Choiniere Family Farm
Guy Choiniere believes the health of the soil is the health of the farm. This land ethic drives his actions on a dairy farm that’s been in the Choiniere family since 1945.
While navigating changes in the farm economy, climate and farming practices, the Choiniere Family Farm has become a model of innovation and adaptability for other New England dairies.
Located four miles from Quebec, Canada, Choiniere Family Farm’s 242 acres of farmland and 70 acres of woodland is crossed by the Rock River and its tributaries. Soil health and erosion control practices have kept the farm productive and resilient despite an increase in severe storms, rainfall and periods of drought in northwest Vermont.
Guy’s parents, Henry and Raymonde, placed a conservation easement on the farm and sold its development rights before transferring it to him and his wife Beth in the 1990s. A generation later, Guy and Beth’s children, Matt and Hannah, farm with them. The Choinieres sell beef, milk, pork, chicken, eggs, honey and baked goods at a store located on their farm.
Prompted by an unstable market for conventional milk in the 1990s, Guy studied and then transitioned to organic production. It’s a move he said was good for his cows, land and bottom line. A few years later he seeded 25 acres of corn to permanent hay and pasture in order to convert his herd to 100 percent grass-fed. That move fetched an even better price for their organic milk.
After taking over the farm, Guy also began addressing environmental issues with assistance from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The conservation plan he developed remains a work in progress today.
To prevent soil erosion and improve water quality, the Choinieres planted 5,000 trees along banks of the impaired Rock River. They also conveyed a 51-acre river corridor easement that designates an area where the river can meander naturally. The land can still be farmed, but the river will not be dredged. There is also a permanent 50-foot naturally vegetated buffer along 12,000 feet of the river’s bank.
Keeping nutrients on the farm and out of the river was also aided when Guy switched from conventional liquid manure storage to an innovative compost bedded pack system. During the winter the cows are fed hay in large hoop barns designed to mimic the comfort and atmosphere of being on pasture. Excess hay provides bedding and catches manure before being trod down into compost. When the cows resume rotational grazing in May, pigs are let into the barns to root around and expedite the composting process before it is spread on fields as nutrient-rich fertilizer. Guy is an ambassador to help other dairies manage bedded pack systems.
Guy is also an instructor for the Champlain Basin Watershed Initiative. This partnership between Vermont, New York and Quebec educates elementary school teachers participating in a course called A Watershed for Every Classroom. The teachers are then equipped to teach their students – future stewards of Lake Champlain -- how agricultural conservation practices address water quality issues.
Choiniere Family Farm participates in Vermont’s roadside sign program that identifies conservation practices like rotational grazing, cover crops, no-till and streamside plantings. The Choinieres, who were Vermont’s Conservation Farmers of the Year in 2009, are now the first New England Leopold Conservation Award recipients from the Green Mountain State.
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