UNH sees organic future for farms
In 1961, when Lorraine Merrill moved back home to run the family dairy farm in Stratham, N.H., local jokes about the town having more cows than people were almost as factual as they were funny.
But these days, Stratham has 6,800 people and 200 cows, reflecting the sorry state of New England's family-owned dairy farms.
''Back then, this town was wall-to-wall dairy farms," Merrill said. ''We're the only dairy farm left."
The problem, Merrill and other specialists say, is chemically enhanced feeds and fertilizers, which work well enough in large-scale industrial dairy farms but end up draining the already slim profits from family-run operations, due to their expense.
One possible solution is emerging on 30 acres near the University of New Hampshire campus, at the Burley-Demeritt Farm in Lee. The school is building a multimillion-dollar dairy farm aimed at teaching farmers to shun the chemicals and go organic, hopefully allowing them to make money on what they grow in a market that places a premium on organic products.
''It's the first organic dairy farm at a land grant university in the country," said Thomas Kelly, director of the school's Office of Sustainable Programs. ''With it, we want to look at organic dairy farming in New England, its sustainability here, and the economics."
A trip to any supermarket will show there is a market for organic dairy products, Kelly said. The organic milk on most supermarket shelves costs about 20 percent more than regular, and demand is so great that there is a shortage in New England.
Making a living from organic dairy farming is another matter. While some New England dairy farms have switched to organics, it is a complicated, costly process.
The key, Kelly said, is growing your own feed without chemical fertilizers and thereby avoiding the high cost of buying organic feeds, which can eat up any added profit from selling organic products.
''What has really jumped out at us is how valuable the science of animal nutrition is in all this," he said.
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After a certain point, the field becomes unable to grow anything without those chemicals, Schwab said. Yet, if a farmer decides to go organic and stop using the chemicals, it takes several years for the microbes to grow back and replenish the fields naturally. In the meantime, expensive feed has to be shipped in from the Midwest.
''There are a lot of farmers contemplating this transition," Schwab said. ''But it's very scary because it costs them a lot of money."
And it may not need to, Schwab and Merrill said. To become federally certified as organic, a farm cannot use chemical feeds and fertilizers for three years. However, a farm does not need such certification to reap the benefits of organic farming practices.
Take Merrill's farm, known as Stuart Farm. It is not certified organic because it uses some fertilizers on its feed fields and Merrill buys some noncertified feed for the cows. Yet the milk it sells fetches a premium because its cows do not get bovine-growth hormones, a feed additive many dairy farms use to bolster milk production.
So, dairy farms can go a little organic, Merrill said, reaping the profits from a booming market in organic products while still benefiting from limited use of chemical feeds and fertilizers.
''One of the misconceptions [of organic farming] is that it is black or white, organic or not organic. That's really not true," Merrill said. ''What we're aiming for is sustainable agriculture that takes a holistic, integrated look at the environmental and economic and community impact of agriculture."
That's pretty much what the new organic dairy farm at UNH will teach other farmers to do, Schwab said. There has been a lot more research done on using chemicals than not using them, and if the industry is to survive, that has to change, he said.
''There has been no research done to support the organic dairy industry," Schwab said. ''Farmers need help with these things."
The university could also use some help with the new farm. Work is underway -- cows have been donated and organic feed fields are ready for planting this spring -- but a lot more needs to be done.
Some $1.5 million is needed to build a milking barn and breeding facility. Any more money raised will go toward an education center.
About $250,000 has been collected -- $200,000 of that from Stonyfield Farm, an organic yogurt maker in Londonderry. Stonyfield started out as an organic dairy farm with seven cows in 1983, said company president Gary Hirshberg. It has since has grown into the nation's third-largest yogurt maker, with $212 million in sales.
That makes Stonyfield one of the biggest consumers of organic dairy products in New England and Hirshberg one of New Hampshire's biggest fans of organic dairy farming.
''Farmers need answers to some real basic questions about organic farming," he said. ''I can talk to farmers until I'm blue in the face, but what they really need is a program like this to get across to them. We think this farm is going to become a fountain of good information on organics."
UNH has had dairy farming studies since the late 1800s, and started offering a bachelor's degree in the subject in 1992. It also runs a conventional dairy, but a few years back, specialists at the school realized going organic was the only way to save the family-owned dairy farm in New England.
In 1983, there were 525 dairy farms in New Hampshire. Today there are 135, according to Steve Taylor, state agriculture commissioner. Hirshberg said that when he was growing up, the state had well over 1,000 such farms.
''When you lose the farm, you lose the land. It always gets developed," Hirshberg said. ''We're not going to reclaim these farms . . . so the most efficient thing to do is convince existing farms to switch over to organics."
The school's new farm has 45 cows and expects to be milking next December, Schwab said. Schwab has grand plans for the place, but right now just wants to get the barns built.
Along with Stonyfield, the American Jersey Cattle Association donated $40,000. Smaller amounts have come from numerous other sources, Schwab said. Anyone interested in helping out can contact the school.
''Right now we need to build the milking and breeding barns, but some day we could have a visitors center and miles of trails," Schwab said, pointing to the rolling hills surrounding the 30-acre facility.
''But it's a big vision, and it's going to take a lot of money."
