On-Farm Research - Wolfe's Neck

Wolfe’s Neck Center uses regenerative farming practices to rebuild the agricultural landscape through a changing climate.

Wolfe’s Neck Center has introduced many new and important innovations to the state of Maine over the decades, in keeping with a half-century of combining traditional values of natural farming with forward-thinking practices. In 2017, Wolfe’s Neck Farm became Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment, now with a refocused mission to address the major global challenges brought on by climate change. Using its unique set of resources, the organization promotes education and research as an outdoor living laboratory focused on agricultural production and ecosystem health in the face of a changing climate.

Wolfe’s Neck Center performs ongoing on-farm research projects, and is committed to using this knowledge to further inform environmental and agricultural advances for farmers and researchers.

OpenTEAM: Farmer-Driven Platform to Build Soil Health

WNC is leading a collaborative effort that spans universities, government agencies, NGOs and corporations, and farm networks from across the US and the globe to put the best locally relevant agricultural knowledge into the hands of farmers to build healthy soil and capture carbon. The vision for OpenTEAM is to provide access to everyone everywhere to the best agricultural knowledge because we now know that we can improve soil health faster than we once thought possible.

ABOUT OPENTEAM

B3: Maine Seaweeds to Reduce Methane Emissions

B3, or Bovine Burp Busters, is a $3 million grant from the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund. The project will allow Wolfe’s Neck Center researchers to collaborate with scientists from Bigelow Laboratory, using our herd to study the effect of Maine seaweed in a cow’s diet and its potential for methane emissions reduction.

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C.I.G.: Crop Diversity on Livestock Farms

The NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant will demonstrate methods for increasing pasture and hay land productivity and soil health through low and no-till establishment of forage crops. Our Northeast pastures are dominated by cool-season grass species that struggle to thrive in the hot and dry summer months and lead to low feed quality for dairy cows. The solution may be in more weather resilient warm season forages. These are often more drought tolerant and grow rapidly in the summer months, in turn providing high quality feed all year and improved soil health.