A team headed by Rick Kersbergen, University of Maine Cooperative Extension professor, has received the Northeast Extension Directors’ Award of Excellence 2006 for building an organic dairy research and extension program aimed at developing the organic dairy industry. The award was presented during a recognition dinner in Washington, D.C.

Kersbergen presented the results of the program to the Northeast Extension regional leadership. He carried home citations for team members Mia Morrison, dairy farmer and executive director of Maine Organic Milk Producers; Timothy Griffin, agronomist at USDA-ARS New England Plant, Soil and Water Laboratory; and Chris Reberg-Horton, organic cropping specialist at North Carolina State University. Kersbergen received a check for $1,000 to support future related programming in Maine.

Maine has the highest percentage – 20 percent – of organic dairy farms in the nation. Industry observers credit Kersbergen and his team for their efforts to increase the number of organic farms in Maine.

Kersbergen is leading efforts to research alternative cropping systems to feed organic herds, expand grain production and usage on organic dairies in Maine and Vermont and reduce dependence on grain brought in from the Midwest and Canada. His three-year alternative forage project has resulted in double-cropping systems that produce quality forage with significantly reduced weed pressure.

Data from the UM team’s cost-of-production study allowed producers to negotiate an estimated average increase of $44,000 yearly in the Northeast for 2006, with a cumulative impact of $2.6 million directly to Maine’s organic farming community.