24 Hours at Shelburne Farms

Shelburne Farms is a sustainability-focused education nonprofit based on a working dairy farm. With programs, products, overnight stays, and more, it’s a complex brand to illustrate. So, I pitched the idea of a photo story focusing on just one day in the life of the organization. These small moments, when viewed as a whole, bring the nonprofit’s mission to life, making the big, squishy concepts of sustainability and food systems tangible. Here are a few of the moments I captured that day (beginning with morning milking at 4 am).

4:29 am, Dairy Barn. Dairy herd manager Sam Dixon makes the short walk from home to the barn, prepares the milking parlor, then wakes the herd up with a whistle. “They’re unusually slow this morning,” says Sam. How did he perfect his wake-up call? “Years of practice.” The herd spent the previous day inside to give pastures a chance to recover after heavy rain. The storm, which left many Vermont farms underwater, brought just 2.5 inches of rain over two days to Shelburne. Says Sam, “We’re lucky. Very, very lucky.”

**5:21 am, Milking Parlor and Calf Barn.** Herdsman Renee LaCoss moves all 123 milking cows through the parlor in shifts to a soundtrack of country radio. Do the cows have a favorite radio station? “Honestly, I think it’s whatever makes the milker happy. They can tell if you’re happy,” says Renee. Some of the milk is taken to the calf barn (right), where Sam feeds it to the newest arrivals; the rest of the milk will be transformed into Shelburne Farms cheddar.

**6:35 am, Dairy Barn.** During morning chores, Sam’s trained eye notices one cow isn’t coming up to the trough to feed: “She must be in labor.” Sure enough, within minutes, a Swangus calf (an Angus/Brown Swiss cross) is born. “They’re a pretty vigorous breed,” explains Sam; once mom completes a thorough cleaning, the calf is up and walking.

**7:40 am**. “This is my favorite part of the job, the hauling,” says cheesemaker Perry Willett. “You get out onto the farm and get that connection to the dairy.” Here, Perry pumps 5,376 pounds of milk (“a pretty normal haul”) from the dairy’s vat into a sanitized tank, then drives the milk a few minutes away to awaiting cheesemakers. Perry started working at the farm this spring, but her connections to the place run deep. “I was a camper here from ages three to seventeen, so Shelburne Farms is kind of embedded in my DNA.”

**8:19 am.** Morning milking is done, and the pastures are deemed dry enough for the cows to re-enter. Herdsman Megan Letourneau guides the group to the fields where they’ll spend the day. “I grew up on a dairy farm,” says Megan. “My first friends were probably calves.”

**8:48 am, North Gate Road.** Curious flock.

**10:04 am, North Gate Road.** Summer campers cover a lot of ground at the farm. Here, our younger group takes a tractor ride from the Farm Barn to the Dairy, spotting grazing cows and singing songs along the way.

**11:13 am, Children’s Farmyard.** In a day-long employee orientation, new staff members Jack and Sophie meet the goat bucklings.

**4:19 pm, Farm Barn courtyard.** A young camper lends a hand to Children’s Farmyard staff as they walk our education flock to pasture for the night, a daily ritual.

**4:35 pm, Farm Barn.** Another day’s work done, Mia leads Children’s Farmyard cow Brewer to pasture.

6:24 pm, Dairy. With afternoon milking complete, the herd settles in for the night with farm-fresh roughage.