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Northwind Farms

Northeastern American Mixed Forests Trust T1

A family farm raising a dozen kinds of pasture-based meat and poultry near Tivoli since 1982

Size: 70.4 ha
Climate Zones: Humid continental climate at the transition between hot-summer (Köppen Dfa) and warm-summer (Dfb) types, with a grazing season from late April to November.
Regenerative Focus: Regenerative Grazing, Regenerative Agriculture & Soil Health, Regenerative Entrepreneurship

About this land node

Northwind Farms is a family livestock farm near the village of Tivoli in northern Dutchess County, New York, founded by Richard Biezynski in 1982 on 90 acres and expanded since with his son Russell to about 174 acres (70 ha) plus hay land. For more than thirty years it has raised pasture-based beef, pork, chicken, turkey, duck, goose, lamb, goat, rabbit and game birds without hormones or antibiotics, processing poultry by hand on the farm and selling from its own farm store. The farm took part in Scenic Hudson's Climate-Resilient Agriculture initiative and keeps roughly 100 acres of hay in production along its road to help hold the neighborhood in agriculture.

Overview

Project Vision: We see Northwind in twenty years still a family farm, with Russell Biezynski's generation raising animals on pasture, more of the farm's beef finished on grass alone, and the hayfields along Kerley Corners Road still farmed rather than built on.
Project Purpose: To raise a wide range of pasture-based meats and poultry on a family farm, humanely and without hormones or antibiotics, selling directly to Hudson Valley households and keeping surrounding land in agriculture for the next generation.
Project Title: Northwind Farms
Ecoregional Location: Northeast US Coastal Forests, Northeastern American Mixed Forests (NA10)
Local Location: Mid-Hudson Valley
Political Location: Tivoli, Town of Red Hook, Dutchess County, New York, United States

Ecology & biodiversity

Biodiversity context: Northern Dutchess farmland provides grassland and edge habitat near the Tivoli Bays, part of the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve. Farms that keep land in pasture and hay sustain declining grassland birds in this landscape.
Ecological corridors: Hedgerows and farm edges link the farm to the Tivoli Bays and Hudson shoreline to the west and to woodlots and farms toward the Roeliff Jansen Kill, part of the farmed corridor the family helps keep open.
Natural boundaries: The farm lies west of the village of Tivoli in the Town of Red Hook, on the gently rolling plateau between the Hudson River and the Taconic foothills, surrounded by hayfields, orchards and woodlots along West Kerley Corners Road.
Ecosystem unity: Northwind sits in the Northeast US Coastal Forests ecoregion on the farmed plateau of northern Dutchess County, where pasture, hay, orchards and woodlots form a long-established agricultural mosaic a few kilometres from the Hudson estuary.

Climate & water

Climate Zones: Humid continental climate at the transition between hot-summer (Köppen Dfa) and warm-summer (Dfb) types, with a grazing season from late April to November.
Rainfall patterns: Precipitation is spread evenly through the year with no dry season; late summer and early autumn are slightly wetter, often boosted by thunderstorms and the remnants of tropical storms. Winter precipitation falls as snow, sleet and rain, and spring snowmelt drives peak streamflow in March and April.
Average Rainfall: Approximately 1,050 to 1,150 mm per year.
Temperature Extremes: July highs typically reach 28 to 30°C with occasional heat waves above 32°C. January lows average around -9°C, with cold snaps below -20°C in some winters.
Average Temperature: About 9 to 10°C annually, from roughly -4°C in January to 22°C in July.
Watershed: Within the Hudson River watershed; small streams drain west to the Hudson through the Tivoli Bays area and north toward the Roeliff Jansen Kill.
Nearby water bodies: The Hudson River and the Tivoli Bays tidal wetlands lie about 4 km to the west; the Roeliff Jansen Kill is a few kilometres north.

Land & terrain

Elevation & slope: Gently rolling plateau at roughly 60 to 100 metres above sea level, with mild slopes.
Landforms: Glacial till plain with low knolls, shallow drainage ways and wetlands between the Hudson River bluffs and the Taconic foothills.
Soil Types: Silt loams and gravelly loams formed in glacial till and outwash over Ordovician shale, the productive farm soils of the Red Hook plateau that support orchards, hay and pasture.
Soil health: Long-term pasture and hay maintain cover and organic matter; soil-health practices adopted through the Climate-Resilient Agriculture initiative aim to improve forage soils and reduce runoff.
Erosion risk: Low under pasture and hay; moderate on heavily used paddocks and lanes in wet weather.
Renewable resource potential: Solar on barn roofs; manure composting; soil carbon in permanent pasture.

People & history

Land Acknowledgements: Northwind Farms lies within the homeland of the Mohican people, the Muhheaconneok, who named the Hudson Muhheakantuck, the river that flows both ways. We acknowledge the Mohican people and their descendants in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, whose relationship with this land continues.
Recent land history: Richard Biezynski bought the original 90 acres in 1982, intending at first to pursue art, and built a diversified livestock farm over the following decades, adding land including a recent 84-acre parcel. His son Russell now runs much of the operation, and the farm joined Scenic Hudson's Climate-Resilient Agriculture initiative in the late 2010s.

Regenerative practice

Regenerative Focus: Regenerative Grazing, Regenerative Agriculture & Soil Health, Regenerative Entrepreneurship
Regenerative Methodologies: Pasture-based cattle, sheep, goats and pigs with some grass-only finishing; barn-raised poultry with pasture access fed locally grown grain without antibiotics or hormones; on-farm hand processing of poultry in season; hay and forage production on about 100 owned acres plus neighboring land; soil-health practices adopted through Scenic Hudson's Climate-Resilient Agriculture initiative.
Environmental objectives: Keep about 174 acres of farmland and a 1,500-acre stretch of neighboring hayfields in agricultural use; improve pasture and soil health; reduce reliance on purchased feed through local grain and hay; avoid antibiotics and hormones.
Community objectives: Supply Hudson Valley families and restaurants with a wide variety of local meats and poultry; keep a family farm viable across two generations; provide a farm store where customers see how animals are raised.
Community engagement: Customers buy directly at the farm store and by order, and the farm has hosted visits from local officials and food writers. Richard and Russell Biezynski work with neighbors to keep adjoining land in hay, and the farm participated as a stakeholder in Scenic Hudson's Climate-Resilient Agriculture initiative alongside other Dutchess County farms.
Economic Model: A family-owned business selling beef, pork, poultry and specialty birds directly from the farm store and to regional restaurants, with contract rearing of specialty birds on request and hay production. Direct sales and diversity across many species spread risk.

Impact

Expressed Impact: Northwind shows how a diversified, direct-market livestock farm can last more than four decades and pass to the next generation, while holding a large block of northern Dutchess farmland in agriculture against development pressure.
Key impact metrics: Founded 1982 on 90 acres, now about 174 acres plus hay land; 65 to 125 cattle raised per year; more than a dozen species of pasture-based livestock and poultry; roughly 100 acres of hay cut within a 1,500-acre farmed corridor; second generation active on the farm.

Visiting & links

Nearest urban centres: The village of Tivoli (population about 1,100) is adjacent, and Red Hook village about 6 km south. Rhinebeck is roughly 15 km south, the City of Hudson about 20 km north across the river, and New York City about 165 km south.
Website: http://www.northwindfarmsallnatural.com