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We got interested in organic after talking to some local farmers in our area. One of our neighbors told us about Horizon Organic and the producer relations person for our region, Cindy Masterman, got in touch with us. We liked her right away and decided this was something we really wanted to do. Honestly, what attracted us at first was the higher pay prices for organic. But once we made the transition, we noticed two other things right away: the taste of our milk was much better -so much creamier. The second thing was strange, but really told us a lot. Like most farms, we have barn cats who drink the milk from our cows. When we were conventional, the cats always had crusty eyes and short lives. Now that we're organic and all the chemicals and antibiotics are gone, we have more cats than we know what to do with and they are very healthy. But most important of all -- our granddaughter only drinks "grandpa's milk." She refuses to drink any other kind and she is just the healthiest little girl! The scary part about switching to organic was that we had to learn to farm all over again. We had to ask ourselves "why" first for everything. Why do we have a mastitis problem? And that leads to changing the way you milk. One of the benefits of working with Horizon Organic is the network of farmers that the company supports. The best way to improve your farming practices is to learn from other farmers and Horizon Organic has producer meetings every year which is an opportunity to share ideas. Horizon Organic respects the size of our farm. We have 45 milkers because that is what we can comfortably handle. The prices Horizon Organic pays us for our milk allows us to run a simple, relaxed operation without pressure to expand in order to stay on the truck. We can't imagine shipping our milk to any other company and are happy to be part of the Horizon Organic family. |  |
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