Caledonia Farms

Blending produce, pasture and helping horses

Barre, Massachussetts

"We pride ourselves at living and doing things outside of the box," explains David Petrovick of Caledonia Farm, outside Barre, Massachusetts. For David, this means blending historic farming traditions such as draft horses with hot agriculture marketing trends like the growth of grassfed meats, always keeping an eye on his bottom line of creating a sustainable, healthy lifestyle for his family.

After growing up on a small, diversified farm in Connecticut, David worked in the scientific field for ten years. "My goal was to save enough money to buy a farm while I was young enough to work it and enjoy it while my wife, Martha, and I raise our now eleven- -year-old daughter," David comments. "I grew up in a family with a large garden and livestock business and that self-sufficient lifestyle was very important to me. I want the flexibility of how I spend my time and doing things on my own terms."

Named after a similar landscape found in Scotland, Caledonia Farm consists of 60 mostly wooded acres, leading him to rent about 170 acres of pasture nearby. David and his family moved to Caledonia farm in 1997 when he was thirty-two years old. Since 1999, David has run a small organically certified market garden on about two acres, growing for six to twenty CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), a weekly seasonal farmers markets, and on-farm sales. Increasing business stems from the grassfed meat operation and David supplements farm income utilizing his science background doing environmental consulting. Martha works full-time with an off-farm job as a research biologist. Currently, Caledonia Farm provides approximately twenty percent of the family's household income as well as providing the family's food needs.

Rising demand for local grassfed meat prompted David to focus Caledonia Farm more on this side of the business. "An increasing number of articles have been written about the dark side of conventional livestock processing, particularly Michael Pollan's writing for the New York Times and Eric Schlossor's book "Fast Food Nation," explains David. "These provocative writings motivate customers to start seeking local meat suppliers sensitive to these issues. The day after one of Michael Pollan's articles run in the New York Times, our phone starts ringing, with most customers finding us through the EatWild website."

David keeps about eight beef cattle at any given time. "I buy young calves called feeders, which are typically six to ten months old, and the cows are then processed when they are about twenty to twenty-five months old," explains David. "By buying feeders and not getting into breeding, this give me the flexibility to process only when needed and enable me to spread inventory throughout the year."

David raises an Angus-based herd with a small to medium frame that performs well on grass and takes them to a USDA-approved processing facility 38 miles away for butchering. "The selection of a processing facility remains an important part of the business," comments David. "Things I look for in a facility remain cleanliness, consistency of product, ability to answer my questions, low employee turnover and a gentle handling and respect for the animals."

A 100 cubic feet of on-farm freezer provides storage space for the meat, with some meat sold fresh at market. "I got into fresh meat sales partly because no one else was doing it and have seen this grow to a strong niche market," explains David. "There is a higher quality associated with fresh meat as the cellular structure of meat starts to break down when it freezes, which also enables me to charge a premium for the product."

A unique aspect of Caledonia Farm's market garden is the use of draft horses. While David admits there is a pure fun and enjoyable hobby aspect of draft horses, there are serious aspects that help his overall production and efficiency and increase his connection to the land, just as draft horses have for farmers generations ago. "In addition to eliminating dependence on fossil fuels, draft horses force you to think about how you work and relate to the land," explains David. "Given the snow and ice in our area, I can do some plantings earlier as a draft horse team will not compact the soil and get stuck as a tractor would." Any horse breed can typically be used as draft horses and David utilizes a plow attachment for cultivation, bed formation and harvesting. Amish and Mennonite groups keeping the draft horse tradition as well as The Draft Horse Journal proved to be good sources of information for David.

Prior to shifting on the CSA side of the business, David focused on the wholesale market for about three years, selling organic garden produce to upscale Boston restaurants. "I had some friends in wholesaling to restaurants so I had a foot in the door to get started," explains David. "However, the business grew very unpredictable because restaurants couldn't commit to regular supplies and I had to cut my prices extremely low to compete with large West Coast organic suppliers. Wholesaling grew stressful for me so I shifted to all retail sales through the CSA and markets."

As with increasing numbers of small farms affected by urban sprawl, land development challenges the future of Caledonia Farm. "Our farm falls within Boston commuting distance," explains David. "Much of the pasture land I rent is potentially going into subdivisions because of the market value of land for development. This is an issue we're wrestling with, particularly as our business has been focusing on the grass-fed meats which require access greater pasture lands."

David, however, remains an optimist, placing quality of life and caring for the land as his key criteria in managing Caledonia Farm. "We're trying to develop a self-sustaining and sustainable whole farm system that benefits all concerned: animals, customers, neighbors, environment and the economy," concludes David.