Fall time for Construction

It has been a busy, busy fall on the farm. We all (animals included) enjoyed a warmer than usual October. The sun is great for all – the pigs grow well and the cattle continue to roam through the woods and pastures. The lack of a frost is great for our poultry as well (we did not have a serious frost until the 25^th of October!!) – They all eat bugs and worms and green grass which diminish significantly after the frost. Our hens continue to lay, meat birds and turkeys are growing and the turkeys are monsters.

This fall has also been a time of construction. As many of you know, we purchased a former dairy farm that had fallen on hard times. In addition to cleaning up, we have many, many repairs and several construction projects ahead of us. The first of these was to replace the roof on the livestock barn. We are in the process of sawing and milling boards from our forest land (using a sustainable-harvest forest management plan) to side our barn. Much of the siding has been cut and is drying. This will be a winter project.

We are also constructing a heavy use pad and a manure pit to deal in an environmentally appropriate and sustainable manner with our animal waste. The heavy use pad is a large area outside the barn that has been used by the cows for generations. We feed our cows in the barn in a hay crib in the winter – they have free access to the barn to get out of snow, wind and cold. Our cows will often spend the night inside and go out during the day – but they stay much closer to the barn than they do in the summer. And they poop. Over the years this builds up and is very difficult to remove. We have excavated an area that is 20 feet wide and the length of the barn of over 4 feet deep of cow manure. This is from years and years of cows. We have then filled in with bank run gravel and will be topping with 6 inches of gravel and finally a concrete pad. Thus, we can clean it off with a bobcat and our cows will be assured of safe and clean footing when they are coming in and out of the barn – whether to eat, drink or sleep.

As part of the project we are also installing a wastewater treatment strip to treat the runoff from the barn area. The barn roof is a large area and when rain and snow hit the clean water is mixed with cow waste and becomes full of nitrogen. Currently it runs downhill (literally). While some is good, we don’t want it all washing down into the stream untreated (as it has done for decades), rather we want to direct the water to be treated before it flows into a tributary for a local watershed. Our wastewater treatment strip can be thought of as a septic system for cows.

Please check our website for photos of all of this exciting construction. In addition to fully understanding the difference between an excavator, bulldozer, loader, and bobcat; I have come to really appreciate the necessity of some heavy machinery. When I initially purchased the farm, I thought I would do all the work with horses. While I would love to plow and harrow with horses, I am really grateful not to have to manually shovel 4800 cubic feet of manure.

Next spring we will construct a manure pit to contain all of our manure between the time in comes out of the barn and the time we spread it on the fields. It is exciting to think that after 100 years of farming, we are making significant strides in making our farm a friend of the environment. For decades, many farmers didn’t really think about the impact of the animal waste on the environment. As our understanding has progressed, we are pleased to be part of the solution – a truly sustainable farm.

Thank you again for your part in helping to make us a sustainable agricultural venture. As a member of our farm you are an important component of preserving farms for future generations here in MA. Many thanks.