In the early 1980s, dairy farmer Bob Keller made the hard decision to relocate his family's farm from Fairfield County, Connecticut to the Hudson Valley.
"We were the last operating dairy farm in town," Keller explains. "Urban sprawl was coming." Though there once were farms nearby, Hollyrock Farm had become surrounded by houses. "It got so we were in people's way," Keller says. Local farm dealerships were gone, and the farm had to rent land in three different towns.
In 1984, the Kellers had sold their Connecticut farm, and the self-described "Connecticut Yankees" settled on a scenic 500-acre dairy farm in the Columbia County town of Stuyvesant. Their 250-cow operation now supports three generations of Kellers.
Referring to the lack of available land that has driven farming out of many areas in the Northeast, Kellers says, "That was part of the problem where we lived in Connecticut. You've got one farm here and one farm there." |
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| Bob Keller's dairy farm in the town of Stuyvesant supports three generations of Kellers. |
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