Teat to Table: Insights from a Processing Pioneer An Interview with John Miller of Jalon Farms and Miller's Dairy
Du trayon à la table: réflections d'un transformateur pionnier Une entrevue avec John Miller de Jalon Farms et Miller's Dairy Written by / Écrit par : Jacob Lucs, Jersey Canada A typical long farm driveway in Ontario, lined with maples and soybean fields beyond. Tanker trucks visiting to pick-up milk, employee vehicles coming and going, and a more unique type of traffic, box trucks with reefer units, emblazoned with the slogan: All the best from the girls at Miller’s Dairy. Jalon Farms is home to Miller’s Dairy. Owned by John and Marie Miller, it is operated by themselves and 15 employees. 2022 marks 10 years in business, commercially processing and shipping fluid milk (whole, 2%, 1%, skim, chocolate, strawberry and coffee-flavoured), whipping cream, half and half, eggnog and the creamiest ice-cream south of Georgian Bay. Pioneers in the industry, Miller’s Dairy was started in 2012 and stood alone for years as the only dairy processing 100% Jersey milk. John continues the pioneering spirit of his great-grandfather, who, according to a newspaper article John has found, was the first to put milk in a bottle in Canada back in 1896. THE HERD & LAND Surrounded by 850 acres, Jalon grows all their own feed and cash crops corn, soybeans and wheat. John’s father started milking Jerseys on this farm in 1959. The free-stall barn housing the milking herd was built in 2004, upgrading from a 75 cow tie-stall where the dry cows and calves are now housed. 110 purebred Jerseys are milked in a
double 8 parallel parlour. Although Miller’s Dairy has increased their market share, the number of milking cows has stayed consistent for nearly 10 years. John explains: “We haven’t added a great deal (of cows). It’s mainly because the productivity of the cows has improved. You milk fewer cows and get more production out of them.” A more recent upgrade that has resulted in great health improvements is an ADF automatic dipping and flushing system. As the milker is detached, it sprays the post dip on, and flushes the teat cup out with sanitized water between each cow. Previously struggling with staphylococcus aureus, in the year and a half they have had this system installed, their SCC has dropped from 250k to 130k. A LOCAL FOCUS In 2014, Miller’s Dairy was processing 5,000L/week of their own milk, today that number has increased to 13-14,000L. Approximately 10-15% of their milk is shipped, and the rest goes through their plant. “We were selling our skim off cream to a local creamery, and now we are holding more and more of that skim off cream back and making ice cream out of it.” Jalon Farms, located 30 minutes south of Georgian bay near the town of Creemore in Simcoe County, ships Miller’s Dairy products to 155 locations, all within a two-hour drive. John: “I call it locally. We are not licensed to be national, and
56 JUNE / JUIN 2022 Canadian Jersey Breeder / Eleveur de Jersey Canadien
we have no desire to be outside of the province. We’re not in the Toronto market, we tend to be more Northeast (past Barrie and heading towards Muskoka cottage country), Northwest (Huron and Bruce counties up to Tobermory), and Southwest (down past Guelph to Woodstock and up into Huron County.) We’ve got lots of opportunity to the Southwest. We’ve got lots of infilling to do in our area.” John explains that distance is not a limitation, but part of the Miller’s Dairy brand. “We don’t want to be everywhere. We want to be the local dairy in communities that are within a couple hours drive, and everybody knows who Miller’s Dairy is and wants to support it.” COWS BUILT FOR PROCESSING A true ‘farm-to-table’ enterprise, John keeps precise focus on what he needs his cows to produce and how to get there. ‘Fresh Jersey Milk’ is written on the bottles, so purebred registered Jerseys are a given, and with those genetics come 18% more protein and 20% more calcium in every glass. On the production side, butterfat is key, and plant demand increased even more when they started selling ice-cream in 2018. Looking at the Jersey Canada Production awards for 2021, Jalon cows made 11 appearances: 1 Double Hall of Fame, 7 Single Hall of Fame, and class leaders in both milk and fat categories. Currently, the Jalon herd is running around 5.7% butterfat and
