Earthkeep Farmcommon reclaims Nordic Farms name
New owners ink deal for USDA to use two-thirds of farm for research
On an antique desk that belonged to Vermont Senator Justin Morrill, the father of the land-grant university system, representatives from the University of Vermont on Oct. 3 signed a 30-year lease for approximately 400 acres of farmland for long-term agricultural research use in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service.
“It is especially meaningful that this lease was signed on Senator Justin Morrill’s desk, as this collaboration perfectly embodies the University of Vermont’s land-grant mission,” said UVM Interim President Patricia Prelock. “This partnership will advance agricultural research that directly benefits Vermonters and will strengthen our state’s food system.”
Front from left, Christian Peters of the USDA, Richard Cate of the University of Vermont and Nordic farm owner Ben Dobson sign an agreement for the farm to lease around 400 acres for agricultural research, while Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts and UVM Vice President for Research Kirk Dombrowski watch the historic agreement.
Richard Cate, the university’s vice president for finance and administration, pointed out the significance of using Morrill’s desk for the occasion.
“I always tease that John Harvard got a lot of recognition for founding one college, but Justin Morrill founded 56 and counting,” Cate said. “It’s a pretty impressive record.”
The Vermont senator originated the Morrill Act of 1862, which has become known as the Land-Grant College Act because it allowed the sale of lands to finance universities in every state to stimulate economic development. It was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 2, 1862.
Among universities that were funded by this initiative were Cornell, MIT, Iowa State, Michigan State, the entire University of California system and the University of Vermont, Cate said.
The research planned on about two-thirds of the 600 total acres that are the Nordic Farm will involve a a collaborative effort between the university and the Agricultural Research Service.
Cates said leasing this farm land will enable “even more Vermont-based, expansive, impactful research, and that’s really a big part of what we’re about these days.”
Christian Peters said that, as the Agricultural Research Service’s research leader, his job is nurturing agricultural studies of ways to improve nutrition while also improving environmental, economic and social sustainability.
“These are meant to be 30-year or more experiments, and the long-term lease agreements that we’ll have here today give us the freedom to think long term,” Peters said.
The lease for the Nordic Farms property is for 30 years with an option to renew for 30 additional years three more times, so this agreement could have an impact on the agricultural future of Charlotte for 120 years.
Nordic farm owner Ben Dobson said, one night six months ago, when he and Kaspar Meier saw the farm was for sale, they decided in about 10 minutes they were going to try to purchase it. They have owned the farm for about three months now and have been working to clean it up while they worked on their business plan.
“When we met the researchers at the University of Vermont, we felt it was a pretty obvious choice,” Dobson said.
The farm that was most recently known as Earthkeep Farmcommon has reverted to its previous name of Nordic Farms. All of the tenants of Earthkeep Farmcommon are gone.
Meier moved to the farm two weeks after they closed on the property and has been working on it since. When asked if he was staying, he replied, “This is home.”
For the time being, he said, he and Dobson plan to grown hay on the 150-200 acres they retained, but are open to other farming possibilities over time.
Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts said he thought the important thing about the arrangement is that it will be a working farm.
“So, the animals are going to come back, crops are going to be done,” Tebbetts said. As a working farm in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he expects it will provide valuable research for not just Vermont farmers, but for farmers in other Northeastern states.
Tebbetts foresees the farm experimenting with practices in hopes that techniques will be adopted that really work and that other farmers will copy. Among possibilities he mentioned were research into grazing techniques, different grasses, various breeds of beef cattle “and maybe at some point there could be some sheep here as well.”
Peters said the Agricultural Research Service is required to do planning on a five-year cycle, and those plans are reviewed. They have to respond to feedback before they can get an approved plan. The feedback comes from both the research community and farmers.
They plan to start with cattle research, he said, because with Nordic Farms they have enough land to do that.
“Eventually, we’re hoping to have a herd of about 60 cows out here, but in the meantime, our plans for the next four years will be to study different breeds,” Peters said, “and see how they perform.”
He said initially they will work on how cattle do on different forages, but ultimately, they would like to work on both food crops and forages.