Bay City, Michigan 48706
Front Page 03/28/2024 10:52 About us
www.mybaycity.com March 31, 2015
(Prior Story)   Rotary ArTicle 9829   (Next Story)

Michigan Dairy Farmer Updates Rotary On Modern Milk Production

March 31, 2015       Leave a Comment
By: Stephen Kent

Printer Friendly Story View


Gertie van den Goor
Sixteen years ago Gertie van den Goor moved from the Netherlands to Michigan. She says she grew up on a farm but didn't like it so she moved to the city and became nurse. On a visit home she met her future husband, who was a dairy farmer. In 1998 the family decided to move. They ended up in Marlette, Michigan.

After moving, Gertie decided it was time to leave nursing and join her husband as a farmer. "I thought I knew how much I had to learn, but oh my gosh! I was more clueless than I thought I was, even being married to a farmer for that long".

Commenting on the tiny margin that farmers work on, Gertie said that one solution is to "get large". The Goma Dairy Farm certainly did that. After starting with a couple of buildings 16 years ago, the complex now covers a huge area with many large buildings. They milk 3,000 cows and have 32 employees.

When she became a farmer, Gertie became an expert on the business. Her talk to Rotary covered the entire operations of a large, modern, completely computerized dairy operation. She covered both the animals and the business sides of the Dairy.

Modern dairies are highly regulated. Milk goes from the cow to the store in a closed system where it is never exposed to human hands. For a large farm, the handling of feed and waste are strictly monitored. Where small farms might not follow all the rules, the big farms absolutely must.

The sign in front of the farm says "Livestock System". That certainly describes what it is. Some people might call an operation with 32 employees a corporate farm rather than a "family farm", but according to Gertie it is a family farm. Showing a picture of the kids by the sign, she said "this is our board of directors."

She also said "I like to argue that it makes me even more of a family farm because it's not only my family that depends for their income on this farm but I also feel this responsibility that I have to take care of 32 other families."

For more information visit Goma Dairy Farm on Facebook.



CLUB NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS

President Ron opened the meeting with an attempted greeting in Arabic as used in Morocco. The first club there was in Casablanca where 21 founding members met in 1930. Dormant during WWII, the club resumed operations in 1946. Additional information may be found at The Rotary Global History fellowship and at Rotary 1st 100.


Rob Clark - Juggler?
Rob Clark showed off a 4-way test soccer ball that Andrea Hales brought him from PETS. "So when you get a gift like this", said Rob, "the first thing I thought of was, so how can we raise some money with this for Rotary". Rob's idea was to take pledges for him juggling the ball soccer style next week. People signed up all over the room as Rob demonstrated some of his skills bouncing the ball from knee to knee to foot and back. It should be a good show next week!

Brenda Scramlin talked about the May 14 Centennial Celebration. A great deal of work has been going on behind the scenes. A guest speaker has been secured. The menu is set, and tickets will be going out soon. Put it on your calendar NOW.

Connie Schweitzer reminded members that the Centennial Committee would like to see 100% of the membership get their Paul Harris Fellow designation by the May 14 dinner. Club members have a large number of "points" that can be used to match contributions for first time PH awards. This is a great way to get your PH at a reduced cost. Ask Connie or any of our officers for information.

This was Birthday Tuesday and the club honored all of the March "babies".

Reminder: The District Conference will be at the Mt. Pleasant Comfort Inn on April 17 and 18. Cindy Luczak is organizing the gift basket that our club will send for the raffle. If you have anything to add, please contact Cindy.

Brenda Scramlin will be going the the entire District Conference, driving over both days. If anyone would like to ride with her she would welcome the company.

Rotary Rocks is coming up on Thursday, April 9, 7:00pm at the State Theatre. The theme is "Elvis will be in the building". Andrea Hales is selling tickets at each meeting. The Bay City Times did a feature article on the concert on the front and inside of their April 2nd Entertainment section.

President Ron reminded members that the second of two Vocational Days is scheduled for April 14. The huge crowd of students and guests on the first Vocational Day was accommodated well in the smaller room. The April 14 event will not has quite so many students.

RYLA, Rotary Youth Leadership Award, camp is June 14-18. (The name comes from the fact that clubs "award" scholarships to high school students.) If you know candidates, please tell Brenda or Andrea. Announcements will get going out to local schools shortly.
Rotary Club of Bay City
View Centennial Year Celebrations Schedule
July 2014-June 2015


Click to read the March District Newsletter PDF.


DATES TO REMEMBER



Rotary Rocks - 7:00 pm - April 9, 2015 - State Theatre

Second Vocational Day - April 14, 2015

Anniversary Dinner Come celebrate the Club's 100th birthday and honor our members.
May 14 - 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm - Doubletree

RYLA, Rotary Youth Leadership Award camp - June 14-18

Golf Outting - Wednesday, June 17, 2015 - Bay City Country Club


Upcoming Programs

(See the official schedule at RotaryBayCity.org )

April 7, 2015: D-Street Music Foundation. Dennis Beson will present what the D-Street Music Foundation does and also talk about something exciting they have coming to Bay City in June.

April 14, 2015: Second Vocational Day.


Rotary is an intimate affiliation of carefully selected business and professional people,
having as its objective the promotion of high ethical standards in private, commercial
and civic life, and dedicated to the ideal that the basis of all worthy endeavor is unselfish service.




Current and past DISTRICT DISPATCH newsletters are available on the District site shown in the LINKS section below.

Get connected with ROTARY on Facebook.
Over 450 people like us. Let's go for 500 people liking our page!
www.facebook.com/BayCityRotary

Rotary Bay City on Facebook
Rotary Bay City on Facebook!
Click on the Blue Facebook to visit us there.

Remember! Check attendance sheets at the front desk.


LINKS

RotaryBayCity.org BayCityMorningRotary.com
District 6310 Web Site District Dispatch Archive
Rotary International Make-up On-Line at RotaryEclubOne.org
The Rotary Global History Fellowship rotaryfirst100.org
Rotary Global History.


Printer Friendly Story View
Prior Article

February 10, 2020
by: Rachel Reh
Family Winter Fun Fest is BACC Hot Spot for 2/10/2020
Next Article

February 2, 2020
by: Kathy Rupert-Mathews
MOVIE REVIEW: "Just Mercy" ... You Will Shed Tears, or at Least You Should
Agree? or Disagree?


Stephen Kent

Steve Kent and his family have lived in Bay City for 40 years. He is VP of Technical Services at MMCC which produces MyBayCity.Com. Kent is active in many Bay City civic organizations.

More from Stephen Kent

Send This Story to a Friend!       Letter to the editor       Link to this Story
Printer-Friendly Story View


--- Advertisments ---
     


0200 Nd: 03-24-2024 d 4 cpr 0






12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm

SPONSORED LINKS



12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm


Designed at OJ Advertising, Inc. (V3) (v3) Software by Mid-Michigan Computer Consultants
Bay City, Michigan USA
All Photographs and Content Copyright © 1998 - 2024 by OJA/MMCC. They may be used by permission only.
P3V3-0200 (1) 0   ID:Default   UserID:Default   Type:reader   R:x   PubID:mbC   NewspaperID:noPaperID
  pid:1560   pd:11-18-2012   nd:2024-03-24   ax:2024-03-28   Site:5   ArticleID:9829   MaxA: 999999   MaxAA: 999999
claudebot