Hard work and long hours remain,
but stress of dairying is long gone
By MICHAEL UCALSI - The Colchester Sun
After generations of dairy farming, a Colchester family has decided to take a chance in a different profession, abandoning a familiar way of life in the hope of starting a new tradition that it hopes is full of opportunity and promise. Jeff Senesac's family was in dairy farming for more than 60 years, starting when his grandfather traded for 200 acres of land in Colchester and drove a herd of cattle from Morrisville in what was a three-day ordeal. Since then, Senesac Dairy Farm has operated on Malletts Bay Avenue, with Jeff purchasing the land from his father in the mid 1990s. "My father was born on this land and never, lived anywhere else", said Senesac. "He bought the farm from my grandfather about 1970, and my wife and I made a deal to buy it from him about six years ago".
But under the weight of falling milk prices, Senesac and his wife knew
it was time for a change, and in March sold their cows and milking equipment.
They closed Senesac Dairy Farm for good, renewing the land as Cotton Wood
Stables, complete with boarding for horses, an indoor riding arena that's
140 feet long by 72 feet wide, an outdoor riding area, equestrian equipment,
and trails that will eventually cross over most of the farm. "It
is not easy work being in the dairy farming business," said Senesac.
"We were going backward. Milk prices kept going down and the price
of everything else kept going up - water, electric, everything."
Senesac said he was making $11.30 per 100 pounds of milk, a price that
had dropped from the time his father ran the farm. "We were talking
about changing it over to a stable for four or five years," said
Senesac. "Last spring was so bad, with the dropping prices and all,
we had to do something." After selling the dairy equipment, Senesac,
his father and a couple of friends worked six-day weeks for about six
months getting the stable up and running, with the first horse boarded
this past fall.
At Cottonwood Stables, horses are boarded for $350 a month and are cared
for throughout the day. For Senesac, a regular day starts at 6 a.m. when
he wakes to feed the horses. He fills their water buckets and gives them
a couple hours to eat. Then the horses are put outside for exercise while
their stables are rebedded and cleaned. After all the horses are brought
in, he refills their water and feed buckets and checks on them throughout
the night. There are eight horses in the stables, which can accommodate
30.
"I have to say I'm not sorry we made the change at all," said
Senesac, noting that all farmers have it tough, with prices beyond their
control, and feeling that their importance in the food industry is constantly
overlooked. "It's an ironic situation. The people that are providing
the necessities of life are barely able to make a living doing it",
said Senesac. "That just doesn't seem right." As with farming,
there is a lot of hard work that goes into running a stable. But, Senesac
welcomes the change, believing that he and his family have gotten into
a more secure industry. "There's as much physical work as before,
but there's a lot less mental stress", said Senesac, who noted one
of the most stressful things in the dairy world is the dependency on machinery,
some of which is outdated and rickety. "Like an old car; a lot of
the older dairy equipment wouldn't want to start in the winter",
said Senesac. "It's really tough relying on a piece of equipment
you're praying won't break down."
Other than the University of Vermont stables, Cottonwood Stables is the
closest to Burlington, and is the newest. Senesac is hoping that by filling
his stable with local horses, he'll be able to support the rest of his
land, which he uses to grow crops and produce on the side. "It's
definitely an exciting time", Senesac said. "With dairy farming,
we felt we didn't really have a future. Now we feel like we have more
opportunities to succeed".
To learn more about
boarding horses with the Senesac's, call 655-0770