NORWICH – Bruce and Elizabeth Vermeulen of Hopestead Hill Farm in the Town of Columbus have received the 2010 Conservation Farm of the Year award from the Chenango County Soil and Water Conservation District.
The award is given annually to recognize local agricultural producers for their commitment to safeguarding and improving the area’s soil and water resources. Past recipients include Tumilowicz Farms in New Berlin and the Maple Dream Farm in Coventry.
Town of Afton Supervisor Bob Briggs, who chairs the SWCD board of directors, presented the Vermeulen’s with this year’s award at the organization’s Annual Awards Luncheon, held on Oct. 27 at the Canasawacta Country Club.
District Conservationist Lauren Johnson recalled spending many hours sitting at the Vermeulen’s kitchen table over several years, consulting on their soil and water conservation efforts.
“It does take time,” he admitted, but said the results were worth it. In his opinion, he said, Hopestead Hill Farm is a prime example of “what a conservation farm looks like.”
The Vermeulens, both of whom hail from the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan area, bought the 250-acre farm in 1987 after deciding they wanted to trade their high powered corporate careers for a more rural lifestyle. The farm was a working dairy, and the couple jumped right in. In fact, they often joke that they went from “Wall Street on Friday, to milking cows on Monday.”
Before moving to Upstate New York from their former home in New Jersey, the Vermeulens said they were “living for the weekends.” After the move, however, they realized this was no longer the case – because as dairy farmers there were no weekends. They stuck at it, though, continuing to operate the dairy for close to 10 years. They raised other animals as well, including a small flock of Dorset sheep which they’d started with two ewes prior to their move.
Then, in the mid-90’s, milk prices dipped. Faced with tough decisions, the Vermeulen’s decided to rethink their strategy. In the end, “the stars aligned” and they sold their dairy herd and turned their focus to sheep farming.
Working closely with Cornell University, the couple began breeding their flock of Dorset and Finn sheep to encourage certain traits – specifically multiple births, seasonality and accelerated lambing. The resulting ewes are more likely to have twins; are able to lamb outside of the traditional spring season; and can lamb every 8 months, or up to three times in two years.
The mainstay of the couple’s agricultural business is not wool, as some would assume, but “hot house” lambs. These lambs are sold 8 to 10 week old, weighing between 40 to 60 pounds.. Their primary customer is a third generation Italian butcher in the Bronx. Demand peaks during the Easter season, the Vermeulens explained, during which they sell as many as 150 to 200 lambs.
Hopestead Hill also sells on-farm to customers who travel from the Utica area or up from New York City. Many of these customers are ethnic Bosnians, or Muslims, who like to see how the animals are being raised.
The size of the flock peaked at 500 ewes, making it one of the largest sheep operations in the region. Over the last two years, however, they have scaled back, selling off some 200 ewes as breeder stock to other farms.
The Vermeulens were early pioneers locally in both rotational grazing and bailage, having long ago converted their fields from crops to hay. In addition to their own 250 acres, they also lease approximately 100 acres from neighboring property owners. As the size of their flock grew, they began tapping into more of the resources available to them at 99 North Broad Street.
Programs they’ve utilized include the Farm Services Agency’s Conservation Reserve Program, the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Agricultural Management Assistance program and the SWCD’s New York State Environmental Management grant.
According to Johnson, these programs enabled the Vermeulen’s to install “miles of high tensile fence, numerous watering sources, thousands of feet of pipelines with watering troughs, hundreds of feet of grassed waterways, several stream crossings and over 60 acres of wildlife conservation buffers.” All of it was instituted to meet their goals of controlling soil erosion and improving water quality, while implementing better farming practices and improving animal health.
This commitment to being stewards of their land earned the Vermeulens the 2010 Conservation Farm of the Year award, Johnson said.
“We do take our conservation efforts very seriously,” Bruce Vermeulen stated as he accepted the award on behalf of he and his wife. He said he and Elizabeth hope their own commitment will “inspire others to take similar steps to improve their land and the environment.”
Vermeulen thanked all who made their conservation efforts possible, including the staff at SWCD who he said “put up with” them during the slow planning process. He credited his wife Elizabeth for being the driving force behind their efforts.
“It’s really her who should be up here giving this speech,” he said. “I thank her for getting us to where we are.”
Senator James Seward and Assemblyman Clifford Crouch were among those present for the luncheon. Both Albany legislators took the opportunity to congratulate the Vermeulen’s on their accomplishments, as well as present the couple with proclamations from their respective houses of the state legislature.
“I really congratulate them,” Crouch said during his remarks. A former dairy farmer himself, the Republican praised the Vermeulen’s continued commitment to agriculture.
“Farming is in your blood,” he said, describing it as the only profession that can foster such a bond to the soil and water and become so “rooted” in the soul.
Hopestead Hill Farm also received a proclamation from the Chenango County Board of Supervisors, presented on behalf of the board by Town of Smithville Supervisor Allan Johnson.
To learn more about the Vermeulens’ farm, visit www.hopesteadhillfarm.com.