Dairy and Livestock Farm Manager

Who We Are Shelburne Farms is an education nonprofit on a mission to inspire and cultivate learning for a sustainable future. We offer transformative learning experiences to help educators and students create a better world. Our home campus is a 1,400-acre working farm located on the traditional, unceded and contemporary homelands of the Winooskik band of the Abenaki.

Commitment to Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Shelburne Farms recognizes that justice, equity, and access are central to sustainability. We are committed to translating these values into action across the organization by improving equitable outcomes in our culture, programs, and services. Shelburne Farms is working to create experiences of belonging for all, including BIPOC, LGBTQ+ communities, people with disabilities, and people of all economic realities.

Position: Dairy and Livestock Farm Manager

Supervises: Dairy, Livestock, and Crops Staff

Employee Status: Year‑Round, Full‑Time | Salary Exempt

Housing: Required on‑site

Why We Are Here Shelburne Farms is a nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to inspire and cultivate learning for a sustainable future. We believe in the power of farm‑based education for creating a better world.

Who We Are and What We Do Our home campus is a 1,400‑acre working farm and National Historic Landmark located on the homelands of the Abenaki. Our education programs, farming, forestry, property stewardship, and hospitality operations are at the heart of who we are and what we do. The farm’s award‑winning operations include a high genetic milking herd of 110 purebred registered Brown Swiss cows, farmstead cheese making, 80 ewe flock of sheep and 20 head beef herd, 6 acre organic market garden, and 400 acres of managed woodlands with a 2,400 tap sugarbush.

We are nationally recognized for our education for sustainability programs, beautiful pastoral landscape, and the food we produce and serve, including our raw milk cheddar cheese and maple syrup.

• Engage youth and people of all ages in learning experiences that inspire them to build just, diverse, resilient, caring communities.
• Steward our working lands and heritage buildings as we embody values of place and community through caring for and sharing our natural, agricultural, cultural, and human resources.
• Collaborate with educators and other local, national, and international partners to advance education for sustainability worldwide.

Who We’re Looking For Someone who loves being a farmer, wants to grow professionally, and is excited to become part of the farm‑based education community at Shelburne Farms. Someone who is deeply committed to pasture‑based livestock agriculture, conserving a beautiful agricultural landscape for public enjoyment, and continuing the legacy of the Brown Swiss dairy herd at Shelburne Farms, including the quest for the grass‑based Brown Swiss dairy cow of the future!

You will play an important role in implementing our food system vision, providing management leadership and support in collaboration with the dairy and livestock team and other farm staff, to produce and share our farmstead cheddar cheese, pasture‑based meats and other farm products.

To provide day‑to‑day management coordination and oversight for our pasture‑based dairy and livestock operations, collaborating with farm colleagues to advance the mission, vision and goals of Shelburne Farms.

The primary responsibility of this position is to lead the stewardship of high quality farm livestock operations at Shelburne Farms. It is expected that this position will be a hands‑on, working manager. Important management considerations and responsibilities include soil, animal, and human health, water quality, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, operations planning, staff support, budgeting, and performance monitoring.

Support our herdsmen with implementing livestock health strategies based on soil fertility, good nutrition and best husbandry practices, making every effort to prevent the need for antibiotics.

Work closely with our herdsmen and the cheese making team to maintain the highest possible milk…