Meeting Notes from the 2016Annual VSGA Meeting

Meeting Notes from the 2016Annual VSGA Meeting

January 28, 2016

Miller Room, Vermont Expo, Vermont Farm Show, Essex Junction

• Welcome

Bay Hammond welcomed the attendees and introduced the Board and Advisors.

Bay requested any changes to last year’s minutes and any additions to the day’s agenda. There were none.

• Guest Speaker, Karen Freudenberger, Pine Island Community Farma partnership between VLT (The Vermont Land Trust) and AALV (The Association of Africans Living in Vermont).

Karen is the originator and manager of this farm, developed in 2013 to allow refugee farmers to raise and market goats and chickens to the Vermont refugee community which is concentrated in the Greater Burlington area.

About 350 new refugees arriving in Vermont each year, being resettled from long terms (15-20 years) in refugee camps overseas. Only about 20% of a camps’ residents ever get resettled. Coming to Vermont and having to get goat meat from out of state (meat from ~3000 goats was imported annually from Australia and NZ) when some of them could make a living farming gave root to Karen’s farm idea. Her background includes many years with the Peace Corps in Africa. Grants from several organizations enabled the acquisition of a failed farm in Milton, which after a lot of work to bring back to working state was modified for goats, chickens and a VT approved slaughter facility (provided by a Working Lands Enterprise Management grant). This farm supports all the costs for a farmer’s first year of operation after which he is an independent business person. There are 3 farmers now each owning his own herd and equipment on the premises.

In addition to the existing herds, the farm takes bucklings from dairy farms, and goat and chicken culls from other farms. They prefer tough chicken, and welcome spent old hens.

They have >300 acres in Milton much of which is wetland. They work with VT Agriculture to follow the new required agricultural practices re farm water management, improve the land & stop chemical flow into the water system, manage their floodplain by planning bands of native plants to prevent erosion.

They became a 501 ©3 registered charity last week. This will allow them to be less dependent on grants and able to cover their own expenses.

Last evening, Jan. 27 from 4 to 7 p.m. the ‘Consumer’s Night’ event at the Farm Show featured goat meat and was a huge success and area chefs cooked it up in various recipes for public sampling.

• Updates

Bookkeeper’s Report – Jane Woodhouse – We have a healthy financial status with ~$32,000 in the bank.

Bay Hammond, VSGA President described the financial grants that were received and put to good use in 2015.

Elaine Fortin discussed the membership status and efforts made in the past year to meet the goals of members set at the last annual meeting. She discussed the activities VSGA participated in in 2015.

Shirley Richardson explained the VSGA’s increasing focus on goat farming, with the campaign ‘No kid left behind’ and her involvement with Vermont Chevon to develop the goat meat and dairy industries. Shirley spoke about the work she is doing with Lindsay Quella to build the goat industry in Vermont.

Elaine spoke of changes made to the website since 2015, and of the review to it made by peer associations participating in the Marketing session of the Capacity Building Workshops. She explained the critique received of the Product page and showed the mock-ups of new designs to improve on it. Jim McRae explained that when the website was started, a blog was intended to allow members to discuss topics and be able to search old dialogues. Instead the listserv was implemented. He still likes the idea of a blog and said the intention was that the listserv would be replaced by a blog. Other members expressed how much they appreciate the listserv. Elaine explained that the listserv does allow search of previous conversations. Bay will send out a message about the listserv features.

The VSGA Board will have a strategy meeting on February 4th and will discuss the website direction then. The current Products page will not be replaced. Some members do like the alphabetical list.

Discussion was held about reviving the production of the paper VSGA member directory, which stopped when the website took over. Members would like the ability to download .pdf’s of the same information they used to get in the directory.

The member map should allow selection of areas which would then return a list of members in that area. They would like to filter on products and breeds, and based on audience (producers would like to list other producers while consumers would like to list where they could buy products and choose by dairy, meat or fiber.

There was discussion about having the website have a tract for producers and one for consumers.

Another desire is to have the search for members based on animal breeds.

• Kim Hagen discussed the two parasite workshops held in 2015.

• Mary Lake discussed her need for assistance with the newsletter.

Mary spoke of the results of the 2015 Wool Pool. Average of $ .3698/lb received. Although the prices for the wool pool aren't ideal, Mid-States is a good buyer and cooperative to work with until we find a better alternative. Mid-States is unique because they take everything and put it into the wool industry. Even tags, belly wool and the wool skirted out of fleeces.

The fleece sale brought in an average of over $3.00/lb.

Andy Rice spoke of the importance of using sheep coats to improve fleece quality.

Elaine spoke of the wool handling workshop we gave in spring and the financial gain to members who sold fleeces through the Fleece Sale.

Michael spoke about the Wool Handling brochure created by Betsy MacIsaac and Patty Blomgren that is available at the VSGA table and on the VSGA website.

• Jim McRae announced that the Shearing School will occur on April 9th at Shelburne Fars and April 10th at Merck Forest. Students will get a price break if they attend both.
• Jane Woodhouse spoke of the Sheep and Wool Festival in Tunbridge. The bank account for the festival is now separate from VSGA’s. Most vendors are not VSGA members. VSGA has officially released its connection to the festival but will continue to be active at it. The financial health of the festival is still very good, enough to withstand a weather washout of another one. The weather during 2015’s festival was great. The ATM machine onsite was a success. At the last minute, an ATM supplier was found who charged ~$3000 instead of the estimated $10,000 quoted previously. Jane thinks he couldn’t have made more than a few hundred dollars but is willing to return this year.
• Bay mentioned that we now have a skirting table that can be borrowed by members. We should set up something on the website to list resources available to lend to members. It will be up to the individual members to arrange picking the item up.
• Michael Hampton spoke about the work of the Wool Committee in 2015: wool handling workshop, fleece sale and spinning challenge. The spinning challenge sold 54 entry packages but received only 17 spun samples.

Top 3 winners were determined by judgeLaura Buermann.

First: Melanie Bilodeau-Meek of Essex Junction, Vermont - $135.

Second: Iris Westcott of N. Providence, Rhode Island - $81.

Third: Jean Fletcher of Longview, Texas - $54.

Contestants were from Vermont, Rhode Island, NH and Texas. ‘Spin-Off’ magazine will publish an article about the contest in the spring.

• Michael spoke about the VT state tax law requiring VT sales tax to be collected anytime a farmer sells a raw fleece to a consumer. VT does not collect sales tax on apparel yet taxes the fleece that is turned into apparel. He explained what it would take to get VT to change this unfair law. Bay stated that VSGA doesn’t have the energy or money needed to lobby for a change. A woman in the audience who works for the VT Farm Bureau said they have a paid lobbiest who could help us. It is not known if the state enforces this law. Most members were not aware of it and do not collect the tax. To do so, they would need a VT business tax ID and then be required to file quarterly. Most members are not interested in doing this. A farm business can apply for a tax exemption based on the end use of their product.
• Gary Keough, USDA spoke of agricultural services available to members. He also said they are looking for people who could help them conduct a call survey this year.
• Kim Hagen spoke that NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmers Ass’n) of Vermont is looking for help for an event March 19th to educate children about wool. She could put people in touch with Abby, the organizer.
• Lindsay Quella spoke of her involvement as consultant (paid for by a grant shared with the VT Grazers Association), the survey she conducted to VSGA members, and the results from it. She welcomes other feedback from members which can be sent to her at .
• A member asked for a workshop or documentation or some form of education on how to use the latest technology to process payments using swipe card dongle or whatever other means is available now to members.
• Ryan Patch from Vermont Agency of Agriculture spoke about the second draft of the Requirements for Agricultural Practices (RAP) which is driven by Act 64. He outlined the definition of ‘small farm’ which for sheep, is 300 head. Annual certification will be required of these farms to ensure they meet the requirements that prevent further contamination of the water systems which have done so much damage to Lake Champlain. He explained the process his agency is going through to develop the RAP. Draft 2 will be available February 15th on their website The RAP will be open for review for one month after that date. There will be focus groups that VSGA members are invited to participate in. In May there will be public hearings. Once the RAP goes into effect, grant money will be available to help farmers comply.
• Elaine will add alink to the RAP page on the VSGA website.
• Patty Blomgren and Betsy MacIsaac have stepped off the Board. Kim Hagen has returned to the Board.

Meg Hendrick and Nicholas Michael have joined the Board.

Mary Lake wants to do the Secretary work part-time and is looking for someone to be co-Secretary.

Elections were held to accept the changes to Board members.

2:00 pm - Meeting adjourned