ANDOVER — The hours may be long and work sometimes difficult, but Phil Bailey gets a sense of satisfaction from owning his own farm that he has never experienced anywhere else.
Bailey, 29, and his fiancee, Savannah Sessions, 24, started their dairy operation in May on land owned by Bailey’s grandfather, Clarence Bailey.
By starting the dairy operation, not only has Bailey continued a family business into the fifth generation, but he has also doubled the number of dairy farms in Andover.
His cousin Brian owns a similar-sized dairy business just a few miles from Bailey’s Lone Mountain Farm on the Ellis River Road. In fact, the cousins split the dairy herd at Brian Bailey’s farm so now each are milking a Holstein herd of about 30.
Phil Bailey had been working on his cousin’s farm. He has also worked on other farms since he graduated from Telstar High School more than 10 years ago.
But having his own farm is really something special.
“We decided to branch out. We thought if we were going to do anything for ourselves, we should do it now,” he said as he sat on one of hundreds of fragrant bales of hay stored in one of the small barns. “I’ve worked for other farms, but I’ve never found a place that did it the way it should be done, so we decided to do it that way ourselves.”
Bailey and Sessions are proud of the near-organic farm they are running. They rarely use antibiotics and then only to treat a specific problem with their cows. They don’t use growth hormones or conventional fertilizer.
“It’s just the little things I think should be done. I was meant to be my own boss,” Bailey said.
Sessions, a graduate of Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School and Smith College, didn’t grow up on a dairy farm, but she has had lots of experience with farm-related activities while working for the Roger and Gail Smedberg’s Crystal Spring Farm in Oxford, and had helped Phil at Brian’s farm.
She said her sister, Sarah Smith, is her mentor. Smith manages Grassland Organic Farm in Skowhegan.
The farm is part of the Cabot, Vt., cooperative. Most of the milk is trucked to Portland every other day where it is bottled by H.P. Hood.
Some of the milk, though, is sold as a raw product at stores in Bethel, Newry and Oxford, as well as at the farm. Sessions said the Lone Mountain raw cow milk business is one of only eight approved in the state. It’s her job to conduct the dairy route, to keep the books, and to research any information the couple might need to run their farm, including seeking grants that may apply to small farm operations.
Sessions and Bailey hope to diversify their operation in time. Now, they are replacing old equipment, haying, milking and taking care of a multitude of farm chores.
Bailey looks at their new operation as part of a movement focused on having farms supply most of the food needs of their local communities.
“We want to stay small and be widely diversified,” Bailey said.
Sessions hopes to plant a large vegetable garden and perhaps make cheese and butter. They also hope to offer fresh beef, and to establish a multi-product stand at their farm.
But for now, just getting everything in order and doing the haying is enough.
“It’s still scary. We’re the bosses and we have to fix things when we mess up. But I get up in the morning and I like going to work,” Bailey said.
Sessions is pleased to be a part of a large, agricultural family.
“When you see that passion, the farm is a unity thing for a family,” she said.
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