By Annika Fuller, VT Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (2021), only 8% of US farmers are under 35 years old. At 26 years old, Brian McGarry is part of the 8%. While other young people are working office jobs or waiting a couple more years to find a place to settle down in, McGarry has found dedication and purpose in his farm, specifically through his dairy cows.
"Cows are pretty interesting creatures. And ours are pretty docile and friendly," McGarry said when asked what his favorite parts of farming are.
Image: Brian McGarry (right) with his parents at McGarry Dairy. Photo courtesy of Brian McGarry.
Brian McGarry grew up on his family farm, McGarry Dairy, in Franklin County. He later decided to go to Virginia Tech to get a degree in Dairy Science with the intention to return and take over his parent’s farm. Before returning to run the farm, McGarry also worked on farms in New York and Maryland. While away, he saw success with no-till farming and wanted to implement the practice when he returned to Vermont.
"No till really improved their soil and they saw reduced economic costs and were helping the environment with less erosion and more nutrients staying in the soil," McGarry said.
With the help of the Farm Agronomic Practices (FAP) grant, awarded through the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Brian McGarry moved the farm away from the tradition of disking the soil to no-till. FAP also helped McGarry begin manure injecting. Through these practices, he's reduced nitrogen fertilizer use and had a slight uptick in yield. Even as the farm has expanded, he is still buying less fertilizer and grain than ever before. And with the success of the FAP grant, he's started looking at other grants offered through the agency.
Being able to implement these conservation practices is meaningful to McGarry because he sees these practices as not only helping the environment but also the economic side of his business.
"I try to balance economic and environmental benefits when making decisions in general. They seem to go hand in hand a lot since we work in the environment," McGarry said.
While this mentality may surprise some non-farmers, McGarry believes economic benefits drive many farmers-- but they are happy to see when their practices help the environment as well. This is especially true as the climate shifts and Vermont experiences an increase in extreme weather events. Due to climate change, Vermont is projected to experience wetter springs and falls and drier summers. Conservation practices, such as the no-till that McGarry is implementing, increase farm resilience to the increasingly unpredictable precipitation patterns that we have already started to see in the Northeast.
Even with these thoughts on other farmers on his mind, McGarry says the public's perception of what farmers are doing versus what they are doing is one challenge he sees the agriculture community facing. While he admits farming has some adverse effects on the environment, not all farming practices are degrading the land and water in ways the public may believe. McGarry wants the distance the public has from farming to shrink.
Nonetheless, McGarry's appreciation for his farm and community outweighs the climate and social challenges. From his neighbors who have helped him understand his crops better to his excitement around pairing new technology with traditional farming methods, McGarry believes this way of life is "a pretty good fit."