Case Studies: Ekolott Farm
Larry Scott and Peggy Hewes
Ekolott Farm
Newbury, Vermont
Ekolott Farm sits on the Vermont side of the lush Connecticut River Valley. The main farmhouse, built in 1870 and once a stagecoach stop between Concord and Burlington, has been home to his parents since the family moved there in 1980. Larry and his wife Peggy live in a separate house on the land, situated right next to three beautiful acres of sunflowers planted in the spring of 2005 as potential feedstock for biodiesel.
The entire farm occupies three hundred acres: two hundred of them tillable, and a portion of those two hundred currently leased out while they decide what direction the farm will take after the recent sale of their one hundred head dairy herd. The family history of milking cows goes back to Larry's grandfather in 1929, a legacy that made the decision to get out of the dairy business an extremely difficult one for the Scotts. The financial cost and debt load associated with keeping the herd simply left them no choice.
The commercial products from the farm now include corn and hay silage, sawdust for bedding in area farms, and oil and meat from the emus they've been raising for eleven years. They are using conventional farming practices, but now that organic certification is possible field by field, they're considering growing some crops organically. In addition to the three acres of sunflowers, they're also growing five acres of soybeans (also for biodiesel feedstock), and will be comparing what they learn about each crop through the growing and harvest cycles.
Ekolott Farm requires about 3,000 gallons of fuel per year to heat the two houses, as well as significant amounts used to run tractors and a large delivery truck. They look forward to a time when they will be growing and producing enough biodiesel to fill those needs.
Peggy and Larry have been looking into biodiesel for years, but while still tending the dairy herd, they couldn't afford to dedicate any extra land or funds to experimentation with seed oil crops. They look at the big picture of oil and farming in this country: environmentally, economically and politically, and are motivated to succeed at an enterprise that's renewable and sustainable. Their first goal would be to meet their own energy needs on the farm, and then ultimately to reach a stage in their production of seed oil crops where they could make it available to others in the community. Right now the nearest seed press is quite a distance away (in Canada), so they're hoping to obtain a grant to purchase one of their own. Whether it's a stationary press, or a mobile press that could travel from farm to farm, it will be an integral part of the complete energy loop they're hoping to establish.
As this was their first season growing sunflower or soybeans, they were grateful to get some helpful advice from other area farmers trying soybeans after selling their own herds. They noticed that the sunflowers took off right away after the mid-May planting, but the soy got off to a slow start with the rain and cold in late spring. They did need to spray the sunflowers for lambs quarter, pigweed and velvet leaf while they were pre-emergent.
Technically, they're learning what they need to know as they go along. One of the first things they will need is proper grain storage that's specifically designed for seed crops. This will require ventilation using screens and fans, a type of storage that silage crops don't require. To keep up with recent developments, they've attended an alternative energy conference at Vermont Technical College and the Vermont Biodiesel Workshop at the Law School.
Larry and Peggy are hopeful that what they're undertaking on Ekolott Farm will provide incentive for more farmers to grow and produce their own fuel while keeping the fertile land surrounding them open and productive. Twenty-five years ago when the family moved to the farm, there were twenty-three farms between Bradford and Wells River shipping their own milk. There are only four left. While aware that there's much in the way of infrastructure that they still need to put in place, they're committed to approach it one step at a time. To those who say this will never take off in the Northeast because of the lack of infrastructure, Larry says, "It has to start somewhere. There's a finite amount of petroleum and we're going to need renewable resources. We have some of the best soil in the world right here where we can grow the crops that meet those needs."