GLENWOOD, Minn. – Dorrich Dairy in Glenwood, Minn., has been recognized with a 2015 U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award.
The 400-cow dairy was selected for its holistic environmental approach, including using wasp larvae to control the farm’s fly population, minimizing the use of pesticides and the farm’s impact on the environment.
The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, established under the leadership of dairy farmers, announced the winners of the fourth annual U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards last week at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
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Dorrich Dairy has been in the same family since 1899. The current generations are embracing both tried-and-true and cutting-edge methods of protecting the farm’s natural resources to ensure that the land stays viable for the next generation - and beyond.
“Continuing our family’s tradition as stewards of the land is immensely important to all of us, and this recognition reinforces what we’ve been doing for more than a century,” says Suzanne Vold, who farms with her husband Brad, his brother Greg and Greg’s wife Charity, and the Vold brothers’ parents, Dorothy and Richard. “That tradition is centered around honoring the commitment we’ve made to the environment, our animals and our neighbors. Richard and Dorothy honored that commitment, and so are we.”
Since 2009, the Volds have been introducing wasp larvae into fly nests. Once the wasps hatch, they eat the fly pupa, then lay eggs to begin the cycle again. The strategy has drastically reduced the need for synthetic chemicals to control flies and has cut insecticide costs by 85 percent.
