When the vacuum pump shuts down for the last time and the semi-trailers back up to the dairy barn to load up the cows, there is a flood of emotions that escape the heart. Despite the nonstop, 24/7 commitment that dairy farming brings, dairying is more than an occupation, it is a livelihood.
The U.S. lost 6% of its dairy farms in 2021 and now has fewer than 30,000 farms. According to Oregon Dairy Farmers Association, as of January 1, the Beaver State has 171 Grade A licensed dairy farms. This is a decline from 184 a year prior and 194 in 2020.
Earlier this week, one dairy farm was added to that list, although the family tried to look at selling their dairy herd with a more optimistic set of lens.
Rebekah Welters, the daughter of Jack and Arlene Gourley of Scio, Ore., admits that the emotions were very high for her family as the first truck pulled in to pick up the first load of cows.
“To see everything that we’ve poured our heart and soul into, be loaded onto a trailer and hauled away was one of the hardest things,” she said. “But also, one of the strongest things my dad and family could have done.”
For more than a century, the Gourley’s have milked cows on their family farm located in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
“It is something my dad has had a passion for his whole life, just like his dad before him,” Welters says.
While the passion for dairying still runs through the Gourley family’s veins, the family was forced to make some changes, which resulted in selling their 150-cow herd.
“Dairy farming today isn’t like it used to be back in the old days or even when my dad first started milking cows. In today’s economy and the low milk prices, dairy farmers have had to make some changes and some of those changes are tough ones. More and more dairies, big and small, are being forced to make the call to pull the plug. Unfortunately, it’s a call my dad and mom had to make just to stay afloat in the trying seas that this world is,” Welters said.
Time will tell what exactly lies ahead in the next chapter for the Gourley family. For now, the family dairy farm seems much quieter now that their herd of Jersey cows and heifers have left, although Welters says they will always have some cows around.
“The future is still unclear on what the next chapter will look like for the family dairy farm. But one thing that is clear is that we’ll continue to have faith and trust in the Lord that He’ll turn the page to the new chapter in life,” she says.
