Dairy farm still delivers as it turns 100

Shaws devoted to family facility

DRACUT - Like a lot of dairies nationwide, Shaw Farm of Dracut is seeing a resurgence of a service that was once as common as doctors' house calls: home delivery of milk and other goods.
 

The pickup the last few years in this business is due to a number of factors, but the convenience of having something fresh and local delivered is probably one of the biggest lures, said Warren Shaw, sole owner of the Dracut farm, which turns 100 next month.

There's no doubt that more people today want to take advantage of what farms near them have to offer, added Lisa Capone, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Agricultural Resources. "That's why farmers markets, for example, have become so popular."

Shaw's farm has about 200 home-delivery customers, all of them in Chelmsford, Dracut, Lowell, Tyngsborough, Westford, and the west side of Methuen, said Shaw, 57, at his house on the 75-acre property off New Boston Road.

"Westford and Chelmsford are the growth towns for us because they have lots of young families," he said, noting that there is no local home-delivery competitor in his service area.

Gloria Grant, a Chelmsford travel agency owner, has been a Shaw Farm home-delivery customer for two years. She said she was referred by a neighbor.

Once a week, she said, a Shaw Farm truck operated by Bill Lannan of Tyngsborough stops by her house and drops off organic milk, eggs, and bottled water, among other goods, for her, her husband, Walter McEnaney, and their 10-year-old son, Grant.

Lannan said he delivers goods to 30 to 40 customers a day, five days a week. The farm has one delivery truck, and he is the regular driver. "The prices may be somewhat higher than supermarkets', but we're looking for convenience and the quality and freshness of what we order," Grant said.

Home-delivery customers, Shaw said, are charged a delivery fee of $5 for purchases of $10 or less, $4 for purchases of between $10 and $15, and $3 for purchases of $15 and up.

The home-delivery business now accounts for 10 percent of the farm's annual revenues of more than $1 million, Shaw said, adding that 15 wholesale customers collectively provide another 10 percent, while farm store sales represent 80 percent.

Among the wholesale customers are Wilson Farms of Lexington and Verrill Farm of Concord.

"For a number of years, we've bought milk, eggnog, orange juice, ice cream, and other products from Shaw Farm," said Barbara Hoefer, farm stand manager for Verrill Farm, which for many years was a dairy farm.

His great-grandfather started the farm "as a way to provide sustenance for his family," Shaw said. "Then my grandfather worked for another Dracut farm and, when its cows came down with foot-and-mouth disease, he took over that farm's horse-and-wagon delivery service."

Today, Shaw Farm has a milking herd of 75, which produce 600 gallons a day, seven days a week, he said. Organic milk, which is gaining in popularity, was introduced in March. "We're already ahead of last year's sales pace, mostly due to the organic product."

The farm has five full-time and 12 part-time workers. Shaw's son, Mark, 21, and son-in-law, Robert Pratt, 25, both of Dracut, are involved in the business.

Over the years, Shaw has been engaged in other endeavors such as owning a restaurant and being a Dracut selectman for 24 years, retiring six years ago. He is a Saturday talk show host for Lowell radio station WCAP (980).

But he said he is focused mostly on farm operations now. "I want to see this 100-year-old lady go into the next 100 years successfully," he said.

And there are many challenges to confront, notably rising energy costs, he acknowledged. "Farming is an energy-intensive business and, in our case, we have to be concerned with bottling and pasteurization costs, both of which are going up all the time."

Because of these costs, the farm is operating at a break-even point annually, he said.

Asked whether he has fielded any queries from real estate developers, Shaw said, "I'm committed to land preservation, so developers don't come here," he said. "Sure, we could have cashed in on a lot of money by selling the land, but the Shaws are not like that."