From Gucci to cows in Italy

Our group of American dairy farmers was scheduled to leave the Newark airport in late afternoon  April 5. International flights often start in late afternoon, so hopefully passengers can sleep on those flights.

If you have ever flown, you know that things often don’t go as planned. If one has a ticket but no boarding pass that means you can get bumped off. This is not a good situation any time, but especially when traveling with a group. I was finally able to get a boarding pass at the gate counter, and eventually a reserved seat. It can cause your blood pressure to go up a little while you’re waiting for those decisions to be made by airline personnel. Airline company apps on your phone are great when they work, but when they don’t, they are extremely frustrating.

Another thing I don’t understand is why they don’t load planes from the rear first instead of the front. There must be a practical explanation to try to minimize the congestion in a plane with 55 rows of seats, but it seemed we were always in those last rows of seats and what a hassle to get there.

Our plane was loaded when the power went off like a lightning storm hiccup. It quickly came back on, but that caused the plane’s computer to malfunction. That computer eventually had to be shut down and restarted, resulting in a two-hour delay. Leaving Newark at 7 p.m. and flying faster than the earth spins causes major upsets to the body and brain. We arrived at Milan in Italy at 9 a.m. local time, but our body clocks were at 2 a.m. We were told that staying awake and moving would help us adjust, but we sure were tired.

We spent the first afternoon walking the streets of Milan, which is the second largest city in Italy next to Rome. It is located in the northern part of Italy and is going to be the home of the 2026 Winter Olympics. Milan is Italy’s economic capital and financial hub, with the national stock exchange; many banking institutions; and a lot of expensive stores that sell clothing, jewelry and other items that rich people covet, like Gucci. It is estimated that Milan is home to 115,000 millionaires, which makes it the wealthiest city in Italy.

Three-quarters of Milan was destroyed by bombing in World War II because it was an industrial center. It was rebuilt and many buildings were re-created in the same style as they were before the war. Many of Leonardo da Vinci’s art works are stored in museums. A true story: When the bombing became heavy, the local people sand-bagged both sides of a wall with the painting of The Last Supper. The only part of the building to survive was that sand-bagged area.

The Milan Cathedral is the most popular tourist attraction. There was a Mass being conducted while we were visiting so we were unable to get inside the building. It has a gold-plated statue on a pedestal 460 feet above the piazza’s floor. It is the second largest church in Italy, after the Vatican’s Basilica.

The Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel is a shopping gallery covered with a glass dome high above the shops and apartments. Stores with shoes, purses, clothing and other goods way beyond our needs or price range lined both sides of the streets. The mosaic artwork in the streets depicted historical stories of past rulers.

The next morning, we boarded our bus and stopped at Sabbiona Holsteins a few miles outside of Milan. They have a highly pedigreed herd of 650 cows and 700 youngstock. Their current star is a 97-point Holstein who has earned her own large freestall pen. They have bred 452 Excellent cows and have sold seven young sires in the last year. The most recent one they sold went for 25,000 euros. One euro is worth approximately $1.20. They currently have two sires at Semex.

This farm also sells 120 first-calf heifers each year. They did not show animals in 2024 because of the fear of the blue tongue virus in the European Union. They flush three to four cows each month, but do not do any in vitro fertilization work as it is not very advanced in Italy.

The farm is owned by the Ciserania family and includes 360 hectares. (One hectare equals 2.2 acres and is worth 75,000 euros.) Half of their land is in grass hay and half is in corn. All of their corn is chopped for silage. They harvest seven cuttings of hay each year off the grass. After each cutting of hay, those fields are flooded with liquid manure. Their manure is separated into liquid and solid portions daily. The solid portion is applied once a year to fields that will be planted to corn. They also irrigate many of their fields and last year they spent 30,000 euros on water.

Their cows’ diets are somewhat controlled by the consortium that buys their milk. The diet must consist of at least 60% grass and the remainder can be corn silage and ground corn, but no additional protein can be fed. They can only milk two times a day. This is because their milk is made into cheese, which is controlled by the consortium so they can maintain the name and the quality that has been established for centuries. Their milk is made into Parmesan cheese, which has to be made in the Parma region where they are located. They get 64 euro cents per liter for their milk. If their milk goes for fluid consumption, they only get 60 euro cents per liter.

Their foreign workers were from India and are paid approximately the same as ours in the U.S. They are unable to find many Italians who will milk cows.

We ended our day with a common Italian meal. There were usually at least four courses. The first course that night was mushrooms on a breakfast-style biscuit. The second course was lasagna with lots of pasta, but not much cheese or meat. The third course was pork chops and we finished off with the final course of a chocolate dessert. Wine is offered at every meal along with water. Fresh cold milk was rarely found. I don’t know the reason, but there are very few overweight Italians. They sure kept us Americans fed well.