Creating A Closed-Loop Culture At Grey Barn

A lot has changed at the Grey Barn and Farm since the Glasgow family moved to the Island in 2009 and raised their first livestock: three cows, three calves, and seven piglets. Now, with around 50 dual-purpose (milk and beef) cows, dozens of pigs, an award-winning dairy, a state-of-the-art bakery, and a five-acre organic garden, the family farm has grown into a major agricultural hub.

“We really have relied on that same objective we began with; let’s give the community the opportunity to experience local agriculture, local food, in a way that is environmentally, socially, and fiscally responsible,” Eric Glasgow, who owns Grey Barn alongside his wife, Molly Glasgow, told Bluedot Living. “Sustainability can often be a loaded term, because it means a lot of things to different people, but for us, it has always meant that the enterprise is conceived of and operated on the notion that we want to leave the world a better place — land, animals, people — or at least do no harm to those things.”

The farm conducted an environmental report during the final year of the Covid pandemic to find out how much of an impact they were having on the farm’s soil, water, and air. It turned out that Grey Barn was offsetting almost all of their greenhouse gas emissions through carbon sequestration and solar energy generation. And by instituting regenerative farming practices like silvopasture (that combines trees, livestock, and forage production on the same land) and rotational grazing along with soil amendments, the report showed that the farm was slowly building a healthier soil microbiome.

There’s a concept in agriculture, most closely connected to beef farming, that Glasgow referred to as “holistic land management” — the idea that farmers look at their entire operation and figure out how well it’s working financially, socially, and environmentally. He said every decision made at the Grey Barn is “informed by what the overall impact will be on the world now, and a generation from now.”

The agricultural practices used on the farm property prior to the Glasgows taking over were more conventional and didn’t consider long-term soil health. Before the Grey Barn reworked the property, the pH was low, there was too much magnesium, and there wasn’t enough calcium or phosphorus — a “typical Vineyard hayfield,” as Glasgow put it. “We put a lot of effort — time and money — into putting the fields back on a more sustainable path,” Glasgow said. “We introduced a lot of soil amendments to rebalance everything, and did a ton of cover cropping to get our fields to a good place.” 

For Grey Barn, one of the most important aspects of their farm is the health of their fields. Healthy grazing for the cows means better meat, milk, and cheese. Each year, Grey Barn’s cows produce hundreds of yards of manure and compost. About a third of that (around 130 cubic yards) is heated, refined (to comply with regulatory standards), and used to enrich the certified organic vegetable garden, while the rest is spread on the pasturelands. 

“During the grazing season, the cows are in the barn for about half a day usually, then later in the day and at night they go out to graze,” Glasgow explained. Inside the dairy barn is a massive open area where straw and sawdust is laid. When it is mixed with manure, it creates what is known as a pack. As the cows produce manure and trample the ground, farm workers bring in a rototiller to aerate the pack and foster oxidation. For the past several years, that compost has been applied to the Grey Barn fields, and although it’s a gradual process, the organic and chemical makeup of their soil has improved. Glasgow said the farm continues to periodically test their soil to make sure it is heading in the right direction. 

Apart from a little diesel fuel for their tractors and some propane to run the forklift, Grey Barn runs entirely off electricity. And with every available roofline that has good southern exposure covered in solar panels, the farm is considered net-neutral in its electricity consumption. “Other than some of our machinery and the occasional supplemental heating for the pigs if they are going to have babies in the dead of winter, everything is electric, including HVAC and hot water,” Glasgow said.

State agricultural preservation restrictions prevent management from installing ground-based solar arrays on the property, something Glasgow said he agrees with. “The state wants farmland to be used for farms, not solar farms,” he said, although any additional construction on the property in the future will involve solar. “Our solar array has been online for almost twelve years, so the system has long ago paid for itself.”

There are several terms that describe the approach Grey Barn is taking regarding grazing and managing their herd: rotational grazing, management intensive grazing — it all refers to shifting cows to different areas of pasture each day, and being aware of the condition of both the animals and the land. Glasgow said they have been using this practice for a decade, and now have it down to a science. “We used to put the cows out for one hundred percent of the time during the grazing season, but it’s really hard to have the cows out in the middle of the day when it’s really hot,” Glasgow said. “It’s hard on the animals, and it’s even harder on the fields.”

Creating a mutually beneficial relationship between grazing cows and the fields that grow the grass they eat is at the center of effective and sustainable rotational grazing. According to Glasgow, farmers strategically put the cows out in an open area of field that has had enough time to grow. After the cows have eaten almost all the grass in that area, they are transferred to a new area. This adds longevity to the fields, and by constraining cows to a smaller area, they trample the grass by bending it and crushing it with their hooves. “That is essentially how you are building the soil. The cows are releasing organic matter, and trampling it into the ground, and creating a soil microbiome that is actually sequestering carbon,” Glasgow said. “If you increase your organic matter from three percent to four percent, it’s actually many tons of carbon you are sequestering. I won’t be so bold as to say we are net-removing carbon, but I do feel strongly that we are essentially net-neutral. That puts us well ahead of the vast majority of dairy farms, let alone small farm enterprises.” Part of this intensive grazing approach involves multi-species pasture rotation, which brings Grey Barn sheep and chickens out into the fields to aid in soil microbiome development, which further reduces the need to till. 

According to the environmental report, Grey Barn sequestered 667 tons of CO2 equivalent between the summer of 2018 and the summer of 2020 — about 330 tons per year, which is equivalent to 44 households worth of emissions. 

Grey Barn is working toward a totally closed-loop system by minimizing the amount of waste that leaves the farm. With such a large dairy and cheesemaking operation, there is often leftover food and dairy waste. But that protein-rich waste has a practical use — the pigs think it’s delicious. “We feed our pigs all the leftover stuff from our dairy operations, and that gives our pork a really nice and rich taste, and it ensures that we aren’t throwing a whole bunch of dairy in the garbage,” Glasgow said.

Islanders (and mainlanders) who buy food from Grey Barn can rest assured, knowing it’s all certified organic by the USDA. That means it’s completely free of synthetic fertilizers, GMOs, growth hormones, herbicides, or pesticides. Instead, Grey Barn uses their own manure and compost, rotational grazing, hand-weeding, and only certified organic pest deterrents.  

To accompany the smart business and environmental efforts at the farm, Grey Barn also offers a community supported bread program. Paying customers can sign up for a share, which provides ten weeks of bread (two loaves per week) along with a little surprise from the bakery or dairy in each pickup; the profits from this program allow the farm to offer what they call a “neighborhood loaf” to the food pantry and other Island benevolent community organizations. “Each time we bake two loaves for a community supported bread program customer, proceeds from that go toward baking the neighborhood loaf,” Glasgow said. 

On days when the bakery doesn’t completely clear their shelves, any leftover bread, pastries, and more that won’t be repurposed are donated to local charities. Also as part of their charitable work, Grey Barn provides discounted products to schools on a regular basis. Outside funding sources help subsidize this program, so the schools are paying commodity prices for artisanal, locally-made, certified organic food.

The number of smaller dairy farms in the United States declines relentlessly each year, even as the total number of dairy cows rises with the growing prevalence of industrial farming. As family farms continue to disappear, Glasgow said he is proud to maintain a community-oriented approach, and to run his business at a scale that is closer to what the original mom-and-pop farms looked like, as opposed to what “small farms” are these days. “The sustainability report really reaffirmed our commitment to these values,” Glasgow said. “Going forward we will continue testing our soil, and keep learning and coming up with new ways to strengthen our connection with the land we live on and steward.”

Head to the Grey Barn's website to read the entire sustainability report.