In September, 1974, I joined the Animal Science Department of the University of Georgia at the Georgia Experiment Station in Experiment (Griffin), Georgia. For the past fifty years I have been an observer and participant of the Georgia dairy industry. Here are some of my memories.
Everything has a disclaimer today so my disclaimer is these are my memories. Others may have a different view, but I have done my best to present the facts as I know them.
Some background on my career. I was born in Michigan, went to elementary school and junior high school in College Park, Maryland, and High School in Reno, Nevada. I went to Michigan State University earning a BS in Dairy Production. I then went to University of California, Davis earning my MS in Animal Science. I was then drafted into the US Army. I returned to UCD for my PhD in Nutrition. I joined UGA in a 100% research appointment at the Georgia Experiment station in Experiment. In 1980, I went to Colorado State University with a research and teaching appointment. In 1983 I returned to UGA in Athens with a 100% appointment in extension. Over the years, my appointment evolved into an extension, research and teaching appointment. This change was due to my interests, loss of faculty members, budget balancing, and a goal to keep programs going.
The Department
When I joined the faculty at the University of Georgia there were 56 faculty members in Animal Science. UGA had a unique administrative structure in the College of Agriculture called Divisions. The Animal Science Division included the Department of Animal and Dairy Science in Athens for teaching and research, the Extension Dairy Science Department in Athens, the Extension Animal Science Department in Athens, the Animal Science Department in Athens and the Department of Animal Science in Tifton. The Dairy Science Department in Athens had just been merged with the Animal Science Department in Athens. Prof Herb Henderson had retired on July 1 and the departments were merged. Prof Henderson had been appointed as Department Head of the newly formed Dairy Science Department in 1942 when it was split off from the Animal Husbandry Department. The Animal Science Division system provided identity for the different locations and a budget for each location. The college had much more power to control the budgets as it was split into so many pies also made it harder to make changes.
There were 13 faculty members in the division that identified dairy as their focus. Also in the CAES there were 3 agricultural economists working on milk pricing and costs and budgets, 3 agricultural engineers working with facilities, 5 agronomists working on forages, and 2 entomologists working on insect control. There was also a component in the Veterinary College working on dairy problems. There was a complete compliment of faculty to provide a critical mass for the dairy industry. There were dairies at Athens, Tifton, Calhoun, and Reidsville with the Department of Corrections that the faculty worked with. Dairies in Griffin and Blairsville had been closed within the previous 5 years.
Today there are 3 faculty members with a dairy focus in the Animal and Dairy Science Department. How did we get from 1974 to today? Part of the decline is an effort by the CAES to change areas of focus. This includes moving faculty positions to different departments to cover these new areas as people retire or leave. Some positions were lost during budgets cuts. If the department had vacancies when these cuts occurred these positions were lost. Also some positions were lost due to political battles between department heads and deans with the deans winning. Another big reason for the decline is UGA search for faculty positions that have the ability to create funding. As many of you know agriculture does not have large funding opportunities so this has limited the priorities for positions. Dairy remains a viable part of the Department of Animal and Dairy Science teaching and research programs.
The Coliseum
The coliseum has a long history with agriculture. Today most people do not know this. I recently looked on the web for the Coliseum at UGA and found no link to agriculture. In the 1950’s the University and Athletic Association tried to get funding to replace Woodruff Hall. Woodruff Hall was built in 1923 for basketball. It seated 3,000 and the roof leaked when it rained. In today’s environment, it does not seem possible they could not get the funding. The livestock industry joined the effort to build a multi-purpose arena for livestock shows, concerts and basketball. It openED in 1964 and held livestock shows, concerts, basketball. Next to the Coliseum was built the Little Arena with a show ring and housing for 200 animals. Classes were held there, and some smaller livestock shows were held. Larger livestock shows were held in the Coliseum. The basketball floor was removed and shaving or Astroturf carpet was put down for the shows. The seating in the coliseum was in a horseshoe shape with a movable stage and large door for entrance of animals and equipment located in the east end.
The office space was split between athletics and CAES. Extension departments for dairy, animal science and agricultural economics had their offices in the Coliseum. Dairy Science was on the third (top) floor. Fifty-two steps up to the office and no elevator for hauling up or down material. CAES also had the bulletin room for the Experiment Station and storerooms for several departments. Athletics had offices and locker rooms for their teams including the football team.
Two agricultural activities were held in the Coliseum for several years, the Spring Dairy Show and the UGA Rodeo. Both were held in the spring after basketball season with the Dairy Show first and then the Rodeo. The basketball floor was removed and the floor set up for the Ag events. For the Spring Dairy Show 200 cows would come in for a week with all the people involved in the showing, feeding and care of the animals. There were breed shows and the state 4H and FFA judging contest were held. The rodeo followed and it was a major event on the rodeo circuit. To hold the rodeo, about a foot of dirt was moved in to cover the floor of the coliseum and had to be removed after the rodeo. This was a major undertaking for the physical plant.
The area around the coliseum was very busy as it was a key bus stop as several bus routes intersected there. There were lots of students and often many of them would wander through the barn to see the cows. Also several elementary school classes came through for a tour with extension dairy science giving quick talks about the dairy cow. Usually, spring football practice was going on so there was activity on the athletic side. Two of the most vocal critics of the agricultural events were the football coach and the gymnastic coach. There were complaints about the number of people, the noise of the animals mooing, the smell of cows and manure and with the rodeo the dust churned up from the floor that spread throughout the coliseum. There were PETA protests every year. The shows and rodeo continued for several years with good attendance.
The politics of power between athletics and agriculture, both in the university and the state started to change. The first step in removing the animals was the 1996 Olympics. About 1/3 of the cattle housing was removed to build a practice gymnasium. This decreased the capacity for animals and also removed the ability to drive around little arena making access difficult. The second part was the decision to put in temporary air conditioning for the coliseum. This was successful and funding was obtained for the installation of permanent air conditioning. This further limited access to the area for cattle trailer and trucks. Plus it took up the space that extension had used for storage. This eliminated the rodeo from using the coliseum as the dust created from putting dirt down for the rodeo would destroy the air conditioning.
The Rhodes Center for Animal and Dairy Science was opened in 1998 on the East campus. The extension departments moved out of the coliseum. Original plans were to build a livestock arena next to the Rhodes Center but these plans were cancelled as East campus evolved into dormitories and the Ramsey Center. A Livestock Arena was built on Milledge Avenue where the beef unit and horse were located for the Department. The Little Arena has been replaced with a training and practice facility for athletics. The Coliseum has been remodeled inside and outside.
One of the unique aspects of the Coliseum is that the roof and building are separate construction. This means that the roof rises and falls with the weather. A series of gaskets and baffles are designed to keep the opening closed. Over time these failed and birds would get into the attic over the offices and into the arena. The birds in the arena could leave through doors and windows but the birds in the attic could be trapped. Over the years dead birds and manure built up in the area. Finally physical plant decided to clean up the area. We were told that there would be no problems for us and we could keep working as usual. One day there was a loud bang in Larry Guthrie’s office. We rushed in and there was a worker lying on his desk. He had taken a misstep and had fallen through the ceiling. The surprising thing was he was in full hazmat gear. Left us wondering how safe we were working next to this cleanup project.
The 1980’s
The dairy industry is always changing but the 1980’s may have had two of the most significant events in in the last fifty years (I believe the most important event in the history of the Georgia dairy industry was the introduction of requiring pasteurization of all milk sold).
For the first event, we have to go to the 1970’s when Jimmy Carter was president. He changed the parity level from 76% to 79%. Parity was a program designed to allow the farmer to make the income that allowed him to purchase the goods needed for his level of living standard to be equal to the general population. A base level was set from the dairy in 1910-1914. This then set a minimum price or support price for different commodities. In the case of dairy direct payments were not made to the dairy producer but the government purchased product to guarantee the minimum price to the producer. With the resulting price increase and low feed prices, dairy producers responded by producing more milk resulting in more products being purchased by the government and going into storage. The milk products purchased, mainly cheese, butter, and nonfat dried milk. These products were used in school lunch, military and family services programs. We did not have much export market to absorb any of the surplus. By the early 80’s the amount of the surplus had become a problem. In the early 80’ there were 960 dairies, 130,000 cows producing 1.4 billion pounds of milk in Georgia.
The milk diversion program was introduced in 1983 as an attempt in supply management to decrease the amount of milk produced. Producers could sign up to reduce their milk production from 5 to 30 % and they would be paid $10/cwt. The program ran from January 1984 through March 1985. Amazingly the program was funded by dairy farmers with an assessment of 50 cents /cwt. The program was successful as production decreased. The number of farms and cows in Georgia decreased during this program.
Two interesting outcomes occurred for producers that signed up for the program. The most common approach was to reduce the number of cows. Farmers culled low producers and cows with problems. The result for many herds was an increase in production not a decrease. Many farmers had overcrowded their facilities trying to increase production with the favorable prices. With fewer cows, the cows remaining were more efficient, got the nutrition needed for production, and suffered less stress. The second most popular approach was to decrease the amount of grain being fed. This also resulted in an increase in milk production for many herds as they were feeding an unbalanced diet with grain added to increase milk production with the favorable milk prices resulting in a diet unfavorable for rumen function. Producers found themselves having to reduce more than their goal for later part of the period to meet their contract. Some producers wanting to keep cows went to a forage only diet to meet their goal. Some producers stopped milking some cows until the program was over. For the period of the diversion program Georgia lost 100 farms and about 11,000 cows. The program resulted in the desired drop in production, but production rebounded after the program. Following what was learned cows were fed better and housing was improved so that milk production rebounded in 1985. A few farms were added in Georgia, cow numbers stayed the same and milk per cow increase 511 pounds so milk production was 1.3 billion pounds for the year. Almost to the preprogram level and the surplus was still large.
Because of this response in milk production, the dairy termination program was introduced in 1985. The design was to permanently remove production from the market. Producers were to put a bid to be paid for a year’s milk production with the producer either slaughtering or exporting his dairy herd and staying out dairying for at least 5 years. The goal was to remove 12 billion pounds of milk or about 8.7% of production. The cows had to be removed from April 1, 1986, by September 30, 1987. Bids were submitted by 40,000 producers and USDA accepted 14,000 bids for 12.3 billion pounds of milk. Accepted bids were from $3.40/cwt to $22.50/cwt. The program costs $1.8 million and was partially funded by a producer assessment of $0.40/cwt for April 1 to December 31, 1986 and $0.25/cwt for January 1 to September 30, 1987. This generated $677 million.
Many people felt that the program should focus on the herds accepted to be from the areas of milk surplus production compared to local consumption. The exact opposite happened as much of the milk accepted into the program was from milk deficit areas. The Southeast was a large participant with Georgia having the second highest percentage in the country. Georgia producers submitted 309 bids and 179 were accepted. This was 21.6% of the milk marketed in 1985 in Georgia. The Georgia dairy industry has never recovered these farm numbers but milk per cow has increased over the years to keep total milk levels up. Still Georgia is a milk deficit area and this has only increased over the years as the Southeast has lost dairies and increased population.
Producers entered the program due to debt, age (retirement), other opportunities, and the chance to make changes to their operations. Only a few Georgia producers return to dairying after the 5 years. This decrease changed the Georgia dairy industry.
Lots of memories. The best part of the memories are the many people in the dairy industry. I will continue with the second event of the 1980’s to affect the Georgia dairy industry in the next Dairyfax.
