A fight over the fate of a Norwich dairy farm reached the Vermont Legislature on Thursday as some lawmakers sought to save the property from development.
The dispute pits a pair of farmers, Chris Gray and Laura Brown, against Vermont Technical College, which owns the land on which they live and work. Faced with a financial shortfall, the college has put two adjacent properties on the market for more than $2 million, potentially forcing the family to leave and imperiling their business, the Norwich Farm Creamery.
Sen. Bobby Starr, D-Essex/Orleans, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, called a hearing of his panel Thursday morning out of concern that a new owner could seek to develop the land.
“We’ve lost quite a few farms here in Vermont in the last six to nine months,” Starr said after the hearing. “I was concerned about losing one that the state college was supposedly supporting. Once you lose that you never get it back.”
Starr, who attended a ribbon cutting for the farm in 2015, called the site “impressive.”
“They had high hopes and great ideas about that operation,” Starr said during the hearing. “I know the people in Norwich certainly enjoy having that farm there. We were curious what was happening to it.”
The 40-stall cow barn and two farmhouses were donated to the college by Norwich resident Andrew Sigler in 2015. Since then, Vermont Tech has invested $1.1 million in the property, turning a house into a dorm room and the barn into an experimental education program. The college bought about $800,000 worth of creamery equipment with the help of a federal grant. The college also brought on a herd manager and hired Gray, a cheesemaker, to lead the program.
“We were serious,” Vermont Technical College president Pat Moulton said. “We had hoped that this could work.”
Moulton told committee members that the operation quickly fell apart. The program, designed for 12 students, drew just six. At the end of its first year, three of the six students told her the program wasn’t up to snuff. Moulton said the college gave students a partial refund on room and board. There were also conflicts between Gray and the herd manager about the quality of the milk.
“We can’t afford to have an unhappy experience in our agriculture program,” Moulton said. “That program is through the floor.”
A year after it began, the Norwich program ended. Since then, Gray and Brown have continued to live on the property under a lease agreement he signed when he was hired. They pay $500 a month in rent. There are no more cows or students, but the couple has continued to use the college’s creamery equipment to launch a small dairy business. They truck in milk from Billings Farm in Woodstock to make cheese, yogurt and ice cream.
Gray told senators the couple has invested $500,000 in the property over the past five years, including $50,000 in legal bills to retain the right to stay there. They want to bring 20 cows back to the property and continue the dairy operation.
“This is pure value-added dairy here and it will work,” Gray told the senators. “As an ag professional, I don’t see any other use for this property. I don’t see anyone realistically coming in here who doesn’t have boatloads of money.”
After learning the property would be put up for sale, a group of neighbors established a nonprofit, the Norwich Farm Foundation, dedicated to saving the farm and keeping Gray and Brown there. As of Thursday, the group had raised about $180,000 in community pledges to purchase the farm. The foundation made the college an offer of $610,000 to buy it last month, but that offer was swiftly rejected.
“The reality is we can’t afford to do it,” Moulton told legislators, explaining that the college faced a $4.5 million deficit due to the pandemic. “The proceeds we could net from the sale could provide 25 or 50 scholarships for students.”
Norwich resident Omer Trajman, who has worked closely with Gray on a business plan, lamented the loss of dairy farms throughout the state.
“We’re all very concerned about the deficits in the education program in Vermont, but the bigger issue is the larger economic crisis with dairy farms,” Trajman said after the meeting.
The state has lost about two dozen dairy farms since the start of the pandemic, causing concerns that other businesses, like grain and machinery dealers, could collapse.
Anson Tebbetts, the secretary of the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, watched the remote hearing on Thursday. He praised Gray’s plan for the Norwich property.
“I think this is the best bet if it’s going to remain a dairy farm,” Tebbetts said after the hearing “We think this is one of the models that can be successful.”
Tebbetts said the operation’s location was ideal for Gray’s and Brown’s higher priced products.
“This dairy is providing food for the Upper Valley,” Tebbetts said. “It’s providing an opportunity for educational opportunities for the community.”
Tebbetts has urged Moulton to “think long term.”
“Maybe some creative ideas will come forward as more people learn about it,” he said. “Once the land is developed and it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Each senator said they wanted the property to stay in agriculture.
Sen. Chris Pearson, P/D-Chittenden, questioned whether the college was violating the donor’s intent to keep a farm in Norwich. Moulton said there was no deed restriction on the property and there was no request to keep it a farm.
Starr said the committee would write a letter to the college in support of the Norwich farm. He said he hoped the college and the foundation would strike a deal to retain it.
“I think we should do what we can to salvage it,” Starr said. “Even if it was under the appraised value, it would make more sense than selling it to someone with the highest dollar.”
Pearson acknowledged the senators could only do so much.
“Our ability to really influence their decision, short of coming up with a bunch of cash, is tough,” Pearson said after the meeting.
