Cedar Summit Farm - The Way Milk Ought'a Be

Cream top milk in glass bottles and a sign on a cooler door announcing "grass based agriculture" got me curious about the Cedar Summit Dairy. The milk was the best I'd tasted in over 25 years and that alone made me want to look around this family owned dairy operation only 45 miles outside the city, near New Prague, MN.

On the way down I35, evidence of urban and suburban sprawl is everywhere. Housing developments are interspersed with working farms only a few miles from Cedar Summit, and "For Sale" signs are prevalent, causing speculation about how long the remaining farmers can hold out. Not a new observation, except for the shock of how far south the development has reached. The houses scattered across the acreage are outposts that signal the inevitability of strip malls to come.

Then there is Cedar Summit Farm, a distinctly different approach, gently resisting the sense that all the land is just waiting to be dug, graded and paved. Members of the Minar family, farmers here for three generations, took me on a tour. Most members of the family work for the operation, whether with the herd, in the dairy building, the business office and shop, driving the delivery truck or designing graphics for products and brochures. The clan plans to keep the farm viable and family owned for generations to come by paying careful attention to the land and the quality of their products and marketing directly to consumers.

Laura (Minar) Ganske and Merrisue Minar tended the business office and Laura's baby while explaining the recent history of Cedar Summit Farm. Dave and Florence Minar, the owners, stopped using petrochemical herbicides and fertilizers in the 1970s, substituting good tillage and crop rotation practices to manage the land. When they stopped spraying, neighbors predicted the farm's demise within three years. Instead, the land began to heal after the chemicals were discontinued, supporting soil building insect populations that increased the capacity of the land to absorb water. That was proven in the severe drought and heat wave of 1988, when the farm nurtured lush green fields in contrast to the brown, shriveled crops throughout the region.

Having proven they were "crazy" to the neighbors once, the Minars demonstrated it again in 1993, when they switched to a completely grass based, pasture feeding method. They switched from growing corn and alfalfa to a special grass mixture for grazers. They sold their registered Holstein milking herd and shut down production for a year to build fences and water lines to set up grazing pads (explained below). In 1994, they purchased a variety of breeds to create a herd that thrives on pasture grazing. Holsteins, valued for the high fat content of their milk, have small hooves that are hard on the land and small snouts that make them less successful grazers than breeds with big snouts. The new breeding program crosses Holsteins with Jerseys, Guernsey, Ayeshire and Brown Swiss in hopes of producing the best qualities of each in the next generation of cows - and it's working. In addition, veterinary bills dropped over 90% after the change to pasture feeding. The vet comes to the farm to estimate delivery dates for pregnant cows, but the Minars rarely see sick cows anymore and can usually treat the few they do with vitamins and homeopathic remedies. If a cow gets so sick that it needs antibiotics, it's sold after receiving treatment.

In Oct. 2001 the family started building the "mini-dairy" to produce fluid milk, ice cream, yogurt and cheese. It was finished in March 2002 and has been producing ever since.

Knowing how co-op members feel about farm animal treatment, I was curious about what "free range" means at this farm. I was pleased to learn that these animals move about freely all day except for the few hours when they are in the milking parlor listening to classic rock (cows are Rolling Stones fans). Tour guide Dan Minar commented that cows get nervous if the music isn't on. He pointed out that there is a bit of grain to munch on while being milked, a 10-15 minute process, to prevent cow boredom, and is only a tiny percentage of the total diet.

Pasture feeding, as Dan explained, is very systematic. The land is divided into numerous "pads." The herd is moved to a new pad every 12 hours and does not return to it for 4-6 weeks so the grass can regenerate.

Drinking water is available on each pad. In winter cows feed on hay, i.e. dried grasses. The herd is outdoors year round, though there is a wooden, barn shaped hoop covered with heavy plastic sheeting for shelter. There are no doors, so the animals get to choose whether and when to go inside.

Besides producing a more healthful dairy product (grass-fed animals produce health enhancing Omega 3 fats in their milk and meat), pasture feeding is beneficial to the environment. Decades of close monitoring prove that the water leaving Cedar Summit (there is a creek on the farm) is cleaner than the water that flows into it. This is true on each of the grazing farms being monitored.

Dave and Florence Minar envision a sustainable farm that can be passed on intact and thriving to their children and grandchildren. I listened to these veterans of both conventional and sustainable farming with awe. They clearly understand the vital connections between the health of their soil, water and animals, the healthfulness of their products, the economic future of their farm, and the natural environment of the region. They are not rustic throwbacks to "the good ol' days" that advocates of industrial agriculture sneer at in attempts to ridicule the sustainable farming movement. They are pioneers of an integrated farming method who are increasing production while building healthy soil that cleans the water that runs through it. They are one solution to the contradictions that drive farm families off the land and make industrial agriculture an environmental disaster. These are the farmers we want to support. This is what we are about.