Chase's Organic Dairy - Farm Blog

A group of home-school students recently visited Chase’s Organic Dairy Farm in Mapleton to learn all about dairy cows, milk and organic farming. A great time was had by all!  Click here to view more field trip photos.

Kids love calves and calves love kids!

After meeting cows of all ages, touring the barn, milkhouse & the hay mound, MOOMilk and cookies were a big hit!

Last fall’s mild weather allowed our cows to stay outside much longer than usual (into mid-November) but that took its toll on the pasture we were feeding them in. We’ve been working this spring to repair and reseed the heavily used area where the cows ate silage from hay rings. We first used a disc to break up the ground a bit, then seeded it with oats from an organic dairy farmer in our area. The final touch was a layer of chaft from the hay mound. This layer should help provide a bit of cover for the oats we seeded, and also contains lots of seeds from last year’s hay. We can’t wait to see lots of green!   Click here to view more “Patching the Pasture” photos.

5/1/10: View from the hill - Vaughn and Cole are sowing oats

True family farming - three generations on one tractor!

Vaughn had some company while working the ground today – his granddaughter, Abby and his son, Cole.  How often do you see three generations on one tractor?

It’s that time of year again – time to put the fences back up.   We take some fence posts along the road down in the fall. to avoid damage to them when snow plows push back the snow banks.  We also have to repair fencing that has been taken down by deer and moose passing through.

We’re looking forward to seeing the cows out grazing again before too much longer.

Click to view more photos of the day.

Getting ready for green pastures

It’s early in the season but we’re on the ground today – just barely. Vaughn and Cole are dragging some hay fields and pastures.  Old metal wheels drug behind a tractor do a great job of breaking up the manure that was spread there (or dropped there by a cow, LOL) last fall. Smaller pieces allow the nutrients to get back into the ground more quickly… for greener pastures.   For more pictures from the day, please click here.

Dragging pastures in the spring

Farmers start early and work late many days, but yesterday was an especially late night.  Ice Cream was overdue with her first calf and had been uncomfortable and treading much of the day.  We kept a close eye on her and were disappointed not to see any signs of her labor progressing normally.  Vaughn, knowing something was not right, called our vet.  He diagnosed Ice Cream with a twisted uterus.  They rolled her and were able to untwist it, and her water broke.  With help, Ice Cream delivered a healthy bull calf.  We are happy and relieved today to report that mother and baby are doing well today!   For more photos, please click here. 

Lew and Aaron stack haylage bales on a trailer truck for the deer farm.

Today was a busy day at the farm.   In addition to milking and the usual chores, Thursday’s our day to get hay down.  (We drop a week’s worth of square bales down through the hay holes and stack them in front of the cows.  We are currently feeding dry hay in the mornings and haylage in the afternoons.)   We also loaded some round bales for our friends who have a Red Deer farm in Linneus.   We hear that the deer love eating hay and haylage from our farm and are doing really well this winter.  We’re looking forward to going to visit them very soon.

We’re also getting ready to travel to Westbrook tomorrow for the MOOMilk launch.  We are very excited to see the first batch of MOOMilk come off the production line at Smiling Hill Farm and be loaded on a truck for delivery to grocery stores in Maine this Saturday.  This is great news for consumers AND family farms in Maine.  Go, MOOMilk!

For more info on MOOMilk, please visit www.moomilkco.com.  Here’s an excerpt from a recent press release:

“The start of the production marks a new step in the recovery of the Maine dairy industry. MOOMilk with be produced and processed entirely in Maine, with trucking, processing and delivery all done by Maine family businesses. Ninety percent of the profits from the sale of the milk will go to the family farms producing the milk. MOOMilk is not a cooperative, but a low-profit company with a mission of helping Maine organic family dairy farms survive by earning a fair price for their milk.”

The cold days of January are upon us, and the busiest place on the farms these days is inside the barn.

Happy cows doing what they love best - eating!

Click here to view more photos of what’s happening in the barn during the winter months.

We’re very excited to share this photo from Smiling Hill Farm of equipment that will soon be used to process Maine Organic Milk for MOO Milk Co.

Hooray!  We can’t wait to get MOO Milk on store shelves!