Sustainability Spotlight: Trent Stoller

MMPA is committed to cooperative social responsibility and sustainable business practices throughout our entire supply chain. At the farm level, MMPA members are also on a sustainability journey. We’re checking in with a handful of member farmers leading the charge with this sustainability spotlight series.

From humble beginnings first-generation farmer Trent Stoller has grown his dairy legacy from 700 to 11,000 cows across five dairies in northwest Ohio. Coming from a family in the plastics business, Trent knew little about the dairy industry when he purchased his first farm of 700 cows in 2008, but has since proved himself business savvy as GreenTop Acres is now a thriving dairy enterprise.

Trent attributes much of his success to the people around him. He believes not only in environmental and financial sustainability, but the idea of having sustainability within your workforce.

“I am most proud of our people,” Trent said. “We would like them to view their job as not just a stepping-stone, but a career with retirement. I do believe that when we think long-term or sustainable, it has a very positive spillover in our personal life and the way we treat people.”

Trent places great value in taking care of his employees and has taken advantage of technology to help manage schedules better.

“It dawned on us that all our employees have a phone, so we utilize the cloud for everything. All our procedures, contact information, tracking, packing lists, scale-in scale-out, etc. is in the cloud so at anytime, anywhere, employees have that information.”

Not only can employees access key information on the cloud, the farm also uses the technology as a daily management tool.

“We have implemented task lists inspired by military training, where decisions are made in advance,” described Trent. “This approach allows our team to react based on predefined plans without needing to figure things out on the spot. Each morning, our guys and gals simply check their list, guiding their tasks for the day. This system also eases transitions during personnel changes. Without modern computing, networking, Wi-Fi, and cloud technology this wouldn’t be possible.”

Implementing technologies has been key for GreenTop Acres as they quickly realized that they cannot rely on managing everything.

“When we first started, we tried to manage everything. We had said, ‘Okay this isn’t perfect, but we’re good managers, we can manage this.’ Quickly, we shifted our mindset so that, instead of trying to save money on every little thing, we decided to set things up for the long term and make it generational. We want to play the long game and when we take on a project, the results may not be immediate, but they will have long-term benefits,” stated Trent.

One of the ways GreenTop Acres has invested in sustainability is with the utilization of eight 360 RAIN irrigation systems.

Trent explains, “It has a tremendous number of benefits. We’ve always felt that the holy grail of manure is to be able to apply it on a growing crop. The 360 RAIN gives us a tool to do that in season when the plant can use it and then it also provides a whole litany of advantages for us.”

The 360 RAIN allows the farm to spread water and manure over a growing crop. The benefits of this technology are fewer commercial fertilizers being used, reduced run-off, less days of storage so that the sooner the manure is applied, the less methane is emitted, and it allows the farm to harvest more crops from the same number of acres.

GreenTop Acres has made significant progress by adopting these technologies that support their sustainability goals.

Trent states, “Our mission is to be our customers top supplier by providing sustainably produced milk with a balance of social impact, environmental impact, animal welfare, product quality and price.”

This mission has brought the farm to its current success and will continue to guide its future growth.

“Our goal is to continue to grow,” Trent stated.

Trent attributes much of their success to the people who have supported their journey.

“My advice to other producers would simply be if you need help, ask,” Trent said. “There are a ton of people that will help you and I can attest to that because we got into the industry knowing nothing, and still don’t know that much, but we do have a wonderful network of friends in the dairy industry that I call for advice. It’s unique, not every industry is like that.”

KEYWORD

The cloud: A network of remote servers that store and manage data, run applications, and deliver services and content over the internet. Utilizing the cloud can create efficiencies that contribute to sustainability and can also collect and maintain data to make sustainable decisions.

Triticale: A cover crop grain that’s a hybrid of wheat and rye. Triticale is known for greater adaptability to less than favorable environments and higher forage quality.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Agriculture