“We still wanted the farm to keep going, and we would make it work.”
Rebecca Ferry and her sister, Sandra Scott, were just 7 and 13 when their parents purchased Dreamroad Farm, a dairy farm in Johnstown. They grew up on the farm, working alongside their parents.
After high school, each attended the State University of New York at Morrisville to study agricultural business and dairy science, respectively, and then they finished their bachelor’s degrees in animal science at Cornell University. While they both went on to careers in agriculture, the family farm was never far. When they were home, they helped their parents on the farm.
In 2016, their parents were ready to retire. “There used to be a time when you could have 30 cows and milk them and make a living and be able to retire after selling the farm,” Ferry said. However, that has changed, and when farms sell, they often go to housing or solar farm developers and do not continue as farms.
With it being more difficult to make a good living farming, often younger generations are just not interested in carrying on the family business. In 1995, New York State had 11,000 dairy farms, and today, that number is only 3,600, according to the United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service. While other second- and third-generations turned away from farming, that was not the case for Ferry and Scott. “We still wanted the farm to keep going, and we would make it work,” Ferry said. They knew they couldn’t operate the farm like their parents had to and have it be a viable business.
“Historically, Fulton County used to be, for the most part, a dairy county,” said Lee Hollenbeck, president of the Fulton County Farm Bureau. When Hollenbeck left dairy farming in 1989, there were roughly 150 dairy farms in Fulton County. Now there are about 16 farms with a total of 1,400 cows. Despite the drop in farms, New York State’s dairy farmers produce over 15 billion pounds of milk a year, giving New York the ranking as the fourth largest dairy state in the country.
Dreamroad Farm produces 1.1 million pounds of that milk a year from 80 cows. They sell the milk to Agrimark, the owner of Cabot Cheese and processing plants in New England and Vermont. However, to keep the farm going, they knew they could not produce milk alone. “We needed to find other revenue sources,” Ferry said. With that in mind, they increased the number of crops they grow, now producing corn for silage for other farms and hay for small dairies and horse farms. They also raise 10 to 12 pigs for pork and 20 Jersey beef cows.
They opened a farm store where they could sell their own products as well as those of other local businesses. “We carry all the Cabot products, maple syrup, honey, and other stuff that’s all made locally,” Ferry said.
The Fulton County Center for Regional Growth (FCCRG) assisted the farm in applying for a $75,000 grant offered through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. “It helped to get us back on better footing and make expansion with the store and things like that,” Ferry said. They started out in an Amish-built shed wired with electricity to test out the idea of a farm store which made enough profit in the first six months to pay for the expenses of putting it up. The farm store turned out to be so popular that they were able to repurpose an existing building on the farm to open a larger store.
This is part of the diversification of the farm, which follows the trend in agriculture in general. “In commercial agriculture, unfortunately, consolidation is happening if you’re just trying to stay within that one commodity,” Ferry said. “There are new people coming in, but in a diversified way,” Ferry said, noting that just one percent of the United States’ population are farmers.
With diversification as a key business strategy, the sisters have also added agritourism elements to the farm. For example, the farm offers two glamping sites outfitted with tents with queen-sized beds, firepits, grills, and an outhouse with solid- and liquid waste-drying bags developed by NASA. There’s even a summer shower. Guests can rent kayaks or fish in a stocked pond. “A lot of people once they get here just kind of grill and hang out, and that’s it,” Ferry said. “They enjoy the fact that they’re kind of out in the middle of nowhere, but if they need anything, they can always go into town.”
Dreamroad Farm is also a Harvest Host, offering four to five overnight parking spots for recreational vehicles. “We put some on the back side of the farm, and they get to see turkey and deer in the morning,” Ferry said.
In July, the farm participates in the Farm to Table Tour in Fulton and Montgomery Counties where people can take a self-guided tour to local farm stands and stores. Hosting birthday parties on the farm, complete with the chance to see the animals, is another revenue source.
Hollenbeck points out that farms are significant economic multipliers. “It will surprise you for every dollar on the farm how much is generated,” he said. “It’s a ripple effect. For every one farmer, you’ve got truckers, processing plants, distributors, stores, truck drivers, packaging, machinery dealers, and fertilizer.”
What is remarkable about Ferry and Scott is that they both work full-time jobs in addition to operating Dreamroad Farm. “I do it before and after my full-time job and on days off,” said Ferry, who works as the agricultural economic development coordinator for Montgomery County. Scott is the County Executive Director for the USDA Montgomery County Farm Service Agency.
They complement each other in the work that needs to be done, Scott with physical work and Ferry on the organizational side, as she lost both legs when they got caught in a power take-off shaft when she was nine years old. “She does the cows and the herd health aspect of it and more of the physical things,” Ferry said.
In addition to diversifying Dreamroad Farm’s enterprise in the changing landscape of agricultural business, the sisters also help to educate the public about agriculture and help them become more self-sufficient through homesteading. “There’s no formal aspect to this work; it’s more just people helping people,” Ferry said, noting that they’re working on a series of educational workshops covering such topics as gardening, beekeeping, and making soap, butter, cheese, and other products at home. “The good thing about the pandemic is that some people started to realize some different things because they didn’t have food in the stores,” Ferry said. “We’re doing a lot of homesteading, with people wanting to create their own food sources.”
Ferry and Scott serve the farming community beyond the borders of Fulton County. Scott is the president of the New York Jersey Cattle Club, and Ferry fills the role as Director from the Second District of the American Jersey Cattle Association.
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