Local farmers recently came together for an annual gathering in Northampton that has grown since its inception a decade ago.
Packing about half of the Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School's library Saturday, dozens of farmers and residents from across the area came together for the 2025 Pioneer Valley Regional Agricultural Conference.
Organized by the Northampton Agricultural Commission, the event puts state agriculture officials, local leaders and farmers from Northampton and beyond under one roof - discussing what's proving to be fruitful for local growers and available aid.
Kristen Sykes and Fred Beddall of Northampton's Pie in the Sky Berry Farm highlighted the 8-acre farm's success not just with its blueberry bushes, but a foray into you-pick flowers and embracing social media, as well as media relations in general.
“…and then we were also able to get a great article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette,” Sykes said. “That was a rough day for the photographer – he had to spend the whole day in the field, taking pictures of flowers. So, that was also a great way to help get out the word about the farm.”
According to USDA Census of Agriculture numbers, Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden counties combined were home to nearly 2,000 farms in 2022 - about 27 percent of the state's total number of farms, with over 154,000 acres producing about $161.7 million in terms of "market value of products sold."
In Northampton, a 2013 report found the Hampshire County city’s home to around two dozen farms – with a variety of crops and flowers, says John Omasta, chair of the city's Agricultural Commission.
“Well, it’s diverse - we have The Meadows, which is probably some of the best agricultural land in New England, if not the country, but it also goes out to the edge, to where I am, where we went to gravel and rocks and stuff and so, there's a great diversity in the agricultural community,” he said.
He tells WAMC the conference has grown over the past decade, from a meet-and-greet to a full-blown conference, featuring speakers that include those from the state’s Farm Bureau division and its county committee.
Omasta, who has been a member of the Farm Bureau for at least 40 years, says the conference helps bridge a gap in knowledge sharing.
While the USDA Census found Hampshire County technically added farms between 2017 and ‘22, unlike Hampden, Franklin and Berkshire, it’s not exactly a growing sector.
Due to high costs, the average age of a farm's "principal operator" hitting 58.7 in Massachusetts, and other factors, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, or MDAR estimates the Commonwealth could lose as many as 1,200 farms between 2016 and 2040.
It makes sharing what works and what doesn’t on the farm all the more imperative, he says. That can range from learning who's offering free consultations for growing native plants and supporting pollinators to whom to connect with for questions on land encroachment and other matters, like the Farm Bureau.
“We work on labor issues, we are working on the issues around forever chemicals in our soils, we work with issues around the APR and chapter 61a, making sure that farmers get the best representation they can,” said Karen Schwalbe is Executive Director of the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation, discussing her organization’s structure and offerings. “Membership-based nonprofit really means … if you're a member, we work most directly with you. We have access to a lot of technical assistance, municipal issues, wetlands regulations…”
Questions from farmers and others in the crowd ranged from best feed practices for cattle to what’s being done about PFAS levels in the water supply.
Cattle also loomed large towards the end of the conference – bookended by Nicole Schwab of Fletcher Farm, said to be the last remaining dairy farm in Southampton.
As it turns out, she says, social media’s a hit for the farm. Taking part in a “Adopt-a-Cow” program, Schwab described how thousands of kids have ended up interacting with a handful of bovines the farm profiled, sharing details on calves, how they’re growing and doing.
“We had four calves up in the top there, and we had 19,000 kids following these calves,” Schwab said, showing photos of cows named “Capri,” Demi,” and “Shine.” “And it was tremendous … that program, if anyone here has family members that are teachers, it's geared towards up to, like a third-grade level, but it's unbelievable how much reach that program had and, at the end of it, we do an Adopt-a-Cow live chat on YouTube and I stood in the barn with a headset on and answered questions from those 19,000 kids about their calves.”
Smith Vocational will play host to another regional farm event later this month– when the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture hosts an Agricultural Resource Fair on February 18th.
