Mindful of technological changes, and how they can help a small, century-old business, the owners of Escobar Farm have maintained their family-run dairy operation for more than 45 years.
The farm is now in its second generation. It began as Highland Farm in 1937, purchased by the father of current owner Louis Escobar. Louis and Jane Escobar rebranded it as Escobar Farm several years ago.
It has 185 cows, including 90 producing milk for labels that include Rhody Fresh Milk and Cabot dairy.
It now represents one-fifth of the dairy collective that produces Rhode Island’s Rhody Fresh Milk and is among nine remaining dairy farms in the Ocean State. At one point, the state had more than 80.
Technology is not the enemy, Louis Escobar noted.
“I explain to people, on the farm, if you have done exactly the same thing you did the previous year, you will be spiraling down,” he said. “Technology is always changing. We have to learn to use the technology that is always changing and fit it into [the] business.”
In part due to their innovations, Escobar Farm was selected as the 2017 Outstanding Dairy Farm by the Rhode Island Green Pastures Committee, which promotes the contributions of farming to the state.
One of the ways that the Escobars have adapted in recent years to rising costs has been to contract out the harvesting of corn, which they grow as feed, along with hay.
The modern corn-harvesting machine, which Escobar called a chopper, can clear 115 acres of corn in two-and-a-half days. But they cost upward of $300,000. His solution has been to hire a company that provides that service to farms.
In another decision that has helped economize their operation, the Escobars have formed a side business that provides artificial-insemination services for other dairy farms in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.
Jane Escobar was trained for two weeks at a company, a subsidiary of Cooperative Resources International, to artificially inseminate milking cows. The bulls live in Wisconsin. The sales truck comes out to the farm with the semen.
She chooses what she wants, then inseminates the cows.
“The cattle have more than doubled production with selective breeding,” Louis Escobar said.
The Escobars also have diversified their farm business. For the past 18 years, they’ve attracted as many as 15,000 people annually to a large corn maze, a seasonal feature that has boosted income.
The Rhody Fresh collective, now 11 years old, has allowed them to sell their milk locally and collect a higher price than they otherwise would. The milk from five farms is processed and packaged at the Guida facility in Connecticut, then shipped directly to supermarkets in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Initially a fast success on its launch in 2004, the label sales have since flattened, Louis Escobar said. The collective is soon going to launch a new marketing campaign and is trying to position the milk in the coolers into a more prominent location.
“We are … trying to make the consumers more aware” that the milk is locally produced and supports local farms, he said.
OWNERS: Jane and Louis Escobar
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Dairy farm, agricultural entertainment
LOCATION: 133 Middle Road, Portsmouth
EMPLOYEES: Four
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1937
ANNUAL SALES: WND
