The cows return home to Red Mountain Road

SALISBURY — Despite the magnitude of the fire that destroyed two buildings on one of their satellite farms last week, the Jacquiers of Laurelbrook Farm in East Canaan seem largely undaunted by the damage that’s been done and the work that lies ahead of them.

The fire began early on Saturday, Nov. 11, and burned until the middle of that afternoon. It took fire volunteers from three states and more than a dozen companies to put out the blaze, which destroyed a workshop and a three-sided storage barn that housed farm equipment and, on that day, about 250 tons of hay.

The farm is on Red Mountain Road in Salisbury and is one of four “satellite” farms used by the Jacquiers. The other three are on Route 44 heading from Lakeville to Millerton, on the property formerly known as the Lee farm; on Sand Road at Boinay Hill in Falls Village; and in nearby New York state, in Amenia.

Laurelbrook is one of the largest remaining dairy farms in the state. Cricket Jacquier is in the third generation of the four-generation family-owned dairy operation. Also integral to Laurelbrook are his father, Pete, his brother, Bobby, and Bobby’s sons, Austin and Dalton.

“And our wives and kids,” Cricket Jacquier specified. “Everybody helps.”

 Smoke lingers in the air

On Thursday, Nov. 16, Cricket and Pete were back at the Red Mountain farm, using a backhoe to turn the still-smoking piles of hay on the ground next to the barns and the twisted piles of metal that used to be Laurelbrook farm equipment. They were working fast to get the electricity and water on in the barns again, so they could bring back the cows who live there.

 Thousands of cows

In total, Laurelbrook has 2,400 Holstein cows, although Cricket Jacquier noted that only 1,200 of them are being milked at any given time. The others are like a farm team, so to speak; they’re being raised and nurtured now to step up and be milked when they reach 2 years old.

Many of the cows live on the satellite farms, “so they can be located close to the land resources that provide the feed for them,” Jacquier said. “The hay and corn grown on those properties in the summer is stored there through the winter.”

The cows on Red Mountain Road are all in the seventh or eighth month of their nine-month pregnancies, he said. 

Three weeks before their due dates, those cows would have been brought back to the Laurelbrook home farm on Route 44, so the farm staff could make sure they were getting all the nutrients they need before calving, and so someone could watch over them 24 hours a day until they have the calves.

When the family learned of the fire on Red Mountain Road, Jacquier said, their first concern was to make sure the farm employees were safe. Running a close second was a concern that the animals were safe. 

 Returning to Red Mountain

Fortunately, no people and no animals were hurt. The 150 pregnant cows on Red Mountain Road were immediately loaded onto trucks and moved to the home farm and to Elm Knoll Farm in East Canaan, which is just down the road from Laurelbrook and which is owned by Cricket’s uncle, Dave Jacquier.

On Friday, Nov. 17, after the electricity and water were restored, 150 cows were returned to the barn there, which was not damaged in the fire. The ones closest to their due dates remained at Laurelbrook, and other cows were brought to Salisbury in their place.

Jacquier said the cows who are returning to the site of the fire are largely unaware that anything happened there. They also don’t mind being moved, even though they’re pregnant, as long as they are handled with care. 

They won’t especially like the smell of smoke that still lingers in the air, but at least the fumes have dissipated enough that they won’t hurt the cows’ lungs. 

And, Jacquier noted, what’s most important is that they are alive. The buildings and the equipment and the lost hay (which was to be used as bedding for the pregnant cows) will have to be replaced. Replacing those will cost money.  

Insurance will cover some of the replacement costs. And the fire only destroyed a fraction of the Laurelbrook property and equipment. 

“Having the satellite farms spreads out some risk and reduces exposure,” Jacquier said. “We are glad all the animals are not at one location and the equipment is housed in separate locations as well. 

“Everything is spread out so if something happens at one farm, you still have the animals and equipment at the other farms.”

 The amazing volunteers

As he talked about the fire and its aftermath, Jacquier said again and again how grateful he and his family are that the fire volunteers came out so quickly and worked so hard to get the fire under control; and that they understood what had to be done in what order so that, especially, the fire wouldn’t spread to the cow barn. 

The fire destroyed a combine, tractors, a feed truck, a corn planter and tillage equipment. 

The loss of those big machines hurts but it’s nothing compared to the loss of lives. 

“Losing the cows would have really hurt,” Jacquier said. “So much effort goes into raising them. You can replace machines and buildings but you can’t replace those lives.”

And it’s not the worst time of year that this could have happened. 

“At least it isn’t the middle of winter and zero degrees outside,” Jacquier said. 

It’s not going to be easy. But in the larger scheme of things, it’s not going to crush Laurelbrook Farm and the Jacquier family.

“You have to be optimistic in this business,” Cricket said. “We look at this from the point of view of multiple generations. There are always going to be setbacks. This is a minor setback in the overall scope of things.”