Tucked away in the foothills of the Connecticut Berkshires is a 300-head dairy farm managed and co-owned by the Freund Family and Canaan View Dairy. On the outside, the farm looks like many others throughout the state – which has over 5,000 farms contributing $4 billion yearly to the local economy1. But a tour of the property tells a deeper story of sustainable generational farming and the significant conservation impact that can be achieved through collaborative partnership.
Since the farm was established by Eugene and Esther Freund in 1949, the Freund Family has become a national leader — and pioneer — in sustainable farming practices. In the 1990s, Freund’s farm was one of the first in the state to test their soil for nutrients.
Plus, they’re home to Connecticut’s first cow-milking robots and have upgraded their cattle barn with an automatic manure sled that cleans the cow beds, capturing livestock waste and pushing it to a manure collection pit. The Freunds also own CowPots, biodegradable planting pots made from composted manure.
“And we were doing cover crops way before they were popular,” said Ben Freund, who owns the farmland with his brother Matthew.
The family has also formed a farmers’ collaborative for agricultural professionals to get together and discuss what they do, work through challenges, and share advice with those in their industry. That includes demonstrations hosted on the family’s farmland.
The property’s latest addition is a 1.3-million-gallon waste storage facility. The swimming pool-like structure, completed in early October, is estimated to prevent 19,000 pounds of nitrogen and 11,000 pounds of phosphorus from farm waste from entering local waterways, according to reporting from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The farm is in North Canaan located adjacent to the Blackberry River, a tributary of the Housatonic River which contributes roughly 11 percent of the freshwater entering Long Island Sound.
“Dairy projects are big in Connecticut,” said Ben Freund. “It’s hard for farmers to imagine how you build that tank, but it’s simpler than you think.”
“For a farmer to come here and spend time seeing it as it gets built – it sets the tone,” he continued. “They start to understand and come here because they know how important it is to have storage… I’m just getting people in the door.”
Workers begin laying the foundation for the manure (slurry) tank. Photo courtesy of NRCS.
A critical part of the manure storage tank is the internal piping components that bring waste from the barn to the tank. Photo courtesy of NRCS.
A look inside the completed and operational tank. LISS Photo
The panels used on the outside of the manure storage tank are sealed with tar. Photo courtesy of NRCS.
The completed manure storage tank at Freund’s Farm. LISS Photo
The waste storage project is one example of the conservation practices that the National Resource Conservation Service recommends and is an example of how federal partners can work together to connect stakeholders throughout the Long Island Sound Watershed. An interagency agreement between NRCS and EPA funds three staff positions in Connecticut, one outreach specialist and two nutrient management specialists, for the Long Island Sound Study.
“The manure storage structures are needed to hold that manure somewhere safely covered until the farmer is ready to spread it according to the plan that NRCS nutrient management planners have developed,” said Vivian Felten, Outreach Coordinator for NRCS Connecticut, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “They analyze the soil to determine the appropriate manure application rate so that it won’t infiltrate into the groundwater.”
“And they develop a manure spreading plan so that manure is spread when the plants can use it. The timing of application is important to keep it in the fields for the plants and so that it does not get washed away into nearby streams,” explained Felten.
Roughly 70-80 percent of the nitrogen and 60-85 percent of the phosphorus contained in cow feed is excreted in manure. Farmers have been utilizing manure as a natural fertilizer for approximately 8,000 years, leveraging its nutrient-rich properties to enhance soil fertility and promote the growth of pastures and crops. This age-old practice continues today, as cow manure can effectively replace traditional chemical fertilizers, providing the nutrients needed to support healthy plant growth. However, when manure is improperly managed, it can contribute excess nutrients to waterways. According to The Nature Conservancy, the average dairy cow can produce up to 100 pounds of manure daily. But crops do not always need nutrient-rich manure as much or as often as the cows are producing it, so having a facility to hold the manure is key.
Felten works to connect agricultural producers and landowners throughout the Connecticut portion of the Long Island Sound with USDA technical and financial assistance programs while the nutrient management specialists, or planners, help farmers achieve proper nutrient applications to decrease contaminated runoff from entering the Sound.
“It’s the local planners that really do the technical work with the farm,” said Felten. “My role as an outreach coordinator is to let farmers know about our programs and practices and how they can help their farms and connect them with the local NRCS offices.”
The Connecticut NRCS branch has five field offices located in Danielson, Hamden, Norwich, Torrington, and Windsor.
Felted was onboarded as the NRCS outreach specialist for LISS in the fall of 2022. Since then, she has leveraged existing connections to farmer networks, gaining exposure through program partners, newsletters, events, on-farm demonstrations, presentations, tabling at farms and festivals, and hosting workshops. The agreement has also helped NRCS to reach new audiences.
“This year, 51% of our contracts went to beginning farmers, limited resource producers, socially disadvantaged, and [military] veteran producers,” said Thomas Morgart, Connecticut State Conservationist with NRCS. “That means this outreach is working. It’s highly effective in getting producers in that we haven’t worked with before. We are reaching those same audiences of the Long Island Sound Study, getting them interested in on-ground conservation.”
In recent years, the Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF) has seen an uptick in grant applications to complete conservation practices on farms. LISFF has funded projects to build waste storage structures, plant cover crops, create confined composted bedding areas, and develop soil health management plans. Total project funding for Freund’s new storage tank reached $725,000, $418,000 from a LISFF grant matched by $307,900, which was awarded in 2023.
“Having that connection with NRCS, other farmers, and the Long Island Sound Study helped us learn about all of these different grant opportunities,” said Freund.
Since the early days of agriculture, people have settled farms next to rivers because the water nurtured a rich soil environment for growing crops. Today, this creates a challenge—agricultural runoff like fertilizers and animal waste is the country’s largest contributor to non-point source pollution to waterways. Nutrient pollution is a costly environmental problem that has impacted streams, lakes, rivers, and coastal waters for many years.
In Long Island Sound, nutrient pollution can cause low oxygen levels by fueling the growth of harmful algae. Algal blooms can significantly reduce the amount of oxygen in the Sound, harming fish and other aquatic life. In addition to farms, nutrient pollution can come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, atmospheric deposition, and runoff of home fertilizer and pet waste.
Achieving clean water and healthy watersheds is one of the LISS program’s major management goals. To address nutrient pollution, EPA and the states of New York and Connecticut established a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) to limit nitrogen inputs into the Sound. The states met the TMDL goal in 2016, but nutrient pollution remains a concern for the Sound. Continued program efforts are focused on reducing nitrogen loading through upgrades to wastewater treatment plants and reduced non-point source pollution. The quality of water flowing into Long Island Sound from surrounding watershed states directly impacts water clarity, and abundance of wildlife, and affects the overall health of the estuary.
NRCS has over 100 conservation practices to preserve and improve the management of natural resources. Freund’s manure tank is an example of a nutrient management conservation practice. The farm engages in many other conservation practices around the property, which all work together to mutually benefit the soil, water, plants, and animals. Other nutrient management conservation practices include:
Agroforestry is the intentional addition of trees and shrubs into farming systems. Benefits of agroforestry include increased productivity, protected soil and water resources, conserved energy, more wildlife habitat, increased landscape diversity, and a “richer” ecosystem. The Freund Farm has followed this practice by planting nut trees around the perimeter of different structures on the farm. The trees provide shade, improve soil quality and stability, and produce a small, tasty crop.
Cover crops are a type of practice where an annual plant is seeded after cash crop is harvested. Rather than leaving fields bare, or without any cover, a farmer creates a blanket for the soil made of plant material, which protects soil and water quality.
“It’s about getting cover on the ground and preventing erosion,” said Morgart. “We mostly see corn fields. When covered for the winter, you pull up the nutrients in the soil and hold them in the cover crop until next season.”
The Freund Farm double crops its long-season corn with triticale, a wheat and rye hybrid. Double cropping continues to gain acceptance as a production practice on farms and can have benefits like higher yields and better crop quality. Nearly every crop grown on the Freund Farm is used for cow feed and improved nutrient management.
“With triticale, we’re able to harvest it for feed and at a more optimal time. We shift our planting date for corn and double crop with this, it’s incredible feed and we don’t lose anything,” Freund added. “There’s less field erosion and better hold of nutrients, which all leads back to being super critical for nitrogen. Because what you want to do is tie nitrogen up in a stable form and there’s nothing more stable than a plant on a field.”
A growing interest in agricultural conservation practices across the Long Island Sound region shows the value of collaboration between federal, state, and local partners, as producers like Freund can gain support and guidance from NRCS planners funded through the Long Island Sound Study. This is important, as tackling nutrient management can be a challenging and costly venture.
At the heart of Freund’s sustainable farm is a desire to protect the earth while paving a successful path for his family business.
“The air I breath, the water I swim in…You grow up with an appreciation for the environment,” said Freund. “I also think about the long-term future of the farm.”
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