"tough to think it really is over": the final times of a american dairy farm

SMITHFIELD, Ky. — All Curtis Coombs desired would be to raise cows and run their family members's dairy farm in this piece of Kentucky mountain nation, not as much as 35 kilometers from Louisville. Just a few weeks hence, he had been forced to offer his milking herd of 82 cows, placing a conclusion to their family members's almost 70-year dairy company.

On a rain-drenched monday, coombs, their daddy along with his uncle struggled to shove their final 13 cows as a trailer destined for auction and slaughter. The men yelled for the Holsteins to move and urged them forward with the whack of a plastic stick as the earthy smell of manure filled the air.

The pets mooed their dissent but finally boarded the trailer. Coombs, 30, flung aside their stick and stormed a yards that are few, breathing greatly. Their family unit members wiped their brows and looked over Curtis after which the cows, that have been offered with regards to their meat at half their worth.

“It's just hard to trust it is over,” Coombs stated later on, choking up. “As long as you had been milking cows, you constantly thought there clearly was a hope you had make contact with it. As of this true point, regardless if there is a Hail Mary pass, we are done.”

Coombs is regarded as a lot more than 100 dairy farmers across seven states whom discovered in March they would lose their agreement with Dean Foods, which operates a milk processing plant in Louisville that mainly served Walmart.