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Organic Dairy Farms

Moretti Family Dairy

Moretti Family Dairy is 400 acres with 270 Jersey and Jersey cross breed milking cows, located at the north end of west Marin County in the rural community of Fallon. For more than 32 years, Mike and Monique Moretti have been good stewards of this picturesque land. The husband-and-wife team Mike and Monique own the farm, and their two adult children, Amanda Boggs and Danny Moretti, live close by and support their parents in the family business.

Monique’s family bought the land in 1991, and together she and Mike worked with them as partners to start this first-generation family operation. Monique is the daughter of Don and Bonnie DeBernardi, growing up on her parent’s dairy farm in Petaluma, she learned about farming from a young age. Mike’s mom Linda Wade Moretti was raised on a dairy farm in Petaluma, where Mike spent most of the time working for his Uncle Allan Wade. Mike grew up experiencing farming life, both in Sonoma and Marin Counties. Farming is part of the Moretti’s heritage, influencing their deep dedication and passion for North Bay’s dairy community.

To keep feed costs down during the dry pasture season, the farm team harvests and puts up baleage each year. Animal welfare is important to Moretti’s farming practices and it is a fundamental principle of organic production. The farm relies on the most modern technology to monitor the cow’s health.

Moretti Family Dairy Facts

270
Jersey and Jersey cross breed cows
400
Acres

Healthy Soils Initiative

In 2012, the Moretti dairy was converted to certified organic. The dairy was already operating as a pasture-based farm, so transitioning to organic farming was easy for them and their dairy herds (already grazing throughout the year as weather permits). Mike said it makes the most sense for herd health and protecting the land to practice organic farming. He refers to organic as “back-to-the-basics” farming with such practices as no-tilling and eliminating herbicide spray, among other benefits. The farm had a tremendous increase in soil fertility and pasture growth with a return of more native grasses, local clovers, other forages, and species after the first year of completing the transition

The farmland is situated at the lower end of Stemple Creek watershed, bordering the Estero de San Antonio (both bodies of water empty into the Pacific Ocean). In 2023, the Moretti family started working on their first carbon farm plan with the Marin Resource Conservation District (RCD) and began participating in California’s Healthy Soils Initiative. This has led them to plant specific tree varieties in the west section of their farmland. The practices include applying compost on 77 acres which have demonstrated to sequester carbon back into the soil and reduce a farm’s carbon footprint.
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