Because We Care!
Herd Care
CropCare
Nutrition is a priority at Alliance Dairies because our success depends greatly on the welfare of our animals. We ask high performance of our cows, so we must provide them with the appropriate “fuel” or feed to get the job done without putting stress on their bodies. A dairy nutritionist guides us on ideal rations needed to achieve maximum milk potential, while preserving herd health. These rations are a combination of mixed forages such as corn silage, ryegrass, sorghum and Bermuda grass. We grow more than 85% of the forages, and purchase the remaining 15% from local farmers. On average, each cow eats110 pounds daily.
Through highly managed nutrient plans, recycling of manure waste, and a limited fertilization plan, our goal is to be the best evironmental stewards of the land as stated in our mission statement.
We rotate our crops to replenish nutrients naturally, in addition to watering each plant with pivot irrigation. The crops we grow will eventually become the feed for tomorrow. Ensuring the highest quality crops allows us to produce the highest quality feed, ultimately the highest quality milk.
Cow Care
Nowadays, people seem to parallel the term “organic” not only with environmental concerns, but also with animal welfare. Alliance Dairies is not organic. In fact, one of the main reasons we are not organic is because animal health is a top concern. For a dairy to be certified as organic, a cow treated with antibiotics must be permanently removed from the milking herd. Our sick cows are sent to our hospital barn where they are properly treated (herd is regularly seen by a veterinarian) and retained until any antibiotics have completely left their systems. This enables us to care for our sick animals, and return them to milking when they are healthy. Imagine if employers fired every person who got sick. We would be out of a work force! This is the same for our dairy. If we culled every sick cow, we would be out of cows, and you would be out of milk.
Herd care doesn’t only apply to sick animals. At Alliance Dairies, we strive for “cow comfort”. This means all cows are provided with fresh food and water daily; clean and comfortable sand beds; barns cleaned three times daily; and fans and misters in the barn to cool our girls during those steamin’ hot Florida summers.
Milk Care
Employee Care
Our 5,000+ Holstein herd is milked three times per day. There are two milking parlors: one can milk 70 cows at one time, and the other milks 80 cows per milking. At this rate, cows average 22,500 pounds (2,616 gallons) of milk per year. To help visualize this, think in these terms: Alliance Dairies can fill 7-9 milk truck tanks in one day. Milk transportation to the processing plant and marketing efforts are managed by Southeast Milk Cooperative (SMI), of which Alliance Dairies is a member. Our milk can be found in Publix stores or a variety of other grocery stores and value-added products like cheese.
Together everyone achieves more! Here at the Alliance Dairies Family, we are constantly working together as a team. Whether rain or shine, the cows need to be milked and there is work to be done, but we do our best to make it fun. From Christmas parties to picnics, we want to make sure that our family is "happy and productive". In addition, we offer opportunities for employees to continue their education with supporting GED/schooling opportunities and health insurance. Hardwork does not go unnoticed here at Alliance Dairies. We would love to have you join our family.