Woodlawn Farmstead

Location Pawlet, VT
Acreage 864
Protected Since 1997

Old meets new at Woodlawn Farmstead, a family-run dairy and Vermont farm store

For nearly 200 years, generations of the Leach family have worked their fertile Mettowee Valley land. Over the years, they’ve adapted their business to changing (and challenging) times.

Today, the land is home to a Vermont dairy and a beef herd that are nourished by grain and forage grown on the farm. Stop by an old milkhouse, refurbished into a farm store, for Vermont cheese made with Woodlawn milk, premium beef, produce, and maple syrup–all produced from the surrounding land.

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A farming legacy

Woodlawn Farmstead has been passed down through the Leach family for seven generations. In that time, a lot has changed.

The soil of the Mettowee Valley remains as fertile as ever, but the dairy farm’s evolution reflects the changing nature of farming in Vermont–and the innovative spirit of those who work the land.

The challenge of dairy

Small dairy farmers have had a tough go for the past several decades. In the mid-1980s, the price of milk took a dip and farmers found themselves unable to cover their costs. Larger farms in other states gained market share and small farms were increasingly at the mercy of volatile national milk and feed prices. Commodity prices peaked in the late aughts, and the dip in 2008 was profound.

Many Vermont dairy farms never recovered. But the Leach family regrouped in the 1980s, and a new generation has been working hard to meet the challenges facing Vermont farms.

Innovation helps a farm thrive

In light of these challenges, the Leach family’s newest farmer, Seth, has responded by diversifying this Vermont dairy and products. These days, the family produces Wagyu beef and maple syrup that they sell at their Old Milkhouse Farm store.

They also continue to milk cows. On a regular basis, Seth delivers milk to Plymouth Cheese and Crowley Cheese, the oldest continuously operating cheese producer in America. Hildene also uses Woodlawn’s milk for their cow’s milk Tomme. You can find these Vermont cheeses for sale at the farm store and in many other stores around, and beyond, Vermont.

Finding success in diversified farming

This diversification is one change that has helped Woodlawn Farmstead weather the ups and downs of 21st-century small-scale agriculture. Reclaiming and improving 75 acres of pasture has helped enable the operation to expand into growing grains in addition to forages to support the cattle.

“I thought we could be more profitable milking fewer cows if we could feed them from our acreage,” said Seth. “It’s insulated us from a lot of what’s decimating other dairy farms our size, and given us the breathing room to pursue opportunities.”

Conserving farmland helps a business grow

Located in the heart of Vermont’s fertile Mettowee Valley, Woodlawn Farm has expanded to over 860 acres. Its growth has been supported, in part, by conservation.

We first worked with Seth’s parents, Tim and Dot, to protect 438 acres from development in 1997. The Leaches reinvested some of the proceeds from selling a conservation easement back into the farm. Over time, they were able to buy and conserve two more farms that now support family businesses.

Conserving many farms protects not just the land, but the local farm economy

The conservation of Leach family farmland is part of a larger, landscape-level effort to protect farms across the Mettowee Valley in the face of intense development pressure.

This valley has some of Vermont’s best farmland, so it’s a joy to drive on Route 30 and see field after field verdant and productive. To date, that effort has resulted in the protection of more than 12,000 acres from Dorset to Wells.

Regardless of what the future brings, the valuable Metowee farmland the Leach family, and many others, conserved will remain available to feed generations of Vermonters into the future.

Visit the Old Milkhouse at Woodlawn Farmstead

The Woodlawn Farmstead farm store is called The Old Milkhouse. It is open daily. Stop by to buy artisan cheeses made with Woodlawn milk, Wagyu beef, maple syrup, and more. Visit the farm’s website for more details.