From the Fields: Jennifer Beretta, Sonoma County dairy farmer

By Jennifer Beretta
Sonoma County dairy farmer

This season, we have got a lot of rain. The pastures are growing. We have an organic dairy, so pastures are key. Once we get to nicer weather, our cows are out in pasture season, so we’ve got rules that we’ve got to meet. We did a lot of no-till seeding and compost application, so this rain has been beneficial for those fields. We got a break in the weather and our cows got to go out on grass. That was nice—to eat the grass down and get some manure out on our fields.

We ship our milk to Clover Sonoma. It’s a local creamery that has local dairies. For us, organic prices are good right now. It’s in a position where creameries are looking for more organic milk, but it’s not out there. Once the farm has gone out, it’s not coming back. I sit on the Clover advisory team. It’s hard to navigate how you secure more milk when those farms just aren’t out there. To restart a farm with all the rules and regulations is hard. We try to help Clover navigate where they could look without stealing producers from another creamery.

Being certified organic means we feed all organic feed. Our entire property is certified organic, so I cannot spray nonorganic synthetics. When we went organic, we were already a pasture dairy and stopped using hormones, so it was an easy transition. We have yearly inspections and track everything. Any animal treated with a conventional substance is logged and sold as conventional. Our costs are double, but those prices are holding steady. We haven’t seen a big jump in grain or hay prices, so we’ve been able to stay pretty status quo.

We have about 300 milking cows and about 700 animals total. In August, we put in CowManager, a heat and health detection system. I’ve caught more cows in heat, and on the health side I’m catching cows before they’re completely off milk.

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