PITTSFIELD – Dairy farmer Bernard “Bunny” Grignon said Sunday that being tied to the farm is just part of his way of life. “Whether you have one cow or 1,000 cows, you are there forever,” he said. “You don’t get too far away.”

Cows are milked twice each day, every day of the year; Grignon milks at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a vacation.

“I have one fella that will milk on some Saturdays,” he said. “But we still don’t go anywhere that we can’t get back from in the same day.” He said that rules out visits to his wife’s family in Canada. “Maybe once a year we see them.”

Grignon is hoping that a new relief milker program being coordinated by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension will provide backup milkers for Maine’s 450 family-run dairy farms, allowing farmers time to vacation, recover from injuries or illness or just take a day off.

“I know farmers who haven’t had a vacation in 20 years,” said Pittsfield dairy farmer Walter Fletcher. The Fletcher family has a good backup staff, he said, which enabled them to travel out of the country last year to their daughter’s wedding. “But there are many, many small farmers out there struggling to find some time away.”

Cal Walker, an Extension dairy specialist, said, “Farmers have been asking for something like this for a long time.”

He said a small notice placed in an Extension newsletter in just one Maine county recently brought eight inquiries from “cow sitters” who wanted to help.

Walker said labor is a big problem on dairy farms, with some large farms now using migrant labor for full-time milking help. “There always seems to be less and less people available who know about milking cows.”

Known as the Relief Milker System, the program will train people to milk a dairy herd and help relieve labor shortages. The program will seek relief milkers statewide, according to Walker, and individuals will be listed in an online directory or by calling a local Extension office.

Cooperative Extension educators will train relief milkers in the proper cultural practices of milking, sanitation, food safety, animal handling and related topics. People must be 16 years old, and the individual parties will negotiate scheduling and compensation.

According to Walker, compensation may typically be money, but it also might include an allotment toward a heifer or bull calf, hay, compost, beef or other food.

“It sounds like a great idea,” said Grignon, “but farmers will have to be confident that the relief milkers can handle the job. We have to be able to leave the farm and forget it. For example, yesterday morning my barn cleaner broke and it took me eight hours to repair.”

Grignon said that farmers would have to feel secure that the milking replacements can handle all aspects of running the dairy farm. “Especially if it is 10 below zero and the wind is blowing,” he joked.

The Maine Relief Milker Directory can be found at www.umaine.edu/livestock, or information can be obtained by calling 1-800-287-7170. A one-day training seminar is planned for March 2001.