Ken Button and Morgan Greenwood participated in the "Green Mountains, Greener Pastures Tour" put on by USDA in the Randolph, VT area on August 19th. The tour's first stop was at Thunder Mountain Maple in Braintree. This was to promote energy efficiency improvements that they have made such as a Reverse Osmosis machine. USDA supports renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements by providing grants and loan guarantees to agricultural producers and rural small business owners through its Rural Development Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP).
The next stop was at Circle Saw Farm in Braintree which is run by Bob and Tay Simpson. The Simpsons have constructed a "bedding recovery unit" which separates the liquid from manure into a storage facility and sends the solids through the recovery unit and is then used as bedding for the cows. This unit has allowed the farm to produce some of their own bedding as well as bring their nutrient management plan into balance.
After a lunch at Allis State Park in Brookfield the tour ended at Neighborly Farms in Randolph Center which is owned by Rob and Linda Dimmick. The farm is an organic dairy and they also make organic cheese. Neighborly Farms is active in Vermont's Agritourism industry which USDA supports through their Rural Development Rural Business Enterprise Grants (RBEG).
