There’s a common narrative, and perhaps a fear, in the dairy industry.
“Everybody’s saying, ‘Oh, you gotta get big, you gotta get big,’” Jane Clifford, of the Clifford Farm in Starksboro, Vermont, said, “I think you have to adapt to the situation.”
For Jane and her husband Eric, adapting doesn’t mean getting big. They’ve been dairy farming for over 50 years on their eighth-generation farm, established by Eric’s family in the late 1700s. They sell milk from their 220 cows through the cooperative Dairy Farmers of America. Jane also works part-time as an agricultural legislative consultant and has a front-row seat to discussions about dairy in Vermont.
Jane says Vermont dairy farmers have long been pressured to add cows, diversify, or explore niche markets.
“You have to look at your strengths as a business person and what you are capable of,” Jane said. “There’s no boilerplate to farming. “We all can’t be niche markets…there has to be those of us who stay in the commodity milk arena and become as efficient as we possibly can, become as good as we possibly can, and keep learning.”
Even though the number of dairy farms in Vermont has been decreasing for decades, she says the system isn’t as broken as people think.
“Too often, it’s doom and gloom, and woe is me. And that’s never been our message. It’s challenging, just as every other small business is, but it’s a small business, and you work through it,” she reflected. “And yes, there are so many things you can’t control, but on the other hand, there are a lot of things that you can control.”
The Clifford Farm is classified as a medium-farm operation (MFO) by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. It’s one of the approximately 84 MFOs in Vermont, down from about 100 since 2020. They’ve made it through challenges like inflation, milk pay-price volatility, labor shortages, and more. Here’s a look at how they’ve done it.
“What can you do really well?”
Since the farm began, it’s gone through many iterations, including at one time having thousands of laying hens and maple trees tapped for sugaring. Jane recalled the motivation behind streamlining to focus on just dairy, “You can do a lot of things well, but what do you want to do really well?”
They focused on being a well-oiled machine. They switched from milking two times a day to three times, brought in sand bedding for the cows, adjusted the size of the cow stalls, and the ingredients in the cow’s diets.
“Through the years, it’s been about having the cow as your primary focus in your operation,” Jane said.
The end goal? Improve cow comfort and health and, in turn, increase the quality and value of their milk.
She says relying on outside help and expertise is also crucial for their farm. They borrow equipment from neighboring farms and hire out some of the fieldwork. When Eric took on more responsibility from his father, Arthur, he leaned on their consulting team, including their vet, nutritionist, and crop consultant, to bring in new ideas and improve the operation.
“When someone comes to the farm, he wants them to leave with a question that he’s asked that they don’t know the answer to, and they’ll come back with information because we’re always learning,” Jane said.
For example, the Clifford Farm relies on nutritionist Jon Audy and Phoenix Feeds & Nutrition owners Dave Santos and Craig Newton to come up with new ways to improve animal nutrition at a price they can afford.
“That tight relationship with Phoenix was a key part of our ability to grow and develop,” Jane said. “And they lock in a contract price, which is really important in going forward.”
The farm purchases milk replacers, grain, and custom ingredient mixes from Phoenix to add to the cow feed grown at the farm. Audy designed a custom nutrition program that’s steadily improved milk production.
Eric cited an unconventional method they’ve tried successfully with Audy’s guidance—feeding 100 percent corn silage to the milking cows versus mixing it with hay or straw, which is the typical diet.
“For the past four years, we’ve had really good luck when we were able to do that: higher components, lower feed costs,” Eric said.
Being open to change has also created a more diverse labor force at the farm. Today, they have eight employees, most part-time, including two from Mexico who came to the farm in 2023. The Cliffords say growing the team has helped stabilize their business and added a new sense of camaraderie.
Changing the narrative about commodity dairy
Jane says one of her goals is to reframe how people think about commodity milk.
“It’s like, ‘Well, we just do commodity milk,’ I say to that, ‘What do you mean? You just do commodity milk?’ Yes, we sell bulk. We sell wholesale, but it’s still a product that is so important to the world,” Jane said.
She says there’s stability and optimism to be had, considering about twenty percent of the population of the U.S. lives in the Northeast, and there’s a market for milk here and globally.
“Everybody has a fix for the dairy industry. It’s not about fixing it. It’s looking at what we have and growing and changing to adapt to the future,” Jane said of the complexities behind changing a system tied to global markets instead of adapting to changing consumer needs.
“Yes, there has been consolidation within the industry. But it doesn’t mean it’s bad,” Jane said. “It’s also created opportunities for new product lines, for more promotion and marketing to get people to utilize the product in many different ways. Milk is not just fluid. It can be in so many different things, and we have to look at that.”
Looking ahead
In 2019, the Cliffords completed the conservation of the farm with the Vermont Land Trust, so it will always be agricultural land. This has brought peace of mind. Especially as Eric and Jane consider their legacy and what will come next, even if the farm isn’t run by a family member.
“People say, ‘Aren’t you sad there won’t be another generation of Cliffords?’ And my personal view is, why? We are really proud of what has happened over the last 200 years,” Jane said. “And we would be very happy to see someone else’s story and support it, whatever that is. Celebrate what you’ve accomplished instead of thinking, ‘Oh, it has to be this way.’ No, celebrate it.”
Jane says she and Eric see value in someone bringing a fresh perspective to the farm, “With dairy, I think sometimes we get too locked into, it’s got to be this way. We need to have people say, ‘I’m willing to take a risk. I’m willing to change.’”
She says that farmers who are exiting the industry need to be honored, too.
“Whether they’re going to transition to do something else, or they’ve had a great legacy and they’re gonna reach higher, whatever it is,” Jane said, “I think it’s really important for us to celebrate our industry, to celebrate our success.”