Milk Men: The Life and Times of Dairy Farmers

I recently had the pleasure of viewing the film Milk Men: The Life and Times of Dairy Farmers. This documentary about the lives and business practices of small dairy farms was eye opening.

Little did I know about the business of dairy farming before watching this film. In recent years dairy farming has become a multi-billion dollar industry fueled by large production and corporately owned massive organizations. Gone are the days of the small dairy farmers with a few cows, the way most Americans visualize it.

The filmmaker was well educated in the issue and obviously did their homework. The story is easy to follow and the interviews are top notch. I recommend this film to anyone. You do not necessarily need to be a film lover or even well versed on the dairy farming industry. This film will teach you all you need to know.

Having seen this Documentary, it gives you an insightful view into dairy farmers life. The ability to look into the every day struggles and victories of small family owned farmers is incredible. The American dream is still alive and vibrant but it is now under attack of Big corporation. Dairy farming is a billion dollar industry that big corporation are trying to control and push the family farmers out to drive up their own profit. Th big turn in the documentary is the fact that the director Jan Haaken shows how easy it is to lose control and faith when something goes wrong. Family farmers have a hard job controlling business emotions and struggles against their relationships with their own family. Milk Men takes 4 farming families and explores the nature of their operations and their values to one another. The History of some of the families and what it means for them to be still working is truly incredible.

This is one hell of a Documentary that delivers a serious punch to the audience.

Documentaries are one of the hardest films to make, as they can be either to boring and narrative or to one sided that they only push one agenda which make the documentary seem less a documentary and more of propaganda.

Milk Men: The Life and Times of Dairy Farmers is a very riveting documentary that does the perfect job of being on the balance between the two sides of the story. As the documentary progress we are shown the struggle and the every day adversary of farmers and the effect it has on them and their families. The ups and down of dairy farmer are extremely wide and thin. The director brilliantly allows the families and the documentary to show how much the industry has changed from the once thought of family dream of owning a farm to a billion dollar industry that thrives on taking over family farms.

For any one ever interested in what it means to be living on edge or what it means to have a family farm, I suggest you get yourself a copy of this documentary or stream it online. You will not be disappointed.

"Milk Men" explores the rarely seen world of dairy farming, showing us the everyday relationships between the farmer, their family, and their cows with warmth and realism, which in turn reveals the larger truths of the complicated dairy industry. Director Jan Haaken introduces us to four farming families and depicts the struggle of the dairy farmer today with nuance. Examining the financial, technological and industrial challenges of an industry that has been both demonized by animal rights groups and romanticized in images of red barns and pastures dotted with black and white cows, this film shows how changing times have put dairy farms in a particularly vulnerable situation – the small farm is a dying breed among its consolidating neighbors. Captivating aerial images give an extraordinary comparison between large and small farming operations and beautifully filmed farm work shows feed, muck and cows from the neutrality of a farmer's perspective. As the film explores farming culture, we see that perhaps no generational rift is as prominent and challenging as those where the future of the family farm is on the line. At the heart of this film is Haaken's ability to build trusting relationships with her subjects, allowing them to speak candidly from their perspective, and "Milk Men"'s strongest moments may be when there are glimpses of the painful, evolving relationships between sons, daughters and parents struggling to find common ground for the future of the farm. At times, what makes this film the most compelling is its empathetic and honest depiction of the farmers' pride in their heritage and their determined strides to preserve that heritage in the ever-changing world. Full of death and life, and leaving lingering questions about the nature of progress and the responsibilities of the next generation, "Milk Men" is educational and heartfelt, thoughtful and intimate, and gives us a lot more appreciation for the complex origins of a glass of milk.

Getting to know the people on the ground in any profession helps you understand the industry as a whole, and Jan Haaken has allowed her viewers to do just that. This documentary focuses on the families, the men, women, and children working to keep smaller family farms running in today's fast-paced world. Professor Haaken beautifully captures the human side of an industry struggling to adapt to new technology while at the same time staying true to time-honored practices and traditions.

I particularly enjoyed the variety of people Professor Haaken spoke with. From young adult children of dairy farming families grappling with what it means to inherit a farm in today's economy to a seeming dairy tycoon, insisting tens of thousands of cows and numerous employees still count as a "family farm," everyone has a different story but inevitably come up against the same worry: how to stay afloat in an uncertain business. Where is dairy farming headed? It's hard to say. But it is important to remember that the industry is made up of people, each with their own hopes and struggles. This documentary is a poignant reminder of that fact.