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Bob Foster has been on the leading edge of dairy diversification since the early 1980s. He coined the term “Cow Power” when he saw the opportunity to source clean-burning, environmentally safe, abundant energy from right under his feet…so-to-speak. The Fosters were among the first to install an anaerobic digester on their dairy farm, which allowed them to meet their electricity needs through generators powered by methane gas released from treated cow manure.  The family built one of the largest manure-based compost companies, producing and marketing Moo Doo, which is sold around the Northeast.

Coming Home to Stay While some dairy farms are challenged to find the next generation of farmers, Tiashoke Farms had the opposite problem—if you can call it a problem. Although Frank and Terry Ziehm pushed their three sons to explore...

A Different Kind of Chocolate Milk Farmer-chocolatier Kimberly Thorn crafts her Milkhouse Chocolates by meticulously matching the milk of each cows with all-natural flavorings like farm-grown mint or raspberries. The “buttery, honey, creamy caramel” milk of Daydream, for example, is...

Got Ice Cream? The Ilsley family began hand-milking cows in Weare in the 1920’s and moved to a new farm a few miles away in 1933 to take advantage of the innovation of electricity. Flash forward almost a century to...

Shared Love, Different Breeds When Joanna and Adam Lidback first bonded over their mutual love of cows they overcame the fact that he was a Holstein guy and she was a Jersey girl. Today, their blended herd at The Farm...

Mixed Herd On Cabot farms, a mixed herd generally means the farmers have cows beyond the classic black and white-splotched Holsteins. At the Hayes family’s Sweet Pea Farm, on the other hand, it could describe the fact that they raise...

Love of Nature A shared love of nature first brought John Merrill and Lorraine Stuart Merrill together as college students. “John grew up hiking in the White Mountains, working on trail crews in the summer. I’d spent my childhood on...

Perseverance A devastating barn fire, a new highway built through their farm, suburban development pressure—the Scholtens have been through a lot since Adriena and Jacob Scholten left their native Holland as newlyweds in 1959. They first landed in Iowa where...

Ice Cream Dreams At the age of nine, tenth-generation dairy farmer Beck Johnson had a dream. Like lots of kids, he dreamt of ice cream—but in this case, he wanted to make it, not just eat it. And so Sanctuary...

Family Working Together Mark and Mike Lourie are twin brothers who own Rupert Valley Holsteins Farm in West Rupert, Vermont. They have about 400 milkers and 275 young stock, and manage about 850 acres of cropland. Mark manages farm finances and employees; Mike handles the crops and...

A Family Tradition As the Chambers Farm sign proudly proclaims, farming has been “a family tradition” since 1898—and the tradition continues. The baton has passed into the hands of Dan Chambers, who grew up the second youngest of six kids and eventually joined his parents, Ken and Peg, to keep...

From 4-H to 400 Milkers The Caverly Farm started out close to 75 years ago as a small 4-H project for the family, a passion that has grown into a multi-generation business. In 1962, Frank Caverly formed a partnership with his brothers EC and...