Family Still at the Core of Oak Orchard Dairy

It was 1906 when Oak Orchard Dairy put down roots in Elba, NY. When Curt Norton’s great grandparents Elmer and Anna started out, they had 15 cows, along with pigs, chickens and crops. 

 

It’s a far cry from the modern farm Curt heads up today. It became a dedicated dairy operation in the 1960s and now milks 900 cows, more than 95 percent of which are Holstein. Oak Orchard was the recipient of the New York Agricultural Society’s Century Award in 2009. The award honors New York farms that have been in continuous operation on the same land by the same family for 100 years or more. 

 

During that time, many things have changed, of course, but some things remain the same. For one thing, it’s still a family affair. The farm’s three partners are Curt and his two younger brothers, Charles and Chris. Their oldest brother, Dean, does the farm’s books, even though he has a full-time job as president of the New York Farm Bureau. Their father, Ellsworth, Jr., is officially retired, but still does “odds and ends” to help out.

 

Curt’s grandfather, Ellsworth, Sr., lived on the farm in the original three-story farmhouse until his recent death, at age 93. His children, grandchildren and great grandchildren came to visit him there regularly. And, that was a big deal, because, as Curt said, “He had eight kids, so there are about 60 grandchildren and great grandchildren.”

 

Curt said he grew up on the farm and “pretty much worked there from age 8 on,” leaving only to attend college at Alfred State University in New York from 1987 to 1989.

 

He and his brothers have incorporated a host of new approaches and products that help keep the farm a vital, profitable enterprise. For one thing, they decided to focus on the dairy operation. So, they send their heifers away after 5 months to be raised at a heifer ranch, and they purchase all their feed.

 

“We own approximately 1,000 acres,” explained Norton. “But, we sublet it to our grower and use his feed. That allows us to concentrate on milking cows.”

 

That focus has netted sizeable results. Their cows average 82 lbs of milk per day (25,000 per year)—well above the national average of 70 lbs per cow per day (18,000 per year). Their somatic cell count (SCC) runs about 200,000.

 

Another factor in their success has been the smart use of animal health products, including AgriLabs’ Titanium 5L5 and Master Guard 10, both of which provide protection against Type I and Type II bovine viral diarrhea (BVD), infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) and parainfluenza virus (PI₃), as well as the five most common leptospirosis bacteria.

 

“Titanium is a modified live product, so we don’t use it on pregnant cows,” Norton said. “We check cows at 30 days post fresh, and they get the vaccine at that time. Master Guard contains a killed BVD and IBR virus and is safe to use in pregnant cows, so we give it when we confirm them pregnant. Both vaccines protect against Leptospira bacteria, which can cause abortions, and Master Guard acts as a booster for the disease protection of Titanium.”

 

He said the product they used previously didn’t have a booster, and he likes the idea of getting double coverage.

 

“With the Titanium and Master Guard combination, we notice we aren’t getting the odd pneumonia cases. You get double protection.”

 

About a year ago, Norton replaced the prostaglandin products he was using with estroPLAN, which he uses on a weekly basis on approximately 20 cows. He says it is successful 80 percent of the time, at a lower cost than he was previously paying.

 

“We found that estroPLAN had better results than one of the other name brand products and just as good as another—and it costs a lot less.”

 

He learned about these and other products from his AgriLabs sales representative, Dale Miller, who stops by his farm regularly to keep him up to date. While Curt says he doesn’t have a lot of time for salesmen in general, Dale is genuine and has “done a good job of educating us about their products….that personal relationship is hard to cultivate.”

 

Clearly what Curt and his family have cultivated is a successful, focused dairy farm that continues to live out a family tradition, a tradition that Curt says is often overlooked.

 

“Ninety percent of farms are family farms. Factory farms are really a misnomer, he commented. “But, to continue to thrive, we have to keep generations involved and find ways to be more efficient. That’s the only way to keep up with the cost of insurance and regulatory compliance and all the things that keep increasing. People think we get bigger because it is more profitable, but it is just necessity.”