Connecticut’s Fort Hill Farms Is Becoming Self-Sustainable

At Fort Hill Farms, Jared and Kies (Orr) LaVack maintain a family business with 80 years of history. As the 2022 recipients of Connecticut’s Outstanding Young Farmer Award, the LaVacks are being recognized for their efforts on a farm whose history stretches back to 1943.

“I have been farming for all my life,” Kies LaVack says. “I’m the fourth generation here on Fort Hill Farms.”

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Fort Hill Farms operates as a dairy farm and agritourism business, including an ice cream stand and seasonal corn maze. The farm is home to 210 cows, which are milked twice a day. LaVack and her family, including her husband Jared, mother Kristin Orr and uncle Jim Orr are responsible for the farm’s daily operation.

“We like being a small family farm,” LaVack says.

Part of what made Fort Hill Farms a standout choice for the 2022 Outstanding Young Farmer Award is its anaerobic digester, a technology that converts cow manure and food waste into electricity. Fort Hill Farms has partnered with the Pennsylvania-based AG-Grid Energy in this unique venture.

“We’re the first farm in Connecticut to have an anaerobic digester and to take food waste and manure to make electricity,” LaVack says. “The anaerobic digester has saved the farm by helping keep it alive. There have been times before the digester where we weren’t sure what tomorrow was going to bring.”

As well as running the farm, the LaVacks are involved in two co-ops: The Farmer’s Cow, which consists of six local family farms, and the Cabot Creamery Cooperative, which uses Fort Hill Farms milk to make cheese. 

“We do milk, ice cream, half and half, and heavy cream,” LaVack says. “You name it, we’ve done it.”

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The anaerobic digester and the Outstanding Young Farmer Award both help bring Fort Hill Farms one step closer to its goals. 

“Our plan is to become sustainable on our own, where we are making our own electricity to run the barns and to be using our own cow manure and food waste from other restaurants,” LaVack says.

The LaVacks have much to look forward to, including a new robotic farm where they hope to host tours, as well as a new family member due in spring 2023. 

“We are very excited for the fifth generation to join us,” LaVack says.