Why Vermont’s Dairy Farms Are Dying

ALT Title: Somebody Is Paying A Guy To Make Postcards with a Brush Hog ALT ALT Title: I Moved Here From Connecticut And I'm Sorry ALT ALT ALT Title: A Guy In Bike Shorts Offered Half A Million For A Hayfield This video was made by Morgan Gold. This video is an independent production and no funding was accepted to help make this video. CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 01:24 Vermont's Dairy History 03:03 Brian Champney's Farm 07:34 Why Milk Prices Stay Flat 13:00 Robots and Equipment Costs 19:50 My Farm in Peacham 26:18 What Happens to the Land? 29:18 The Wind Turbine Project 34:34 The Fight in Holland 38:03 How Wind Turbines Work 43:03 David Blittersdorf Interview 45:48 Sound Test at Lowell Mountain 47:38 Annette Smith Interview 53:10 Act 250 and Act 181 54:58 Regional Plan Hearings 63:15 Lt. Gov. John Rodgers 69:05 The Field on the Hill If you want to buy my new book, go here: https://bit.ly/dirtrichliving Substack: https://substack.com/@morgangold? Twitch: Twitch: goldshawfarm Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/goldshawfarm... TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJAS5CCa/ Instagram: Instagram: goldshawfarm Facebook: Facebook: goldshawfarm Twitter: Twitter: goldshawfarm Web: http://www.goldshawfarm.com If you're looking for my other YouTube channel, go here: ‪@GoldShawFarm‬ Vermont had more than 11,000 dairy farms in the late 1940s. Today there are just over 400. The projections say fewer than 200 within ten years. I went up to Holland, Vermont to spend a day with Brian Champney, a dairy farmer milking 370 cows with his three sons. Holland is the last town before the Canadian border. Brian started farming in 1996, and he'll tell you the milk price hasn't moved in a decade while everything he buys has gotten more expensive. His co-op takes its cut before he sees a dollar of it. Brian also tried to put a wind turbine up on his own field a few years back and couldn't. Following that part of his story took me to Lowell Mountain with a microphone, to renewable energy developer David Blittersdorf, to Annette Smith of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, who has fought wind projects here for decades, and to two public hearings on the regional plans that decide what land in Vermont is allowed to be used for. All eleven of those plans are being rewritten right now because of a 2024 law called Act 181, and most people have no idea it's happening.