Blairstown dairy farmer now cream of the crop 2.01.2007 By Tamara Jean Scully AFP Correspondent Blairstown — The Warren County Cooperator of the Year for 2006, an award bestowed by the Warren County Soil Conservation District and the County Board of Agriculture, was Maura Mowbray, a part-time dairy farmer. Now a single mom, Mowbray — mother of two teenage daughters — works full-time off-farm, but she has future plans to expand her herd and to eventually be able to support her family through on-farm income. A cooperator, according to Duane Copley, a Warren County Soil Conservation District employee (and himself the winner of the Distinguished Service award for 2006), is a farmer who has made a “significant contribution to the conservation and preservation of our valuable natural resources.” Many farmers are taking advantage of grant and cost-share programs designed to enhance and protect the natural resources on our local farmland. Many of these programs, administered through the state and federal government, are overseen by the NRCS and the local Soil Conservation Districts established in each state. Aside from the environmental benefits, these programs also help the farmers to farm in a more economically viable manner through resource enhancement, best management practices and better land management techniques. Implementing the conservation plan has had great benefits for the farm’s profitability as well as enhancing the environment, Mowbray said. Through the use of fencing, drainage improvement, wetlands protection and a better farm lane for cattle and equipment access to the barnyard, the conservation measures have helped her to establish a well-run, ecologically-beneficial and profitable small dairy operation. “The focus of the plan is on water quality,” she said. “All the streams coming in are clean and maintained.” The area near the milking parlor received much of the improvements. The runoff from the roof, and from a muddy lane leading into the barn, was causing difficulty moving the herd. The lane was raised approximately six feet to improve the drainage situation and create a less hazardous travel lane for the cows. Drainage improvements were made to a front pasture, enabling it to be utilized as valuable grazing land. Other improvements included fencing for the property, allowing it to be sectioned off into several different pastures. The cows are rotated out on each pasture in such a way as to achieve optimal nutrition, as well as to control weed load on each parcel. The manure left behind does not need to be contained, but rather can naturally fertilize each pasture as the cows are rotated through the fields. Another feature added to the farm through conservation grants is the water lines going to the troughs out in the pastures. These “year-round frost-free drinkers” make it possible to keep the cows out on pasture for most of the year. The cows shelter in the barn during extreme cold, rainy or snowy weather, Mowbray said. Other than that, they are content outside, foraging the fields for the pasture grasses, and being led to the barn for twice a day milking. Their grass-based diet helps to keep the herd fit and healthy, as their digestive systems are designed for this type of diet. “Our farm here is rotational grazing,” Mowbray said, indicating the 81 acres of rolling pastureland that make up the primary lands of the family’s Top View Farm. After the pastures, planted in an optimal nutrition pasture mix, are used for grazing, they are allowed to grow and the hay is then used as feed, she explained. Each field is utilized for maximum nutritional potential. While all her hay is grown on-farm, she custom hires alfalfa hay silage and uses a complete feed mixture, which is custom-milled to meet the herds specific requirements as determined by a nutritionist. “I went ahead and used synchronized breeding and artificial insemination on this lactation. This has left us with a seasonal herd, where we have a time period when all of the cows are dry and there is a break in the milking. This seems to be an ideal situation for my daughters and I,” she said. Mowbray currently has almost 100 percent of her herd dry. While this wasn’t planned, she has found that the two- month break from the milking works well for her farm. For this quieter time, she and daughters Shaun, 16, and Jackie, 14, can spend some time together, horseback riding and not having the constant demand of the milking schedule. Because Mowbray does have year-round, off-farm income, the strain on the budget by not producing over the winter can be mitigated. “I’m not a high producer,” Mowbray said, but estimates that her herd produces about 600 pints a day. She has hopes of increasing the herd gradually, and plans to increase the herd to about 20 over the next year. “With all of the improvements made with the NRCS projects, almost all of the acreage is useable in one form or another. I look to it as a business. It has to pay for itself,” Mowbray said. Her goal is to be able to farm full-time, and she is working to meet that goal in the same way in which she met her goal of dairy farming — one step at a time. For now, she recognizes that the improvements made on the farm have paid off by making the farm much more suitable for rotational grazing, making the business more profitable. Mowbray emphasizes that her daughters are willing participants in the running of the farm. Jackie feeds the calves and horses each day. Shaun has taken over all of the cleaning, laundry and other household responsibilities. Without their help, Mowbray could not manage the milking — before and after her full-time job, as well as the managing of the dairy. She is also grateful for the support of other local farmers who stop by to lend a hand or to give advice. “It’s my focus. It’s my life. I love it,” Mowbray says of the dairy. “The one most challenging area, in farming, I think, is dairy.” Mowbray, it seems, is up to the challenge.