A John Deere Publication

Children playing with barnyard in the background

Liberty Truedson and fellow campers explore the farmyard during Fairmont Farm's 'Life on the Farm' summer camp, learning to navigate new experiences through play and discovery.

Agriculture, Education June 01, 2025

Summer School in the Barnyard

Vermont dairy transforms chores into summer camp traditions and community bond.

by Katie Knapp

By 9 a.m. on a midsummer Monday, first milking is finished at Fairmont Farm's main dairy operation. But at The Haven, a secondary farm home to some show calves, dry cows, feeder pigs, and a small retail market, the day is just beginning. Children in rubber boots stream from parents' cars, some eager for the day ahead and others very nervous about all the new smells and sounds.

This 3,000-acre, 1,500-cow dairy operation spread across 13 towns in central Vermont, has found an innovative way to bridge the growing gap between rural agricultural life and their suburban neighbors: a wildly popular summer day camp that teaches kids about dairy farming through hands-on experience.

"I think my favorite part is the mornings, doing the washing and brushing and leading because that's what the kids love the most," says Clara Ayer, who developed the camp 10 years ago on her family's farm. She came back to the farm the year prior to help run the accounting and then saw a need for more community outreach and education.

The participants are each paired with a calf for the week, learning everything from proper grooming techniques to showmanship basics. Each day blends hands-on farm work with educational activities and lots of play.

Mornings are dedicated to calf care—feeding, washing, and leading practice. In the afternoons, campers might make meatballs with ground beef and eggs from the farm's market or take a field trip to the main farm to bottle-feed baby calves.

Campers also learn the science behind agriculture, like how cows transform field corn into milk. Clara brings in her cousin Chelsea Turley, a science teacher, to lead these lessons.

After lunch on Thursday, Chelsea asks the group if they put milk in their cereal that morning. "Guess what! A corn plant like this helped the cows make that milk," she says, holding up an eight-foot-tall stalk. She goes on to discuss photosynthesis with the kids, explaining how plants capture sunlight to create glucose.

By the end of the week when parents gather to watch their children proudly present their calves in the show ring, the transformation is remarkable.

'Life on the Farm Camp' began in 2015 with just 20 kids over two weeks and has grown tremendously, now hosting 28 campers each week across multiple sessions. A 2018 Working Lands Enterprise Initiative grant helped upgrade facilities and expand programming, though demand still exceeds capacity.

"He's always been into animals," one mom explains, already planning to sign her son up for next year. "When he was in kindergarten and we were looking for camps, he wasn't a kid that would do soccer camp. Animals were his jam. This is the best summer camp we've found."

The camp works in ways even Clara can't fully explain. The animals, the routine mixed with that special empowerment reserved just for farm kids, and the end-of-the-day ice cream all add up to something magical.

"Maybe it's that the animals are therapeutic or something else about our program," Clara ponders, watching her newest group of farmers-in-training find their rhythm in the barn, "but even kids who have never been to any other camp before just seem to thrive here."

Many of these campers come from nearby towns. Some arrive never having touched a farm animal. Others have heard stories of their grandparents' farms but have no direct connection to agriculture themselves.

A few discover such a passion for farming that they join the farm's Udderly Crazy 4-H club and return to help with future camps between caring for and showing their own calf for the whole year.

"We need all the kid helpers," Bonnie Hall, Clara's mother says. Their 4-H members are fixtures at camp, teaching younger children the skills they've mastered. This careful cultivation is how the family approaches the whole farm operation.

Above. Clara Ayer started the camp on her family's farm in 2015 out of a need for more community engagement but also to share the adventure of growing up on a farm with more children. The Halls also lead the Udderly Crazy 4-H Club where area kids can work a calf all year long. The camp is well structured with 'classroom' learning in the hay barn, quiet time in the stalls, and chore time washing and feeding calves or cleaning equipment. The campers, aged six to 12, even get to play with Clara's and Ricky's children's toy tractors. Bonnie's favorite place on the farm is a tree-lined knoll above the main farm where family weddings and many camp-outs have been held. Each camper leads their calf in a show for their parents. Ricky and Richard Hall also enjoy watching the show each week.

Growing forward. Clara's parents, Bonnie and Richard Hall, started farming when they were in their early 20s. Today Fairmont Farm raises 1,500 milking cows across multiple locations, with different family members taking on specialized roles.

Richard and their nephew Tucker Purchase handle the cropping across their scattered acreage. Tucker and their son Ricky Hall manage the dairy herd.

To diversify beyond traditional dairy operations and answer community needs during the Covid-19 pandemic, they opened a farm store that has become an unexpected success.

Run primarily by Bonnie out of what used to be the herdsmen room at The Haven farm, it offers dairy products and meat from their own beef-dairy cross, feeder pig, and sheep herds and serves both retail customers and local restaurants. Many of those restaurants prominently feature the farm on their menus with such dishes as a signature Fairmont Bolognese, and a nearby church feeds their community with grant dollars that flow back to the fields.

The market also has become a natural extension of the camp experience, serving up ice cream sundaes at the end of the day while the parents also purchase fresh meat for dinner.

"I've done the dairy farm thing now for 30-something years, and there's been a lot of years that we're not making money and there's nothing we can do about it," Bonnie reflects as she packs up a camper's parents' order. "Being able to set your own price and say this is what it is—that is something I have really enjoyed about the market."

As the dairy industry faces ongoing challenges, Fairmont Farm's approach of combining traditional farming with educational outreach and direct-to-consumer sales offers a model for sustainability.

"I think the diversification is something we need to keep working on," Ricky reflects. "It's very unique where we're farming and how we're farming, and the community is very supportive."

Ricky's desire to keep building the farm's solid foundation to withstand whatever may come in the future is no surprise. The farm's motto, "Farming for Future Generations," isn't just a slogan. It captures everything they're working toward: breeding quality animals, building business opportunities, and maintaining sustainable land practices for the next generation.

Clara says, "Our mission is to be a profitable dairy farm with the utmost consideration for our employees, our environment, and our animals." She explains this mindset also leads how they approach succession planning.

"Part of our succession planning is we have rules about when you can come back." Everyone must gain two years of outside experience before starting to buy into the operation.

"It's really important to bring other experience back to the farm," Clara says, having worked at a farm credit company before stepping into her farm accounting role. "But two years also ensures that when you come back, you know you want it."

Her cousin Tucker spent two years working on a large dairy in California before returning. Ricky, her brother, has interest in genetics and breeding so worked for two years as a Holstein classifier before coming back home.

Lessons that last. When Friday afternoon arrives, the magic of 'Life on the Farm Camp' becomes crystal clear.

The children leave with new skills and confidence, having learned to care for animals, make food from farm-fresh ingredients, and appreciate what it means to be a farmer.

"What was the best part of the week?" Clara asks Liberty. Her pigtails bounce as she excitedly shares about her team winning the calf-washing contest.

This joyful scene plays out at the end of each camp week like clockwork.

As families head back home across the greater Montpelier region, kids wave goodbye to their calves through car windows while the yellow barns topped with solar panels fade from view.

Beyond the bushels of feed and pounds of milk they produce, the extended Hall family is growing something else here: a new generation that understands where food comes from and what it takes to produce it. For Fairmont Farm, it's all part of farming for future generations—whether those futures are in agriculture or not. ‡