As we celebrate the dads in our lives this Father’s Day, Tara Vander Dussen, aka the New Mexico Milk Maid, shares her enthusiasm for life on a dairy farm, her family and a father who leads the way.
Tara Vander Dussen, the New Mexico Milkmaid, is “udderly in love with dairy.” I was fortunate to meet Tara and witness her passion first–hand during a recent visit to her family farm, Rajen Dairy, in Eastern New Mexico. Tara is a fifth–generation Dutch dairy farmer who left the farm after high school to earn an environmental science degree from the University of Arizona. It wasn’t her plan to come back, but after marrying her husband Daniel, Tara returned to dairy. Now she works alongside Daniel, his parents…
How can a dairy farm generate enough energy to power 3,000 homes? Imagine a farmer reducing nitrogen emissions by 90 percent, and another diverting 2,000 pounds of food otherwise destined for landfills. More about these real-life dairy sustainability stories in my latest blog.