Laurie and Debbie Johnson

            The Johnson farm, also known as Saga Morgan farm, is located on La Clair road in Shaftsbury. It is situated in a valley amongst the rolling hills. The focal point is a large barn, surrounded by several smaller barns and sheds, with a large yellow house. It is an active working farm run by sisters Debbie and Laurie Johnson. Today, it is primarily a beef farm. They maintain seventy-three cows while also breeding Morgan horses. At this point they have fifteen horses, a small fraction of what they have had in the past. They also have several chickens that reside in their large barn.

            The story says that the original owner of this farm was the first owner of Eagle Square. He established the farm and had the large barn built. The barn is approximately one hundred and sixty years old and was built using post and beam construction. It was said to have been framed in only one day. There are several floors to this barn; the bottom floor was designed to house pigs and the ground floor was designed to hold cows. Two more floors rise up above; they are used to hold thousands of square hay bales. The farm ran steady for many years, raising primarily sheep, which was normal in early Vermont. It eventually closed in 1941 because of a severe drought. Following this closure a Russian Count bought the farm and lived there for seven years. He did a poor job of running the farm and left it in poor shape until the Johnson sisters’ grandfather, Barton Jenks, bought it in 1948.

            He revitalized it to be primarily a chicken farm, at one point maintaining five thousand chickens. They bred the chicks and harvested eggs, which they brought to Williamstown to sell to Mt. Hope farm by the gross, 144 eggs. The hens were developed for only white eggs, which, when collected were sorted by a gravity machine that would sort the eggs by size and weight. The hens would get two years as egg producers, during which they were fed ground oyster shells to strengthen the eggs. When they were no longer producing eggs at the top rate, they were sold as poultry. While they were producing eggs they were free-range chickens. They spent the days out in a field and had to be brought back into the barn at night. This is quite an involved job but they needed to be kept safe from foxes and coy dogs. Ventilation in barns is very important in animal farming, especially with chickens because disease can spread quickly. The large barn is equipped with operable cupolas, ventilation ducts on the roof of the barn, and ventilation through the sides. In the sixties there was a drought that forced them to bring water to the farm from the Cold Spring in Shaftsbury. They would make this four mile trek every day using fifty-five gallon drums and anything else they could use to carry water back to the barn.

            The large-scale chicken operation was cut back in the mid 1960’s, making it possible to breed more horses. Laurie and Debbie Johnson’s mother became the head of operations in 1966 and together they started the horse business, which Debbie continued when she took control of operations in 1969. Laurie and Debbie did not form an official partnership until 1990. They bred Morgan horses, eventually bringing the number to thirty-six. People came from all over the world to purchase these horses. Strangers would show up on their way to the government run Morgan farm in Middlebury. The horse market remained strong until 1976 when there was an economic downturn, leading to a loss of horse sales. The market has remained rather stagnant, as the romanticism of the horse has faded from the majority of peoples' minds. Today the Johnson’s have reduced their Morgan herd to fifteen, but still train and sell them. Their focus has shifted today to beef cattle. The positive side to beef as a commodity is that it has a rather steady market value. The Johnson’s herd has increased to seventy-three because of steady sales. Recently, the Johnsons purchased their first registered Angus cow, which gave birth to a calf this spring.  By next spring the Johnson’s hope to have a herd of eighty cows.

            The Johnson’s grow and cut their own hay and silage to feed the livestock. They rotate their crops and in doing so are able to use the land efficiently. The have tried cover farming, a technique used to prevent weeds from growing, but found it ineffective in its second year. The costs were also prohibitive, so the process was abandoned.

            Today the Johnson’s maintain their beef herd and continue to train horses. They practice all aspects of farming from, cutting wood to raising animals and growing crops. This is reflected in the historical Vermont landscape of wilderness in the mountains, which makes way for pastures and eventually to growing fields as it descends into the valleys. It is a self-supporting system that they hope to continue into the future. This is an important part of the working land in Vermont, which is key to our identity, and the natural beauty and enduring economic viability of our area.