Allen Voortman

Pride and Joy Dairy, Yakima County Washington

For Allen Voortman, who raises 350 dairy cows on 450 acres in the Eastern Washington's Yakima Valley, it's all about the grass. By pasturing his dairy cows, Angus beef cows, hair sheep, and chickens, Allen achieves the hallmarks of a quality organic dairy—healthy, long-living animals and rich, fertile soil.

Allen and his wife Cheryl run the Pride and Joy Dairy, along with a second small farm down the road. Their farms are modeled after New Zealand dairy operations that use pasture almost exclusively, giving cows the right grass at the right stage of growth. Allen thinks this makes for happy cows. He says his animals' stress levels are low. "As they walk out of parlor and get to end of the lane, premium grass and minerals await them," he adds. "No one is chasing or pushing them."

Happy also means healthy-eating well and getting exercise. The Pride and Joy Dairy doesn't even have a sick pen, and their 11-, 12- and 13-year old cows cover a mile a day, working their way through the pastures.

Looking back on his earlier farming days, Allen recalls a time the enjoyment he derived from farming was slowly draining out of him. "I came from high production farming—a high-input, high-output operation, and it wasn't any fun anymore," he says. "All I was doing was servicing short-term debt, and not really getting anywhere."

Born to dairy producers in South Dakota, Allen always loved farm life. When he was 10, the culmination of three years of drought put his family's farm out of business, and they lost everything. To Allen's dismay, the family moved west to Southern California. When he turned 21 in 1971, Allen was ready to see the country, and he traveled with a friend all over the United States. At the end of his travels, he ended up in Eastern Washington where he promptly found work on a dairy.

Allen started raising baby calves on his own and taking care of other people's dairies while they went on vacation. He took his farm-sitting pay in heifers—raising them until they were cows. This enabled him to build his own dairy herd without borrowing money. He partnered with another farmer in the area, pooling resources to work one dairy operation. Eventually, they sold that farm, which today is the only other organic dairy in Yakima Valley area. In 1978, Allen purchased the land where he and his wife Cheryl would raise their own family—the farm they now call Pride and Joy.

Allen has been using organic methods for more than two decades, but he and Cheryl had never certified the farm because they lacked the opportunity to sell as organic. The Voortmans knew they wanted to be associated with a farmer-owned cooperative that didn't make decisions based on remote shareholders, so Organic Valley was always their first choice. As Allen says, "For us, it was a no-brainer."

Eventually the market came around, and the Voortmans had the opportunity to get on the Organic Valley milk truck. Allen completed his organic certification paperwork, and Pride and Joy joined the Organic Valley family in 2005. "I feel good about what we are doing," Allen says. "It's a low-stress lifestyle, since we joined Organic Valley. I am lucky to work with cows every day and produce the best products we can put out there."