Alta Vista Buffalo Farm

At the Alta Vista Buffalo Farm located in Rutland, MA and the Nashua River Watershed, students observed and discussed elements of sustainable agriculture: transparency, community-centered, grass-fed, improved nutrition (iron, lower cholesterol, higher protein), animal welfare, “nature’s pattern”, solarized systems, rotational grazing, symbiotic mutualism, etc. Students also discussed the the drastic population changes of the American Buffalo and its genetic dilution. Last, the farm is located in a hill overlooking the Pine-Hill Reservoir, one of ten reservoirs that supplies Worcester and surrounding towns with municipal water. First barrier protection buffer zones are pronounced in the form of tree stands, and distance from roads, while various brooks flow undeneath rodes and from farm land (such as Alta Vista). Pine Hill is the largest of the ten holding approximately 3 billion gallons at an elevation of 900 feet.

Coopers Hilltop Dairy Farm Revisited

The Environmental Science class returned for the second year in a row to look first-hand at how a local small family dairy farm operates. About 40-50 cows produce up to 8 gallons/day each. Raised on pasture (80 acres on site, 200+ for hay off-site) and farm grown corn (35 acres) as well as imported grain mix (3 tons/week). Cows can eat corn (all of the plant) fresh or fermented but not while it is fermenting (a “hot ration”). A last detail added on this trip were soil types (“merrimack” to the west, “paxton” on the drumlin farm site, and “situate” to the east). Students learned how the sustainable versus industrial agriculture debate is rarely an either-or scenario but a spectrum, or more aptly a series of spectrums for each practice element.

Nicewicz Farm

Apple Maggots (IPM)

Peach Tree

Lay of the Land

Environmental students travelled to the 30-acre, third generation Nicewicz Farm located on 100 acres of land in Bolton, MA and the Nashua River Watershed. At 1200 trees putting out about 4,000 bushels (40lbs/bushel)/year, apple trees are the farm’s dominant crop. A non-native species, apple trees are easy prey for pests such as the the apple maggot, leaf miner, apple scab, and plum curculio and so require pesticide management. The Nicewicz Farm has implemented Integrated Pest Management (IPM) – a method of monitoring pest life cycles, population density, etc. and utilizing traps to optimize the effectiveness and minimize the amount of species-targeted pesticide applications. As a result Nicewicz uses 75% less pesticides compared to the older technique of broad spectrum pesticide applications. The farm also reminds us of the diversity of apple varieties: their 17 to the 1,000′s that exist worldwide.