Some dark clouds tonight will give way to a clear sky overnight. Lower 21F. Wind towards NNW at a speed of 10 to 15 mph..

Some dark clouds tonight will give way to a clear sky overnight. Lower 21F. Rotate towards NNW at a speed of 10 to 15 mph.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

BRATTLEBORO-Jim Westbrook once raised more than 250 pigs on a piece of land on Meadowbrook Road in West Brattleboro.

Earlier this month, this number dropped to less than 30, and by December, CherryRail farms will no longer have pigs.

"If you told me 20 years ago that I would become a pig farmer, I would say, are you kidding me?" Westbrook said, he is a graduate of Syracuse University and came from Greenfield, Massachusetts about 12 years ago. Moved to Bratboro.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Jim Westbrook, the owner of CherryRail Farm in Brattleboro, used to raise 260 pigs on the Meadowbrook Road farm. Now on October 14th, his number has been reduced to 20. By December, he will have to take all of them. take away. The state of Vermont ordered him to stop operations because the state said the whey was fed to pigs and their manure was entering Whetstone Creek.

Westbrook had been raising pigs for about five years when he received a visit from a state official in 2018.

The Bureau of Natural Resources has received a complaint that sewage is entering Whetstone Brook through a pair of unnamed perennial streams that intermittently flow through the land where Westbrook's pigs live.

"Many neighbors complain about the smell," Brattleboro district administrator Brian Bannon wrote in an email to the reformers. "Although I haven't heard any odor complaints in the past few years."

According to a violation report submitted by an investigator from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, pig manure and Westbrook's whey fed his livestock contaminated the water.

The violation report stated: “On June 1, 2018, DEC environmental enforcement officials responded to the complaint and visited the area south of the farm, near the junction of Tributary 1 and Wushi Creek.” “Tributary 1 was very turbid during operation. There is one area in this area. A strong sour taste, at least partly caused by feces. The closer you are to the water, the stronger the smell."

The report pointed out that on the edge of the farm, investigators found two piles of manure and old hay bedding, about 50 cubic yards of material, with water flowing on the edge of the embankment.

"Furthermore, the feces were washed directly into the depressions and then flowed from there to the tributary 1," the report said. "The swamps exude a strong smell of feces..."

An aquatic biologist from the Ministry of Environmental Protection concluded: “Tributary 1 is severely affected by the pig farm.”

The report pointed out that although it was recommended to keep pigs away from water sources to prevent whey from leaking from the conveyor line and to detain waste, during follow-up visits, the inspectors found that no recommendations were implemented.

"[I] broke before the whey line and released hundreds of gallons of whey into the woods and the area of ​​tributary 1... the same whey line broke again, spraying the whey to a height of about 10 feet. Air," the report stated. "The whey falls on the muddy and fecal ground."

Westbrook feeds his pigs with 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of brewery waste each week, which is obtained free of charge from three local breweries, and approximately 7,200 gallons of liquid whey each week from a local cream factory. He also fed his pigs with extra bread products from a local bakery.

In August, Westbrook reached an agreement with the Vermont Attorney General's Office to stop raising pigs on his property. The Vermont Supreme Court Judge Katherine Hayes finally finalized the consent order, which included a $70,000 fine, and as long as Westbrook did not continue to violate state regulations, it would exempt $60,000.

Westbrook said that in addition to the $10,000 fine, he must also pay $5,000 to a professional engineer who developed an erosion prevention and sediment control plan for his property.

He said that when the judge's gavel fell, the tens of thousands of dollars he invested on the farm to raise livestock, equipment, vehicles and buildings to raise livestock were basically thrown away.

Westbrook said that his farm has just begun to make a profit. He said he had worked with a regional buyer who connected farmers in the Northeast with consumers in cities such as New England, New York, and New Jersey.

"For the past four years, I have shipped 20 or 30 pigs to them every month," he said. "I could have shipped 50 pigs a month, but it's over."

Before moving to Brattleboro, Westbrook was a wrestling coach at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill, Massachusetts. He admitted that he made some mistakes on his farm, but he is trying to correct these problems and investing more money.

Westbrook said: "This is disappointing because we raise farm pigs, we have a market, and we finally make a profit," Westbrook said. He thinks Vermont farmers get a lot of verbal services from the government, but There is no other way.

"The country says we are all about farms, but the reality is... it's not even over yet," he said.

Westbrook said that investigators can find a variety of ways to close a farm in Green Mountain State in accordance with the way the agricultural procedures required by the state of Vermont are written.

When the complaint was received, David Huber, chief policy officer of the Vermont Department of Agriculture, Food and Market, said: "We are not interested in closing the farm." "We want to work with the farm. But this place is a mess."

According to the agricultural practices required by the State of Vermont, “production areas, barnyard farms, animal feeding areas or feedlot areas, manure storage areas, and feed storage areas should utilize runoff and leachate collection systems, diversion or other management strategies to prevent the discharge of agricultural waste Surface water or groundwater."

To meet the standards specified in the recommended agricultural procedures, Westbrook needed to build a manure retention pit and confine his animals to two rivers.

"That's factory farming," Westbrook said. "There is a trade-off. Either you have a factory farm that needs antibiotics in the feed, or you can have pasture-raised pork."

Although Westbrook said he and his wife would have no financial problems because they own many rental properties in Brattleboro, he could not afford the investment that the state deemed necessary to continue raising pigs.

Now, he is considering accepting an invitation from a friend to cook at a restaurant in Killington during the ski season, but his pig age is over.

"I am 61 years old. I won't start over. It's not worth it."

You can contact Bob Audette at raudette@reformer.com.

Bob Audette has been reporting for Brattleboro Reformer since 2005.

Get the latest news sent directly to your device.