Bob Fowler is a retired dairy farmer in Shaftsbury.Bob had been farming for many years before he retired and sold most of
his land.He was eager to tell us
about the sense of community shared by area farmers in earlier days.Everything was a group effort- farmers would help each other build and
repair barns, they would slaughter animals together, and he described how people
would come and visit him during milking time.Regrettably, Mr. Fowler feels this sense of community has been lost among
area farmers, most likely due to competition, specializing, and the advancement
of technology.
In
the clip below, Mr. Fowler describes how farmers cooperated with each other back
when he was farming.
Mr. Fowler also talked about the decline of dairy farms as far as numbers go,
not just the decline of the sense of community among farmers. In 1953
there were 10,637 dairy farms in Vermont, but by 1999 Vermont had only 1,714
dairy farms. As you can see, in less than half a century the number of
dairy farms in Vermont declined exponentially. This trend is mostly due to
individual farms becoming bigger and more efficient, while many smaller farms
were abandoned. For example, in 1953 the 10,637 dairy farms produced 1.5
billion pounds of milk annually, whereas in 1999 the 1,714 dairy farms in
Vermont produced 2.6 billion pound of milk. Those 1,714 dairy farms, which
represent less than a fifth of the dairy farms that existed in 1953, produced
just under twice as much milk as the 10,637 farms did.