Dairy Tour To Vermont
March 23 - 26, 2010

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Program

Green Mountain Dairy - Sheldon, VT

Green Mountain was named the 2008 Vermont Dairy Farm of the Year by UVM Extension, VT Dairy Industry Assn., and the New England Green Pastures Program. Co-owners are brothers Bill and Brian Rowell, who milk 900 cows with a rolling herd average of 22,000 pounds of milk per cow with 3.8 percent butterfat and 3.1 percent protein. The Rowells have an anaerobic digester and estimate the farm is saving $100,000 annually by using the dry bio-solids from the treated manure instead of sawdust for bedding in their state-of-the-art free-stall barns. In addition, they supply two local farms and several nurseries and greenhouses. Heifers are raised off-site, but a new heifer barn is underway to keep them on-farm. Off the farm, Brian has served on his local selectboard for the past 15 years. Bill was instrumental in establishing the Farmers Wetlands Assistance Committee, a liaison between dairy producers and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. He is a member of the CVPS Rural Development executive committee, which implements clean energy projects in the state, and was a member of the Dairy Task Force that worked with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture on the Farm Bill.

Branon’s West View Maples - Fairfield, VT
http://www.branonswestviewmaples.com

Branon West View Maples is operated by the sixth generation of the Branon Family. Vermont is the biggest U.S. producer of maple syrup, and during the height of production in February, March, and April, the Branon family taps 60,000 maples trees and then processes the sap on-site in its beautiful new state-of-the-art sugar house. In the summer, the family operation focuses on manure injection and custom cropping. We’ll tour the processing facility, then have an opportunity to purchase some of Vermont’s finest pure maple syrup.

Pleasant Valley Farm - Richford, VT

Owned by Mark and Amanda St. Pierre, Pleasant Valley Farm milks nearly 2,000 cows 3X at its main facility in Richford and at two nearby satellite dairies. The farm has a methane digester and was the second dairy to join the Vermont Cow Power Program in November 2006. The average CVPS residential customer uses 6,000 kwh of electricity a year, and this farm has the potential to provide electricity to more than 500 homes. Notes Mark: “We used to spend $200 a day on electricity to run our dairy. Now we are selling $1,200 of electricity a day.” Started in 1998, the operation has been through several expansions in order to be able to provide a future on the dairy for the St. Pierre’s children. The farm has between 30-40 employees. All young stock is raised on site. Amanda is a founding member of Dairy Farmers Working Together (www.dfwt.org), a grassroots dairy group started in Vermont in 2006.

Cowtown Holsteins - Derby, VT
http://www.derbycowpalace.com/

Producer Doug Nelson owns five satellite dairies in and around Derby making Cowtown Holsteins the largest dairy operation in Vermont. The Nelson family farms more than 5,000 acres and milks about 3,000 head of mostly Holstein cows. The Nelsons show several head at the World Dairy Expo each year, and exhibited the grand champion female in the International Holstein Show at the 2007 World Dairy Expo. In addition to the dairy facility, we’ll visit the show cow barn, the family’s elk herd, plus enjoy dinner at the Nelson family’s Derby Cow Palace Steakhouse, located nearby.

Maxwell Neighborhood Dairy - Coventry, VT

Maxwell Neighborhood Dairy is operated by three generations of the Maxwell family. The dairy was started in 1957 by Maurice and Lois, who now share ownership with their four sons: Stewart, Bradley, Anthony, and Jeffery. Last year, Brad’s son Matt came on board to manage the dairy’s newest enterprise, Neighborhood Energy LLC. At the center of the partnership is a new methane digester, which began generating electricity on Dec. 3, 2008. The farm is the latest addition to the Cow Power family in Vermont. Besides getting 8.2 cents per kilowatt hour from the Vermont Electric Cooperative, Maxwell is selling renewable credits to Central VT Public Service. In all, the farm is getting 12.2 cents per kilowatt hour. “It’s a way for our farm to remain economically viable,” said Matt. “There is so much uncertainty with milk prices, this is something that will keep us in farming, which is important to our family.” State and federal grants helped fund the project, but the Maxwells still had to pay two-thirds of the $2 million project. The farm has won several farm management awards, including being named 2003 Vermont Dairy Farm of the Year by the University of VT. The family milks 800 cows. Heifers are raised off site.

Jasper Hill Dairy - Greensboro, VT
http://www.jasperhillfarm.com

Brothers Mateo and Andy Kehler and their wives, Victoria and Angela, have as their goals to produce cheeses of the highest quality from their own milk; to demonstrate that it is still possible to prosper on a rocky hillside farm; and to create a vehicle for the renewal of their local dairy economy in the form of a business model that can be replicated on other dairy farms. At Jasper Hill Dairy the couples milk a herd of 40 Ayrshires to produce award-winning raw-milk cheeses, including a cloth-bound cheddar that has won best U.S. Cheddar honors in recent years. In addition, they operate the “Cellars at Jasper Hill,” a series of 7 concrete caves blasted into the VT hillside to hold cheeses produced by 40 VT dairies. The cheeses are produced on the home farm to retain the quality and taste of the individual dairy. In turn, the “Cellars” takes care of the labor-intensive aging process and markets the various cheeses throughout the Northeast.

Cabot Creamery - Cabot, VT
http://www.cabotcheese.com

Cabot Creamery has been in continuous operation in Vermont since 1919 when 94 farmers founded the cooperative at a cost of $5 per cow, plus a cord of wood each. In 1992, Cabot merged with Agri-Mark, Inc. to form a major new dairy cooperative. In 2000, Agri-Mark built a $20 million state of- the art whey protein processing plant in Middlebury, VT; the only one of its kind in the country. Over the years, Cabot has won every taste award for cheddar cheese, including ‘Best Cheddar in the World’ at the 22nd Biennial Cheese Championship. No other cheese company can make this claim. Today, Cabot is the fastest growing cheddar supplier in the country.

Hatchland Dairy - North Haverhill, NH

Hatchland Dairy, located just across the Vermont line, is a producer-handler operation that does on-farm bottling of “wicked good” milk, chocolate milk, eggnog, and cream. Operated by Howard Hatch, the dairy consists of a 500-cow farm, an on-farm milk bottling plant and a couple of delivery trucks. Following combat duty in Vietnam, Hatch started dairying with a half-dozen cows on a rented farm, initially milking by hand. Over the years he built up his herd and acquired a landmark farm on the Connecticut River. He built a processing facility from scratch, scouring the country for used equipment for pasteurizing and packaging milk in glass bottles. The dairy sells its product to stores in VT and NH, as well as to distributors in NH, VT, and MA who offer home delivery.

Vermont Butter & Cheese Company - Websterville, VT
http://butterandcheese.net

Vermont Butter & Cheese Company has been making artisanal hand crafted cheeses for over 20 years. Owners Allison Hooper and Bob Reese started the company in a small barn by Allison’s house. Bob was selling the cheese and Allison was making it. Then, in 1989 the team moved into a larger creamery located in Websterville. In the beginning, they occupied one third of the building and put all of their money into the purchase of a boiler, a pasteurizer and one vat. Soon they had to add more equipment, more employees and more farmers to their team. In 2006, a new 4,000 sq ft creamery entirely dedicated to the making and aging of fresh ripened goat cheese was added to the facility. Today, the company has 29 employees and works with 21 family farms to produce goat cheese, crème fraiche and European-style cultured butter.