Two hours southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, on a farm carved out of the wilderness, most days you can find Scott Plagerman, Alaska’s last commercial dairyman, watching his milking robot hum away.
A bubble gum pink udder, sprayed clean, moves into a cluster of laser-guided suction cylinders. Inch to the left. Inch to the right. Latch. Then the milk starts to flow.
Many longtime residents, especially in the rural part of the state, grew up on powdered and boxed milk, sometimes mixed in old milk jugs as parents tried to pass it off as the real thing. As a result, many still aren’t fond of it. Others have a nostalgic soft spot for canned milk in coffee or cocoa.
In the first half of the 20th century, dozens of small dairies with a few cows each opened and closed around early Anchorage, he says. The thing about getting fresh milk in Alaska then, as now, is that the cost to produce milk locally has never been able to compete with what it costs Outside, where grain is cheaper and there are much larger commercial dairy operations producing much more volume, even with the cost of shipping.
The Plagermans moved north because urban sprawl and land use regulations began to encroach too much on their business. “They were forcing the small farms out of business,” says Plagerman. “That’s the point I like to stress, that government regulations are killing family farms when out the other side of their mouths they say they’d like to support them.”Connie Plagerman and a neighbor pump glass into bottles themselves three times a week.
Plagerman’s cows eat both local grain and hay. In Alaska the growing season is very short. For hay, you may only get one cutting per year, while in other states in the Lower 48, you get multiple cuttings per year. Supplements must be shipped, as well as parts for machines. If something breaks in a milking machine, the cows must be milked by hand, or another backup system has to be in place until a part gets delivered.
Plagerman’s cows are a friendly bunch with names his daughter picks, like Doris, Rachel, and Tina. On a day in early April when there was still snow on the fields, they chewed hay in the barn with one side open to let in fresh air. A pen held three calves, who popped their heads out of the bars, looking for lunch.
“[The market for milk] has been good, [but] we have experienced that in the last few weeks economics, gas prices, people are cutting back a bit,” Plagerman says, referring to the market fluctuations related to the pandemic and Ukraine war. “The milk is higher-priced, because it costs more to grow [grain] here. It’s a better product, in my opinion. But people sacrifice quality for price at some point.
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