The Smiling Hill dairy farm is located just outside of Portland, Maine, and is home to a herd of 50-odd Holstein cows that spend the summer days grazing on fresh, naturally grown grass. On rainy days and in the winter (which can be quite harsh in Maine), the cows pass their time in a long, narrow barn, loosely tethered while they chew on hay and listen to classical music to pass the time.

The cows are milked in the barn twice a day, and rather than being lined up and milked at a stationary milking machine, the machine comes to them. This method is called stanchion, and it is believed to be the best way to produce clean and high-quality milk. The farmers at smiling hill recognize that stanchion milking is slower and more labor-intensive than stationary milking, but it’s a sacrifice they’re willing to make.

Smiling Hill is a family business, operated by members of the Knight family, whose great grandparents acquired the farm’s 500 acre property nearly 300 years ago. The family has been farming the same way ever since - growing hay for cows, and using the cows’ manure to fertilize the fields. This is not to say that the farm hasn’t modernized, however. The Knights have adapted with the times and take advantage of innovative technologies to improve their farm’s efficiency.

They have a website, and they’re open to new things and taking advice from others, and it is this outlook and flexibility that has kept their farm afloat while so many others have vanished.

Today 6 members of the Knight family still work at the farm, along with a few other full-time workers and artisans. They produce a wide variety of dairy foods, including milk, cream, cheese, ice cream and butter. All of their products are packaged and bottled on-site, and sold at the farm’s dairy store as well as at various retail outlets throughout Maine.

By bottling and packaging their own goods, Smiling Hill has found a way to maintain control over the price of its milk. The farm even rents out its bottling plant to other local dairies so that they too can reap the benefits of selling processed goods. It is because of their bottling plant that Smiling Hill has been able to find success without having to cut corners to produce their milk as cheaply as possible to be sold to processors at a bottom-line price. By working independently of the mainstream dairy business, the farm has managed to balance economic and environmental sustainability.

The farm’s employees put in long, hard hours, and getting rich quick is definitely not in the foreseeable future. But the rewards of this work are many, and as one of the Knights will tell you, “I wouldn’t trade my life for anybody’s.” It is clear that the farm, its delicious products and its positive impact on the local environment and community, will be around for future generations to enjoy.