COVID-19 hits hard at Manatee’s last dairy. Here’s how you can help them and your family
It breaks Jerry Dakin’s heart to have to dump 7,000 gallons of fresh milk every day because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic took away the restaurants, other businesses and schools that were the core of Dakin Dairy’s market.
The dairy cows at Manatee County’s last remaining dairy have to be milked every day, pandemic or not. With markets drying up, much of the milk is poured onto the dairy’s fields.
“I am 51, and I am going to fight this with everything I’ve got. But it makes you think: why not sell out and get a condo on the beach. It would be a lot easier,” he said.
Farmers and dairy owners face a seemingly never ending series of challenges from weather and market conditions. In 2017, Hurricane Irma knocked out power to millions of Floridians, and Dakin had to dump more than 50,000 gallons of milk.
But the pandemic is different, with no end in sight.
Dakin Dairy sells milk to Detwiler’s Farm Market, some local Publix stores, and Sprouts, but that doesn’t come close to taking up the slack caused by 400 restaurants closing, and school cafeterias being locked up.
Dakin is now selling a gallon of milk for $2.50 at his dairy store, 30771 Betts Road, Myakka City, which he says is less than the cost of production.
He appreciates the fact that customers are driving out to Dakin Dairy to buy their milk or cream.
“People are coming out here and buying directly from the store. You can drive out here and I will always have milk,” he said.
Dakin is selling a gallon of cream for $5. That may sound like a lot of cream for a household, but it can also be used to make butter in a food processor. There are YouTube videos to show how it is done, he said.
“If people would buy cream, that would really help out a lot,” he said.
The dairy industry has been under great stress in recent years. Two yeas ago, there were 150 Florida dairies, and now there are less than 70, Dakin said.
Jim and Lori Racky, who run the food pantry at First United Methodist Church of Parrish, received 100 gallons of milk from Dakin Dairy, which they distributed on Saturday.
With the impacts of the pandemic, the Rackys have gone from distributing food to 95 persons on March 29 to 410 on April 11.
“We are trying to get an increase in our donations,” Jim Racky said of the growing need.
For more information about Dakin Dairy Farms, visit https://dakindairyfarms.com/ or call 941-322-2803.
Manatee County tomato and bean farmers have also been hit hard by the pandemic. They have seen their markets disappear, and have had to donate as much of their crops as possible to local food banks, or, in some cases, plow them under.
Another troubling development is a possible meat shortage with a pork processing plant in South Dakota and a beef processing plant in Colorado having to shut down because of exposure to the coronavirus.
“Yes, there is concern about both of those processing plants shutting down. We don’t have a shortage of meat. We have a shortage of processing,” said Manatee County cattleman Jim Strickland.
“We have plenty of beef. We aren’t going to ramp up production if the processing plants close. We have no other place to go,” he said.
Most of the cattle produced by Manatee County’s cow-calf operations are shipped to Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska, where they are raised to full size.
