Julie Wolcott and Steve MacCausland
Neither Julie Wolcott nor Steve MacCausland had dairying experience before buying Green Wind Farm in Vermont. "We learned by doing," says Julie. Over the course of 20 years, they built up a small herd of pure-bred Jerseys, while developing a rotational grazing system and growing all their own hay. A maple-sugaring operation became an important source of income, and a small pick-your-own strawberry field was planted.

Their 25 cows and 22 calves live comfortably in a well-ventilated barn. Each stall has a thick bedding of sawdust over a non-slip rubber mat base. In the summer, the herd is on pasture, and only comes into the barn for milking. Every two days, Julie and Steve take turns doing the milking and feeding. "At this scale, only one person is needed to handle the milking," Steve explains.

A ll four of their children help with the barn chores. Their younger daughters, Zena and Phoebe, were active with showing the calves in 4-H events. "The girls have a good rapport with the animals. They know each cow by face and name," says Steve. "While the cows are here with us, we feel it is important to make it a good life for them."

Now that everything we make is organic, Greenwind Farm no longer provides us with milk. But they’re still members of St. Albans Cooperative Creamery, who we have worked with for almost two decades.  But like all family farms, Greenwind Farm still helps to preserve our nation’s rural beauty and farming heritage, and we’re happy to have our friends continue as part of our Have-a-Cow program.