Our dairy is located in the beautiful Champlain Valley in Addison, Vermont.
Our Mission: Raise happy healthy calves into happy healthy cows that produce high-quality, nutritious milk.
To be stewards of our animals & land.
Our family moved to the farm in 1928 when Daniel Briggs (my great-grandfather) purchased it from the Spooner family. In the 80+ years since, it has seen many changes and improvements in keeping with the ever changing world of agriculture.
When Great-Grandpa Daniel started milking cows they were in a tie-stall barn and his son, Grampa Henry, continued milking cows in the same manner until 1968. My father Dale helped his father build the freestall and parlor that we used until July 11, 2016.
The old stanchion barn was turned into an area to house the calves and has been my domain since a youngster. :-)
The freestall layout gives the cows freedom to move around at their leisure. The stalls are filled with comfy dry bedding and cleaned daily. They have 24-hour access to water and feed.
The parlor was a double-8 herringbone and we milked 160 cows twice a day - 2:30 a.m. and p.m.
Each cow produced an average of 70 pounds of milk per day, a little over 8 gallons! Combined the ladies produced 11,000+ lbs/day (1,300 gallons of yummy, high-quality, nutritious milk each and every single day)! :-D
When Great-Grandpa Daniel started milking cows they were in a tie-stall barn and his son, Grampa Henry, continued milking cows in the same manner until 1968. My father Dale helped his father build the freestall and parlor that we used until July 11, 2016.
The old stanchion barn was turned into an area to house the calves and has been my domain since a youngster. :-)
The freestall layout gives the cows freedom to move around at their leisure. The stalls are filled with comfy dry bedding and cleaned daily. They have 24-hour access to water and feed.
The parlor was a double-8 herringbone and we milked 160 cows twice a day - 2:30 a.m. and p.m.
Each cow produced an average of 70 pounds of milk per day, a little over 8 gallons! Combined the ladies produced 11,000+ lbs/day (1,300 gallons of yummy, high-quality, nutritious milk each and every single day)! :-D
Summer of 2016 we renovated the freestall to house 3 Lely robots. July 11th saw the last cow exit the parlor and the first milk in the robot! The robots allow the cows to milk as often as they choose - some still only milk twice daily, while others milk up to 5 or 6 times every single day!!!
We still milk 160 cows, but each cow now produce an average of 80+ lbs/day! The robots help us to cater to each cow's individual needs.
All of the crops grown on our farm are fed to our animals (350-head) throughout the year.
In 2017 we grew:
*335.6 acres of hay
*82.4 acres of soybeans
*172.4 acres of corn
The hay is harvested either into large-square bales or haylege; we get at least 2 (if not 3) cuttings each summer.
