Simsbury Dairy

[Guest guest]

Hi all-

My husband and I left Town Farm Dairy for reasons unrelated to the

possible outbreak of illness. Town Farm Dairy is a small organic

dairy farm with 30 milking jersey cows that processes all its own

milk. When we were hired, we thought it was going to be great to

work for that farm, it had a good buiseness plan and a model based on

being generous the poor and educating the public. It was in the

process of transitioning from a private buiseness to a non-profit,

but we had no idea how badly that was going when we came. Dairy

farming, especially with on farm processing is hugely capital

intensive, but the organization had not come up with the money, and

had no plan, except to continu to borrow everything without

compensating the original farmer, who was now the farm manager. We

were horrified when we found out, but also couldn't do a lot about it

except agitate on his behalf. He eventually quit because of this,

and said he was going to auction everything. And he left us in the

lurch because he announced this when I was 9 mos pregnant, and had a

weeks old baby when he left for good. We couldn't be without income

or a home, so we came up with a plan for us personally to finance the

farm side (cows, milking equipment, tractors, working capital), and

for the non-profit to finance the processing side since they already

had a pruchase agreement for it. And I got back on my feet and went

back to work, but I felt betrayed to have worked so hard for this

guy, and my payback to be looking at my baby and wonder if we were

going to be able to provide for him because my boss wanted the farm

to fail. Then he refused our offer in the most insulting way

possible. He wouldn't talk to us despite the fact we were trying to

do the right thing. He told one of the board members " I didn't wait

5 years to sell out to some people. " And so we decided to leave. We

found another farm and trained people before we left. The board

already had this track record of trying to take advantage of their

farmers, not listening, micromanaging, etc, and when the same

problems crept up with us, we knew we made the right decision to go.

The suggestion we let things slide before we left is completely

untrue and an attempt to find someone to blame in a tragic event that

could happen to anyone. We had a testing regime that was above and

beyond what is required, or what the original farmer had in place,

and are fanatical about sanititation practices, and keeping any

abnormal or high SCC milk out of the tank as soon as we realize

there's a problem. We are not cheerleaders for raw milk, and

discouraged new customers from drinking it, but we believe it should

be available if people understand the risks, and accept

responsibility for them.

We had one test with a high SCC in early June, as well as a high

count from the same batch from the state. One person called saying

they had a stomach ache. We offered a refund, and immediately took

the cows indicated to have a high cell count out of the line. But no

e.coli has shown up in any of the samples we have from that time

period. High SCC indicates infection and is a shelf life and quality

issue, not a contamination issue. After we left, one of our former

employees called to say there was a high coliform (not e.coli, that's

separate) test result, we discussed possibilities with her (wash

temp, new milkers not following procedures, cow shedding bacteria),

and ultimately they decided to suspend sales.

We had no idea anyone was seriously ill until after we left and the

health department called us last week to ask if we had been sick in

the past month. This is far beyond the time we could have done

anything corrective at Town Farm Dairy. It's our worst nightmare to

have someone get sick, but we were doing everything we could to

prevent contamination, and we are not completely convinced it was the

milk. After all, we bottled and sold 200 gallons of raw milk per

week, so many more people consumed it and did not get sick. I offer

our sincerest apologies to the affected families if it was the milk,

but we were doing everything we could to ensure a safe, quality

product, and had no idication of e.coli while we were there.

We left for unrelated reasons, and had hoped a new farmer with no

history with the old farmer could set things right. It's really sad

to us that this might kill the last dairy farm in Simsbury, and the

source of local organic dairy at a competitive price or free to those

who need help. I've never seen a cleaner farm or tasted better milk;

this is something that could happen to anyone, at anytime, despite

their best efforts.

-Theresa