REMEMBERING DAIRY FARMERS & THE MILKMAN

This will make me sound really old but when I was a kid, we still had local dairy delivered once a week to our house by Brant Dairy It was the last of the many local independent dairies in this area and it was run by the third generation of Campbell family members that started dairy farming in the early 1900s. With the help of the Holstein Association based in Brantford, the Campbells started their dairy operation with a 250acre farm on Henry Street in Brantford and a herd of Holstein milk cows. By 1921 the Brant CoOperative Dairy was formed with the Campbells and eventually became Brant Dairy when they bought out the other farmers. In the early days, local dairy farmers delivered their raw milk 7 days a week to houses using wagons and large milk cans that would be poured into their customers smaller containers. This, combined with no refrigeration became a dangerous mix for the spread of bacteria After loosing a child to illness caused from unpasteurized milk, local Brant resident Adelaide Hunter Hoodless, along with the Women’s Institute that she started, became major advocates for the regulation of the dairy industry. As a result, dairies in Brant became early adaptors of hygienic facilities using glass bottles and pasteurization methods to make dairy safer to consume. Farmers would now focus on production and delivery to dairies. In 1929 it was announced that the Terrace Hill Dairy in Brantford would purchase the Paris Creamery and totally renovate their facilities to offer the safest, cleanest environment for their excellent products of the highest quality. The dairies and creameries would not only safely bottle milk but also turn the raw milk into other products like whipped cream, butter, cottage cheese and sour cream. Deliveries in the early days were made to houses by horse drawn dairy wagons. Often the horses would get to know the route so well that they would automatically stop at each house, kind of like the original self driving vehicle, something that would be lost when they switched to delivery vans. I still remember the Brant Dairy trucks as they were quite large. They had a huge flat bumper on the back, kids used to hop on and off for a free ride down the block as the trucks slowly made there way through the town