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The third and fourth generation owners of Monument Farms Dairy navigate the business, the legacy, and the future of one of Vermont’s last independent dairy farms.

If the James and Rooney family could bottle and sell the authenticity, quality, and humility behind Monument Farms Dairy, they could retire tomorrow. But they wouldn’t.

“If there is one thing we all agree on,” said Dan James, a fourth generation dairy farmer, “it’s that we will never sell.”

The 2,500-acre farm, home to 600 Holstein cows and 560 youngstock. Milk is processed and bottled within a day, and then sent out for delivery to nearby institutions, like Middlebury College, and locally owned mom and pop general stores. Photo by Erica Houskeeper.

Dan works alongside his brother, cousins, father, and uncle at Monument Farms Dairy in Weybridge, VT. His great grandparents founded the farm in the 1920s and began bottling milk for local delivery in 1930. Not much has changed in the nearly 100 years since.

The 2,500-acre farm, home to 600 Holstein cows and 560 youngstock, is a quarter mile down the road from the family’s processing and packaging plant. Milk is processed and bottled within a day, and then sent out for delivery to nearby institutions, like Middlebury College, and locally-owned mom and pop general stores. It’s essentially the same business plan that Richard James, Dan’s great grandfather, established back in 1930, albeit with a larger distribution area and more modern facilities.

“We have more cows, more barns, and more employees,” said Dan, “but there’s a nostalgia to knowing that we’re carrying on something that my great grandparents started.”

And there’s a deep sense of responsibility too, says Dan. “My generation wants to prove that we can manage this next phase of change and growth to set our place in history with the farm. We don’t want to just sit back and profit from someone else’s hard work.”

A moment in history.

So, what is that place in history? In a word, sustainability.

“When my great grandparents started bottling milk, they had no idea of where the farm would be today,” said Dan, “so it’s hard to say what the farm might look like 75 or 100 years from now. The world is evolving and everything is changing so much. The one thing you can hope for is that the business, the family’s legacy, is still here.”

It’s a shared conviction among the third and fourth generation of the family who currently manage the farm and dairy. With some big decisions looming in both the short-term (replacing the processing plant) and long-term (the retirement of the third generation), the family decided to engage in the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund’s (VSJF) business coaching program to help set a path toward that goal. VSJF coaches Victor Morrison, Kathy Murphy, and Peter Cole began meeting with all six members of the family currently working at the farm, along with their business manager, Chris Anderson in August 2021.

“At first it was hard,” said Dan. “We all avoid conflict really well and have never been through a process like this. But Victor and Kathy are helping us be proactive and anticipate what changes might be coming down the road. It’s setting us up to make those things easier when they come.”

For a family with an endless list of daily tasks and responsibilities, carving out the time to be proactive was a challenge. There is always something that needs tending to on a farm.

“We’re working with them to establish systems for making decisions, define how they want to respect their legacy, and plan how they want to move forward,” said Victor. “Deciding to build a processing plant is easy. It’s thinking through what happens if the third generation is ready to retire and the fifth generation can’t hold a pitchfork yet. They have to figure out how to bridge that gap.”

For decades, Monument Farms Dairy has grown organically as family members have taken on managerial positions. Each person has a distinct area of responsibility at the farm and respects the decisions of the others. The idea of bringing in outside managers is something the family has not had to consider to date.

Vermont Sustainable Business Fund Business Coach Victor Morrison meets with Monument Farm Dairy Plant Manager Jon Rooney. Photo by Erica Houskeeper.

“We’ve always been on the model of slow growth,” said Dan. “We kind of grow as the market is there and as the farm is comfortable growing. We’re not actively trying to expand the business to meet capacity, we’re expanding at a rate that is organic and doesn’t stretch us beyond our means of managing.”

“That’s really what led us to VSJF,” said Chris. “We could see that we’re getting bigger, but nobody wanted to get big for bigness sake if it meant we couldn’t preserve the quality and history of the organization.”

Unique among dairy farms in Vermont, Monument Farms Dairy sits in the middle ground between a small, boutique creamery and big, commercial dairy. Their size allows them to manage the entire process–milking the cows, processing the milk, and bottling it for delivery– among just a few people. “Ultimately, that’s what dictates the freshness and quality of our product,” said Dan. “I think if we got too big, we’d lose some of that touch.”

“We often work with businesses that are committed to growth, that’s their whole plan: grow and get big,” said Victor. “These guys want and need to grow to be able to pay the bills and create a lifestyle that they feel comfortable with.”

Not just a business, a way of life.

It’s a lifestyle none of the family would dream of changing. “It’s hard to put into words,” said Dan. “This is part of our life, it’s not just a business. What would we do if we weren’t farming?”

That shared sense of identity runs deep among the family members, all of whom have worked on the farm their entire lives. Chris, who is not related to the family, went to high school with Peter and Jon. “It’s part of what makes them successful,” said Victor. “They all have a deep care for the land and for each other. That is the thread through everything they do.”

Monument Farms Dairy was founded in the 1920s and began bottling milk for local delivery in 1930. Photo by Erica Houskeeper.

And they care for their community as well. The farm and dairy are intertwined with the town of Weybridge, as are the family members themselves. Peter served on the Select Board for 30 years. When he retired his seat, Dan served for another nine. Tyler is on the Middlebury Area Land Trust board. Bob is on the Weybridge Cemetery Committee. Jon served on the town’s Zoning Board. When there’s a big snowstorm, they’re out on the road in their tractors helping the town move snow. On the farm’s 85th birthday, Dan estimates more than 3,000 people came out to celebrate.

“Everyone is involved somewhere in the town,” said Dan. “That feeling of community is really important to us.”

Plan while the sun is shining.

While there are plenty of big conversations yet to be had, Dan says the family is already on better footing to make decisions and move forward together. They are talking about how much bigger they want to grow, and what that would mean for them individually. They have a better understanding of who is willing to take on more “desk work” and who prefers to stay in the fields. They are proactively discussing the options for if and when milk prices fall, and how the farm might diversify in the future.

These conversations are always easier to have while the sun is shining, rather than when dark clouds are looming.

Corn harvest at Monument Farms Dairy in Weybridge. Photo by Erica Houskeeper.

“It’s really easy to put this kind of planning work off to the side,” said Victor. “But we’ve been around long enough to know that if you put the big conversations aside, you’re likely to reach a crisis where there aren’t a lot of options. By thinking about it now, they will be able to make choices that move them toward what they really need and want.”

Dan agreed. “We’ve had to be reactive in the past, not necessarily to the point of crisis, but to the point where a need is pressing,” he said. “Victor and Kathy are helping us lean more toward our goals before push comes to shove.”

“Because, what else would we do if we weren’t farmers?” continued Dan. “I don’t know how to say it. Where else would I have the opportunity to take part in something like this? We have great feelings about the company and what our family has done. It’s not just a company, it’s a family. Knowing that that can exist in the future is what motivates us to keep going.”

About VSJF’s Business Management Coaching Program

The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund provides tailored, high-touch planning, coaching, and advising for business owners and their management teams to advance profitability, job creation, and sustainable job development. Click for more information about business management coaching. Funding support for our coaching program is provided by client fees, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, and Vermont Housing & Conservation Board’s Farm & Forest Viability Program.

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