Meet the Farmer: Monument Farms

The College takes great pride in the quality of the food served in its dining halls. Matthew Biette, director of dining services, seeks local and organic products whenever possible. Though just 19 percent of the College’s food funds purchase Vermont products, Biette stressed that the statistic “depends on how you count it and what our luck is.”
“The local food movement is important for the local economy,” said Biette. “It keeps money in the area. If we know the people we buy from … then we are making a healthier community.”
Monument Farms, the source of the College’s dairy products, is a prime example of dependence on the local economy. Monument has maintained a valuable relationship with the College for over 60 years. Such a long-held connection is unique in comparison to other food providers with which the College works.
Monument Farms, located just a few miles off campus in Weybridge, Vt. is also unique in that it is involved in every aspect of their milk production, unlike most other dairy farms.
“They are completely vertically integrated,” said Biette. “They grow their own feed, they raise their own cows. They are completely local and they are just over that hill. It is really cool!”
A self-contained company, Monument Farms grows the corn to feed its animals, raises the next generation of cows from calf to heifer and completes all of the processing, bottling and distribution of the milk. So, when you drink a glass of milk in Proctor, you are consuming a genuine Vermont product that was produced — from start to finish — just miles away from where you are sitting.
“We are in control of everything from growing the feed to delivering the milk to the customer,” said Pete James, one of the owners of Monument Farms.
The farm has been run by the same family since the 1920s and is currently run by brothers Pete and Bob James and their cousin, Jon Rooney, all of whom grew up on and around the farm. The secret to having so much control over their product is found in the unique way the owners divide the work: Pete is in charge of the cows and fields, Jon the milk production and Bob the logistics and distribution of the milk.
“Probably one of the keys to our success is that we do not step on each other’s toes or anything like that, yet we all work together,” said Pete James. “It is one business and without [each aspect] we would not be the same. [The organization] just came about naturally.”
The family’s dedication to Monument Farms is evident in the high quality of its milk.
“I cannot imagine a purer product than what we produce,” said Rooney.
Bob echoed his cousin, noting that one of the reasons why Monument Farms milk is so good is because of the local, self-contained aspect of the company.
“The amount of miles that the feed has to travel to get to [other] farms and then the miles the milk has to travel to get to the processing plant and then get distributed is unreal,” said Bob.
Monument Farms cuts out all these extra transport steps. Not surprisingly, the owners are very conscious of the impact that they have on the local environment. A significant measure of their dedication to sustainability and the environment is the money they have spent on a methane digester, which will be functioning in two months. One of the inevitable drawbacks to dairy farming is that cows produce tons of manure and, along with that manure, tons of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. It is a constant struggle for dairy farmers to figure out what to do with all of the effluent; the new methane digester at Monument Farms will help solve this problem.
“In essence,” said Rooney, “instead of the manure going into an open manure pit and getting spread on the fields [the way it usually is] it will go into a digester, which is heated and the bacteria produce methane as well as other by-products. We will capture the methane and use it as natural gas to power a generator.”
Yet the machine does more than just produce methane for power.
“It is like a swimming pool with a cement top over it that seals in the gas for 21 days,” said Bob. “Then the manure goes through a separator that squeezes the liquid out of the solids. The liquid just goes to a manure pit, which will then get spread on the field just like it always was because it has the same nutrient value. The dry matter in the manure will go on a conveyer and will drop into a room, which will then be reused for bedding for cows.”
In essence, the digester takes a byproduct that was once used just as fertilizer and gives it many other uses. Using methane as power, however, is not the most compelling reason for installing the digester.
“It is not an efficient way of making electricity,” said Rooney. “The main driver behind this was to produce our own bedding because it is hard to come by and it is expensive.”
Traditionally bedding for cows is sawdust, a cheap, easily found material. But, with the advent of more wood-free building products, sawdust is increasingly more expensive and difficult to find. With the methane digester, this problem is solved.
“We were looking at it more for the bedding and electricity is a nice way to have it pay for itself,” said Rooney. “It is a huge investment in spite of the fact that we have got a bunch of grant money to do it. We are probably kicking in about the same amount of our own money to do it.”
Because of the enormous costs involved, there are only six or seven other dairies in Vermont that have similar methane digesters. Yet money to build the machines has become increasingly available because of the substantial benefits they offer.
Vermont’s power companies have started a program, “Cow Power,” that offers incentives to farmers who want to install methane digesters. The money comes from people who offer to pay slightly extra per kilowatt-hour on their electrical bill to help fund projects like the one at Monument Farms. In coming years, smaller dairy farms will be able to install digesters, though right now Monument’s grip on new technology keeps it at the head of the industry.
Pete credits the green movement for making the project possible.
“As this ‘green’ movement has gone on and on, the incentives for doing this have become greater,” he said. “The reason there are not more digesters is because it takes a big dairy farm. The practical ability to install one revolved around having a lot of cows.  Now they have come up with digesters where they can have as little as 50 cows.”     Currently, Monument has over 500 dairy cows.
Monument’s methane digester, in addition to its close proximity and high quality of its milk, is yet another reason why Biette loves doing business with the farm.
“We get today’s milk tomorrow or yesterday’s milk today,” said Biette. “It is that fresh.”