Perry, GA |
For more than seventeen years, Nicole Duvall has traveled across Georgia helping connect consumers with the dairy industry as Program Coordinator for the Georgia Mobile Dairy Classroom. But long before stepping into that role, her love for dairy farming began much closer to home — on her family’s small farm.
“I actually grew up on a dairy farm, a small farm with my family, and we were very involved in our day-to-day operations,” Duvall said. “That’s where I began my interest in dairy. My family sold out of the dairy business in the early two thousands — along with a lot of dairies in our area — and I was, quite honestly, devastated. I was hoping to continue working with my dad on our family farm at some point, but that didn’t pan out.”
Though that chapter closed, Duvall’s passion for the industry never faded. She found a new way to stay connected — and to bring others along with her — through hands-on education that brings the milking process to life for students and consumers of all ages.
“I believe in this industry even more today than I did seventeen years ago — in what dairy farmers do on a day-to-day basis just to care for their animals and produce a quality product for consumers to enjoy,” Duvall said. “But I also really enjoy bringing the whole milking process to life for people. Watching kids learn — they interact a lot differently outside the classroom. It’s a lot more fun for them to come outside and see a live cow than to sit in a classroom watching a video of it.”
Through that educational outreach, Duvall is helping bridge the widening gap between consumers and agriculture — giving people a firsthand look at where their dairy products come from and the care that goes into producing them.
“I love making that connection for them, just seeing the awe on their face. Everything a cow does is kind of funny to a kid,” she said. “But even yesterday at the fair, I had a forty-year-old woman come up and tell me she had never seen a cow get milked and how much she enjoyed it. It’s making those connections. It never gets old.”
For Duvall, those moments of curiosity and excitement are what make the long days worthwhile. They also underscore a broader challenge: as the number of family dairy farms continues to decline, the distance between consumers and their food keeps growing.
“We’re even more removed from family farms than we used to be. Before, someone might say, ‘oh, my grandfather was a dairy farmer.’ You rarely hear that now because our industry has gotten so much smaller,” Duvall said. “But we have expanded in herd size, and our producers have made huge efforts to stay in business — building freestall barns, focusing on cow comfort. I believe in the industry even more today because I see what farms are investing in their cows and their future.”
For Duvall, each visit — whether to a school, a fair, or a community event — is one more chance to ensure that connection doesn’t disappear entirely.