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Marcel and Paula Masse with their herd of dairy goats at their Craftsbury farm.
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Marcel and Paula Masse sold development rights on their Craftsbury farm after a string of bad luck milking cows. They lost one herd of cows to health problems caused by stray voltage. They lost another to a wind storm that destroyed their barn. A third herd had to be sold after Marcel tore a nerve in his back.
“We sat down and said, “O.K., dairy farming’s out of the question—let’s see what people’s needs are,” Marcel recalls. The couple visited Vermont Butter and Cheese Co. in Websterville, which offered a steady market for goat’s milk. After running some numbers, they determined that a goat dairy could be profitable. Not only that, they believed that goats would be easier to manage than a herd of cows.
But after all their struggles and losses with the cow herds, the Masses had significant debt. They had to build a barn and a goat milking facility with used lumber. When it was done, they started out milking only eight goats. Soon the milk truck from Vermont Butter and Cheese was coming twice a week. Then they realized they could protect their land permanently from development, and pay off debt by working with a land trust. In 2006 they sold development rights through VHCB, and now they’re happily milking a herd of 125 goats.
- adapted by Ethan Parke from an article written by Doug Wilhelm
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