Comment on Organic...

Posted by Matt from CT on July 12, 2006 at 10:22:49 from (24.177.7.45):

In Reply to: Difficult indeed . . . posted by monomechanical on July 12, 2006 at 08:14:36:

Vermont is at 10% Organic dairy farms this year.

It's expected to be at 20% next year based on the number of farms in the pipeline.

If I recall correctly, it's about a 3 year transition period from the time you adopt organic methods until you can receive the organic certification -- during that time you have the worst of both worlds, lower productivity due to fewer chemical inputs and lower prices given standard commodities.

The market is very strong for organic milk right now -- some of the large companies like Stonyfield have actually had to drop some of their organic products for lack of milk.

I don't think the labor is much greater for organic milk...maybe for cultivating corn instead of spraying. I'd say you'd expect lower production for the amount of labor, but even at that I've seen statistics that show that's not always true mainly because the better soil from organic methods is more resilent to dry and wet spells. It becomes even more competetive on a net basis (less the cost of inputs).

A few years back I saw a ~160 acre farm for sale in Upstate New York that was an organic dairy...oh, the day dreams since I could've sold my house in CT for at least 2/3rds of the farm price in NY. Convert from dairy to organic beef so I could reduce my labor their, and do remote computer consulting as my main income :)

Replies:

• Re: Comment on Organic... monomechanical 10:37:45 07/12/06 (0)

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