Mapleline Farms

Day in the Life with Chris Butterfield at Mapleline Farm
By Caitlin Coughlan




Mapleline Farm was established in 1904 and is a dairy farm of Jersey Cows.



Chris Butterfield is the Farm's 23 year-old Dairy and Herd Manager. He has been working at Mapleline Farm for six years but has been working on dairy farms most of his life.



Jersey cows produce a milk with a higher fat content, which is good for making creams and eggnog. The processes of milking, pasteurization, bottling then distribution is all done on the farm.



Chris feeds some of the farm's Jersey cows. He will do this twice a day, just like every other job done on the farm.



A cow looks at the milking machine after all the cows have been milked.



Milking the cows starts at 5 in the morning and can go till 9:30. Chris cleans the cow manure with a tractor after milking.


Chris' shoes are covered in cow manure. The milking room will have to be cleaned again later that night after the second round of milking.



Chris and a fellow farm worker discuss business in one of the barns.


A cow waits to be milked in the evening.


Sarah Wilcox attaches a cow to the milking machine. The machine measures milk by the pound.




The milking apparatus attached to the cow's udder.



Milk pails in the milk processing barn.


Jake, one of the farm workers at Mapleline, dumps manure into a neighboring field. He and Chris served in the National Guard together in Iraq in 2005. He likes his jobs working on the farm and landscaping, but thinks that he may join up again.


Jake empties the manure in the field.


The store across the street from Mapleline Farm.