Coopers Hilltop Dairy Farm
October 13, 2009
AP Environmental Science students visited the farm this fall. Coopers operates at equilibrium capacity with its local community: retail sales match consumer demand. Retail means, however that Coopers must handle the bottling on its own which includes modern, mechanized milk production practices such as pasteurization ( raising the milk temperature to 145 degrees F for disinfection), homogenization (even mixing of cream/fat to appeal to consumer preferences), and bottling (plastic and reusable glass). James Cooper gave the students a tour of the farm highlighting 1) the practice of pasture farming wherein grazing is managed through rotation to ensure that the grass stays above 3 inches to maintain growth vitality and below 8 inches to avoid the plant from going to seed, 2) the need to maintain proper N-P-K soil ratios through monitoring and corn crop rotation 3) Coopers lack of capacity to make feasible waste to energy production due to scale 4) lowered corn yield due to heavy rain last summer. Pictured above right is a “cycle of life” image of a calf born the day of the trip, reminding us all of the wonder of life.
