‘Habitat for Bovinity’
Rises at Liberty Hill Farm
By Martha Slater

The volunteer crew for Rochester's "Habitat for Bovinity" project are, from left: Walt Pruisksma, Jeff Steinkamp, Bob Kannett and his sons Tom and Dave and brother Chuck, with Alan Bond at right. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

Bob and Beth Kennett of Liberty Hill Farm in Rochester had both a blessing and a problem. Their two adult sons, David and Tom, wanted to farm with them but the farm needed to make more income in order to support three families.

In order to do that, the Kennetts needed to increase their dairy herd, but more cows meant they also needed more barn space, and a new barn is an expensive undertaking.

"Our long range goal is to milk 120 cows each day," said Bob, "but we didn't have a big enough barn to house them. We wanted to increase the herd from within by keeping the surplus heifers instead of selling them, and so we began building a 65-by-100 ft. barn doing all the work ourselves."

They broke ground around June 1, and were so busy with haying, etc. that didn’t get really going on the structure until around the end of August when, Bob Shanahan, an attorney from New Jersey with no carpentry experience, who is a longtime guest at the Kennett’s B & B, helped them put up the 6 inches by 6 inches by 12 ft tall poles. The first rafters went into place September 6. Garth Quillia and Sean Gallagher helped put the trusses up on the barn.

The view toward Liberty Hill Farm shows the stately old barn at left and the new under-construction barn at right. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

"As with anything, you run into surprises, we ran into a lot of clay soil when we were putting in the footings and had to do a lot more drainage work than we planned, which made the cost of the foundation a lot more than we expected," Bob Kennett explained. "Ray Harvey gave us a lot of help with excavating and designing the drainage system under the building."

When the Kennetts’ friend, Alan Bond, returned from a trip this fall, he came down to lend a hand.

"I thought I could help and began squaring ends on the boards that tied the rafters together," Bond recalled. "After that, it was evident that my presence could be useful and it’s become a passion of mine. I told them that the only thing I wouldn’t do is go on the roof!"

Over the past few months, Bond has organized a group of local volunteers, most of them "retired," to help construct what he has now dubbed "Habitat for Bovinity."

"I spoke to Walt Pruiksma and Jeff Steinkamp and they both volunteered to help out and have put a lot of time in, as has Winston Shaw, Jr. Jakey Twitchell, Tom Perera and Larry Straus have helped out, as well, and so have some deer hunters from Rhode Island who stopped by!" Bond says with a grin. "I’ve been shameless in recruiting, and have occasionally resorted to shanghaiing passersby," he jokes.

Working long hours, this determined group has put the nearly snowless December and early January this year to good use.

"I’ve always liked building things and I’ve particularly enjoyed this group," Steinkamp says. "I’ve learned a lot, too; both about carpentry and about farming."

Walt Pruiksma notes that, "Like most of us, I have no real carpentry experience, except with what I’ve done as a homeowner. We talk a lot about our ‘batting average,’ which refers to how often we hit the nail with the hammer, and some days it’s about .500! It’s as much fun as it is work!"

"Our saying is if you can’t see the mistake from Route 100, it’s not a mistake!" Bond said with a laugh.

"The one person we hired as a foreman was my brother, Chuck, who lives in Panton," Bob explained. "He’s a dairy farmer, too. Neither of us are carpenters, but when my father built a new barn in 1964, we were 14 and 16 years old, and we’re building this one as we remember building that first barn with my father 40 years ago—without the book, or any real written plans."

"On this farm here, I built the heifer barn and last winter, Chuck helped build a 48 ft. by 75 ft. bull barn, which was our first project together since we were teenagers," Bob continued. "We learned a lot about building pole barns on that project and decided to work together again on this one. Since we grew up with this type of building as part of our farmstead, both of us were just able to visualize how we wanted it to be constructed, and we were able to work together knowing how things had to be done."

"A lot of people have complained about the lack of snow this year, but it sure helped us!" Bond said. "Our primary remaining tasks this winter are closing in the north and south ends of the structure and installing three major barn doors. Right now the west and east sides, we’re using shade cloth just to keep the wind out."

"One of the things that kept me coming back," Bond added, "is that Chuck never made me feel like a dummy. He was never critical and showed me ways to do things and I’ve done them, including digging more holes than I ever could have imagined!"

Bob had a Dec. 1 deadline for getting cows into the barn, and so when it became evident that that wouldn’t work (Bob, Dave and Tom are, after all, full-time farmers in addition to part-time barn builders) the group "changed" the dates on the calendar (to November 32, 33, 34…) until they finally moved the cows into the barn on "Dec. 1." (Beth noted that some folks would have said it was Jan. 3). Fortunately, the volunteers kept coming back and Lily Trombley, who works for Beth in the B& B kitchen, kept them well-fed with pans of homemade brownies.

The Kennetts are members of Cabot Creamery Cooperative and their milk goes down to Grafton to make Grafton cheddar cheese. They also sell a small quantity of their milk seasonally to Dan Hewitt of Three Owls Farm in Granville to make his Liberty Blue cheese.

More to Come

This barn is Phase 1 of a three or four phase project that the Kennetts have planned. Phase 2 will be to build a 150-cow free-stall barn north of the new barn, which will also require a new manure pit. Beth Kennett has just received a grant from the Agency of Agriculture to cover the cost of planning and a feasibility study for renewable energy opportunities on the farm, which she noted, would include a methane digester and possibly a micro hydro power system, run on water power.

"Looking at lessening the energy impact of a small dairy farm is something we’re very interested in," Beth said. "If we can save money on energy costs with the methane digester, we may also be able to sell some of the energy back to the grid and that will be another source of income."

Phase 3 will be when the first barn is converted to the new milk room, milking parlor and holding area. Because the herd has increased in size, the Kennetts will need more housing for young stock, so Phase 4 is building a barn for them at some point in the future.

After David graduated from UVM in 2001, he came back to the farm and developed a market for the bull calves. Meanwhile, Tom left the farm, and worked as a salesman for Alta Genetics (a cryogenetics firm) for four years. Now married and the father of three, he decided last spring that he’d rather be farming.

"We’d already formed a three-way LLC (limited liability corporation) with Tom as a member," Bob explained. "It was a way of incorporating the boys into the farm and eventually transferring ownership. Also, in today’s farm economy, the wages we could pay David for working full-time weren’t very high and the only way for us to make up for that discrepancy would be to have him build equity in the farm for the future."

From David’s point of view, it was a real relief to get the cows into the new barn.

"It’s so much more efficient we went from taking four hours to milk to taking two and a half, and cleanup time is shorter, too," he said. "The increased efficiency is so much better. We can actually take the occasional coffee break."

"The stress load and anxiety level is much better, too, now that we have the new barn," Beth said. "Bob has always worked hard for the 32 years of our married life and we started the guest business in 1984 to supplement our income.

"Both Bob and David really love cows. You can point to any cow in the barn and David can tell you that cow’s genealogy back 50 years.

"We put our value on the individual animal by having high value registered breeding stock. The industry average is that cows live to be about four years old on average and we have a number of cows that are 12 or more years old. We’re trying to find that balance between economic viability and keeping the essence of a small family farm."

Bob noted that when he and Beth bought their farm in 1979, "there were 11 dairy farms shipping milk here in the valley, but now we’re the only ones left doing that." Their farm was originally settled in 1780 by John Emerson and one corner of the original big red barn goes back to 1787. The superstructure of the barn was built by Dr. Charles Wesley Emerson, who founded Emerson College.

"Ultimately, all of us who have been volunteering are committed to seeing this family farm survive and continue a tradition that’s as old as dairy farming in this state," Bond concluded. "The camaraderie and learning new skills and getting to eat Lily’s cooking have also been perks!"

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