Luck and hard work
Dairy farming is demanding under the best of conditions, but sometimes it presents unexpected challenges. Like when your barn burns down as it did in February 2010 at the Fletcher farm. With 250 cows that needed milking twice a day and 300 young stock to tend, the Fletcher's neighbors swooped in. They split the herd, took the milkers for ten weeks, fed and milked the cows, and helped the Fletchers build a new barn. Less than three months later, they were operating again at full speed. All it took was a little help from their friends. Says Edna, "That's just the way we do dairy farming in New England. In an odd way, the barn fire showed us how lucky we really are." Well, luck is usually the residue of hard work, and the Fletchers have done plenty of that. In addition to running their farm, Walter served as a member of the Agri-Mark Board of Directors for a number of years. Edna serves on the board of the Dairy and Nutrition Council of the Farm Bureau.
