Environment, Income and Family Benefit on Organic Dairy Farm

Posted: 19-Nov-2003; Updated: 08-Aug-2006

The Forgues Family Organic Dairy Farm in northern Vermont provides a prime example of how the environment, a dairy's bottom line and a family's way of life can all benefit when cows are switched from a traditional confinement system to feeding on well-managed pasture. This year, the Forgues family has furthered its environmental commitment by participating in the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service's (NRCS) Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

For 17 years, Henry and Sally Forgues managed their Alburg Springs dairy conventionally, using year-round confinement based on corn silage and alfalfa. And, like many dairy farmers, especially with recent historically low milk prices, the Forgues fell further and further into debt. Losing a key partner, their son Travis, to college, cut even deeper into their profits.

Shifiting Operation Practices and Maximizing Profits

Then, in 1992, the Forgues instituted major changes on their farm. They stopped growing corn, started grazing their cows and joined the Vermont Pasture Management Outreach Program to learn how to maximize production and profit by raising their animals on well-managed pasture. Shifting from confinement to grazing had dramatic results, significantly boosting their profits and quality of life. In 1995, Travis returned to the farm with his wife Amy, and the two families now farm together.

After a few years of successful managed grazing, the farm produced milk that qualified for organic certification, and the family began shipping it to Organic Valley, a farmer-owned cooperative that markets milk regionally from farmers in 14 states. As members of the cooperative, the Forgues are owners and participate in setting prices. Organic Valley is now meeting its goal of paying members 23 cents per pound of milk. In contrast, milk from conventional dairy farms is selling for slightly less than half that price.

The bottom line? Where the Forgues farm once barely eked out a living for one family, it now supports two families with ease.

The Forgues increased their herd from 40 animals in 1995 to 90 milkers today, all of which live outside year-round on their 200-acre pasture. The cows and young stock graze for seven or eight months and then during the winter months feed on hay that is grown and baled on the farm. Year-round, the animals receive an organic cereal grain supplement. The cows are rotated through ten-acre permanent paddocks, where movable fences subdivide the pasture into smaller areas. The Forgues move the herd to fresh grass twice a day and compost the manure.

As organic milk producers, the Forgues do not use any chemical pesticides or fertilizers and do not give their animals hormones or antibiotics. They manage animal health proactively, using homeopathic remedies and culling animals that do not respond to treatment.

EQIP Funding Leads to New Improvements

The Forgues comprehensively addressed the remaining resource issues on their farm in their application for EQIP funding and ranked high enough among Vermont applicants to receive funding. In implementing their "whole farm plan" with EQIP cost-share funds, the Forgues will make several environmental improvements. Some of them are:

• Diverting pasture surface water away from waste storage facilities;
• Providing clean, cool water to animals in the pastures and keeping them out of streams;
• Improving the prescribed grazing management system with additional fencing, animal walkways and stream crossings;
• Implementing a pest management plan to improve and protect herd health and forage quality;
• Continuing implementation of sustainable strategies to enhance healthier and productive forage crops, including frost seeding legumes, liming and timing composted and raw materials, reduced tillage and soil biological monitoring; and
• Beginning a comprehensive nutrient management plan to further reduce pollutants.

The Forgues feel strongly about their new approach to dairying. Through a cooperative speaker's bureau, Travis and Amy speak on the benefits of grass-based dairy farming and organic milk. Travis convinced two neighboring families to convert to organic dairying and join the Organic Valley cooperative. Three participants guaranteed enough milk for a regular Organic Valley truck run to northern Vermont. Today, 22 members are on a wait list, largely due to Travis' visits and calls to farmers throughout the state.

In January 2003 testimony, Travis told the Vermont House and Senate agriculture committees that, "Organic can be a lifeline for Vermont's struggling family farms. It can bring our children the future we want them to have."

And the animals speak for themselves. On a visit to the farm in May 2003, this writer had the unusual experience of seeing cows frolic. When Travis moved a section of the dividing fence to allow them into ungrazed pasture, the cows poured through at a run, bucking and jostling each other, full udders swinging back and forth, in what could only have been glee.

More information is available on the following web sites:

• Environmental Defense EQIP Page
• NRCS in Vermont
• Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance

Information for this profile was obtained from interviews with Travis Forgues and Tyler Webb of the Vermont NRCS, as well as from Sustainable Agriculture Network and the Organic Valley web site.

Suzy Friedman
Scientist and Agricultural Policy Analyst
Environmental Defense