![]() Learn if a walk-behind tractor could be right for your farm. And the National Young Farmers Coalition recently published a guide for farmers interested in working with land trusts to find farmland.ĭespite these best efforts, many young farmers won’t be able to find farmland of their own on which to farm. Minnesota and Rhode Island, for instance, have developed innovative programs to enhance access to historically agricultural land. In response, the public and nonprofit sectors have set out to promote land access. This leaves an ever-growing percentage of farmland in the hands of older farmers. This trend also has the power to become self-perpetuating.Īs young farmers have an increasingly difficult time accessing land on which to start their own farms, more of them decide to pursue other careers. Looking at the numbers, it becomes apparent why.Īccording to the American Farmland Trust, 40 percent of the nation’s agricultural land is owned by people over the age of 65. 1 issue that young farmers encounter today. A 2017 survey conducted by the National Young Farmers Coalition found that land access is the No. Purchasing his own acreage simply wasn’t an option in the short term.Ĭole’s situation is by no means unique. Cole’s dream-like that of many young farmers-had always been to farm on his own property. He spent a handful of years after graduation working on farms across the Northeast before he felt ready set out on his own. It also allows him to grow his crops at ever-increasing densities, which results in impressive yields.ĭon’t have a tractor? Here’s how you can make that work for you.Īfter leaving California to attend college in Williamstown, Cole began to dream of farming in Massachusetts. In addition to keeping machinery and labor costs low, this method of growing vegetables allows Cole to prioritize the health of his soil by avoiding unnecessary tillage and compaction. The vast majority of the work on the farm is done by hand by Cole himself. ![]() The only machinery on the farm is a BCS, an Italian-made two-wheel tractor that can run a variety of implements ranging from a rear-tine tiller to a flail mower. Rather, Bigfoot Farm feels like a familiar and substantial part of the landscape.īrian Cole started Bigfoot in 2018 on a single acre in the foothills of the Taconic Mountains in Williamstown, Massachusetts, a small town in the northwest corner of the state that borders Vermont and New York.įor a combination of practical and philosophical reasons, Cole created the farm to be a market garden in the style of farmers/authors Eliot Coleman ( The New Organic Grower ) of Four Season Farm and JM Fortier ( The Market Gardener ) of Le Ferme to Quatre-Temps.Ĭole grows all of his crops in permanent, raised beds that are 30 inches wide by 50 feet long and separated from one another by 15-inch pathways mulched with straw or wood chips. If you dropped by Bigfoot Farm in western Massachusetts, you wouldn’t get the sense that the farm is at all temporary or even that it’s relatively new.
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