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The World of DFA Milk Haulers (continued)
“The work of tomorrow is about being adapting to change and being flexible” Guenther comments.
The diversity of today’s dairy industry is equally evident in DFA’s Mountain Area,
reports Waylon Ballard, DFA route supervisor in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“We call on 140 Utah dairies that run the gamut from family farms to very large operations,” says Ballard, who supervises 32 drivers. “Our biggest dairy now produces about a half-million gallons of milk a day, which means we’re sending in a tanker about every three hours. But we also collect milk from 20 or 30 family-sized dairy farms, where we may only make a pick-up every other day.”
Consumer demand and biosecurity change landscape
One of the latest changes in the world of milk haulers has been the rapid increase in
consumer demand for rbST-free milk and its effect on milk collection schedules.
“In less than a year, three out of the four fluid milk plants we deliver to in Salt Lake City have indicated that they will no longer accept rbST, which has created extra routes and increased the drive time for our drivers,” Ballard explains. “Now we may have a truck picking up milk produced with rbST at one farm, and another collecting rbST-free milk at a farm practically across the road.”
“Probably the biggest recent change we’ve seen has been the increase in rbST-free milk,” agrees Guenther. “Two years ago, the majority of the milk we hauled came from cows receiving rbST. Now about 75 percent of the milk in our trucks comes from farms that have signed affidavits stating that they are not using rbST.”
Strict biosecurity measures also have brought change to the milk hauling business. Guenther says each of his company’s drivers is now required to affix tanker seals on the manhole covers at the top of each truck, and at the cabinet at the back that contains the hoses and valves, with each seal number documented by the driver.
“Biosecurity has become a big part of our drivers’ responsibilities,” Ballard adds. “Our supertanker drivers are required to install and record the numbers of anywhere from 15 to 18 security seals on their tanks. And if they miss installing or recording just one of those seals, it means the entire load is rejected at the processing plant.”
The challenges of staying on schedule
Adverse weather, mechanical breakdowns and traffic tie-ups are among the most
common challenges that milk haulers face in their daily battle to maintain their milk
collection schedule at each farm, and to meet their delivery schedules at dairy processing
plants.
“It can be a challenge to stay on schedule in bad weather, but I can honestly say the weather hasn’t stopped me in the 28 years I’ve been driving a milk truck,” says Dennis Deal, who owns and operates a hauling company called Milk in Motion in Savannah, Missouri. “I pick up milk from 22 dairy farmers in northwest Missouri, and they’re real good about keeping their drives cleaned out. I owe it to my producers to show up on schedule, so I just chain up and go.”