Even in the middle of the herd, Bobbi Frost stands out.
Frost is a fourth-generation farmer at Harrold’s DairyDairy in Creswell. “My family has been here since 1946,” said 30-year-old Frost.
Her great grandparents moved to Oregon from North Dakota and began their dairy farm with only five cows.
Today, it takes about six hours to milk almost 400 cows here.
“I love cows, I just love being with cows,” she said. “That’s really the thing that keeps me happy on the farm.”
Unfortunately, she doesn’t just get to be with the cows all day, she acknowledged that it’s a business that doesn’t run itself.
But she is making a difference. The USDA says between 2007-2012, the agriculture industry lost roughly 100,000 farmers between the ages of 45-54.
Which is why it’s so important that millennials, like Frost, step up to the plate. “I don’t really think about the fact that there are not very many people like me,” said Frost.
In the milking parlor at Harrold’s, the process is fascinating.
Once the cows are hooked up to the mechanical pumps, it only takes about five minutes to milk out a cow, and very high-quality control is built-in. “From the time the milk leaves that cow until you open the container of milk you buy in the store, you’re actually the first air to touch that milk because the system is entirely contained.”
It all makes for a different process than it was back in 1946, but the same family pride remains. “We don’t have anything to hide, we’re pretty happy to let people see what goes on here, and we’re proud of that.”