PROVIDENCE – In September, during the Eastern States Exposition, EMMA Acres in Exeter will be recognized as Rhode Island’s 2010 Outstanding Dairy Farm of the Year, R.I. Department of Environmental Management announced Thursday.
The property was purchased in 1990 by Scooter and Cynthia LaPrise, but it didn’t begin its transformation into a dairy farm until 2002, when the LaPrises bought some Jersey calves. In 2008, after a milking facility was built and additional dairy cattle were purchased, EMMA Acres began producing milk. (The farm’s name is an acronym for the couple’s four children, Elizabeth, Matthew, Maggie and Alexandra.)
EMMA Acres has 26 cows – mostly Jersey cows plus a few Ayrshires and a Holstein – that it currently milks. The dairy farm is a member of the R.I. Dairy Farms Cooperative, which produces and markets Rhody Fresh Milk, and the Agri-Mark Co-Op.
The New England Green Pastures Committee, which includes representatives from public and private agricultural interests, sponsors the Outstanding Dairy Farm of the Year Award. The R.I. Dairy Farmers Cooperative, R.I. Farm Bureau, R.I. Farm Service Agency and the Agri-Mark Cooperative are all members of Rhode Island’s Green Pastures Committee, led by the DEM’s Department of Agriculture.
EMMA Acres will be joined by the winners from each New England state for the awards banquet being held in West Springfield, Mass. in September.
