Meet Central New York’s Farm Families – Brovetto’s Dairy & Cheese

This tale may seem familiar if you know the storyline behind the TV series Green Acres, city people moving to the countryside to start a farm. The big difference is the Brovetto family had a lot more on the ball than TV farmer, Oliver Wendell Douglas.

Ron and Corrine Brovetto along with their four young children pulled up stakes on Long Island in 1972 and moved to Harpersfield, NY to start a dairy farm. Ron was an engineer and Corrine was a nurse before the move, which if you think about it, may be the perfect background for the transition, inventive and caring.

Their son, Russell Brovetto, graduated from SUNY Cobleskill with an Ag Engineering degree in 1986 and currently manages the day to day operation of the farm, while Ron handles financials and the mountain of paperwork that comes with farming these days.

The family had a great eye for the future in 2000, realizing the farm couldn't survive on just shipping milk. They transitioned to Brovetto’s Dairy and Cheese LLC and began making a specialty cheese, German Tilsit.  Ron and Russell completed cheese making courses and today make all the cheese on the farm, aging it naturally in an underground cheese cave. They offer thirteen different flavors and sell it directly from the farm and through distributors.

The Brovetto family has three generations currently working on the farm. Ron has added cheesemaker to his role and Corrine manages the cheese house and attends all the local farmer markets. Russell has two daughters, Brittany and Rachel who grew up on the farm. Rachel is also a graduate of SUNY Cobleskill class of 2019 with a degree in Dairy Management and Production. She works alongside her dad as assistant herd manager, milking forty head of Holstein and Jersey Cows bred for high components for the cheese. The farm ships about half of their milk and retains the other half for making cheese.

We thank the Brovetto family for three generations of hard working farm families keeping us all fed. And a special salute to Ron and Corrine, now in their 80's, for still living their dream 49 years later. As they say, do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life.

Big Frog 104's Meet A CNY Farmer is presented by White's Farm Supply.  It's also brought to you by Louis J Gale and Son Feed Mill in Waterville who holds a drawing for a $100 gift certificate from the farms nominated each month.
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Meet Other CNY Farm Families