In 2014, the Vermont Dairy Promotion Council commissioned the first state dairy economic report, called ‘Milk Matters’, providing key information about the dairy industry’s economic impact and social value, as well as data regarding Vermonters’ beliefs and attitudes towards dairy.
The newly released report, ‘Vermont Dairy Delivers’, updates the Milk Matters report and adds to it, expanding our view of what dairy means to Vermont. You can view and download the Milk Matters report here if you wish to see the dairy snapshot the council released in 2015.
Celebrating a Vermont Sunrise on Easter
Vermont provides glorious scenery year-round. Our tourists know it as well as our citizens. We take many special moments, like a sunrise on Easter, to recognize and acknowledge the landscape, the heritage, culture, and close-knit rural communities and family life that our dairy industry and farmers have provided for 200 years across the state and continue to provide us all today.
Draglining
An important, environmentally friendly process for farmers to manage the fertilization and care of their soil, their manure and their costs while working to avoid negative water quality impacts for our state’s watersheds and publicly shared bodies of water:
Maple Syrup Production
Many farmers augment their income with the “sweet stuff”, Vermont Maple Syrup. A tradition for centuries in our state, Vermont leads the nation and is only second to Quebec in yearly maple syrup production.
A Season in the Fields
Farmers must manage their fields to best serve the needs of their animals and the environment. There are a number of different concerns and processes farmers must plan for and follow through on in a timely manner, all while watching what Mother Nature has in store.
First Cut 2022
Ride along with Custom Harvester Richie Rainville as he attempts to get the first cut of hay in during a wet and cool spring, making for challenging work. Listen as he explains the challenges and importance of treating the fields with professionalism and care.
Public Relations
Vermont dairy farmers are constantly challenged with the perceptions and misperceptions of their craft by neighbors, communities and the general public. Many Vermont dairy farmers hold open houses and welcome visits by those who have questions and wish to know more about dairy farming and farming in general. The effort to feed our communities and protect our environment is an important discussion that affects us all.
Diversification
A big word for an important concept. Many of Vermont’s small and medium size dairy farms augment their incomes with other agricultural products. With the contributions of many dairy farmers, Vermont leads the nation in the production of maple syrup, the second largest Vermont agricultural crop. The effort to diversify can be vital to the bottom line for many family farms in Vermont.
Industry Developments
Vermont dairy farmers of 2022 are feeding us in a vastly different business environment than existed even 50 years ago. The next 50 years will bring even more change and challenges, however the goal of helping to feed our neighbors and communities will still be the same as it was in 1922. Changes across the business spectrum, consolidation of farms, required environmental practices and the price of milk comingle day-to-day, week-to-week and year-to-year to challenge the success and survival of our dairy farmers.
A Matter of Family
Richie Rainville loves to work the land, get his hands dirty on the tractor and help his fellow farmer bring in the crops, but what really makes it all worthwhile is family. Not only does he get out in the fields with his Dad on a regular basis, but on any given day you can find some or all of his family helping to get the job done. Richie believes the life of a dairy farmer in Vermont provides this kind of reward: connection to family, friends and community, while doing the important work of providing food for us all.
Betting on the Future
Many Vermont dairy farmers are getting older and looking at how to keep the farm going. Some family farms struggle to keep the farm in the family, while others have younger family that want to keep the family farming tradition alive. This issue of “succession” is one the every farm faces at some point.
Diversification
A big word for an important concept. Many of Vermont’s small and medium size dairy farms augment their incomes with other agricultural products. With the contributions of many dairy farmers, Vermont leads the nation in the production of maple syrup, the second largest Vermont agricultural crop. The effort to diversify can be vital to the bottom line for many family farms in Vermont.
Industry Developments
Vermont dairy farmers of 2022 are feeding us in a vastly different business environment than existed even 50 years ago. The next 50 years will bring even more change and challenges, however the goal of helping to feed our neighbors and communities will still be the same as it was in 1922. Changes across the business spectrum, consolidation of farms, required environmental practices and the price of milk comingle day-to-day, week-to-week and year-to-year to challenge the success and survival of our dairy farmers.
Keep Buying Milk!
A message from a current and future dairy farmer!
Doing the Right Thing
The health of our shared environment and ecology is dependent on us all doing our best to protect it. Today’s dairy farmers are investing in that health and the future by spending their hard-earned dollars to implement Best Management Practices and in the right equipment to protect our waters and ecosystem.
Change is Part of the Job
Normand Thibault has been on a dairy farm his whole life. The way he farms today is vastly different than how things were done 50 years ago, and changes and challenges keep coming.
Finding a Way
Many dairy farmers are exploring new ways to farm. For some, goats and sheep may be that way forward.
Defining Dairy
What makes up a dairy farm? Many parts and pieces.
Fulfilling Farming
Why we do what we do.
Family Farming
Many of our dairy farmers have multiple generations of history and future invested in their occupation. Farming with family makes life on a dairy farm much more than a job.
Farmer Seb
Séb Latraverse is a young dairy farmer in Vermont, hailing from Montreal, Quebec. Seb is hoping to continue dairy farming in Vermont for the foreseeable future, potentially one day owning his own farm in the Green Mountain State. Seb is somewhat rare as a young person hoping to continue dairy farming, but to hear him speak about it is to understand his passion for everything that dairy is and means to Vermont.
A Passion for Pasture
Séb Latraverse explains how improving the pasture is great for the dairy farm, but vital for the future of farming the land and maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
Corn Season
Harvest time is essential to the survival of the farm through winter and getting the crops in comes with many challenges for all involved. From wet ground to bears to quality milk, corn season challenges are part of the challenge to a successful dairy operation.
Environmental Efforts
Dairy farmers are constantly working to improve their stewardship of the land and water that their farms impact, adapting to many of the practices that help sustain our shared environment for all.
From Canada to Vermont
Seb Latraverse’s journey in dairy started young, and has brought him from his Canadian home to a dairy farm in Vermont, and he hopes to stay.
Harvest Heaven
Ever wonder what all those tires are hiding? Well, usually “big piles of….”!
Protecting Our Waters
Farms sometimes face difficult environmental challenges when it comes to how they operate. Public waterways are of high concern to the general public and government regulators. Vermont dairy farmers are constantly working to prevent any negative impacts to our state waterways with expensive infrastructure projects, following in the traditions of previous generations efforts at land stewardship and learning to serve their communities.
Fall Fertilizing
Part of a dairy farmers responsibilities to environmental stewardship is ensuring that fertilizer needed to cultivate crops next season stays on the land where it is needed, and not lost into the waters that can steal it away. Draglining is an important tool to achieve this goal and is becoming a central practice to a dairy farms end-of-year preparations for winter.
Celebrating with a Toast!
Each year, the harvest signifies the closing of the growing season and the coming of winter, but more importantly symbolizes the very reason farmers exist: to tend the land and animals that help them feed them, their neighbors and communities. Let’s all toast Vermont Dairy Farmers!
Thank you to Follow-a-Farmer for providing these important videos in the Dairy Education Library, helping teach all of us what Vermont dairy farmers do. Please visit the Follow-a-Farmer website for more content.
*All videos are produced by Follow-A-Farmer and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets. The Vermont Dairy Promotion Council sponsors this effort and works to educate the public on the ecological, environmental and economic importance of all dairy farming and dairy industry products to Vermont.
