Black Hawk helicopter pilot Ben Groen found himself constantly tending to unreliable fences when he began to farm as a hobby on his 24-acre property near Fort Drum in upstate New York. Problems with a post or an electrical short could invite one of his 1,200-pound Scottish Highland bulls to stray into a neighbor’s pasture or trample his own yard.

A solution presented itself when Groen enrolled in Northern New York Veterans in Agriculture (AgVets). The program, run by Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Jefferson County, helps active-duty and veteran service members explore the field of agriculture.

Then nearing retirement from the Army as a major and battalion logistics officer, Groen spent weeks at Centerdale Farm with owner David Hawthorne, an AgVets mentor and fellow combat veteran who raises beef cattle. Groen admired Hawthorne’s five miles of high-tensile-wire fencing and found a broader model he could apply to Groen Family Farms.

Credit: Ryan Young/Cornell University

“Everything about the experience, I was learning and enjoying,” Groen said. “I thought, this is what I want my place to be like in five or 10 years.”

Since 2020, AgVets has reached more than 2,200 area service members through free farm tours; classes and workshops; and mentorships with local farmers like the ones Groen pursued in 2023. More than 50 participants have gone on to ag-related jobs, started or expanded their own farms, or obtained higher education in agriculture, according to MaKayla Dickinson, agriculture and workforce development educator for CCE Jefferson County.

“Fort Drum is right around the corner, and Jefferson County has a lot of farmland,” Dickinson said. “The soldiers get hands-on experience that can help them decide what they want to get involved in after the military, then get that job or start a farm that helps grow the agricultural community.”

Depending on a veteran’s interests, AgVets may invite them to learn from a diverse array of farmers, from mom-and-pop vegetable growers and small-batch maple producers to large-scale operations that employ truck drivers, mechanics, high-tech machinery operators and animal or crop scientists. Mentorships rotating among them may last days or weeks. In return for their teaching and on-the-job training, mentors receive a small daily stipend.

Soldiers interested in agriculture generally do well at it, bringing a strong work ethic and common sense, said David Belding, a mentor in the program and co-owner of Cross Island Farms on Wellesley Island. He considers education central to the organic farm’s mission.

“They’re used to figuring things out and working through problems, working outdoors, working hard physically, working long hours,” Belding said. “That doesn’t faze them.”

At the 500-acre Centerdale Farm in Black River, outside Watertown, Hawthorne regularly hosts AgVets participants and appreciates efforts to help service members transition out of the military. It’s a kind of support, he said, that Vietnam vets like himself typically never received.

Credit: Ryan Young/Cornell University

“It’s good for me to see these programs out to where the soldiers, at least when they’re getting out, they’ve got an opportunity to go somewhere, because we weren’t given that opportunity,” Hawthorne said. “It helps us out, too. If you’ve got an extra hand, it’s good. They learn, we learn, and the work gets done.”

Recently he patrolled his pasture dotted with dandelions and black angus, counting newborn calves – a rite of spring. He noted twins with ears pricked upward, indicating good health. But where a new mother cow lounged among a group of expecting heifers, a calf appeared to be missing.

Peering over a wire fence – its voltage deactivated for a repair earlier – Hawthorne quickly spotted the young escapee on the wrong side, nestled comfortably between a tree trunk and boulder. As he approached, the calf scampered back through the fence to its mother.

“That’s what you call being a good babysitter,” Hawthorne said. “That’s why we check them as often as we do.”

His work typically starts with health checks on his cattle and equipment, but daily tasks always change – fixing a motor one day, moving cattle or spreading manure another. Mentees learn to “run” equipment, not just drive it, Hawthorne said. Novices learn to choose the right pitchfork for the right job: hay, silage or manure.

While Groen said he learned something from each of his AgVets mentors, it was at Centerdale that he discovered practices he hopes to mimic most, from Hawthorne’s “impeccable” fences to his methodical daily approach, and gained confidence that he could mold his own farm into a more profitable venture.

“It was like a hammer coming down on an anvil,” Groen said. “I want to do beef farming, and I want to do it in a very deliberate, organized, methodical way. And David kind of brought it all together. And that’s what I’ve been working towards the last year-and-a-half since I finished the program.”

Credit: Ryan Young/Cornell University

Another participant, Jonathan Smith, a retired Apache helicopter pilot and instructor who owns the 60-acre Rustling Grass Farm in Evans Mills, outside Fort Drum, also appreciated efficiencies he observed at Centerdale. One simple example: Shovels stationed at every barn door ensured winter snow could be cleared promptly. 

For Smith, hours on YouTube during a weekslong pandemic quarantine – split between Kandahar and Fort Drum – helped feed a fascination with regenerative farming practices that resonated with his Christian faith. AgVets helped confirm those convictions, exposing him to diverse farming techniques and personalities, while offering a more intangible benefit: time away from base to focus on the future.

“It was just hugely helpful, the mental clarity of being able to gradually transition my brain from the Army to not the Army, to farming,” Smith said. “At that inflection point, it was neat to have people who had, not similar experiences to you, necessarily, but experiences that are similarly unusual, and who have done just fine after the Army.”

Another participant, Heather Buxton, recently retired as an Army combat medic, saw baby calves born at Centerdale during a mentorship there last year. But it was among the mushrooms, asparagus and heirloom tomatoes grown by another AgVets mentor, Liam Carney, owner of Cogumelo Mushrooms in Natural Bridge, New York, that she found the peace and inspiration she sought from farming and the outdoors. She hopes to recreate that experience on a homestead.

“He had such a wealth of knowledge, and I was just soaking up everything that he was showing me,” Buxton said. “He taught me about the pH of the soil and all kinds of ways to keep plants healthy. It was all organic, and that’s what I want to learn: to grow organic.”

Wil Moss became intrigued with agriculture during a deployment to Afghanistan; as a cook, he spent time with livestock kept on an allied compound. In just 10 days at Centerdale with AgVets, he said he learned a host of skills – to operate tractors, mow grass, feed cattle, rotate pastures, clean barns, wrap hay bales and wrangle cows into a chute for veterinary inspections, to name a few. Originally from Hawaii and now based in Watertown, he hopes to develop his own family farm, believing its benefits could ripple through future generations.

“That 10-day build of a relationship has given me a lifetime of knowledge, and associates and friends that I can call in any time of need,” Moss said. “We’ve all got to build a foundation. We’ve all got to gain some knowledge in order to become what we want to be. So here’s where I start working on that journey.”