Tag Archives: dairy farming

From Dairy to Sod: Georgia Farm Bureau’s Bernard Sims Reflects on a Lifetime of Farming

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Ringgold, GA |

Around here, the day still starts with a ride across the farm. There are pastures to check, land to look over, and work that never really goes away. For Bernard Sims, this has been home for decades. And while one leadership chapter is coming to a close, he says the timing was right.

“My mind’s good, but my body’s beginning to fail me. It was time to get out of the way and let somebody younger come on and take care of it,” Sims said.

STILL ON THE FARM — JUST IN A DIFFERENT ROLE

But stepping away from a board position doesn’t mean Bernard is stepping away from agriculture. The farm is still very much a part of his daily life — even if these days, he’s quick to point out, he’s more or less an onlooker.

“I have a son that actually runs the operation now. I just work with them wherever they need me. If they need me to drive something, that’s what I do,” Sims said. “Physically, I’m not able to do as much as I used to — by far.”

BUILT ON THE FARM, NOT IN A BOARDROOM

That work ethic was forged early. After a couple years of college and a stint working in a foundry, Sims decided there was a better way to live — and came back to start dairying. That decision shaped nearly four decades of his life, defined by early mornings, long hours, and work that doesn’t take days off.

“When I started, we were raising about sixty-five calves. And as time went on, you either had to get bigger or get out — and now the dairies are huge. The mechanization’s come along to help them too,” Sims said.

While many know Bernard Sims for his years of service with Georgia Farm Bureau, his foundation was never built in a meeting room or around a board table. It was built here — through early mornings, long days, and a life spent doing the work himself.

A PIVOT TO SOD

Eventually, Bernard and his family made the move out of dairy and into sod farming. Part of that decision was business, part of it was timing, and part of it was watching the world around his farm slowly start to change.

“We began to get so many neighbors. We had never had any problems, but it seemed like it was coming,” Sims said. “And I felt like it was time for us to get into something else while we still could manage it ourselves — without being forced or told what to do with it. I had two sons with me, and to support three families, I didn’t think we had enough land at the time to do it with traditional farming. The only thing I could see was sod farming — and it has worked out well for us.”

STILL PRODUCTIVE, STILL PASSIONATE

Still, Bernard worries about what farming is becoming — not because agriculture isn’t moving forward, but because the farming life he knew is getting harder to find. Even so, the work itself remains a source of deep satisfaction.

“I just love being out here on the farm. I see so many young men coming in here to talk, and they look at me and say, ‘You still working?’ And I say, ‘Yeah — the good Lord said be productive. And that’s what I’m trying to do,'” Sims said with a laugh.

For Bernard Sims, the chapter titles may be changing, but the story — the one written in early mornings, long days, and a lifetime of love for the land — is far from over.

By: Ray D’Alessio

Georgia Mobile Dairy Classroom Coordinator Brings Dairy Farming to Life Across the State

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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.”

A NEW WAY TO STAY CONNECTED

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.”

MAKING CONNECTIONS THAT STICK

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.”

A SHRINKING INDUSTRY, A GROWING COMMITMENT

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.

By: John Holcomb

Dairy Industry 2025: Challenges & Optimism for Farmers

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Perry, Ga |

It’s been quite the roller coaster for dairy producers over the past few years as fluctuating prices and input costs have resulted in quite a bit of uncertainty. However, things are currently trending upward after a promising 2024.

“In 2022, you had some supply and demand. You had increased demand for milk. There’s not that supply to go with it. Prices went up, but like with everything else, with inflation, those input costs skyrocketed with it. So, you didn’t really have a margin. You just had higher prices for everything. Supply and demand will reverse itself. You get enough supply; demand goes back down. Price goes back down. But those input costs didn’t come with it. So, ’23 you saw the margins shrink or disappear completely. ’24 you finally had those feed costs, labor, fuel, some of these things the farmers really can’t control come back down to where the milk price was and demand had been relatively stable,” says Bryce Trotter, Executive Director of the GA Milk Producers.

With nearly twenty percent of all US milk products being exported, a recent trade war with Canada and Mexico is a point of concern as it has the potential to reduce that demand.

“Is the export market going to stay where it is? We don’t export a lot of milk products in the southeast. But the dairy economy nationwide kind of feeds off of itself. So, if those export markets go away, you got excess supply of milk. That all kind of trickles back down and affects the demand, which will affect the price for milk. So, export markets and what’s going on with tariffs and trade policy is going to a big thing that our farmers are going to watch,” says Trotter.

They will also be keeping a close watch on the current avian influenza outbreak that has found its way into more than 900 dairy herds across seventeen different states.

“Our producers are keeping an eye on it. I wouldn’t say that anyone is worried, but we’re paying attention and that’s what we should be doing. We’re in constant communication with the Department of Agriculture here in Georgia to come up with a plan if it does come to the Southeast. But our farmers are just keeping an eye on it, doing what they can on their farm to beef up biosecurity and prepare,” says Trotter.

The health of the industry will also depend on a number of dairy operations bouncing back from the storms that swept across southeast Georgia late last year.

“Not only did the storms come through during harvest season, but our harvest season is every day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. So, a lot of the impacts that we see aren’t just the day of and the day after the storm, but those effects on the cows and their milk production, the stress from the storm, you can feel that for weeks afterwards, decreased milk production,” says Trotter.

In spite of some of these issues and hardships within the industry, 2025 is shaping up to be a promising year for producers thanks in large part to the rising number of consumers around the region.

“We’re seeing a trend here in the Southeast where a lot more people are drinking fluid milk which is what we produce, especially whole milk. So, we’re quietly optimistic for a good year for dairy farmers and we’re just happy to see that trend in fluid milk consumption and dairy consumption overall continue to tick up,” says Trotter.

By: Damon Jones