Description
About our dairy cows..... Our animals are grass-fed. No hormones, no antibiotics, no GMO foods, no steroids. What they produce is clean, creamy, raw milk. Grass-fed cows produce milk that has the natural antibodies for the locality they are living in. They are beautiful and healthy. If you have never seen a dairy cow, you will notice they are built differently. Dairy cattle look a little more lean and have a larger udder (to provide milk) than beef cows. Beef cattle are thicker and more muscular (to provide beef). We believe - and it has been proven, that cows "pushed" for quantity have more problems than grass-fed. (So we do not push chemicals on ours to make them produce more.) There are exceptions to the rule, of course - but they respond to stressful stimuli like people. We believe if you take the stress from them they will naturally do their part. And they do. Barker Farms was established at Gray, Georgia in 1941. 4 generations of our family have worked this land and it is very much a part of our heart and soul, and blood - you don't wake up one day and say, "I think I would like to work a job where I have to milk cows both morning and evening, 7 days a week, 365 days a year." You just naturally do it. Back in 1941, William Palmer Barker moved from Houston County, GA to Jones County, GA. He used this farm primarily as a dairy. His son JA Barker, Sr. took over in 1947. He ran the dairy and had a large home garden. His family milked cows 2 x day (by hand). Producing raw milk, buttermilk and butter, they pedaled the fruits of their labors in Macon, GA on a regular basis. They raised hogs, steers, chickens, had a good big garden, and the dairy. In the late 40's early 50's, regulations stopped people from pedaling milk, and they had to deliver it directly to a processing plant. They used to haul milk in 10 gallon milk cans to Dixie Dairies in Macon, GA. His son, JA Barker, Jr. learned the trade from him. 10 years later they were required to use stainless tanks instead of cans, and were assigned a Dairy number of #37. They hauled milk to Borden Dairies in Macon, GA. Jr. used to get up, help milk cows, go to school, come home and help work the garden, help milk the cows again, and start over the next day. As technology grew, they were able to purchase a Surge vacuum milker (instead of milking by hand). They graduated from that to a De Leval milking machine. In 1997 Jr.'s son, JA Barker, III came back to the farm. Until then, he had been working at other dairies in Putnam and Morgan County. Father and son remodeled the dairy and got to work milking. They currently sell raw milk at local central Georgia area Farmer's Markets under a pet food license (as required by state law). This family Farm is 72 years and going strong. The majority of our farm has always been dairy based ... though we do have goats, chickens, cats, and dogs. Hopefully the next generation will take interest in the dairy and make it a five generation dairy. (Maybe even a Centennial Farm!)
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