The price milk brings is uncomfortably close to the cost of producing it, he said. In response to the challenges, “developing value-added markets for your farm products, dairy in particular, is certainly a very fine way to go,” Noble said. Five years ago, Noblehurst partnered with seven other farms to build a plant to separate cream from milk so they could be sold separately to other processors, “taking one higher step in the value chain.” Another development is a biodigester plant that turns the farm’s manure – along with food scraps from Wegmans – into gas that’s burned to produce electricity. It makes enough electricity to power the farm and cheese plant, and occasionally sell on the electricity market. More >>
