Producer
Sweet Rowen Farmstead
Contact: Paul Lisai
Address: 538 Lafont Road West Glover, VT, 05875
Phone: 802-755-9960
Website: sweetrowen.com
About Us
We are a grass-based, family owned & operated dairy farm located in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, about 20 miles south of the Canadian border. We milk a small herd of Vermont Heritage Lineback cows. Our barn is situated between woodlands and several rich fields where we rotate pasture and cut our own hay.
Practices
Sweet Rowen Farmstead milks a heritage landrace breed called Vermont Heritage Linebacks. Many of our cows can be traced to Randall Linebacks, however, the majority of our herd is a regional ecotype from the Northeast Kingdom. Linebacks were allowed to evolve naturally on Vermont pasture, making them uniquely suited to our native climate. Lineback cows tend to have a unique white splash running the length of their backs, as well as white splotching on the face.
We follow a holistic approach to grazing management. Our milking herd is moved to a new piece of pasture every 12 hours during the grazing season (May - September).
We are not currently certified organic. While all of the hay we grow and cut ourselves is organic, as well as the pastures on which our cows graze, we feed our cows a small amount of non-GMO grain to ensure that their diet is as healthful as possible. That grain is not always certified organic. Organic grain is very expensive and we prefer to keep our milk costs accessible while treating our cows the best as we can. Many of our other farming practices meet organic standards, often going above and beyond to ensure the most responsible stewardship of our environment. In addition, we consider our cows to be family and we want to be able to treat them if they ever become critically ill. Certified organic dairy cows cannot be given antibiotics under any circumstances. If an organic milk cow develops a life-threatening infection and is treated with antibiotics, that cow’s milk cannot be labeled organic - ever. Such cows must be sold or moved to non-organic herds, which we can’t support both on principle and based on our small scale. We prefer to treat our cows if they become sick, and allow them to return to the milking herd once any antibiotics have passed through their system. We never give our cows rBST or any other hormones.
We follow a holistic approach to grazing management. Our milking herd is moved to a new piece of pasture every 12 hours during the grazing season (May - September).
We are not currently certified organic. While all of the hay we grow and cut ourselves is organic, as well as the pastures on which our cows graze, we feed our cows a small amount of non-GMO grain to ensure that their diet is as healthful as possible. That grain is not always certified organic. Organic grain is very expensive and we prefer to keep our milk costs accessible while treating our cows the best as we can. Many of our other farming practices meet organic standards, often going above and beyond to ensure the most responsible stewardship of our environment. In addition, we consider our cows to be family and we want to be able to treat them if they ever become critically ill. Certified organic dairy cows cannot be given antibiotics under any circumstances. If an organic milk cow develops a life-threatening infection and is treated with antibiotics, that cow’s milk cannot be labeled organic - ever. Such cows must be sold or moved to non-organic herds, which we can’t support both on principle and based on our small scale. We prefer to treat our cows if they become sick, and allow them to return to the milking herd once any antibiotics have passed through their system. We never give our cows rBST or any other hormones.