Celebrating Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! 

Earth day is celebrated every year on April 22 to raise awareness about the environment and pollution. At SMC, we believe that every day should be Earth Day. Our farm’s commitment to agricultural sustainability has led us to establishing a goal of becoming a completely sustainable company.

The dairy industry, along with the USDA, is committed to advancing their eco-friendly sustainability practices. Over the next 10 years, they plan to reduce the output of greenhouse gasses by 25 percent. This has been made possible thanks to the USDA’s funding of approximately 25,000 environmental improvement projects through grants.

Since 1944, resources to produce a gallon of milk have decreased. This includes 90 percent less cropland, 65 percent less water, and 63 percent less carbon. In the United States, agriculture occupies 51 percent of land, uses 80 percent of our water and is responsible for 8 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions.

SMC’s Totally Green Practices

South Mountain Creamery is committed to agricultural sustainability. Our goal is to use our own resources to power the farm with a combination of bio-diesel, a methane digester, wind turbines, solar energy, and geothermal loops . In the past few years, SMC has completed a number of tasks, with the help of grants and the Maryland Energy Administration.

Soybean Press: In 2013, SMC completed their project of installing a fully-operational soybean press. A soybean press is a process of pressing soybeans to make our own soybean meal for animal feed.  The byproduct of the pressing process is soy oil which we can convert into bio-diesel.  The soybean oil is burned oil in our diesel trucks at about 5%-10%.

Lighting: In 2014, SMC replaced all of the company’s lighting with LED lights. LED lighting is energy efficient and consumes up to 90% less power than incandescent bulbs. Since LED lights use only a fraction of the energy of an incandescent light bulb and have a longer lifespan, there is a decreased amount of power usage, maintenance, and replacement costs.

Refrigeration Units: With the help of MEA and SEDESCO, SMC replaced all of our refrigeration units with energy efficient refrigeration units, which reduced our energy usage by 50%-90%! 

SMC is continuing to work on becoming a self-sustaining company with goals to install a Methane Digester, Wind Turbines, Solar Energy, and Geothermal Loops.

Other Eco-Friendly Practices:

Milking Parlor: South Mountain Creamery currently uses re washable cloths, instead of paper towels in our milking parlor. 

Glass Bottled Milk: Our milk bottles are glass so they can be washed, sanitized, and reused! 

Reusable Bags: The plastic bags used in our store and home delivery are biodegradable. Our friends at Gude Brothers also use eco-friendly bags for their produce bags, delivered to SMC daily.
Boonsboro Greenfest: Love sustainability? Join SMC at Boonsboro Greenfest on May 9 at Shafer Park in Boonsobor, MD! Visit their website fro more eco-friendly information.

http://dairygood.org/what-makes-a-farm-sustainable

http://dairygood.org/whats-the-carbon-footprint-of-a-gallon-of-milk

http://southmountaincreamery.com/pages.php?pageid=18

SMC Fresh Veggies

Meet Larry Gude, from Gude Brothers Greenhouses! 

Gude Brothers is a controlled environment farming venture, They are experts at growing greenhouse produce. With state-of-the-art growing facilities covering 1.5 acres, Gude Brothers combine constant sunshine, optimal temperatures, greenhouse protection and controls to create natural, wholesome produce season after season. They produce local, healthy food using sustainable, biological growing methods. Gude Brothers provide South Mountain Creamery with fresh Field Lettuce Mix, Asian Mix Lettuce, Arugula, and Kale daily!

Subscribe to South Mountain Creamery's YouTube page: www.youtube.com/user/SouthMtnCreamery

Take a Look into Your Glass Bottle

Take a Look into your Glass Bottle...it's what's inside that counts!

Farming Since 1981
South Mountain Creamery is owned and operated by the Sowers Family: Randy, Karen, Ben, and Kate, in cooperation with more than 70 employees.

Farms & Fields
We use over 2,000 acres to raise animals, grow, and harvest crops.

Cows Raised from Birth
Our dairy cows are raised from birth at SMC! Watch a cow give birth in our maternity ward. See all of our calves in the calf barn and meet the Animal Planet calves & chicks. 

Free Choice Feeding
Cows graze in the fields after each milking. Our animals are fed with food harvested from our fields. Animals also have access to a Total Mixed Ration, a balanced diet including grass, hay, grains, and silage.

Twice Daily Milkings
Watch the cows being milked daily! Over 250 dairy cows are milked at 1:30am and 1:30pm.

On-Site Processing
SMC is Maryland's first on-farm dairy processing plant. Our fluid dairy products are packaged in glass bottles to be sustainable. We use HTST (High Temperature Short Time) Pasteurization to retain nutrients and flavor in a full dairy line.

Delivered to Your Door
...Or farm store! Milk is bottled and available the next day. Order through home deliery, at Karen's Kountry Store, two Baltimore Farmer's Markets, Local Restaurants, and specialty stores.

Come See for Yourself! 
South Mountain Creamery is open 24/7. Join us to watch the cows being milked and to bottle feed your own calf. See our production facility with a free tour during our Spring and Fall Festivals!

Learn more about the SMC Difference at www.southmountaincreamery.com

Winter on a Dairy Farm

SMC Maternity Ward, December 2012

Life on a dairy/chicken/crop farm is very difficult in perfect conditions, but add cold, wet, windy or snowy conditions and it takes almost a superhuman to do it. 

Sowers Dairy provides almost all of the raw materials to make the products that South Mountain Creamery delivers to your door. SMC is a one-of-a-kind operation. Along with Sowers Dairy and Sowers Poultry, we do all the work from start to finish. We prepare the fields, fertilize through manure management, plant, nurture, and harvest the crops to feed our animals. Our animals are born and raised here and cared for on the farm 24/7. 

The forecast calls for 12 in. of snow, so what do we do? Same thing we do every day, get the job done, failure is not an option. Fortunately, it’s not something I have to do alone; we have a great team to support our efforts.  We don’t have the luxury of calling sick—the animals must be fed, milked, cared for and loved. 

Snow and Ice on Marker Road, heading toward SMC, February 2014

Plow the snow, dig out the feed, startup cold equipment, put gloves on and take them off. Stop what you’re doing to  assist a cow giving birth. Make sure the little life is good and care for the mother. Back to the feeding—oops power is out! Fire up the generators and make sure everything has power, before I return to feeding. 

Did I mention it is 5 degrees Fahrenheit and the snow is blowing sideways? Now the water is frozen, better find a heater, put a cardboard box around it, and start warming it up. 

Snow is blowing in the barn, better dig out the straw and get to bedding before the animals get cold. Back to the feeding, put in all the ingredients: hay, corn, silage, alfalfa, corn, soymeal, and mineral. Mix them together and wah-lah the feed is made.

Finally done, right? WRONG! That is the first farm, three more to go. Add milking, gathering the eggs, and scraping manure. It is just now sunrise. Do it again, over and over until you’re satisfied the animals have it better than you. Time to go home, it’s been an 18 hour day. Try not to worry about that first calf heifer that looked like she was going into labor and get some sleep. Six hours later, do it again. 

It’s the life we live, and we love to bring you farm fresh products. We are proud to provide you with products that we grow and care for, right here on our family farm.

-Ben Sowers