Management Intensive Grazing at Cricket Creek Dairy

Cricket Creek Farm is a small grass-based cow dairy producing a variety of products including raw-milk, grass-fed meat and seven varieties of artisanal farmstead cheeses.  They use high density groups of cows rotated through temporary paddocks within their pastures, allowing for the most efficient use of available forage and maximizing the benefit to livestock and soil.

Topher Sabot, Owner and Manager, will lead our tour of the farm to:

• Learn about how they use a combination of high-tech and low-tech fencing to to manage the cows, looking to maximize efficiency
• Discuss grazing density and practices that provide superior nourishment for the animals while building nutrient rich and microbially diverse soil.
• See their dairy facilities and barns
• Have a conversation about the fine points of producing dairy on a primarily grass-fed system.

Located in the beautiful Berkshire foothills of Western Massachusetts, Cricket Creek Farm milks between 30-40 grass-fed cows throughout the year. Their mixed herd (primarily Jersey and Brown Swiss) is rotationally grazed on 200 acres of pasture during the summer, and fed primarily farm produced hay and baleage in the winter. They also raise a few grass-fed beef cattle and whey-fed pigs. Their mission is to produce nourishing food that honors the animals, respects the land, feeds the community, and exemplifies a sustainable model for small-farm viability.