Fifth-generation dairy farmer, Tara Vander Dussen, also known as the New Mexico Milkmaid, from eastern New Mexico was recently a live guest on The Weather Channel, sharing dairy’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint. The Weather Channel’s “Growing Solutions” series features farmers from across the country; focusing on how farmers are part of climate solution.
Searching for the word ‘dairy’, a producer from The Weather Channel came across Tara’s blog, The New Mexico Milkmaid and reached out to her. “It was as simple as that,” the New Mexico dairy advocate says.
Tara knew after speaking with the show’s producer the Growing Solutions series was going to be a positive story for agriculture and she said yes to the opportunity to tell dairy’s sustainability story to a larger audience. The New Mexico Milkmaid felt comfortable going on live television, as she has engaged telling dairy’s sustainability story in many faucets. Although, this was the longest live interview Tara has ever done before and unlike previous experiences, she did not know the host, she said she could tell from the initial interview that this segment was going to shine a positive light on dairy.
In high school, Tara’s father was on a board that worked with dairy government regulations and Tara was intrigued from the get-go, as she saw a massive gap in the conversation between the dairy producer and government regulations personnel. “I wanted to bridge the gap between those two groups and social media allowed me to do that,” Tara says. “It all morphed into bringing consumers into the mix and wanting to engage with them and narrowing that gap as well.”
Tara holds a degree in environmental science from the University of Arizona and after that she moved back to New Mexico, got married and began working as an environmental scientist. Tara, and her husband, Daniel, and their two young daughters live and work on their family-owned dairy, which is home to nearly 2,000 cows.
Going live via zoom from the Curry County New Mexico dairy feed pad, Tara lit up The Weather Channel segment with her passion for dairy sustainability. Tara openly talked about the fact that dairy only contributes to 2% of U.S. greenhouse emissions and the Net Zero initiative set forward by the industry to become carbon neutral or better by 2050. “We have a long track record and have set huge industry wide goals for the future,” Tara stated on live television.
Tara explained to The Weather Channel how a single gallon of water on a dairy farm is reused up to five times—from cooling down milk, cleaning equipment, flushing the barn and how water is collected in a lagoon to then water the crops, which then feed the cows. “It all comes full circle,” Tara adds.
The New Mexico Milkmaid blog was developed by Tara because she found that often people have several misconceptions about farming. “I wanted to set the record straight about dairy farm life and on farm sustainability.”
The New Mexico dairy farmer was able to do just that on her recent live television segment. Check out The Weather Channel’s full clip featuring Tara here.
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