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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing Article Summaries |
Welcome to the Wright Farm!
By Esther J. Perne A farm on display for the public! Free admission! Come and visit with the farm animals, your neighbors, other farm lovers, families who want their children to have a day on a farm! Take that last summer outing before school starts! Enjoy a scenic drive off the beaten track to the cow capitol of Maine! And step back in time to a great American tradition, a family farm where corn for silage is rippling in the fields, the woodlands are being managed by modern forestry techniques, and 700 cows are milked every day. Tuesday and Wednesday, August 22 and 23, are an ideal opportunity for guests of all ages to visit a true working farm. Held on the Wright Farm, Horse Back Road, Clinton, Maine Farm Days offers a variety of booths, exhibits and visits — including tours of the extensive dairy barn, a variety of food booths, equipment and livestock demonstrations, wagon rides, informational and educational displays, crafts for sale, machinery close up, a corn maze, and a large tent full of children's hands-on and friendly animal-petting activities.
A volunteer group has put this two-day event together every year for over twenty-five years, and it is rotated around the central Maine area to different farm operations that are willing to open their family farm to the public to tour. This will be the third consecutive year it is at the Wright Farm in Clinton. The history of the Wright Farm has been one of dedication and steady growth. Started as the Wright Place in 1956 by Samuel Wright Jr. and his wife Elizabeth, the farm had 300 acres of pasture and seven Jersey cows. In the seventies, a partnership was formed with sons Sam III and Tom, the Jerseys were replaced by Holsteins, and 150 cows were being milked in a double six parlor with the help of one full time employee. In 1979, the Wright Place hosted Maine Farm Days. In the eighties, the farm built a free stall barn and a double fourteen milking parlor, 500 cows were being milked, and in 1987, patriarch Sam II passed away.
In the nineties, the farm was milking 700 cows, Sam III retired, Tom died in a farm accident, and Sam II's son Raymond, and Sam III's two sons Brian and Stephen, purchased the farm from Elizabeth and Tom's wife Belinda. Belinda now operates Misty Meadow Farm in Clinton with her husband John Stoughton and sons Shonne and TJ. In 2000 the Wright farm purchased the Henshaw Farm in Canaan. In 2003 the Wrights began working with the neighboring Rogers Farm to pool labor and equipment. In 2005 the Wrights purchased the Rogers Farm to raise their replacement herd. Today, the Wright Place owns 2000 acres, crops 1800 acres in three counties, and milks approximately 700 cows twice a day in a double 14-herringbone parlor which has a through-put of 130 cows per hour with two people (from a crew of 16 full time employees) milking. Sound confusing? Here's a great explanation and solution: Come see the operation, the milking, the 14-herringbone parlor, take a wagon tour, eat yummy ice cream, meet the fourth generation, and much more on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 22 and 23. Read a related story and see more photos! | |||
