When the opportunity to become a dairy farmer presented itself to Dave Graybill, he instantly said yes. As a former high school agriculture and shop teacher, Dave stepped away from his profession to take on what he calls a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
He still remembers when his uncle came to him in 1999 and told him his son wasn’t going to come back to the farm and asked Dave if he would take over the family farm.
As a high schooler, Dave worked on his uncle’s Mifflintown, Pa., dairy farm. “I wanted to farm this farm,” he says. “This was my dream.”
Today, Dave and his wife, Marie, own and operate Red Sunset Farm, which includes a small herd of 64 registered Holstein cows and an equal number of replacement heifers. The farm sits on 375 acres, all owned by absentee landowners located in the nation’s capital, 160 miles away.
“They were looking for someone to serve as a long-term caretaker of their land,” Graybill says.
Small in numbers, both with cows and land, one might ask what makes this farm stand out. The answer is twofold: geography and management.
First, Red Sunset Farm is situated in a region where dairy has been heavily scrutinized for its role in the Chesapeake Bay recovery. Second, conservation practices documented on Red Sunset Farm helped play a big role in the Bay restoration efforts. Add them together and it is easy to understand why the Graybills were recognized as one of the U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award winners.
“Red Sunset’s recognition is well-deserved. We’re pleased that one of our local dairy farms is being recognized for the good work they do to protect the environment while producing high quality milk,” says Rick Naczi, American Dairy Association Northeast CEO. “It’s critical to their business and to the industry’s image to make sustainability a priority, which pays dividends within their local communities.”
Sustainability is a word often tossed around. It’s easy to talk the talk, saying you’re sustainable, but harder to walk the walk, Graybill says.
“For us, it has to be a holistic approach,” he explains. “For our farm to be sustainable, the dairy must produce clean water and air, which is good for all — people, cows and land.”
Driven by their goal to become wholly sustainable, the couple has implemented more than 30 conservation practices on their farm, such as buffer strips, contour farming and enhanced wildlife habitat. These conservation practices help reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment losses while simultaneously improving soil quality and reducing costs. A rough assessment of the dairy’s no-till, cover crop and nutrient management practices document reduced annual loses of 2,443 pounds of nitrogen, 116 pounds of phosphorus and 255,00 pounds of total suspended solids.
They’ve also made structural improvements, such as enhanced manure storage and stormwater diversions, designed to make the farm an environmental and economic asset.
In 2015, the Graybills installed a 700,000-gal. manure storage pit with a leak detection system. The pit allows the first-generation dairy farmer to haul manure when ground conditions are ideal, rather than daily, better use the farm’s nutrients and reduce soil compaction.
“Yes, cold hard cash for concrete that we will never move off this farm is a big investment,” he says. “But I feel the investment has already paid us back in terms of savings on the nutrients captured.”
While the manure storage pit went up quickly in May 2015, Graybill notes it took four years of planning — engineering, permits and dollars — that made this goal take longer to complete than he wanted.
“I kept my eye on our goal,” he says. “I kept crunching numbers, especially when nitrogen was high, but I knew the manure storage would have a good payback.”
When nitrogen prices dropped, Graybill didn’t lose sleep. While he knew the ROI would take longer to obtain, the other benefits, including applying manure at the right time, made the manure storage a good investment and a holistic approach to their sustainability plan.
In addition to practicing what he preaches, Graybill is actively involved in his community, focusing on sustainability. He sits on the non-government organization Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Farmer Advisory Council and serves on the committee that helped draft Pennsylvania’s Phase 3 Watershed Improvement Plan for reducing nutrient and sediment pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. He has opened his farm to policymakers and environmentalists, showing them firsthand practices that have improved soil health and water quality.
Red Sunset has switched to LED lights and installed a plate cooler and heat reclaimer from the bulk tank, which saves on energy use and cost. Additionally, the farm rotates permanently fenced paddocks and enhances wildlife habitat and pollinator populations, managing 45 bee colonies each summer with more than 2 million bees in total.
Graybill is happy he was given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — and that he and his wife have embraced the opportunity to manage and operate their family farm. He was fully aware farming wouldn’t be an easy life, but he knew it would be worthwhile. He also knew challenges were par for the course and when they surfaced, such as the scrutiny with the Chesapeake Bay watershed, Graybill didn’t back down. Instead, he rolled up his sleeves, focused on his sustainability vision and worked to make his farm environmentally friendly, and more profitable, too.
