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.
