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Caleb Smith milked his first cow in 1998 during his freshman year of college and has been involved in production agriculture ever since. Caleb began leasing 350 acres from Smokey House Center in Danby, VT in 2009 and operated Dorset Peak Jerseys until 2022. During that time, he developed the first true no-till system in SW Vermont; successfully growing no-till BMR corn silage, soybeans, wheat, triticale, alfalfa, and all manner of perennial forages to feed his herd of 75 registered Jersey milk cows. In 2022 he sold his dairy herd, no-till seeded the entire farm to perennial grasses and legumes and brought over 400 sheep to his farm from Colorado. Operating Dorset Peak Sheep & Cattle Co., he has continuously fine-tuned an intensive grazing system that has put animals back on the land; in some fields, for the first time in over 50 years. Caleb has had a career long relationship with VT NRCS, with vast experience using their conservation programs to improve the profitability and sustainability of his own farm. As his role as a Climate Smart Implementation Specialist with AFT he works to help farmers maximize the profit and environmental potential of their own NRCS contracts. Caleb studied dairy science at Vermont Technical College and Virginia Tech. He is a Certified Crop Advisor, holds a Vermont Agency of Agriculture pesticide applicator license, and is a Ranching For Profit alumni. Caleb continues to farm sheep as a long-term leaseholder and Living Lab partner farmer at Smokey House Center in a high mountain valley in the Taconic range of Southwest Vermont.