HADLEY — Past the woods surrounding Mapleline Farm, where 150 Jersey cows enter the milking parlor a little before 5 a.m. each day, the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus is visible.
As the new school year begins, Mapleline’s busy season will also begin, with the farm producing, processing and bottling milk that will be served in the UMass dining commons.
The two-decade relationship with the university is among the ongoing successes for the Comins Road farm, founded in 1904 and run by fifth-generation sisters Jessica Dizek and Jennifer Zina.
On Wednesday morning, joined by workers and family members wearing shirts reading “Fresh, Local and Natural Since 1904,” Dizek showed the operation to U.S. Congressman Jim McGovern during his 16th annual farm tour, part of a two-day visit to farms in Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester counties.
For Dizek, a key to the growth is access to the state’s Food Security Infrastructure Grants, also known as the FSIG program, which has allowed the farm to update equipment — such as bottle fillers and cream separators — and buy delivery trucks.
In the milking parlor, this means only one or two people can handle the work over a 2½-hour period, bringing 14 cows in at a time, with 8 to 10 minutes to milk each cow. The milk is then processed and bottled into containers from gallons to 12 fluid ounces, with regular flavors including chocolate, strawberry and coffee, as well as seasonal flavors, before its distribution to UMass and other schools.
All of the brown cows are classified as A2 — meaning they produce milk with a protein type some consider easier to digest than standard commercial milk — and are monitored by modern equipment, which Dizek said is like “Fitbits for cows.”
As the tour began, McGovern said it is essential to support the small, family-run farms in Massachusetts, not just the large corporate farms that often are the focus of bills at the federal level.
Still, McGovern said the federal government remains an important partner in ensuring Massachusetts farms can stay in business.
“The goal is to find ways that we can be the wind at your back,” McGovern said.
While he applauds UMass and other educational institutions for buying local, McGovern said there is always room to get more school and medical systems invested in state farms. And if they can get their dairy products mostly from nearby operations, it should mean higher quality.
“It seems to me that the closer the proximity the milk is, the better it tastes,” McGovern said.
Also attending the tour were officials from the Department of Agricultural Resources, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, Rural Development and the American Farmland Trust.
While not making appeals for any specific initiatives, Dizek said challenges for Mapleline always include access to labor and periodic weather issues, though this year has been “pretty decent.”
Dizek said the farm uses about 325 acres for its corn and soy feed, owning about half the land and leasing the rest. She noted the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program ensures the land remains available for feed production and manure management.
State Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, who also joined the tour, said many policies in the state FARM Bill, passed by the Senate in the spring, support farms by easing agritourism regulations, expanding farm operations and providing a local option property tax exemption for new agricultural buildings.
Other farms
McGovern and the rest of the entourage next ventured to meet Jim Thomas and Laurie Cuevas — the “dynamic duo” running Thomas Farm & Dairy in Sunderland, as McGovern described them.
Cuevas broke down the farm’s operations, including its farmstand, award-winning goat cheese and goat curds, and team of around 200 goats. To feed them, the couple grows their own hay, a task made easier by the region’s “coveted soil.”
As opposed to the Berkshires, where tending to the soil requires harvesting rocks, according to Cuevas, in Franklin County, “it’s just beautiful, fluffy soil, and it grows things like crazy here.”
“This is the best of the best,” she said.
At Thomas Farm & Dairy, every goat has a name, which leads the barn to house a lot of “retirees,” as Cuevas described.
“A real farmer would send their animals … to the auction and they would become part of the food chain, the food system, but we’re really bad at that,” Cuevas said as the farm tour attendees chuckled. “If you see any especially crusty, maybe a little rib-y looking [goats], those are the grandmas in there and they just stay, they die here with their friends. That’s just how we are. That’s probably why we have 200 goats.”
McGovern and the crew of officials and local food system workers crowded into the barn to meet the goats, from the babies to the 12-year-old “grandmas,” after Cuevas pointed out the farm’s new milk bottler and pasteurizer, paid for using a Food Security Infrastructure Grant through the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR).
“Farms need to see continued support and good policy from our state and federal partners, and so having those legislators and administrators come out on the farm is pretty essential to see and understand the needs of farmers,” said Kelly Coleman of the South Deerfield-based Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). “You now have a way to visualize what the needs are, so it’s a full, rounded story with people involved, and also you can retell that story to your peers so you can build support for change and policy that way.”
Next, the congressman checked out another step in the local food chain — distribution. Nick Martinelli, founder and CEO of Marty’s Local in South Deerfield, gave McGovern a tour of his warehouse, where temperatures drop to as low as -10°C in the freezer room.
According to Martinelli, Marty’s Local delivers food from 160 farms and food producers, including those in western Massachusetts, which make up about two-thirds of the company’s pool of suppliers.
From the fields, barns or kitchens to the grocery stores or cafeterias of approximately 100 school districts and other final stops, Marty’s Local aims to ensure that the original source of the food remains tied to the product and clear to the consumer.
“They know they’re keeping dollars in the regional economy,” said Martinelli, adding, “When I know the source of something, I’m more likely to trust it.”
Produce and other products like dairy products, granola, chips and other snacks fill the shelves of Marty’s Local, labeled with the name of local producers like Bardwell Farm in Hatfield and Plainville Farm in Hadley.
At the last stop of the tour in the back of the warehouse, McGovern said he is worried farms will fold in the face of rising expenses like fertilizer costs.
“In the short-term, the way they can combat that is to give them a bigger market in which they can sell their products and make more money,” McGovern said. “You provide them the ability to do that.”
