MAPLETON, Maine — Chase’s Organic Dairy Farm, owned and operated by Vaughn and Laura Chase, has joined the CROPP cooperative, based in Wisconsin, and is now selling its milk to Organic Valley.
Previously the Mapleton dairy farm had been part of Maine’s Own Organic (MOO) Milk, which announced May 16 that the company would no longer process organic milk at Smiling Hill Farm in Falmouth and distribute it to New England retailers.
“They’d [CROPP] never been in the area, but they’re one of the top cooperatives in the state of Maine and New England as far as buying organic milk,” said Vaughn Chase. “When MOO was going south, they approached me and wondered if I was interested in joining, and I said I sure was.
“They’re a co-op of about 1,800 farmers and there’s about 1,500 that are organic dairy farmers,” he said. “There’s around 34 farmers in Maine that are part of their cooperative, and they produce a lot of products.”
According to the CROPP website, in 1988, several small family farmers in Wisconsin discussed alternatives and created an organic vegetable marketing cooperative they dubbed Coulee Region Organic Produce Pool (CROPP). Later they branched off into an organic dairy program consisting of seven farmers who collectively produced 20,000 pounds of milk every other day. After a year and a half of insufficient sales, CROPP developed the Organic Valley label and began marketing its own products. The cooperative has branched out several times since then with organic eggs in 1993, organic meats in 1999, soy in 2004, and the grower pool in 2008. Reflecting its national farmer membership base, CROPP now stands for “Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools.”
Its product list under the Organic Valley label includes a full line of cheeses, dry and fluid milk products, cream, cottage cheese, vegetables and eggs. An organic soy beverage was introduced in 2004, and they also have a substantial selection of meat (beef, pork and poultry) products under the Organic Prairie label.
Chase said CROPP picks up milk at his farm every other day. The arrangement began July 21.
“The expense to come to Aroostook County is so high. All the farmers in Maine got a $1 raise starting July 1 … $1 per hundredweight. They had a special meeting and the heads in Wisconsin were wondering if the Maine farmers were interested in including Aroostook County in the group,” he said. “He said the only way they could do it was they needed some subsidy to get the run started, so they asked the farmers if they would be willing to take out of their $1 raise and put in 25 cents a hundred to support the truck for the first year until we get some milk on the truck. Everybody voted yes, and for some of them, that runs $2,000-$3,000 for the year, but they’re going to support Aroostook County farms.”
Chase said he’s pleased to be part of the CROPP organization.
“We had a choice between them and Stonyfield Yogurt, and we just feel that Organic Valley is better for Aroostook County because they’re really going to concentrate on trying to get more milk in The County and they’d like to see more farms start up,” he said. “They’re also interested in grains, potatoes, sugar beets for cattle feed … it’s a really good opportunity for new business in the county having Organic Valley here.
“If anybody is interested in organic farming, this is something to look into. We’ve got them up here, and this is our chance to really support this because this is a really good market,” said Chase. “It’s a little more work being an organic farmer, but it’s an income. You’re not going to get rich, but at least you can get contracts and control your costs and know what your income is going to be. We’d really like to see some new dairy farmers, so anybody that’s ever been interested in dairy farming, this is something they need to look at while it’s here.”
For more information on CROPP, log onto www.farmers.coop/.
