Why Organic Certification is a commitment to caring for the cows [Ad Content from Stonyfield]

I really believe there's an important place for small dairy farms. It's not easy starting out. There's a lot of expense. a learning curve. And a lot of the farms that are left are farms like ours where we're in our 60s. We need small farms. Maggie, lay down. — Molly Brook Farm has been in my husband's family since 1835. My husband is the seventh generation on the farm. Our grandchildren are the ninth generation. We started our organic transition in 2015 and it took 3 years to transition the land. It just was complicated. But organic is just so important. Being organic, it makes you think about being proactive for the cows. We want them to have good feed. a nice place to sleep. It's hard. You know, there's a lot of rules, but they're smart rules. To be certified organic, we don't use antibiotics. We feed only organic grain. There's no herbicides or pesticides used on the land. Our cows need to get their feed from green grass on the pasture for 120 days. — Hub. We've always raised our herd organically and we've always treated the land organically and the official certification just opens up a lot more market opportunities for us. For the larger markets where people are going to store that certification has a lot more meaning and importance. — Stonyfield is incredibly dedicated to small dairy farms. They're actually willing to come get our milk from the farm and transportation is a real challenge when it comes to dairy. And also a lot of the technical service providers that are coming on board with Stonyfield now are people that we've looked up to and when we started our farm and now are working with Stonyfield in collaboration and now we have these people on speed dial and they're just there to help us free of charge. That's really empowering, too. — Part of what becoming a first generation farmer can feel like you have to do it all yourself, but it's really nice to have other people to help us do it. I'm not sure we'd still be in business if we weren't working with Stonyfield. I really don't. They truly support small farms. And I think the most important thing is our values align. — Yeah. Yeah, I mean just that organic dairy just fits the model of Stony Field which naturally goes handinhand with a small farm model. — We're really kind of treating the cows like cows and we're kind of just trying to treat the land as the land's always been treated which is really our passion. — Farmers really love what they do. They want what's best for the land and the animals that they have to tend or the crops tend. — The cows know us. They know us and they know we're taking care of them. Yeah, I think if everyone had a cow, they would probably be a happier person, maybe be more kind.