Stonyfield Organic seeks to buy more milk from family farms

The Hardy Farm, a 400-acre longtime organic family farm in Farmington, Maine, switched to selling its milk directly to Stonyfield Organic on Aug. 1, 2025. The Hardy Farm has been a certified organic dairy farm since October 2003, shipping first to Horizon Organic and later to Organic Valley.

Hoping to lure other family dairy farms in New England and New York to follow their example, Stonyfield Organic recently sponsored a workshop at Hardy Farm under the auspices of UMaine Cooperative Extension.

Farm owners Henry and Teresa Hardy shared what they’ve learned over the last year since they’ve become Stonyfield Organic direct milk suppliers who now are given helpful advice and resources.

Mike Brown, who serves as a full-time relationship manager for Stonyfield Organic, took the lead by introducing what turned out to be the workshop’s main topic: smaXtec. Organic farmers have smaller “toolboxes” than conventional farmers do, he explained, because they cannot use either antibiotics or synthetic hormones to treat their cows. Stonyfield recommends smaXtec to its direct suppliers since it helps them make early fact-based decisions that support healthy cows.

The website of this cutting-edge international company, founded in Austria, states, “smaXtec is a combination of the words smart and technology; the X symbolizes the crossover of two disciplines – the foundation of our success.”

smaXtec’s unique approach starts at the source: inside the cow. Unlike external sensors (such as ear tags and neck collars), smaXtec measures stable continuous data, independent of environmental influences, directly from the reticulum (one of the four compartments of a cow’s stomach). The company asserts that “the result is fundamentally better data quality compared to surface-based systems.”

“But,” smaXtec pointed out, “high-quality data alone are not enough. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes into play. It transforms raw data into meaningful, actionable insights, including early disease detection, precise heat detection, actionable health insights and clear recommendations for dairy farm management.”

Henry Hardy pulled out his phone and demonstrated how easy it is to check the app to read the data generated from inside one of his registered Ayrshire or Holstein cows. He praised smaXtec for regularly providing him with useful information, including illness and temperature change, estrus timing and pending calving, plus ruminative activity.

A sample cylindrical four-inch-long, 7.7-oz. internal smaXtec bolus (sensor), packed with data-collecting technology and a lithium battery designed to last up to five years, was passed through the group.

Two laptop-sized electricity-powered base stations are housed in the Hardy Farm barn. Their locations were selected by a technician who is able determine where the best reception is. Data go from each cow’s bolus to these base stations and then are automatically uploaded to the smaXtec Cloud Trud®.

Teresa Hardy highlighted the specially designed four-foot-long tool that a trained worker uses to insert a bolus down the esophagus of a restrained cow. Unlike Henry, she does have some criticisms about smaXtec, including its recordkeeping design that doesn’t allow her to track their Ayrshires’ genetics and pedigrees for which the Hardy Farm is well-known. Teresa said she spends more time correcting errors than she would like, given the many tasks she does, including preserving fruits and jams for family use and making soap and salves to sell at their farm stand.

There are now several competing commercial products on the market designed to give farmers information on their cows: two are placed inside a cow, the rest external. UMaine Extension Dairy Specialist Dr. Glenda Pereira pointed out that the service only provides information and does not recommend one specific brand over another. Neither Pereira nor Brown discussed the financial realities of costs or the potential of increased revenues at this workshop.

Henry and Teresa have been married nearly 40 years and have not only raised a family together but also successfully run a business together, harmoniously reaching innumerable decisions. Their son and daughter-in-law live next door, and their three children spend lots of time enjoying their grandparents’ farm. This summer nine-year-old Caleb has been helping his grandfather make round bales of hay.

“He very much reminds me of myself at that age,” Henry said. His older grandson is learning to milk the 55 cows in the farm’s free-stall barn.

After they were married, their daughters Marjorie and Ashlie took the cows they had raised with them to their new homes.

Henry speaks proudly of his father, who resisted shifting in the 1970s to the then-often recommended “barn confinement” style of dairy farming. “My dad didn’t believe in that; he had our cows outside all year-round unless it was very cold, very icy or deep snow,” Henry said. He follows the same pattern, going well beyond the minimum of 120 days that organic cows must be actively outside and grazing on pasture. Organic cows must have year-round access to the outdoors except during extreme weather.

Stonyfield Organic, which makes nearly all its products, primarily yogurt, smoothies and milk, in Londonderry, NH, plans to increase production. It is actively recruiting more organic family farms to sell directly to the company. It is also looking for family farm owners who would like to transition to organic if they could secure the kind of resources and support that Stonyfield provides.

Dairy farmers interested in starting a dialogue with Stonyfield Organic can call 603.437.4040 and request a copy of the Stonyfield Wholesaler Inquiry Form.

Stonyfield is also on its way to making more changes, Brown said. It aims to buy organic milk from family farms in the Midwest and then in the West, allowing the company to substantially expand its customer base. It also plans a public relations campaign to further spread the word about what it believes are its products’ health benefits as well as the environmental benefits associated with organic farming practices.

Stonyfield Organic is a subsidiary of Lactalis, the largest dairy company in the world.

by Edith Tucker