Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
Abstract
This document summarizes a project proposal submitted to USDA in October 2021. The objective is to design, establish, document, and demonstrate a profitable, diversified Farm of the Future (FOF) located at the Retreat Farm in Brattleboro, Vermont. The FOF produces its own feed, fertilizer, electricity, and fuel while enhancing revenues with value-added processing. Sustainable intensification is achieved by localizing resource production and consumption into a closed-loop system. Efficiency and management are optimized with monitoring and automation technology. The farming system is an interconnected set of enterprises: dairy, poultry, swine, greenhouse, hay/pasture, oilseeds, small grains, woodlots, compost, and biochar. Value-added processing makes cheese from milk, vegetable oil and seed meal from oilseeds, flour from small grains, thermal energy from compost, and biochar, lumber, woodchips from trees. Byproduct utilization produces pork from whey, eggs from food residues, livestock feed from seedmeal, compost from organic wastes. Energy self-reliance is derived from photovoltaics, vegetable oil combustion, compost heat recovery, ground source heat pumps, and biochar pyrolysis. Farm products earn price premiums from local markets that value food with superior sensory attributes and documented environmental and social benefits.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License
Recommended Citation
Grubinger, Vernon P., "Sustainable Intensification Model Farm of the Future" (2021). UVM Extension Faculty and Staff Publications. 63.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/extfac/63
Included in
Rights Statement
