It’s Earth Day – a celebration that was started right here in the state of Wisconsin. Sustainability means many different things to different people. Farmers out there are working to continually improve their soil, and to make their businesses better. To me, sustainability is environmental, social and economic.
We live and work on our farm. All the more reason to protect our soil, water and air.
Environmental
Environmentally, we’re constantly improving our farm. I believe that farmers are the first line of conservationists. But here at Majestic Crossing Dairy, we don’t just believe it – we live it.
We’ve created containment systems that improve our water flow and water quality, and we’ve built retention basins to release water at a slower rate. Up at the Highland Dairy, one of our four farms, we revamped all our lighting to give better quality light to our workers and animals, and we’ve achieved 46% in kilowatt savings. And of course, we’re constantly working with the DNR to ensure that we continue to meet sustainability requirements.
Social
Socially, we’ve been able to validate our high-quality animal care program by working with Validus, a third party animal welfare organization. It’s great to have that validation behind us, and to be constantly open to other people’s input about how to continually make things better. We’re also involved with local boards, and we’ve sponsored important causes such as my friend TJ’s Racing for a Cause season.
Economic
Economically, we know that we are contributing to the well-being of our community. We feel good about the fact that our milk goes just 7 or 8 miles down the road to be processed and turned into cheese. That means jobs in our local community. When we need help on our farm we hire locally, in fact, about 80% of our money is spend within a small radius of our farm.
We care for the land 365 days a year.
At the end of the day, being open to new ideas is really what it’s all about. We’re always asking for other people’s expert advice on how we can make our farm even better. Sustainability means taking the long view, because we want to be here for generations to come.
