Within eyeshot of Ellington in north central Connecticut sits Oakridge Dairy, the state’s largest dairy farm. With a population of 19,000, Ellington is no small dot on the map, but it pales in comparison to the 30 million people that live within 100 miles of the farm.
This large population base is a reason why there aren’t many large dairies in New England, but it has opened new doors of opportunity for the Bahler family, which has been farming here since 1890.
Adolph Bahler immigrated to the United States from Europe, and he first set his sights on farming with some family members in the Midwest. At a time when everyone else seemed to be moving west, drought conditions led Adolph to move back east, settling in Connecticut.
In the early 1900s, Ellington was known as the “milkiest mile in America,” with more milk produced in this small stretch than anywhere else in the country. Eventually, many of the farms sold out, but the Bahler family remained focused on dairy production and purchased more land near their home farm as it became available.
A man with a plan
After more than 100 years in dairy production and with several family members involved in the farm’s ownership, the business dynamics had gotten complex. By 2013, it was time to restructure the dairy, and the farm’s ownership and management were separated in 2014.
There was not room to expand the farm size-wise in this area, but there was plenty of potential for growth in other ways. That is what intrigued fifth-generation farmer Seth Bahler to unexpectedly return to his dairy roots.
Bahler grew up in the house that now serves as the headquarters for Oakridge Dairy. His future plans, however, did not include working on the farm. Although his dad was an owner of the dairy, he left the farm when Bahler was young to pursue other career opportunities. Following in those footsteps, Bahler worked briefly as a plumber after high school and then started his own construction business that he ran for six years.
Bahler sold the construction business about the same time the family was deciding what the next steps were for the dairy. Bahler didn’t see himself joining the operation, but he listened to what was being proposed, and he began to change his mind.
“I saw a lot of opportunity,” he said. Bahler is a self-proclaimed dreamer, and at that time, the farm needed some direction and a launch into the future. “When I realized the dreams and opportunities were endless here, it suited me,” he noted.
Bahler worked on the dairy a few months and then was quickly tasked with helping the farm and family transition to the next generation. “We had to change a lot of things over the last 10 years, and change is hard,” Bahler shared. There were tough decisions to make, and it was not fun at first, he admitted, but now that they are on the other side of the tunnel, there is a lot of excitement.
The farm still has multiple owners, including Bahler’s parents and siblings, who serve on the board of directors but are not actively involved on the farm. The board meets quarterly, plus there is an annual meeting for all the farm’s owners.
Bahler is the CEO, and while he calls himself a farmer, he is more of a visionary for the farm. “My passion is more on the business end, the growth side,” he explained.
He complimented their amazing staff members who take care of the cows and crops day to day, including David Moser, their operations manager. Bahler said their team is always looking for ways to improve cow management and health, focusing more on prevention than reaction. “We have some really good people that make that happen every day,” he said.
A new location
Rather than making a lot of capital investments at their original farm site, Bahler said they decided to start new at a greenfield site just down the road. They toured other dairies in search of what would be best for the cows and the people working with them. They built a new cross-ventilated freestall barn and parlor and moved the cows in 2017.
Today, their herd of 2,600 Holsteins is milked three times a day in a 72-cow rotary parlor. The herd averages 87 pounds of milk per cow per day. The cross-ventilated barn features 180 fans on the outer walls, with a wind speed goal of 10 miles per hour. Cows are grouped by age, with 250 to 300 cows per pen.
Also built at the new location was a dry cow barn, a commodity shed, and other feed storage. Calves are born on the farm and then transported to the original location, where they are first raised in individual pens and then moved to calf hutches. After weaning, they are moved to group pens with freestalls bedded with manure solids. At 6 months of age, the animals are trucked to a heifer raiser in Pennsylvania before returning to the farm as bred heifers.
Heifers and cows are bred with sexed semen, then after the third lactation, they are bred to beef sires. A few of these crossbred animals are raised, but the majority are sold as calves.
Making use of manure
From day one, cows in this facility have been bedded with manure solids. During each milking, manure is vacuumed out of the alleyways and sent through a solids separator. The solids collect in a pile right in the freestall barn and are then delivered to the stalls. The farm team has been happy with this bedding source, and Bahler said it has been even better since an anaerobic digester was built on the farm in 2021.
The digester is owned and operated by SJI, an energy services holding company based in Folsom, N.J. Oakridge Dairy is paid for providing manure for the digester, and that manure is then used to produce renewable natural gas. The gas is refined on site and then shipped away.
After its 21-day stint in the digester, the manure heads back to the barn to go through the separator. The anaerobic digestion process helps lessen the pathogen load in the manure solids, which is an added benefit for cow health. Bahler said the anaerobic digester also reduces odor and the amount of solids the farm needs to handle. The remaining manure is stored in a covered lagoon.
In all, the business owns and rents about 3,600 acres of cropland. Manure from the herd is injected into the fields in spring and fall, and they use no-till practices for their crops. All farmwork and manure application is handled by the farm team.
Beyond the production of natural gas, energy is also produced by the 752 solar panels that cover the roof of the dry cow barn. This energy is used to power that barn and some other equipment on the dairy.
The ability to make adjustments that benefit the environment is important to the farm’s ownership team. “I like to say we’ve been here for five generations, and we want to be here for another five,” Bahler explained. “We are doing everything we can to hand down a better farm and a better planet.”
Milk delivery in a modern era
Being land locked and surrounded by people, Bahler knew they built a dairy here they could not duplicate. But what they did have was good community support, and that’s where Bahler’s visionary mindset came into play.
“Being a commodity producer in Connecticut doesn’t really make sense,” he said. “So, if we could find a way to get to the consumer and build a brand around that, it had a lot of opportunity.”
He continued, “We knew people were buying online and looking for convenience, so we thought, ‘Let’s take a page from the past and put some technology behind it.’”
Enter The Modern Milkman. Five years ago, they established the technology to launch an online ordering system and started bottling milk from Oakridge Dairy. Deliveries to customers began in 2019, and Bahler said the COVID-19 pandemic springboarded their business.
Milk is sold in glass bottles, a feature that fits well into their sustainable farming model. Milk was originally bottled at a rented facility, but that did not allow for growth. A new bottling plant was built just across the road from where Bahler’s great-grandfather started farming, and production began there this spring.
About 4% of the farm’s milk is being bottled, and a portion of that is delivered direct to about 7,000 customers. Bahler has big growth goals for the business, with plans to be bottling 10% of their milk by the end of this year, and then even more in the years ahead. They are looking to build additional distribution sites, including one closer to New York City in southern Connecticut and another near Boston.
Milk is delivered to customers once a week by a fleet of cow-spotted trucks. People can buy products beyond milk, too. Oakridge Dairy has partnered with more than 20 local businesses, allowing customers to purchase baked goods, meat, and much more through The Modern Milkman. Bahler called it a “farmers market on wheels.” The glass bottles are picked up weekly and reused.
“It is hard for us to be a low-cost commodity producer,” Bahler reiterated. “But we have advantages other parts of the country don’t have. We are close to the consumer.”
That proximity to people makes their farm very visible, and they embrace that.
“Our goal is to be super transparent,” Bahler said. “We want to be more sustainable and be good stewards of what we are given. We are trying to build a brand around that so people can trust us.” Their milk is also sold at Big Y convenience stores, with goals to expand those distribution channels as well.
The consumer connection
This need and desire to connect to their consumers led to the hiring of Kaylee Hill, the farm’s public relations and people operations manager. Hill grew up in Ellington with a love for animals, which led her to pursue a degree in agriculture at SUNY-Cobleskill. She interned at Oakridge Dairy one summer, helping with social media and public relations, and then was hired full time after graduation.
Hill spearheads their weekly farm tour program, which began last October. Tours are offered twice a day, mainly on Fridays, and people sign up for a slot online. Their tour bus fits 23 people, and the group travels around the dairy, making stops at the parlor and freestall barn to learn where milk comes from.
“We have gotten a very good response to the tours so far,” Hill noted.
Farm tours and the creamery help tell the story of Oakridge Dairy, Hill said. They are a piece of the community’s past, but they are also an important part of the future. Not only are they providing a product, but the farm currently employs 62 people as well. Although Bahler did not expect to be an employee and employer in the dairy industry, he is thankful that he is.
“I’ve learned a lot and appreciate the business we are in,” Bahler said. “The people I work with here are great, and the people in the dairy industry are top-notch.”
Even with all the excitement and potential brimming from Oakridge Dairy, the reality is that they need a good business model to move forward in a way that is environmentally friendly and economically viable. “We’re always trying to improve every aspect,” Bahler said. “We are trying to get more done with less and improving efficiency in everything we do. We are trying to be better than we were yesterday.” With that philosophy, Bahler hopes they can serve customers, make room to grow, and carry on their family’s legacy for another five generations.
This article appeared in the August 2024 issue of Journal of Nutrient Management on pages 12-15. Not a subscriber? Click to get the print magazine.
