Building and conserving Vermont's future.
Caleb and Jessie Smith run Dorset Peak Jerseys on conserved land owned by the Smokey House Center in Danby, Vermont. Located in the Otter Creek sub-watershed of Lake Champlain, they milk 65 cows and sell through AgriMark and at their farmstand. In November 2017, they were awarded a $40,000 Water Quality Grant to support a project also funded by the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service and Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets to build a freestall barn and covered barnyard for heifers and milk cows, year round manure storage, and associated pumping and transfer facilities. The project will improve manure collection and storage for the farmstead and will keep precipitation out of the waste stream. Housing animals in a freestall barn will also allow full mechanization of the feeding and cleaning of the new building, making the farm operation much more efficient.