Dairy Farming in Athens County
Ronny Ervin walks through an icy field toward a scattered herd of Holstein cattle at 5:15am on February 6, 2006 at his dairy farm in Athens County, Ohio. According to Ronny Ervin, the life of a diary farmer is completely centered around the milking pattern of cows. Ronny and his younger brother, Scotty, wake up at 4:00am, seven days a week, to milk cows from 5:30am to 10:30am.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Ronny and Scotty Ervin navigate the dirt road leading up to Ervin’s Dairy Farm as they prepare for the second milking session of the day in the early evening in Athens County, Ohio, Wednesday, May 31, 2006. According to Ronny Ervin, the second milking session begins at 5pm and is completed at 8:30pm – “Just in time for ‘Deal or No Deal,’” their favorite television show.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Farm hand Ben Bellar, right, rests on the porch with members of the Ervin family including Scott Ervin, Keith Ervin, Janet Ervin, Scotty Ervin, and Paul Strickland at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Wednesday, March 26, 2008. Five generations of the Ervin family have toiled on the farm, and one of their greatest sources of pleasure is enjoying the company of their close-knit circle of family and friends.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Undeterred by the sub-zero temperature of a southeast Ohio winter, a row of Holstein cattle consume piles of feed inside the barn area of Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, December 16, 2005. Feed for cattle is the costliest expense at the family farm, and the Ervins spend a lot more for the highest quality feed. According to Scotty Ervin, the quality of the milk their cows produce is a reflection of the quality of food they eat.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Farm hand Ben Bellar removes the string from a bale of hay beneath a curtain of early morning light that passes through holes in the side of a barn at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Tuesday, February 6, 2007.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
As Pauline Ervin, right, uses a frying pan to cook sausage patties and eggs, Scotty Ervin, left, Ben Bellar, second from left, Keith Ervin, third from left, and Brad Ervin, second from right, relax at the dinner table while awaiting their breakfast meal after completing the morning milking session at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Friday, February 29, 2008. While it is the men who toil in the parlor, barn, and fields, everyone at the farm agrees that Pauline Ervin is the most integral part of the farm. Every day, she times the cooking of meals perfectly to coincide with the conclusion of milking sessions and the cleaning of the barn.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
While waiting for other farm hands to arrive, John Ervin peers out the window of the milkhouse in the direction of the barn at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Thursday, January 31, 2008.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Scott Ervin, Sr., right, sits in the driver’s seat of his truck and watches as his sons, Ronny Ervin, left, Brad Ervin, second from left, and his grandson, Johnny Ervin, second from left, walk past his vehicle to attend to a Holstein cow in a nearby field at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Wednesday, January 23, 2008. Also pictured is farm hand, Ben Bellar, who walks a few steps behind the Ervin boys.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Scotty Ervin, left, uses a hose to spray off the teets of a Holstein heifer as she enters the milking parlor at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Monday, March 5, 2007. According to Scotty Ervin, the teets of a dairy cow is one of their most important body parts, and farmers make great efforts to keep them clean.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
A bucket of discarded milk rests on the floor of the milking parlor near Ronny Ervin’s feet during the morning milking session at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Thursday, November 3, 2005.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
A single head of Holstein cattle stands outside the barn at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, June 15, 2006. As the economic climate of dairy farming changes, and as large corporations continue to increase the efficiency of the milking process, the Ervins are resigned to the fact that their family farming way of life will soon come to an end. According to Ronny Ervin, he and his family spend so much time with their cattle that they can recognize each and every one by sight. When pondering the future of dairy farming, he poses a single question, “Will dairying ever be this personal again?”
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Farm hand Ben Bellar bottle-feeds three calves with milk in the early morning hours of Friday, April 25, 2008. To maintain a consistent herd size, and to improve on the future genetic potential for high milk yield, one-fourth of the milking herd must be replaced each year. This creates an essential need for the close supervision of young calves, and it highlights why they receive such an extraordinarily high level of personal care.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Tony Swindell, a dairy farm hand and a family-friend who has lived on the farm for three years, gathers his strength to lift a young calf into a wooden pen at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Wednesday, January 18, 2006. According to Swindell, a farm hand doesn’t make a tremendous amount of money, but the Ervins have gone out of their way to make him feel welcome and to ensure that his immediate needs are taken care of. “I get a roof over my head, three meals a day, and plenty of beer money,” Swindell says with a smile.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Homer Cunningham, a “hand” on the farm and a family-friend of the Ervins, pours a bucket of feed into a trough for Holstein cattle that are too young to be in the milking line at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, November 25, 2006. The cattle on the Ervin farm are divided into a variety of groups that are determined by their maturity and their breeding status.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Farm hand Ben Bellar, left, uses a handheld plastic scraping tool to push cow manure into rows so that Brad Ervin, right, can more easily collect it from the seat of a John Deere “lifter” at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Friday, February 23, 2007. During the winter, the milking cows remain in the barn to keep warm. Their presence creates a need for the barn to be cleaned every day, and their tons of manure is pushed into a manure pit. Within days, it is sprayed into local fields to help fertilize grass and future crops like hay or corn.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Scott Ervin peers through the kitchen window of his home in the direction of the barn where his sons and grandson are working at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Friday, March 28, 2008. At 77 years of age, Scott Ervin is physically unable to maintain the working schedule of a dairy farmer, and he contributes to the success of the farm by completing errands such as buying parts from the hardware store and overseeing the auction of his son’s Holstein cows.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Brad Ervin, left, his two-year-old daughter, Abbey, Paul Strickland, third from left, and Ronny Ervin, right, enjoy a brief midday relaxation period after completing the morning milking duties and cleaning out the barn inside the living room of their father’s adjacent home at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Monday, November 20, 2006. Periods of idle relaxation for a dairy farmer never last long, and in between milking periods, they pass the time by completing odd jobs like repairing barbed wire fences, tending to field work, or repairing equipment on the farm. The daily pattern for the family dog, Boomer, however, couldn’t be more different as he sleeps throughout the morning, afternoon and evening.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Scott Ervin rests his folded hands in his lap at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Tuesday, April 1, 2008. After fifty years of working on the farm, Ervin’s hands serve as a reminder of the ever-present danger of farming. They tell a story of toil, danger and loss as his thumb fell victim to a piece of harvesting machinery years ago.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Ronny Ervin walks through muddy puddles and reattaches a fence infused with an electric charge to prevent Holstein dairy cows from entering into hazardous areas of the farm at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Wednesday, March 26, 2008.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Dairy farmers Ronnie Ervin, bottom left, Brad Ervin, top left, and veterinarian, Dr. Stephen Abfall, top right, work together to save the life of a pregnant Holstein heifer by physically pulling out her unborn calf from inside of her body at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Wednesday, March 12, 2008. Under normal circumstances, heifers deliver their calves without the assistance of humans. On this particular day, the dairy cow experienced birthing complications and it was necessary to remove the calf by hand. Both the adult heifer and her calf recovered very well after the procedure.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Dairy farm hand Homer Cunningham attends to a newborn Holstein calf at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, June 5, 2006. Calving is an essential component to the long-term success of a family dairy farm, and every step of the process is thoroughly researched and handled with extreme care.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Michael “Mouse” Bellar, 10, a neighbor of the Ervin family and a self-proclaimed “farm hand in training,” enjoys a summer afternoon relaxing inside the giant rim of a John Deere tractor as Ronny Ervin, top right, harvests hay in a nearby field at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Wednesday, May 3, 2006. During the summer, the Ervin family plants hay and corn to help supplement their feed supply. A successful summer harvest will help lower the cost of feed for the coming winter.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Ronny Ervin returns to his truck by climbing over a tall farm gate after feeding a group of pregnant Holstein cattle who have been separated from the rest of the herd at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Friday, September 15, 2006. The work of a dairy farmer is often physically taxing, and it consistently ranks as one of the most dangerous jobs in America. Waiting in the bed of Ervin’s truck is the family dog, Sally.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Ronny Ervin, left, uses antiquated machinery to milk cows, while his younger brother, Scotty, takes a break to wipe the moisture from his arms at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, November 15, 2005. The Ervins have been using the same milking technology since 1981. Although they admit that it would be more efficient to upgrade to a faster, modern system, implementing such a change would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is a gigantic sacrifice for a family farm their size. It would not only deplete their savings, it would make them vulnerable to a financial crisis if a tractor breaks down or if their cows become ill.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Tony Swindell, a farm hand at Ervin’s Dairy Farm, lights a cigarette while filling buckets with fresh milk which will be served to newborn calves who are bottle-fed in the early evening hours of Friday, August 11, 2006. The second milking session begins at 5pm and is completed at 8:30pm.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
After a long day of work, Cody “Coyote” Elliott locates a comfortable, secluded spot among the bails of hay in the barn and takes a short nap at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Friday, March 28, 2008.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Scott Ervin, a 77-year-old dairy farmer, enjoys a peaceful moment with his granddaughter, Abby Ervin, 8, inside a tool shed at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, Wednesday, April 16, 2008. According to the elder Ervin patriarch, his biggest source of joy was having the opportunity to see many generations of children raised on his family’s farm.
Dairy Farming in Athens County
Farm hand, Ben Bellar, adjusts his baseball cap while working on the engine of John Ervin’s truck at Ervin’s Dairy Farm in Athens County, Ohio, February 12, 2008. Family dairy farming has been an important part of Athens County’s history, but unstable milk prices coupled with the rising cost of production have made it difficult for family farms to survive. Many farmers in the Athens County area feel that family farming will soon be a thing of the past. According to Scott Ervin, the way to survive in today’s difficult economy is to become a bigger farm that milks more than 300 cows. Unfortunately, for most family farms in the Athens County area, an investment of that size and magnitude is completely out of the question. As a result, they continue to farm as best they can in a challenging system in which it is difficult to compete.
