BAR HARBOR — Students at Bar Harbor’s College of the Atlantic’s Peggy Rockefeller Farm are in the midst of lambing season — learning essential farming skills like feeding, monitoring labor and even assisting with deliveries.
Students and instructors alike said hands-on learning like this prepares the next generation of Maine farmers for the realities of raising livestock.
“If a sheep is in labor, we kind of stand back and make sure she doesn’t need an intervention, but if there is an intervention we’re in there, and one of our farm managers is helping us through it all,” said Azilee Ball, a College of the Atlantic Senior who’s been taking part in a work-study at the farm for the past four years. “Once the lamb is born, we’re in there drying off the lamb on these really cold nights, and sterilizing their umbilical cords, weighing them and all those fun things.”
Ball said other tasks may include an assortment of farming chores, checking fences and building a chicken coop.
“I think it’s a foundation of keeping that farmer spirit alive and engaging the younger people who might not have had that opportunity,” said Ball. “There’s a lot of people that come from around the world to study at COA.”
Ball said lambing season has been in full force since the beginning of January but said it will likely be wrapping up soon.
“It’s kind of like a living, learning lab of these animals and how they operate, especially in labor and delivery,” said Ball.
While not all students who take part in the program go on to pursue farming roles, farm leadership said that giving students a chance to develop relationships with the animals helps to teach them about their role in the food system and the importance of Maine’s farmers.
“I used to work for the Hampshire College farm, and my mentor there told me on this question of how many students keep with farming, that not all of them that work here are going to be turning into farmers, but at least we’re growing thoughtful, respectful people who think about their place in the food system and how they’re interacting with the world, and that is also really wonderful,” said April Nugent, farm manager at the school’s Peggy Rockefeller Farm.
Nugent also said she thinks the skills students learn at the farm apply to more than raising livestock.
“I think the farm teaches a lot of responsibility and ownership, and I think people kind of need that to guide them,” said Nugent.
