Grazing Opportunity
Breadtree Farms is looking for grazing partners to manage either pastured lamb, heifers, or beef stock on up to 250 acres of orchard silvopasture (across several sites) in the Upper Hudson Valley.
About Breadtree
Breadtree launched in 2018 to build chestnut agroforestry to a watershed scale in the Northeast U.S. Today, we are a team of 6 transitioning corn/soy/hay fields into chestnut and hickory silvopasture. As of Spring 2024, Breadtree’s core chestnut enterprise will include 18,000+ trees on 250+ acres of orchard silvopasture.
Grazing Partnership
We see adaptive grazing as an important strategy for fertility cycling, vegetation management, and soil health. To date, we have worked with partner graziers to manage our orchards, but our land base has outgrown those partnerships, so we are seeking to add new grazing relationships through one of 2 structures:
If you already have a pasture-based business and you are seeking the opportunity to expand: we can offer a free long-term lease, use of barns for wintering and hay storage, and access to water, electricity, and a tractor. We'd want to better understand your management approach and ensure that your system is compatible with productive tree crop systems.
If you are an experienced grazier, but you do not have a current grazing operation: we could bring you on as a salaried employee who leads the launch of Breadtree's livestock enterprises. For this opportunity you'd be expected to have professional experience in adaptive grazing, and to have a clear interest in the entrepreneurial side of this work. Think of it as an opportunity to launch a business but with the security of a salary. It will not be easy, but it will be lower risk than doing it alone.
In either case, we are happy to be creative in co-designing a relationship that works for all involved.
Logistical details
The 250 acres are spread across 3 sites in Salem, Granville, and Greenwich NY.
Our home farm (on the border of Salem, NY and West Rupert, VT) includes a 5000+ ft2 barn suitable for over-wintering animals, which would be available to partner graziers.
We are happy to work with graziers to develop grazing infrastructure (including fencing, shade structures, watering systems, transportation between sites, and haymaking). Depending on the nature of the relationship, we will be happy to consider covering the costs of some or all of that infrastructure.
Starting in the 2024 season, we will be equipped with a 75HP Case tractor that could be available for use by grazing partners, depending on the nature of the relationship.
Housing is also available for interested partners, and we are willing to work creatively in a variety of ways to help partners find or establish long-term housing if they want to put down roots.
We will be building online retail sales channels for our own products (chestnuts, maple, hickory oil, etc.) and we are happy to co-market meat from partner enterprises through these sales channels.
Location
We work in the Upper Hudson Valley (Rensselaer & Washington Counties, NY) and in Southwest VT. It’s rural and agricultural, with a lot of dairy farms and less gentrification than most of the Hudson Valley or Vermont. But it’s also less than a 60-minute drive to Albany/Troy (which is home to a diverse population of 1.2 million) and has direct transit corridors to NYC and Boston. Today, demand in the Capital Region for grass-fed meat far exceeds supply: for example, one of our current grazing partners manages a ~200-head sheep herd (one of the larger such operations in the area) and annually sells out his lambs through whole-animal sales to a small portion of Albany’s Muslim community.
Timing
We are hoping to:
have first discussions with interested candidates in 2024
narrow down to a partner or partners with whom we can make more detailed plans during 2024
begin grazing at some scale in spring of 2025
continue to grow grazing operations over 2025-2030.
If you’re interested to discuss any version of a grazing partnership, please contact Russell at russell@breadtreefarms.com. We are heading into planting season and are not online daily, so please expect a response rate of 2-3 weeks. We will get back to you. If you know anyone you think may be interested, please feel free to pass this link along. Thanks!