Eric Eric is Danielle’s brother and spends a few weeks a year visiting and working on the farm with us. He doesn’t vibe much with livestock farming itself, but he’s an accomplished wood-worker, our sawmill...
Farming Mentor Our farming mentor is also referred to as ‘Lady Farmer,’ for reasons we don’t totally remember. We volunteered on her livestock farm in New Jersey before we knew we ever wanted to farm. She patiently ...
Food Animal Concerns Trust Abbreviated as FACT, this is a nonprofit organization that works to ensure that all food-producing animals are raised in a humane and healthy manner. They support farms with scholarships, grants, trai...
grown conNECTed This an advocacy group coordinated by University of Connecticut Extension that focuses on small farms in the northeast corner of Connecticut. grown conNECTed's website...
Heritage breed Although there is no universally agreed-upon definition of what makes a particular animal breed a ‘heritage breed,’ it’s generally agreed that the breeds were adapted to their local environment, bred ...
Intensively managed rotational grazing People often say "the grass is always greener in the next paddock" (or something like that) and this is true for grazing animals as well. Intensively managed rotational grazing (IMRG) is an animal man...
National Young Farmers Coalition The National Young Farmers Coalition's (NYFC) mission is to shift power and change policy to equitably resource a new generation of working farmers. This is a national group that has state-level chapt...
Olly Olly is Danielle’s family friend, as well as Nick’s adopted sister.* We’re happy to report that Olly retired early and chooses to spend several weeks per year visiting and working with us at the farm....
Open source Open source is something people can modify and share because its design is publicly accessible and free to use. Typically this term is used for computer programs but here at BOTL Farm we use it more g...
Paddocks Each paddock is a fenced area where we can move animals into, provide water and shelter, and they can graze. Paddock sizes range greatly, from a few hundred square feet to an acre or more. They can be...
Pasture Pasture is vegetation-covered land used for grazing livestock. Having animals "on pasture" means that they are not on dirt lots and not confined to one paddock all year round. For our 40-acre operatio...
Quiet Corner Northeastern Connecticut, better known as the Quiet Corner, is a historic region of the state of (duh) Connecticut, located in the northeastern corner of the state (wow). It is generally associated wi...