The First Morning of Spring on the Holbrook Farm

In March of 1987, dairy farmer Ellen Holbrook of Addison County, Vermont, opened the barn doors after five months of bitter winter. Her twelve Holstein calves had spent since October in the dim warmth of the stall — fed, sheltered, but confined. When the doors swung wide that Tuesday morning, the calves stood blinking in the threshold. Then sunlight hit their backs.…