dairy farming

Between 1940 and 1975, North Pomfret’s residents witnessed significant changes within the neighborhood. The first was the end of dairy farming as a way of life. The war years proved encouraging to North Pomfret farmers, with additional demand and higher prices for their milk. With war’s end, farmers found it possible to mechanize and expand their herds to produce more milk. Prices for milk stagnated, however, and throughout the 1950s and 1960s dairymen found that they had to expand their operations continually in order to make even more milk for less money. The final straw for North Pomfret’s farmers was the imposition of bulk-tank requirements and additional barn renovations in order to keep operating. These proved prohibitively costly and led to the last of the dairymen quitting farming.

2011, Cameron Clifford, Farms, Flatlanders, and Fords: A Story of People and Place in Rural Vermont 1890-2010