent dairy farm in a few years. Although the number of dairies has decreased constantly from the 1930s, and that of dairy cattle remained stable or slightly increased in California as a whole, dairy farming has been stationary or trending upward since 1960 in Tulare County. Decreasing dairies in Tulare County was compensated for by the influx of Portuguese dairies from southern California, including those from suburban Los Angeles. The trend accelerated from the 1980s, and especially during the 1990s Dutch dairies moved from the Chino Valley. Development of large-scale dairies promoted the differentiation of dairy operations. Old, sizable dairies owned by British and European immigrants specialized in breeding registered cow and bulls, which were followed by the Portuguese and Dutch. Some dairies raised Jersey cows for specialty cheese. Custom calf and heifer ranches also emerged with the specialization of dairy farming. The ethnic composition of dairy farmers changed from British and continental Europeans to Portuguese and Dutch in Tulare County. Tulare County is located in central California between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Reasonable land prices, available groundwater, and familiar local climate attracted dairies from southern California, especially from the Chino Valley. Dairies without sufficient cropland in the Chino Valley were suffered from complainments of newcomers an air pollution (odors or flies) and groundwater pollution, while faeing the regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency. Thus relocated dairies were able to purchase extensive fields around dairy sites for disposing of manure and sewage from barns and corrals. A Dutch-American family built multiple, large, state-of-the-art dairies for sons and brothers by investing abundant capital, which they raised by disposing of the high-priced land of former dairies. They manage industrial dairies with a scale of 2000 ∼ 3000 milk cows. They milk cows nearly 24 hours per day by using 70-head Herringbone milking machines and hiring Hispanic milkers and workers. As large trucks collect milk two or three times a day, this industrial dairy corresponds to one Japanese dairy cooperative consisting of 50 ∼ 100 dairy farmers. Industrial dairies grow corn and wheat for silage. These crops grow fast by absorbing the organic wastewater from barns and corrals. All fields owned by dairies are equipped with pipeline networks to irrigate with sewage water. Manure separated mechanically from sewage water is also distributed in the field after harvesting crops by their own trucks or custom spreading companies. Some dairies sell manure to fruit and cotton growers. On the other hand, dairy farmers use the cotton seeds, almond full, and orange and carrot residues of agroindustries located nearby. Hay stacks of alfalfa bale are brought from the Imperial Valley, California, as well as form Utah and Arizona. The existence of these regional combinations makes possible the existence of industrial dairies and dairy product companies. The Dairyman's Cooperative Creamery Association (DCCA), operated sine 1911, is now the largest single dairy product facility in the USA. The influx of industrial dairies in Tulare County attracted milk product facilities of the California Milk Producers (CMP) and Kruse Grain & Milling company from southern California. Moreover, big dairy product companies such as Kraft Foods and Saputo Inc. and medium and small cheese companies are located in the city of Tulare and vicinity. Industrial dairies, dairy cooperatives, and dairy product companies combine to create a dairy product complex, making Tulare county the largest milk producer in the USA. However, the DCCA was taken over by Land O'Lakes, another copperative company, in 1998 and the CMP was merged with California Dairies Inc. along with other dairy companies.