By Eric Jenks, Special to NEAFA
This month, NEAFA sat down with NEAFA Board Member Mike Thresher from Morrison’s Custom Feeds to talk about the history of this wonderful Vermont company. Founded in 1983 by Leslie Morrison and based in Barnet, VT, Morrison’s serves Northern New England and eastern parts of New York. “We do bulk and direct feeds for the dairy, poultry, and swine industries,” said Thresher, a Dairy Feed Specialist, as well as the Director of Sales, and Director of Nutrition and Certification for Morrison’s Custom Feeds. “Certified organic feeds is the majority of our business, and we’re also certified with non-gmos, and of course do standard feeds as well. I handle all of the registrations for feed tag compliance in the states that we’re registered in.”
Morrison’s also has a retail store in St. Johnsbury, VT. “It’s a full farm supply store,” said Thresher. “From pet food to agricultural feeds. We feed them large and small, and we added a clothing line this past year. We’re also members of the Co-operative Feed Dealers, so if we don’t have it, they can special order it for us.
A long time member of NEAFA, Thresher joined the board in 2020. “NEAFA is a wonderful partnership to be in for us,” said Thresher. “It’s all about being able to bring better representation of New England Agriculture to the public and government agencies. That’s been lacking in the past. It’s a great and powerful lobbying force if we need to get something emphasized locally or nationally, and that’s truly great to have.”
Thresher joined Morrison’s in late 2000, with a background in dairy on his grandfather’s farm. “As a dairy feed specialist, it’s my job to help educate farmers that it’s more than just feed,” said Thresher. “It’s about overall farm consulting. You need to educate on forage and forage quality, and how to improve forage quality. That improvement makes my life easier from a nutrition stand point, and their life more profitable. It means that they have less reliance on purchased feed. That forage can either be for storage or fresh grazing. I work mainly with organic farms; I’ve been involved with grazing for over 3 decades.”
Morrison’s got involved with the organic market in 1999 at the request of a local poultry farm. “Being a custom farm, it was an easy fit to bring in,” said Thresher. “When I joined in 2000, I had grazing experience and really enjoyed it and became passionate about the organic side of things. It grew rapidly and I chased it. There was a 3 county area we were currently servicing, and that’s where we were going to stay. But then I’d hear about a farm in the next county over, and I’d stay late and go over and help them get started becoming an organic farm, and then we’d have them as a customer. Soon we were covering the whole state, and after that started to spread into other states as well. I said to Les, I never asked if you wanted to get this big, and Les said with a laugh that ‘well I would have asked you to stop if I wanted to.’ We handle about 45,000-50,000 tons per year, mostly by truck. We’re also setup on rail, which is handy with our proximity to Canada. We’re very fortunate to have a great staff working in the mill and driving our trucks. They’re dedicated employees that we thank daily.”
While agriculture has faced challenges over the past several decades, those challenges have also brought about positive change for the northeast. “Overall in the industry, I’d say that there’s been an improvement in forage quality management and animal husbandry,” said Thresher. “The challenges that the dairy industry has faced in the past 2 decades have lead to better management practices in our area. We work with a huge amount of farms, the average herd size is around 60 to 70 cows. Looking to the future, we want to encourage and keep the younger generation involved. We’re also committed to keeping our customers resilient and profitable to any changes that may come down the line. We encompass organic, non gmo and full conventional, and work with our farms on the needs that each of those lines encompass.”
For more on Morrison’s Custom Feeds, you can visit their website, https://morrisonsfeeds.com/