New Hampshire has lost about eighty-percent of its cows and its dairy farms since 1970, and the dairy farmers that remain are struggling. But there may be a solution, and it comes from a chicken farm.
At Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs in Monroe, co-owner Jesse LaFlamme is looking for a loose chicken. He says her name is Flora the Explorer: “It’s been nearly every morning that she’s been greeting us in the flower boxes outside of the doorway.”
But Flora hasn’t escaped because there’s not enough room in her barn. It holds 19-thousand chickens, but is less crowded than most shopping malls.
Next to the barn, a group of chickens roam across a big fenced-in field, hunting insects. Except Flora the Explorer, who pops out of the undergrowth on the wrong side of the fence, eyes us, and disappears again.
“These chickens are acting pretty much like chickens,” says marketing director Karl Johnson. “They’re not like egg-machines.” He says Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs was the first Certified Humane® egg farm in the country, and they’ve found lots of customers are willing to pay a higher price for their eggs.
Co-owner Gerry LaFlamme, Jesse’s dad, says being humane and organic are what’s made the company prosper while farms disappear all over the Northeast. “The commodity egg market was shrinking, so there was an opportunity to get into a niche market, and that worked out perfect,” he recalls. “We hit the business-trend in the right time.”
When this fourth generation farm was ready to expand, they decided to do it in collaboration with other farmers. Now, more than twenty-five small New England family farms produce eggs sold by Pete & Gerry’s. The company covers feed and lots of other expenses, and pays the farmers a fixed rate per dozen eggs.
It’s a kind of stability rare to small farmers, and Jesse LaFlamme says it’s the perfect way to make sure the eggs are really from cage-free and organic hens. But there aren’t a lot of small chicken farms around anymore.
That’s why Pete & Gerry’s has started reaching out to dairy farmers. “It’s an ideal situation to work with somebody who’s already familiar with farming and livestock,” LaFlamme says. “They have that work ethic and they just have that experience, and, you know, a lot of these barns, they’re really pretty similar to what a cage-free organic henhouse looks like, dimensionally.”
And Amy Hall, Director of Granite State Dairy Promotion, says the area’s dairy farmers are struggling to survive: “Local farmers receive about $1.20 per gallon, and it costs them upward of $1.40 to produce it.”
Phil and Brian Ward, who happen to be cousins of Jesse LaFlamme’s, decided to become the first dairy farmers to join Pete & Gerry’s. They’ve sold the last of their cattle, and are well into fitting their barn for the more than 12 thousand hens arriving this fall.
Men of few words, their reasons are simple.
Brian Ward: No money left in dairy.
Phil Ward: These guys are doing such a good job and had such a good deal for us, it made sense, anyway.
Brian Ward: Sure did.
The Wards say there will be a learning curve, but Phil Ward says they’ll have support from Pete & Gerry’s, which is right down the road: “They’ve learnt a lot, so I mean, a lot of good help right here, for us.”
But if dairy farmers become chicken farmers even fewer people can call the state ‘Cow Hampshire.’
That’s just fine with Amy Hall, from Granite State Dairy Promotion.
She says whether it’s Cow Hampshire, Chicken Hampshire, or Pig Hampshire, the big issue is the loss of all kinds of agriculture.
Not that Pete & Gerry’s wants dairy farmers to give up their cows completely. Jesse LaFlamme says the hope is that diversifying local agriculture once again can save it. “If we can show that you can diversify farms, or make a living producing eggs in partnership with us, there’s no reason this shouldn’t grow in the state,” he explains. “There’s no reason to not be optimistic.”
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NHPR
Posted: August 8, 2011 by Certified Humane
Egg Company Makes Dairy Farmers an Offer
By Michael Samuels on Monday, August 08, 2011
Pete & Gerry’s Laying Hens
New Hampshire has lost about eighty-percent of its cows and its dairy farms since 1970, and the dairy farmers that remain are struggling. But there may be a solution, and it comes from a chicken farm.
At Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs in Monroe, co-owner Jesse LaFlamme is looking for a loose chicken. He says her name is Flora the Explorer: “It’s been nearly every morning that she’s been greeting us in the flower boxes outside of the doorway.”
But Flora hasn’t escaped because there’s not enough room in her barn. It holds 19-thousand chickens, but is less crowded than most shopping malls.
Next to the barn, a group of chickens roam across a big fenced-in field, hunting insects. Except Flora the Explorer, who pops out of the undergrowth on the wrong side of the fence, eyes us, and disappears again.
“These chickens are acting pretty much like chickens,” says marketing director Karl Johnson. “They’re not like egg-machines.” He says Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs was the first Certified Humane® egg farm in the country, and they’ve found lots of customers are willing to pay a higher price for their eggs.
Co-owner Gerry LaFlamme, Jesse’s dad, says being humane and organic are what’s made the company prosper while farms disappear all over the Northeast. “The commodity egg market was shrinking, so there was an opportunity to get into a niche market, and that worked out perfect,” he recalls. “We hit the business-trend in the right time.”
When this fourth generation farm was ready to expand, they decided to do it in collaboration with other farmers. Now, more than twenty-five small New England family farms produce eggs sold by Pete & Gerry’s. The company covers feed and lots of other expenses, and pays the farmers a fixed rate per dozen eggs.
It’s a kind of stability rare to small farmers, and Jesse LaFlamme says it’s the perfect way to make sure the eggs are really from cage-free and organic hens. But there aren’t a lot of small chicken farms around anymore.
That’s why Pete & Gerry’s has started reaching out to dairy farmers. “It’s an ideal situation to work with somebody who’s already familiar with farming and livestock,” LaFlamme says. “They have that work ethic and they just have that experience, and, you know, a lot of these barns, they’re really pretty similar to what a cage-free organic henhouse looks like, dimensionally.”
And Amy Hall, Director of Granite State Dairy Promotion, says the area’s dairy farmers are struggling to survive: “Local farmers receive about $1.20 per gallon, and it costs them upward of $1.40 to produce it.”
Phil and Brian Ward, who happen to be cousins of Jesse LaFlamme’s, decided to become the first dairy farmers to join Pete & Gerry’s. They’ve sold the last of their cattle, and are well into fitting their barn for the more than 12 thousand hens arriving this fall.
Men of few words, their reasons are simple.
Brian Ward: No money left in dairy.
Phil Ward: These guys are doing such a good job and had such a good deal for us, it made sense, anyway.
Brian Ward: Sure did.
The Wards say there will be a learning curve, but Phil Ward says they’ll have support from Pete & Gerry’s, which is right down the road: “They’ve learnt a lot, so I mean, a lot of good help right here, for us.”
But if dairy farmers become chicken farmers even fewer people can call the state ‘Cow Hampshire.’
That’s just fine with Amy Hall, from Granite State Dairy Promotion.
She says whether it’s Cow Hampshire, Chicken Hampshire, or Pig Hampshire, the big issue is the loss of all kinds of agriculture.
Not that Pete & Gerry’s wants dairy farmers to give up their cows completely. Jesse LaFlamme says the hope is that diversifying local agriculture once again can save it. “If we can show that you can diversify farms, or make a living producing eggs in partnership with us, there’s no reason this shouldn’t grow in the state,” he explains. “There’s no reason to not be optimistic.”
http://www.nhpr.org/egg-company-makes-dairy-farmers-offer
Category: news