Top Vermont Farmer

Two and a half years after starting his own farm at Stowe, Vt., David W. Batchelder '51 has won top honors in the 1956 Vermont Green Pastures Contest. Against a background of an English major at Dartmouth and one year of special agricultural study at Cornell, Batchelder worked as a hired hand to gain experience before he bought his own farm.

His first-place award in Vermont (and third place in all New England) was due to intensive crop production, controlled pasture feeding and equally careful records for the 32 milkers and 15 heifers on his farm. He also operates a 10,000-bird broiler flock to increase income.

An example of Batchelder's farm- ing methods is the way he handles pasture feeding in the summer. Both permanent and temporary pasture is divided into small plots of about a half acre each, and his cows get a fresh plot at each two-hour feeding, twice a day. They are then moved to a permanent holding area where a stream and natural shade give summer comfort. Pasture quality is carefully checked, and Batchelder's barns are filled with high-yielding feed crops raised scientifically on his 65 tillable acres by himself and one hired man.

Proud of Dave's great accomplishment in such a short time is his father, Windsor C. Batchelder '19.