NORTH SMITHFIELD – Wright’s Dairy Farm has been named the 2019 Outstanding Dairy Farm by the Rhode Island Pastures Committee, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management announced Wednesday.
Wright’s is a fifth-generation farm, which has produced and sold dairy and bakery products for more than 100 years. The farm has eight family members involved in day-to-day operations. The farm has 82 part-time and full-time employees.
The farm was selected for the award this year due to “the Wright family’s long-term commitment to dairy farming and community ties.”
The farm has 150 cows, 100 of which are milked twice daily in a double milking parlor built in 2009, according to the DEM. The company continues to process and sell on site. The farm recently launched a on-site ice cream shop in a 1966 streamline trailer.
“Wright’s Dairy Farm is one of our state’s finest dairy farms and is most deserving of this special recognition,” said DEM Director Janet Coit. “Customers who visited the dairy farm as children now bring their own children to buy milk, cream and bakery items, and watch the cows being milked. The success enjoyed by the Wright family and other Rhode Island dairy farmers is helping to protect and preserve hundreds of acres of farmland that will support continued agricultural endeavors well into the future.”
The DEM also said that the farm has been expanding a wholesale milk market, selling to coffee shops, bakeries and small grocery stores. The farm will be honored at an event in West Springfield, Mass., on Sept. 13, along with farms from other New England states.
The DEM is a member of the Rhode Island Pastures Committee.
