Story and photos by: Quentin Melson, Public Affairs Specialist, NRCS-VT 

Guy Choiniere is a fourth-generation Vermont farmer who is revitalizing his 550-acre dairy operation in northern Vermont with the help of NRCS conservation practices. With help from NRCS, Guy has been able to not only improve the water quality on his farm but also improve the water quality of the surrounding watershed. He’s been able to use science-based tools to improve and maintain soil health and implement an organic farming system that simultaneously promotes ecological balance and meets a growing national consumer demand. 

Although Guy only started working with NRCS relatively recently, his family has been farming in Vermont for decades.

NRCS Soil Conservationist Jimmy Young with Vermont Dairy Farmers Matt and Guy Choiniere in Highgate Center, Vermont (pictured from left to right).

“We started with fourteen cows on one-hundred acres,” said Guy. “My family settled in Northern Vermont over a hundred years ago from Quebec. My dad was able to build a successful dairy operation by working with his ten other siblings. They shared everything. They shared equipment, labor, nutrients. They did whatever it took to get things growing here.”

Vermont Dairy Farmer Matt Choiniere in Highgate Center, Vermont.

NRCS technical service providers are individuals certified to work with NRCS to help agricultural producers plan and apply conservation practices on working lands. Roughly twenty years ago, a couple of technical service providers approached Guy and his dad, Henry, with a proposition to improve the water quality and soil health of their dairy farm.

“We were standing in the barnyard one day when two NRCS employees approached us and asked if we wanted help with some of the resource concerns that we had going on with the farm,” said Guy. “We looked at each other and said, ‘What resource concerns?’. They explained that because the cows were allowed to roam free in the pasture, they had access to the Rock River watershed, which in turn caused unstable stream banks, leading to the sedimentation of surface water and nutrients entering the streams due to manure. They told us that they could help us with that by enacting conservation practices. That was our introduction to NRCS conservation programs.”

NRCS conservation programs help agricultural producers improve the environment while maintaining a vibrant agricultural sector. Programs include EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program), CSP (Conservation Stewardship Program), and ACEP (Agricultural Conservation Easement Program), and partnership programs like RCPP (Regional Conservation Partnership Program). These programs provide technical and financial assistance to implement conservation practices.

One of the conservation practices that NRCS technicians helped Guy with the most was the construction of a Waste Storage Facility called a bedded pack. A bedded pack facility is an alternative animal housing system where cows are kept under a solid manure bed rather than in an open feedlot. Animals housed in a bedded pack system experience increases in animal comfort and exercise, boosts in milk production, more controlled waste management, and a high-quality nutrient amendment.

Vermont Dairy Farmer Guy Choiniere prepares his bedded pack facility for livestock in Highgate Center, Vermont.

“A bedded pack is sort of like a covered barnyard,” said NRCS Soil Conservationist Jimmy Young. 

Jimmy has been working with Guy over the past few years to provide conservation planning and technical help. 

“With a bedded pack, if it rains, snows, or if there is any type of inclement weather, the manure doesn’t run off into adjacent surface waters,” said Jimmy. “In Guy’s scenario, he’s directly adjacent to the Rock River, which is a 303d Impaired Watershed and a highly agriculturally contaminated waterway in Northern Vermont. So, the construction of a bedded pack within this watershed significant contributed to improvements in water quality.”

The high-quality hay Guy uses, mixed with sawdust and manure, provides a floor for the bedded pack facility. It composts into an organic fertilizer that is used to improve soil health and overall fertility on his working lands.

“The compost process occurs in bedded packs when tiny micro-organisms and various fungi break down the manure, sawdust, and high-quality hay into usable forms of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as other micro-nutrients,” said Jimmy. “After six months to one year of creating an aerobic versus anaerobic environment within the compost, the landowner can then apply this compost to his hay ground to improve soil health and fertility.”

The first Chief of NRCS, Hugh Hammond Bennett (also known as the father of soil conservation) was an early advocate for compost as an additive for improving soil quality.  When talking to farmers, he would say, “Farm-made compost is as good to the soil as chocolate layer cake is to a youngster.” 

Guy agrees with Bennett’s assessment and has seen an amazing improvement in his farm’s soil health.

“With the use of composting to provide nutrients to the grass that the cows feed on, I haven’t had to use fertilizer in 25 years,” said Guy. “After allowing the compost material to sit it the bedded pack for about six months, we can spread it onto our fields and boost the growth and health of the grass that our livestock feed on. Another benefit of not using fertilizer was the ability to convert our dairy operation from a conventional farm to an organic farm. NRCS provided a lot of help with that.”

Vermont Dairy Farmer Matt Choiniere spreads sawdust into a milking parlor in Highgate Center, Vermont.

Organic agriculture is one of the fastest growing segments in farming. It’s an ecologically based system that relies on preventative practices to deal with weeds, insects, and disease, using non-toxic methods for problems that may arise. Organic practices require the use of biological, cultural, and mechanical practices that support the cycling of on-farm resources and promote ecological balance. Organic producers avoid synthetic fertilizers and do not use sewage, sludge, or genetic engineering on their operations. This type of farming not only helps farmers help the land, but also often yields higher profits for farmers when their organic crops command higher prices.

Vermont Dairy Farmers Guy and Matt Choiniere (left to right) prepare cows to be milked in their milking parlor in Highgate Center, Vermont.

“We feel that our cows are a little special because they are grass fed and, as a result, the milk they produce sells at a premium price,” said Guy. “Once we started working with NRCS, we found organic farming to be a natural fit because a lot of the organic requirements lined up with the NRCS requirements that we were already following.”

Engaging in organic dairy farming allowed the Choiniere’s to not only address environmental concerns but also produce the higher quality milk that has been increasingly demanded by consumers in recent years.

“Increasingly, dairy consumers have been looking for nutritious products that are free from artificial chemicals and high in nutrients,” said fifth-generation Vermont Dairy Farmer Matt Choiniere. “The organic milk that our cows produce have beneficial nutrients such as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Fatty acids are crucial for cell health. They support cell growth, movement and the immune system.”

USDA-certified organic milk also has a longer shelf life, has no antibiotic or growth hormones, and improves animal welfare due to USDA outdoor access requirements that dictate that cows on an organic farm must have direct sunlight, fresh air, and freedom of movement.

Besides the conservation practices that they currently utilize like Waste Storage Facility, Nutrient Management, and Grazing Management, the Choiniere family is looking forward to working with NRCS  with other conservation practices including Windbreak/Shelterbelt Establishment and Renovation, Forest Harvest Management, Feed and Forage Analysis, and the construction of bat house under the Structures for Wildlife conservation practice. 

The conservation practices are made possible through funding from EQIP—NRCS’ flagship conservation program that helps farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners integrate conservation into working lands.

NRCS Soil Conservationist Jimmy Young (center) with Vermont Dairy Farmers Guy and Matt Choiniere (left to right) in Highgate Center, Vermont.

“Working with NRCS has been great,” said Guy. “Working with everyone at NRCS Vermont feels local. You don’t feel like you’re part of a national program. No matter who we’ve dealt with, it’s always felt like we were working with family. For the last few years, we’ve been working with Jimmy. He’s spent entire days with us—learning every part of our operation and finding ways to help us conserve soil, improve water quality, manage nutrients, and protect and improve wildlife habitat.”