AMHERST — As college and university farms go, Hampshire College Farm is not a big one. What they do have in abundance is student energy, and true to the Hampshire philosophy, they’ve celebrated and empowered it.

So far, the results have been fruitful. And, because they produce similar things on a similar scale to other local farms, many lessons learned from their experimentation are immediately useful to their neighbors.

“This year,” explains farm manager Emily Landeck, “one of our big focuses is shifting towards raising food in more climate resilient ways.”

Hampshire College Farm sits on 80 acres visible from West Street in Amherst. Cows, pigs, sheep and chickens graze and forage through about 30 acres of pastures. Another 4 acres are in vegetable production, growing tens of thousands of pounds of produce each year. In the woods are stands of sugar maples, tapped each winter to make maple syrup.

Much of the produce and meat grown on the farm is sold through CSA farm shares. A lot of it also ends up on student’s plates at campus eateries, and some pastured meat is sold at the on-campus HampStore, too.

While part of Hampshire College Farm’s value is its similarity to other local farms, it’s not a commercial farm, and that’s a big distinction. When the priority is student experience, not making money, things run differently.

For example, they don’t have a farm crew working the typical field season from April to November. Instead, Landeck, vegetable manager Rose Cherneff and livestock manager Charlotte Senders lead a group of six full-time student interns during the summer and a patchwork of work-study positions and volunteers during the school year.

“We’re hitting peak harvest time, and our main labor force just left to go back to school,” Landeck explains. “We’re not a land grant university (like a state university, which receives public funding for agricultural research and education) and we’re not a wealthy school, so we have to use our small staff and budget wisely.”

This is where leaning into student involvement is a win-win. It lets students dig deep into hands-on learning, and it allows Hampshire College Farm to continue thriving and evolving toward whatever those involved feel is important.

A great example of this is the visible legacy of student projects on the farm. “At any time in their studies, Hampshire students can create independent projects delving deep into some aspect of the farm,” Landeck explains. “They commit a certain amount of time, farm staff serve as their supervisors, and they get to lead.”

Today, Hampshire College Farm has breeding programs for both pigs and sheep, raising those animals from birth to slaughter. They also have a bustling 160-member CSA. All those programs began as final projects from students in the Division III stage of their Hampshire education.

While students might get excited about something specific, Landeck’s job is to see the big picture. With Sellers and Cherneff, she makes sure the farm runs smoothly and that both the food and research they produce are useful for the wider community. Recently, that’s meant experimenting with new farming strategies to help them and other farms adapt to the impacts of climate change.

One major experiment is shifting to “no-till” management for an entire acre of vegetable production. Not tilling the soil allows a more complex habitat of microbes, fungi and roots to form. This usually gives the soil more aeration, better drainage, and higher levels matter. Done well, it can improve productivity and make that soil more resilient to both droughts and flooding. It can also help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it in the soil, at least for some time.

“The area where we’re trying no-till has really suffered the last few years because it doesn’t drain after heavy rains,” says Landeck. “With standing water, we can’t get tractors in, and we’ve lost crops to weeds and flooding. We think shifting to no-till will help with that.”

The farm is also experimenting with planting cover crops of oats and clover underneath and between their popcorn, tomatoes and winter squash to act as a living mulch. This strategy has similar intentions to the no-till plot: improving drainage, protecting against soil erosion in heavy rains and evaporation in high heat, and maybe sequestering more carbon, too.

For this living mulch experiment, Hampshire College Farm has partnered with Momentum Ag, a nonprofit founded by another local farmer, Lincoln Fishman of Sawyer Farm in Worthington. Momentum Ag’s mission is to speed up the adoption of climate-smart farming practices. They offer funding and advice to reduce farmers’ risk when experimenting with something new and create peer learning networks so that farmers can share what works and learn from the people they trust most — each other. Hampshire College Farm’s shared affinity for grassroots research makes them a natural partner.

As greenhouse gases continue to build up and trap heat in our atmosphere, predictions call for stronger rainstorms, hotter summers and more chaotic weather overall. Whether the new methods employed by Hampshire College Farm help them adapt to changing conditions or not, that’s useful information for other local farms.

“Through things like farmer-to-farm communication and hosting tours, we hope that information can spread quickly,” says Landeck, “exposing the farming world to research conducted with more of a small-town feel.”

That’s one reason Hampshire College Farm is hosting a public talk and tour this Thursday, Sept. 19 at 4 p.m. Farm staff and students will be on hand to answer questions, and food will be provided. This event is part of a Climate Change and Farming Week organized by Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA), where farms and other local organizations are inviting peers and the public to explore strategies for slowing climate change and adapting to its impacts. Details at buylocalfood.org/climateweek.

Hampshire College recently restructured to account for financial pressures like those facing many colleges and universities today. As a new chapter begins, Hampshire wants to reaffirm ties to the surrounding community. Landeck sees the farm as a great avenue for that.

“We want to open the farm’s doors more to the public,” she says. “The more our community can rally behind college and university farms, the better we can educate the next generation of farmers, but also eaters — teaching why and how we can support farms and keep farmers farming. Farming is not easy, and the more support we and our local farms can get, the more we all can thrive.”

Jacob Nelson is a communications coordinator at CISA. To learn more about local farms and where to find local food near you this harvest season, visit buylocalfood.org.