PITTSFIELD, Maine — How many bovine generations have been milked in this old, wooden barn? Only the floorboards know for sure. Along a rolling stretch of road in Somerset County, the latest dairy to launch in the 1840s barn is mere months old, but it represents a new wave in farming.
Run by modern milkmen Ethan and Caleb Bartlett, White Bull Farm is a raw milk startup, with one bull and five Dexter and Jersey cows. The brothers, weaned on gardening and homeschool lessons in Florida and New York, set out 2½ years ago to find the best place to practice regenerative agriculture design — that’s farming that gives back, instead of depleting the earth’s natural resources.
“We tell people we are not milk farmers, we are grass farmers, because it really has to do with the soil and the grass,” Caleb, 38, said.
The brothers, who worked in film and music in New York, became increasingly interested in the work of food writer Michael Pollan, who is known for his critical analysis of the country’s broken food system.
“The more we got serious about the food we were eating, the more we got serious about how food is produced. So we studied farming,” said Caleb, who suffered a spinal cord injury when he was 16 and uses a wheelchair. He handles the business side of the milk operation, including marketing and graphic design. Ethan, 34, does most of the grunt work.
“I had seen the movie ‘Food, Inc.’ It was the first real eye-opener. I had known what junk food was, but a common mistake people make across the country is they are generally trusting of the food system,” he said. “The government is taking care of it, so it has to be healthy.”
Reading as much as they could, watching YouTube videos on farming and maxing out their credit cards, they launched White Bull Farm raw milk and eggs in December. They are sold from Bangor to Brunswick by direct delivery.
Cows on the move
How is White Bull Farm different from most commercial dairies?
In the spring, summer and fall cows are pastured and feed on grass. In winter, they eat hay. Using “the farm as ecosystem” model, the animals are moved through different sections of the pasture. Next come the chickens, “nature’s cleanup crew,” Ethan explained.
“The current model done with most cow farming depletes the soil,” his brother added.
By pasturing cows that feed on grass (not corn), they are creating rich soil, storing carbon and growing more grass with the help of natural fertilizers. It’s called managed-intensive grazing.
“Everything gets reused as much as possible,” Caleb said.
“You can mimic the pattern in nature of the moving of the herd in a closed, right way,” said Caleb, who studied permaculture online and has a certificate in design from the Permaculture Research Institute, which taught him sustainable agriculture and zero waste farming.
Family on the move
Growing up in Florida and later moving to Long Island, the brothers left film and music careers to raise cows and pigs and chickens.
“It was a long journey. As homeschooled kids, we did a lot of gardening and cooking. Food was what started the whole thing,” Caleb said.
Their creativity helps.
“You can’t be naive,” said Ethan, who equates farming to making music. “You have to be flexible and adaptive.”
Not too many young people jump into the dairy business, but the family, which includes their mother, Shelley, a painter and homemaker, moved here to simplify their lifestyle. It took them 2½ years to find this 17-acre swath of farmland with an old farmhouse, barn and attached dairy shed.
They visited Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania. Nothing worked until they found this property, last occupied by Balfour Farm, in May.
“It had a greenhouse, milk shed and was the best deal we found,” Ethan said. But there was something else, even more important, they discovered here. “The local food movement is so strong in Maine. People are excited about what we are doing,” Ethan said.
The New York transplants have noticed a stark difference between the Empire State and Pine Tree State.
“Someone will help you in Maine,” Shelley said. “Not matter what you are doing, they appear and are ready to help.”
For Shelley, an erstwhile hippie, “this is a dream come true. What you create in your mind comes to pass.”
As her sons learned more and more about sustainable lifestyles, she leapt aboard. “We can’t put this off. I’ve been trying to get to a farm since I was in my 20s,” she said.
Taste the difference
Their whole, raw milk tastes like melted ice cream and sells for $4.50 per half-gallon, double the price of most commercial labels. But people don’t balk. A woman from New Hampshire stops in on her daily commute to pick some up. And neighbors are flocking to the farm.
Soon they hope to sell butter, cream and yogurt and open a store.
Farmer Joe Grady of Two Coves Farm in Harpswell thinks they have hit the right niche. “There is a nationwide surge going for raw milk and pasture-raised cows,” he said. “Raw milk is our preference. It’s increasing in popularity and in a lot of states it’s illegal.”
As long as you have a licence from the Maine Department of Agriculture, you can sell raw milk in Maine.
“Maine is one of the few states that has consistently allowed the sale of raw milk. It’s always been allowed,” Julie-Marie R. Bickford, executive director of the Maine Dairy Industry Association, said. “Most dairy farmers drink raw milk. Our concern is that milk in its raw form may have the potential to carry bacteria. You have to make sure it’s handled with the utmost care.”
Grady sold the Bartletts their Jersey cow, and he is their No. 1 customer. He buys 4 to 5 gallons per week for his family of five. They deliver it to his door.
What’s so good about the milk?
“It’s creamy, fresh and delicious. They have some Dexter and Jerseys, which provide a good amount of butterfat. It’s as good as what we have here,” Grady said. “Without a doubt, the pasteurization process takes everything good out of milk, beats it to hell, so much so they have to inject it with vitamin D after.”
Raw milk, like fresh vegetables, is part of Maine’s growing locavore culture. And the Bartletts represent a new wave in farming.