3 posts were split to a new topic: Warm & cool season perennial grass managed in harmony
So great to read about all of your farms! I am Kelley Babbin @Howling Flats Farm in the NW Corner of CT. I started the farm 15 years ago with my son and am now running it on my own while he & his wife focus on raising my adorable grandchildren. I operate a small but mighty regenerative farm rooted in clean and ethical meats. I raise AGW Certified Humane Angus cattle, also pasture hogs, Boer goats and until recently a flock of meat sheep as well.
With the help of a couple of grants I recently converted 3 acres of my little farm into silvopasture with plans to improve the remaining acres as well. In its past life my farm was a stable for racehorses (with a 1/2 mile measured racetrack and all) - which means poor pastures with compaction rates over 300 PSI.
I love the books listed but find I spend more time reading marketing & coaching books lately to fund this amazing lifestyle I am blessed to be living.
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Hi everyone, I’m a beginning sheep farmer in northeast PA. We have 20 Katahdin ewes and will retain ewe lambs for a few years and hope to grow to around 100. I’m interested in cross breeding with an Australian White in the future. I work as a grazing specialist for NRCS and have done research with silvopastures, summer annuals, and crabgrass.
My current favorite book is Managing Your Ewe by Laura Larson because I know how to manage grass, but diagnosing sheep is where I want to improve.
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Hello fellow grazers!
I am Bart Niswonger. I run Kinne Brook Farm with my wife and kids. We have a herd of 40-ish Scotch Highlanders in Worthington MA and are Certified Grassfed and Animal Welfare Approved by A Greener World.
Like all of you, we do a lot of things: forest renovation into silvopasture, raise bees, collect maple sap, make our hay, compost our bedded pack and generally try to reduce inputs as much as possible.
Nick, thank you for setting this up, and thank you all for joining and contributing!
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Hi Bart! Great to see you here! This is a newer forum, so I think most everyone here is in the same boat. One thing I’m seeing about the participants here is the amount of diversification within each operation. I work for the NRCS and see some diversification where I am, but I am talking maybe 2 or 3 things. Participants here seem to be doing about a half dozen different things on average. Some doing more, some less, but it keeps things interesting and I love diversification.
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Hey Everyone, great to see some familiar names and faces on here!
Ben Crockett, officially - I work with Berkshire Agricultural Ventures as the climate-smart agriculture program manager (and happy to discuss views and feelings on the term climate-smart!). I get to spend my time supporting all kinds of farmers in the 4 counties at the intersection of CT/MA/NY with climate risk management planning and general farm operations technical assistance. I also have the pleasure of being part of the New England Grazing Network steering committee on behalf of BAV, and really love spreading resources and knowledge about grazing practices across the Northeast.
In past chapters of my life I’ve enjoyed an array of agricultural pursuits from diversified crop production, orcharding, raising hogs, and milking a small Jersey herd. Now I farm 1s and 0s, and using my farming background, doing what I can to help farmers strengthen their businesses and farming practices. If I had my druthers, I’d probably be raising some (brown) dairy cows and enough poultry to keep the pastures fertilized, along with an oversized garden.
In terms of books, I usually find myself recommending Sarah Mock’s “Farm and other F words”. I think it’s a pretty sober look at American agriculture, and emphasized to me the trap of the “self-sufficient” farmer - haven’t read her follow up “Big Team Farms” yet, but in my own experience her reflections on the need for a team (like any business) to make it in farming is spot on. Her podcast “The Only Thing That Lasts” is a good listen if you’re into agricultural land history.
And to stir the pot a bit, I have a hard time with the Omnivores Dilemma at this point - it was great to see how many people it has (and still does) inspire, but I think the “solutions” Pollan offers are not solutions for most people. If you can afford a localvore diet, great! But that’s a small fraction of the population. I think this Maintenance Phase podcast has a pretty good dissection of the book and the issues that rippled out from it’s mass uptake by U.S. food systems.
As others have mentioned, thanks Nick for building this space, I look forward to exploring and learning more from others!
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Hi buddies, I’m Danielle from BOTL Farm in Ashford, CT. I’m a first generation livestock farmer who used to be a vegetarian.
I rotationally graze pigs, goats, and layers. My farming and life partner kicked off this group a few months ago and has been ever so gently encouraging me to participate.
Since livestock farming can be isolating, I’m glad this group has formed to foster some inner connectivity for folks in our region. I also believe that talking to someone for 5 minutes with experience with a specific subject can save a farmer a lot of time, money, and effort! Glad we’re here to share tidbits.
As for my fav farming book, I don’t think I’ve read it yet. I’ve heard good things about The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith. Let me know if anyone has read it and has thoughts!
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Hi Nick!
Micheal Pollan helped me enter the realm of animal ethics too.
Thanks for sharing.
Baylee
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Hi Jefferson!
You make the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten.
Baylee
Hi Dennis!
Those Pinzgauers are handsome!
Did you provide some genetics to Buttercup Farm?
Baylee
Hi Baylee!
Thanks, hope to see you soon!
Howdy!
I’m Baylee Drown. I spend most of my time farming in Lyme, Connecticut with my partner Ryan Quinn. I rotationally graze shorthorn cattle (about 20 acres remotely and 2 acres at the homefarm), raise meat birds including turkeys and keep ducks for eggs, which also rotate through our orchards and cover cropped vegetable beds. Previously we raised Berkshire hogs, farrow to finish, rotating through oak forests adjacent to our homefarm. We’ve retired our sows to a life of luxury.
We have integrated our animal and vegetable production systems to harness our livestock’s natural behaviors toward vegetable production goals, including; increasing root biomass of cover crops, terminating cover crops, removing crop residue, reducing pest eggs and larvae in soil, managing weeds and providing fertility.
We have historically grown about 4+ acres of veggies intensively each season for the last 11 years. For 2026, we’re going to grow 1 acre of veggies, even more intensively, and will work on finishing our commercial kitchen, expanding our compost production and dabbling in aquaculture and small grains.
Our vision is to provide a full diet to our customers for 10 months or more of the year. Our veggie CSA has ranged from 140-240 families for the last 5 years; we are going to sell fewer shares this year, however we are expanding our product offerings.
My first rotational grazing book was Greener Pastures on Your Side of the Fence: Better Farming with Voisin Grazing Management by Bill Murphy. I still look to it for tips, although I’ve evolved my grazing system to be more like Jaime Elizondo’s Total Grazing Program.
My second favorite farming book is currently Cows Save the Planet by Judith D. Schwartz which is another Chelsea Green Book. Chelsea Green is the theme!
Looking forward to connecting with you all. Animal Welfare is near and dear to my heart, so I’ve pitched a course to UCONN EXT (I work part time with the Climate Smart Project) and I’d like to see how many farmers are interested in the subject. Survey here.
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