Mesman farmers cooperate across generations

Alan and Ben Mesman’s farm offer more than meets the eye. Their families live on two parcels totaling 190 acres stretching from Dodge Valley Road along Chilberg Road to Pleasant Ridge. But that is only half of almost 400 acres of land they own or rent, contiguous, nearby and on the flats of eastern Fidalgo Island.

They are milking about 100 cows, a variety of breeds and cross breeds including Holstein, Jersey, Milking Shorthorn and Normande. But that is only half the herd: There are 10 to 15 baby calves and bred heifers and another 85 cows not being milked. And neither said anything about bulls.

Their income is in milk fluids, but they occasionally sell cows “up into Canada,” Ben said, and “down to Mexico.” The two are planning to get into beef production, transitioning their herd to reduce the number of Holsteins and into varieties that are better for butchering when their milking lives have ended.

Change is a part of farming: Alan’s grandfather came from Whidbey Island, buying the first 120 acres in 1942. Alan decided to transition the dairy to organic production in the early 2000s, a three-year process, at least. He became a member-owner of Organic Valley in 2007, adding that to his Darigold co-op membership. He also belongs to IGFC: Island Grown Farmers Co-op, which provides USDA-inspected mobile animal slaughter services in five counties regionally.

Their farm became the second or third Organic Valley dairy in the Skagit Valley, with the Wesen family of Bow joining at almost the same time. They followed Andrew Dykstra of Burlington “within days of each other.” About cooperating, Alan says, “We communicate quite a lot, more so than when we were conventional. When we became organic we became a tight little group. We bounce ideas off each other regularly.”

Organic Valley has married organic and cooperative to become the largest farmer-owned organic cooperative in the U.S. But Organic Valley was not Messman’s destiny, not until after he spent a year with a marketing consultant and a pad trying to pencil out going his own way with milk and ice cream production.

All the crops, grains and grasses, they grow are organic. Ben says they are self-sufficient in forage and silage. They ship 8,800 pounds of milk three times a week down to a processing plant in Portland. They milk three times a day using state of the art DeLaval VMS robotic milking systems.

Organic Valley promotes a line of grass fed dairy products, but there are too few member farmers in the region to run a truck. In fact, it is the Darigold Co-op that provides operational and technical support to the Organic Valley members on a contract basis with Organic Valley, fulfilling the co-op principle of cooperation among cooperatives.

Alan sees that “Darigold is a little more big farm oriented. Organic Valley is a little bit more small farm oriented. But they’re both pretty good.” He found that Organic Valley has more younger farmers: “I noticed right away that the average age of farmers was younger than the average Darigold farmer.”

Alan wants Ben farming 30 years from now, when Ben is Alan’s age. There is longevity in the family, he said. Organic Valley might be part of the family, still. “It’s a farmer-owned thing and they’re very focused on keeping the farms going instead of (just) a business. (They do it) as a family.”

That tradition has been in the Mesman family since 1905.