Akindale Farm

“The Akindale Farm project demonstrates excellent local, regional and federal partnership,” said Michael Saviola, WAC, East of Hudson Program Manager.  A 358-acre horse farm located in the Town of Pawling in Dutchess County, Akindale Farm is owned by John Hettinger and produces high quality thoroughbred racehorses and provides training for horses both owned and boarded at the farm. It was chosen as a pilot to represent the typical non-dairy farm most prevalent on agricultural land in the Croton Watershed region. The Whole Farm Plan for this farm was created in collaboration with the Dutchess County Soil & Water Conservation District. The farm also arranged a conservation easement with the Dutchess Land Conservancy, a local non-profit land trust based in Millbrook, New York.

This farm breeds and trains approximately 26 thoroughbred race horses and also has 45 mature horses, 30 young horses, and 6 Holstein steers. With 200 acres of the land in permanent pasture, the farm has another 100 acres of forest land. One of the most successful BMPs implemented on the farm was exclusion. “Exclusion fencing was installed on one of the farm’s pastures to limit the access of brood mares and foals to a nearby stream that runs adjacent to the farm,” said Saviola. “By keeping the animals away from the stream we are keeping animal pathogens from entering the water.” WAC Engineers developed an alternative water source in a less hydrologically sensitive area.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers redesigned the farm’s outside composting facility. The new facility eliminates the costly practice of transporting manure for off-site utilization and/or disposal. The farm collects manure from foals and stores it with straw bedding on an outside 100 x 200-foot asphalt compost pad with a reinforced concrete “push wall,” a filter field and diversion. The compost pad was improved to prevent pathogens from spreading from the pad to streams during stormwater events.

The compost pad was re-designed to be a more stable surface and a grass filter area was created on the down slope side of the compost pad to intercept and treat any stormwater runoff resulting from intense rain events. A comprehensive nutrient management plan determines where, when and how manure can be spread on the farm as fertilizer with minimal risk of phosphorus and pathogens entering the water supply. In addition, the Whole Farm Plan includes a prescribed grazing plan to rotate livestock to improve manure distribution around the farm.

“The new compost facility is wonderful for everybody at the farm. It enabled us to shut down our upper muck pile and allowed us to centralize all of our on-farm manure management and composting operations,” said farm manager, Kate Ferron. “Because of the ease of management and centralized location, all waste (bedding and straw) is picked up every six weeks and hauled to Pennsylvania for use in commercial mushroom farming.” Ferron added that haulers like coming to the farm now to pick up the manure because the facility makes their job easier.

To decrease stormwater runoff further, a barnyard water management system will be installed this year. Lastly, the farm is improving access road construction to prevent vehicles from spreading manure from the roads to streams.