By Tamara Scully, NODPA News contributing writer
George and Linda Wright
Russell, NY: George and Linda Wright may have retired from dairy farming, but they certainly aren’t retired. They have been able to directly assist new dairy farming families launch their small farm dreams. The innovative succession plan they implemented is one which has led to new opportunities for the Wrights, for the farmers who succeeded them, and for their community.
Their succession plan was meant to ensure that the Wright’s land would be kept in production for future generations of small farmers. The success of their dairy farming exit strategy was built upon the many years they spent growing a healthy dairy herd; learning, growing and advocating for small organic dairies; and making decisions which allowed their farm to be positioned to be financially viable into the future.
“George and Linda above all have been and are incredibly supportive of NODPA and its mission. They turn up, pay more than their financial share and do the work necessary to advocate for a fair and level playing field for all organic dairies,” said Ed Maltby, Executive Director of NODPA. “Above all they are fine and generous people who live the talk.”
Living their values meant positioning Wright Way Dairy - which they built carefully and incrementally over the last three decades - to remain a family farm. They could have made more money selling the land if they opted to do so. Large dairy farms, as well as solar companies purchasing large parcels of farmland for extensive solar arrays, are active in their area, purchasing land from farmers with no other retirement options, or who are ready to selling to the highest bidder.
“We are close to farms that are milking 1500 - 4000 cows,” George said, and easily could have sold their land to these farms, which are “not small, and not family.”
The Wrights were in a position where they could take “very reasonable offers” from several Amish farmers seeking land to begin their own family dairy farms. And while that solution was part serendipity, it was also part of an intentional plan the Wrights set in motion long ago, deciding to position their farm for the next generation, despite not having any children of their own, and having nieces and nephews who enjoyed the farm, but didn’t want to become farmers. “Sometimes there’s more to it than money,” Linda said.
George and Linda came from Vermont, where George was raised on a conventional dairy farm. They were seeking more affordable land for their own dairy farm, and ultimately decided to purchase a farm in 1991. They resided in Vermont to assist Linda’s parents until 1995, renting out the farm in New York.
The farm did not have a pipeline milking system, as buckets were still being used, so installing a pipeline was the first order of business. They purchased a small dairy herd from Vermont, and soon were conventionally milking 22 very large Holsteins. By June of 1996, they were shipping milk to Allied Federated Cooperative, and in August they opted to purchase a mixed herd of Jersey crosses, bringing total cow numbers to 44.
The original 230 acres were 50 percent tillable and pasture, with the rest in forest and swamp. The Wrights didn’t own any big equipment, and were purchasing corn silage to supplement their hay and pasture. The first three or four years of purchasing feed, they were “losing our shirt,” George said. As they could, they rented more land for growing crops, and experimented with corn, but found the return on the investment was poor.
The pay price for conventional milk was “awful,” and some friends nearby had been the first dairy farmers in the area to transition to organic. This was the time period when agricultural professionals, including Cornell Cooperative Extension, were saying that organic dairy farming could not work. There were no experts in the field, and most dairy farmers would scoff at the idea. A dozen small dairy farmers in their region banded together and helped one another make the transition, “figuring out how to make it work. Everybody kind of mentoring one another,” George said.
A representative from Horizon visited the farm, and the Wrights decided to transition. At that time, the transition period was different and less intensive than it is today. Their land was already chemical-free, and the cows only needed a three month transition. With 50 milking and 100 head total, they made the switch and never regretted doing so. After certifying with NOFA-NY, they began shipping organic milk in 2000, and were averaging $11.00/cwt for the year.
They made goals for the farm: not to invest in expensive, big equipment; to milk 50 cows year-round; to raise their own young stock and to grow their own feed as much as possible.
They purchased another 250 acres one mile from the home farm in 2000, with one-half of the land tillable, increasing both the grazing land and the land for growing feed, with most of their pasture land also being used for hay. They would take a first cutting of hay, then fence the pasture and let the cows harvest the second and third cuttings. They decided to switch to round bales when they went organic, so they could wrap and store it easily, and save on equipment costs. They opted to grow sorghum as a supplement, which fit into their system and worked well, and feed a 50/50 mix of hay and grass, top-dressing with some grain.
While milk production did drop from conventional to organic when they transitioned, they found that the purchase of a vertical mixer helped to keep the feed consistent. They top dressed with grain to keep the condition on the cows, but not to increase production, George said. Once they began using the mixer, they increased milk production by 15 percent.
“It took three or four years to get our feet on the ground with organic,” George said. “One of the biggest setbacks we had was that there was no place to buy organic grain.”
Finding certified organic grain was a major challenge in the first four or five years after transitioning. At this time, there were big companies touting their organic grains, and there was fraud. Lakeview Organic Grain - fellow NODPA members Mary-Howell and Klaas Martens - became the exclusive and trusted source of their organic grains for the past 15 years, George said. A consistent source of high-quality organic grains was, like the vertical mixer, a game-changer.
The Wrights also found that adding 100 pounds of molasses per ton of grain helped to keep the cows’ feed intake consistent, even when the feed ingredients were changing. The molasses kept the smell consistent, so the cows wouldn’t balk at the changes. And they were careful to make very little change to the feed, incorporating the new with the old incrementally.
“Cows, like most people, hate change,” George said. “Quality feed, quality hay, quality pasture. Keep stress down.” Linda added that consistency is important for organic dairy success. “Get a plan and stick with it.” 
That is just what the Wrights did. Once they embarked upon organic dairy farming, they focused on treating pasture as a crop, and set out to improve it. The manure from the tie-stall barn was spread effectively all over the farm. They never spread on frozen ground, to prevent nutrient loss, and piled the manure in the winter. They never had more manure than they could use on their land, and also utilized lime and chicken manure as warranted to build their soil base.
“Cows aren’t goats,” Linda said. “Put something in to get something out,” by not skimping on pasture nutrition. Any health issues they saw while on pasture were remedied by adding nutrients. They provided salt, bicarb and separate minerals in tubs on pasture at all times. “They know what they need,” and will selectively consume it when needed.
The cows grazed rotationally from May through September and often into October. Keeping the animal numbers in proportion to the pasture available to graze was crucial, and adding pasture so the cows could have access to quality grass was key to their success. They opted to purchase more land, always growing their land base, instead of building a freestall barn.
The couple did upgrade the stanchion pipeline milking system in the existing tie stall, enhancing pulsation and keeping up with general maintenance. With the money they didn’t invest in infrastructure, they were able to eventually grow the farm to 700 total acres, with 1/2 of that tillable with improved pastures, by 2010. “I’m glad we did what we did,” investing in the land base, Linda said.
“We didn’t see how the barn would pay us in the end. We didn’t have anyone to pass it onto,” George said. They realized that “the more land we have, the better off our portfolio was. We farmed it very successfully, and were able to pay off a portion of our debt.”
There weren’t too many changes they needed to make for the transition to organic production. The Wrights were already well versed in “home remedies” and had grown up using these on humans, too. They used them to treat cows even when conventional, partly due to the cost of veterinary care and medications, and partly because they were effective. Finding a veterinarian who understood organic principals, or was willing to learn, wasn’t easy. In fact, the retirement of their herd veterinarian was one factor in why they ultimately retired when they did.
Vaccinations were always a part of their herd health regime, which focused on prevention. The regime consisted of respiratory, BVD, and two mastitis vaccines, and vaccinations were given right at birth to calves. Mastitis was the biggest health concern, but they were able to get in under control.
“The more you can do to prevent mastitis, the better,” George advised.
Since a goal was raising their own replacements, giving calves the healthiest start was always important. They didn’t wean their calves until after 90 days of age, feeding high somatic cell count milk. They always kept feed - hay and grain - in front of the calves, and found that by one week, they’d start to nibble at it. Fresh water was present from day one, and always available, which they found to be necessary for calf health and future productivity.
The Wrights gained a great reputation for their calves, selling animals at four or five months old, as well as for bred heifers, which they sold primarily to an organic buyer. Their animals were known to have had a great start in life, and to be healthy and vigorous.
Around 2016, they finally achieved yet another goal: shipping milk to Upstate Niagara Cooperative. This increased the money they were receiving for their milk, and allowed them to become part of a dairy business that wasn’t focused on working with large, outsized dairies, and was focused on family farming. The cooperative supplies milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products to Wegmans, and had just bought an existing milk plant 30 miles from their farm. They didn’t hesitate to jump onboard.
George is outspoken in his belief that Organic Valley and Horizon - originally the only two organic milk buyers in the region - forgot about the dairy farmers and lost their focus. Being able to join a cooperative that is all about the dairy farmers, paying them fairly and sourcing milk from small organic dairy farms, was an opportunity he and Linda valued greatly. Advocating for meaningful organic standards and eliminating loopholes and shady practices continues to be a passion and a calling.
“George has been an active member of NODPA for nearly twenty years. He has served as a state representative, member of the board of directors, and more recently Treasurer. More likely to ‘play the fool’ and inject humorous comments into meetings, George has a deep knowledge of the milk industry, has actively advocated for producer rights and pay price with milk buyers, has provided valuable contributions in traveling to Washington DC in support of regulation change, traveled across the country to support producers in the west as they formed their own organization, and in national discussions around supply management to provide a better market for all organic producers,” Ed Maltby, NODPA Executive Director, said.
Without Ed Maltby’s advocacy, the percentage of grazing that organic dairy herds need to do would not be as high and family farms wouldn’t be surviving, George and Linda said. “NODPA is the number one reason the organic grazing rules make sense.”
Without a family member to take over the farm, Linda and George concentrated on keeping their money in land, rather than investing in infrastructure that wouldn’t pay them back in the short run, and wasn’t keeping them from being economically viable. The acreage they owned, however, and the quality of their pasture, was always going to play a role in their current success, as well as when they sold the farm, even if they didn’t know exactly what form that would take.
Their succession plan wasn’t an accident. But they didn’t quite know what the plan would end up looking like. They just knew that they wanted the farm to continue, and they needed to be financially secure without having to sell the farm to the highest bidder. Keeping the land in family farming was important. By 2014, they were beginning to think of formulating some type of succession plan.
They began by contacting a tax expert and financial planner back in 2016. Bob McNeil was a part of the farming community, with knowledge about capital gains taxes on farms. They also attended succession seminars, including one through NODPA, as well as others through Cornell. They spoke to as many people about their own succession plans and experiences as they could. Early on, they realized that establishing an LLC would help change their tax bracket beneficially, and did so with positive results.
They never really advertised the farm for sale. They had reached out to resources aimed at connecting new farmers with land, and found a few interested people. They had one beginning farmer come to work with them, but he couldn’t make it work financially. Most of those interested in buying the farm wanted updated facilities. And many were recent college graduates, without any capital and unable to get credit. Even though George and Linda were open to owner financing, it was not working out.
Word of mouth got out, and members of the Amish community began to show up on the farm. In the fall of 2018, a group of Amish came out to the farm, and seemed very interested. After several months passed, they returned and three Amish families jointly offered to purchase the home farm with the buildings, along with the farm parcel across the road, a total of 425 acres, which they split three ways. They were to continue dairy farming organically, which was important to the Wrights.
George and Linda still had $100,000 in debt at this time, but were able to pay off all of the debt with the sale agreement. While the Wrights sold some young stock and bred heifers, the Amish buyers purchased the milking herd - the milk market came with the cows - and split the herd three ways, each family owning its own farm and cows. The Wrights were able to sell directly to the families without a realtor, and were able to offer financing. They used only a lawyer for the 2019 sale.
“They are paying on a monthly basis, actual mortgages with an amortization schedule all rolled into the deed,” Linda explained. “They are full owners,” but if they default on the loan, the farm would transfer back to George and Linda. “We don’t want it!” she said, and the couple is motivated to help the new owners succeed. The Wrights have found several ways to continue to assist those who purchased pieces of their farm, as well as other nearby Amish farmers, and to keep themselves employed post-dairy farm retirement.
In 2022, another member of the Amish community was able to purchase 125 remaining acres from the Wrights. They continue to rent another 125 acres to another Amish family, under a rent-to-own contract.
The Wrights now reside in a mobile home and three acres with the dump station, on a portion of their home farm. The also kept 25 acres of riverfront land 1/4 mile down the road that is not prime farmland, for a family camp.
The Wrights own a dump station with five bulk tanks, and charge a nominal fee for the dump station service, just enough to cover their taxes and make a small profit. They do it primarily “to help them (Amish) out and make them successful,” George said.
The Amish dairy farmers the Wrights sold land to can bring their milk via horse and buggy, as they don’t allow electricity on their farms, to await the milk truck. Each farms’ milk is stored in a separate tank. National Farmers Organization (NFO) handles the records, and all the milk is still shipped to Upstate Niagara Cooperative. When three other Amish dairy farmers a few miles away also needed a dumping station closer to them, the Wrights decided to build a separate three bulk tank dumping station two miles from the first station, to accommodate their milk as well.
There are now about 14 Amish families in the neighborhood, and all are shipping milk to Upstate Niagara Cooperative. The cooperative is “very fussy about who they take on,” George said, and it is a blessing that they are now taking milk from the Amish community. Upstate Niagara doesn’t charge the farmers to ship milk, helping to keep family farms profitable.
Linda and George have found that the Amish “make good neighbors,” and have, in turn, been able to return the favor. They receive phone calls at their home, taking messages for the community members. Calls come in all times of the day, from all over the country. The Wrights even installed a phone at one of the dump stations.
George also does hauling for their Amish neighbors, driving a truck and trailer, or digging ditches, while Linda operates a taxi service, driving a large car to accommodate the travel needs of the families. They are “helping the Amish community farm our land,” George and Linda said.
The Amish support the local economy, purchasing locally from mom-and-pop businesses, and contributing their skills and trades, so services are available locally that otherwise wouldn’t be. And organic family dairy farming - thanks to the foresight and planning the Wrights made, and their desire and ability to keep their dairy farm available to other small farmers - remains a stronghold in the region.
And that brings Wright Way Dairy full circle. From inception through succession, the values that George and Linda embraced through their advocacy and practice of organic dairy farming continue to be upheld, passed onto another generation, contributing to the ongoing success of a community that values family farming as a viable and meaningful way of life.
Linda and George Wright can be contacted at 315-347-4604 and wrightwaydairy@yahoo.com
Posted: to Featured Farms on Sun, Nov 3, 2024
Updated: Thu, Nov 21, 2024
