Featured Farms are approved training sites run by Mentor Dairy Graziers who are seeking to hire an Apprentice, Intern or Journey Dairy Grazier. DGA has more than 180 approved training farms in 15 states. Apply online to make your profile visible to Mentors hiring in select areas.
Diversified Certified Organic Dairy
We are Cobblestone Valley Farm, located in Preble, NY; Paul & Maureen Knapp owners. The farm is a diversified dairy, certified organic with NOFA-NY since 2001. We are members of Organic Valley/CROPP Cooperative. Pastured Poultry, Grassfed Beef and Pork, Pick-Your-Own Strawberries, and compost are direct-marketed from the farm.
We currently milk about 60 cows, with approximately 100 acres of pasture. We put up round bales as dry hay and baleage. Young stock are boarded out to a summer pasture.
Organic Farming is important to us. The farm is 4th generation, under our management for 30 years. Managed grazing started here in 1997. Our motivations include recognizing the need and providing the opportunity to bring the next generation to our way of farming; and realizing that as time goes by that our time may be better spent managing more and doing a little less of the physical labor. Bringing in an enthusiastic apprentice who is excited to learn about dairy is a very different and much more rewarding experience than supervising someone who just wants a job. The mutual interest in each other is what will make the venture work.
