The original barn built at this location in 1952 was one of the first pole-construction barns in the state of Vermont. It housed a newly established herd of purebred Brown Swiss Cows, introduced to the property by Derick Webb. In 1995, Shelburne Farms built a greenhouse-style milking parlor, designed to complement our grass-based dairy system by milking cows quickly and efficiently. In this system, cows feed intensively on and are rotated quickly through small sections of pasture, which keeps the pastures and the cows healthy. The grass-based system also eliminates the use of herbicides and pesticides, uses less machinery and fuel for crops, and controls water pollution.

Today, the goal of the dairy is to be an educational resource for the farm’s programs by demonstrating rural land use that is environmentally, economically and culturally sustainable. We still maintain a purebred herd of registered Brown Swiss, milking 120 cows twice a day to produce the raw milk for our award-winning farmhouse cheddar cheese.