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MVP Dairy Marketing and Communication Director Allison Ryan, Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, Ohio Department of Agriculture Director Brian Baldridge and MVP Dairy General Manager Brock Peters look up from the center of the milking carousel while touring MVP Dairy on Tuesday morning.
CELINA - Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted on Tuesday morning touted MVP Dairy as a modern marvel of sustainable farming practices that serves as a model for the industry and represents the future of agriculture.
The 4,500-head dairy is a multimillion-dollar facility on 82 acres at 7124 U.S. Route 33 that began milking in November 2018. It's owned and operated by two, fourth-generation farming families, the McCarty family of Colby, Kansas, and the VanTilburg family of Celina.
Husted and Ohio Department of Agriculture Director Brian Baldridge toured the state-of-the-art dairy as part of an effort to highlight innovation in the state's agriculture industry. They also made an afternoon stop at Precision Agri Services Inc. in Minster.
All of the Non-GMO Project Verified milk produced at MVP Dairy is transported about 20 miles to Danone North America's largest yogurt manufacturing plant in Minster. The six to seven truck loads it provides daily represent about 10% of the milk used each day at the Minster plant.
"We're looking at the most modern dairy in the country," Husted said. "Frankly, this is where most Ohioans and people around the country get things like their yogurt."
MVP Dairy employs several regenerative farming practices such as no-till farming, cover crops, precision irrigation, grid soil-sampling and buffer strips to promote healthy soil and prevent erosion and runoff, according to the company.
Husted said he was on a mission to learn more about sustainable agriculture practices in order to help educate people about where their food comes from and how cows are "the ultimate recycling machines."
"When we do things smart … we can feed people, do it affordably and also be good to the environment," he said.
MVP Dairy's milking carousel on Tuesday morning.
About 3,800 cows are milked three times a day on a specialized rotating carousel, which they mount and exit. It can milk 80 animals at a time in 8 minutes. Each cow produces an average of 100 pounds of milk daily.
"And that only supplies 10% of all of the milk that the Dannon yogurt facility needs in Minster," Husted enthused. "Just think of all of the yogurt we're consuming in this country and why operations like this are necessary."
The cows live in six tunnel-ventilated free-stall barns that are furnished with sand bedding, misters and fans to keep them cool and brushes to scratch their backs, according to the company.
MVP Dairy says it works with animal health experts to provide balanced and nutritious diets and veterinarian care for the cows, which Husted said are treated like "Olympic athletes."
"Ag is not just your grandpa's ag," Husted said. "It's heavily laden with science and making sure that the animals are well cared for, that the food is safe, that we can do it in the most efficient ways possible so we can keep costs of food down for people."
Each cow eats roughly 100 pounds of feed each day, resulting in about 10 to 12 gallons of milk.
"Pretty stunning when you think about it," Husted said. "What is being learned by the MVP Dairy team is something that they will continue to improve upon on every year."
These are the same practices promoted by ODA and the ag industry at large - and they keep getting better, he said.
"It's going to improve the economy, it's going to improve the affordability and the quality of food that people eat and it's also going to make this whole process of feeding the world a more sustainable process that we can all benefit from," he said.
It's crucial that modern agriculture be sustainable, Husted stressed.
"This is a company that has the same environmental standard rating as a company like Patagonia," he said about MVP Dairy. "This is a company that's also concerned about its environmental impact."
Environmental mindfulness is a quality valued by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's administration, according to Husted.
"We want our agriculture to be successful. We also want it to be sustainable and we want to have minimal impact and hopefully maybe even a positive impact on the environment, particularly in water quality," Husted said.
The MVP Dairy farm is enrolled in the H2Ohio program, a comprehensive approach guided by science and data to reduce algal blooms, stop pollution and improve access to clean drinking water by supporting best farming practices and other initiatives.
"What they're doing in the H2Ohio program, all their acres are completely enrolled. They were talking about they were just adding a two-stage ditch," added Baldridge. "On the regulatory side of it … these folks are doing the practices right."
"So it's that good story we get to tell when it comes to that challenge," Baldridge said.
Speaking to the overall importance of agriculture in Ohio, Husted said it's an important part of the economy responsible for hundreds of thousands of jobs, including those in food processing and the supply chain.
"In Mercer County, it's obviously a big deal because that's such a big part of the heritage and the future and the economy, and to see the best science and agricultural practices right here on display where kids from local schools can come see it, the public can come see it, it is really, I think, educational and helps prepare that next generation to see what's possible," he said.
Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted tours the MVP Dairy facilities on Tuesday morning.
