Thirteen students took a break during exam week to join IAA faculty members Meredith Epstein (Sustainable Agriculture) and Jason Entsminger (Agricultural Business Management) to visit Smith Meadows Farm in Berryville, Virginia. This livestock enterprise, owned by farmer and author Forrest Pritchard, was featured in Pritchard’s book, Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmers’ Markets, Local Food and Saving the Family Farm. Like many family-owned farms passed down through generations, the Pritchards’ farm struggled to survive as agriculture changed. Pritchard found renewed promise by embracing new farm enterprises and focusing on sustainable practices.
The visit started at the on-site store and commercial kitchen, where customers can buy meat, eggs, honey, jams, pastas, sausages, potpies and empanadas on the “honor system.” Prices are marked on products, but there is no cashier. Customers pay and make change for products on their own. For many students, this model of “solidarity economics” was a new experience, allowing them to explore the role of trust in the economic life of farm enterprises.
From the store, the group trekked to the beef cattle pasture and discussed Smith Meadows’ livestock production practices, which are organic, but not certified. Pritchard opens the farm for all to view the property and ask questions. He emphasizes holistic veterinary practices, healthy living standards, and humane handling and processing of the animals for market. These practices yield a high-quality product, and differentiate the beef in the marketplace, increasing the value consumers are willing to pay.
Students moved from beef to sheep to swine, where the farm manager explained Pritchard’s rotational grazing strategy—frequently moving animals from one section of the farm to another to manage both the herd’s access to fodder and the land itself. Cattle and chickens are moved daily! The system creates an intricate cycle: pigs are used as natural tillers; cattle, sheep and goats as mowers; and the poultry (housed in a mobile poultry house) as fertilizers.
The students returned to College Park with lungs full of fresh air, minds full of new and sustainable management ideas, and dinner plans full of local eggs and meat!
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