The Cheshire County Conservation District Honors Manning Hill Farm as the 2025 Cooperator of the Year
- Nina Branwen
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
Each year, the Cheshire County Conservation District honors an individual, business, or organization with the “Cooperator of the Year” award. This is done to celebrate the efforts the recipient has undertaken to steward the natural resources on their land in cooperation with the Conservation District and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). This year, we are happy to announce Manning Hill Farm of Winchester, NH, as our 2025 Cooperator of the Year.
Manning Hill Farm, a 126-acre farm, was first bought in 2005 by Sarah Costa and Sam Canonica. Sarah and Sam are first-generation farmers who raise grass-fed Dutch Belted dairy cows. The milk produced at Manning Hill Farm is sweet, gently pasteurized, and naturally homogenized. In addition to milk production, Manning Hill Farm also produces eggs, maple sap, grass-fed beef, pork, and hay. In 2015, Sarah and Sam purchased an additional farm to house and rotate their cows for grazing. Now, with 300 acres, Manning Hill Farm stands out as a diversified and sustainable dairy farm in the region. None of which would have been possible without the hard work and commitment that Sarah and Sam put into their farm every day.
Sam and Sarah both grew up on the north shore of Massachusetts, about 25 minutes north of Boston. Sarah grew up in the small town of Topsfield, Massachusetts, and Sam grew up in the small town of Boxford, Massachusetts. They met in junior high at the regional school that served three municipalities in the area, including their hometowns. Sarah worked on a horse farm and spent every opportunity she could outside, tending to and riding horses. Meanwhile, Sam grew up on a small homesteading farm with sheep, cows, and turkeys. He would often spend his time learning to hay fields and produce timber. Spending so much time around animals and nature inspired both of them independently. During their time together, however, it was discovered that they shared a common dream. Sarah states, “We both always wanted a farm, to have our own farm, that was a shared dream of ours.”
After high school, Sarah pursued her degree in Animal Sciences at UNH, while Sam worked on a dairy farm. As adults, Sarah and Sam both recognized the challenges of owning and maintaining a farm in their region. Due to increasing urbanization and rising property costs, they decided to move to a different area of New England. They were very close to settling on a farm up in Maine, but ultimately, the site of Manning Hill Farm is where they landed in 2005.
The farm was originally a horse boarding facility, and prior to that, in the 1950s, it had operated as a dairy farm. Before transitioning into farming full-time, both Sarah and Sam held other jobs while building their business. Sarah worked as a sales manager at Dover Saddlery, and Sam worked in custom haying and ran his own timber business, Canonica Logging. Upon moving to the Monadnock Region, it was immediately apparent that the community around them was supportive and loving. Sarah says, “I love the region itself, the Connecticut River, the natural mountains, and fields. As someone who has moved here, the community has been very supportive over the years.” Due to the support they received and the hard work they put into it, the couple began farming full-time in 2010.
The day-to-day life on the farm adheres to a well-structured routine that ensures Sarah and Sam can produce and provide their products on schedule. All sales are direct market. This results in Sarah and Sam dedicating their week to daily milkings, bottling on Mondays and Thursdays, and deliveries on Tuesdays and Fridays. For bottling alone, it requires a meticulous process that starts at 5 am. Sarah starts her morning with milking and caring for the cows, while Sam begins the process of sanitizing the equipment and bottles, and gently pasteurizing the milk. Around noon, Sarah joins Sam in the bottling plant to start working the conveyor. Sarah describes the process by saying, “We bottle together because it takes two people. One person loads the bottles on the conveyor, and another person is down at the filler. All the milk we produce, we bottle in our milk plant and do it ourselves.” Sam then delivers the milk to multiple local sellers within New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts.
The work Sam and Sarah do to produce milk, let alone their other products, is truly a testament to their commitment and passion for farming.
That same passion extends to their connection and stewardship of the land. For Sarah, when she began farming full-time in 2010, it was a defining moment, as she felt a genuine connection to the natural world. Since then, her connection, appreciation, and understanding of nature has continued to grow. For her, it is one of her favorite parts of being a farmer. Sarah states, “Farmers depend on nature in a way others may not realize. You rely on the climate, soil, and water, and when working with animals, it brings a whole new perspective on the circle of it all.” Sarah and Sam strive to become increasingly self-sufficient and live off the land. From that way of life, however, they have also learned from the unpredictability that can bring. As Sarah says, “Every year is a new challenge and brings stuff out of your control, something new happens.” This year, drought has been at the forefront of that unpredictability, and as a result, they have already had to start feeding the cows their winter hay.
Managing the intricacies and changes in nature in their work has further cemented their goals as farmers and stewards. Growing up on the seacoast and watching small farms disappear at an alarming rate, Sam and Sarah always held a deep appreciation for small New England Farms. Sarah states, “We were just two ordinary young adults with dreams of owning our own farm someday, and what it would be like. So our main goal is obviously to stay afloat and survive (i.e. keep the farm going), but I feel like our goals have always been to produce healthy, local food in the utmost sustainable way so that we are actually helping the earth, not hurting it.” By recognizing their needs and the needs of their land, Sarah and Sam have been able to identify their goals in farm viability, soil health, water quality, and energy efficiency.
Sam and Sarah decided to pursue grant contracts with NRCS and the Cheshire County Conservation District because of those same goals. In Sarah’s words, “We wanted to do it right. Grants make it possible to do projects that help the farm grow. We wanted guidance on how to make the property better and healthier to work for us.” No one had milked cows on the farm since the 1950’s. The land was neglected. As Sarah says, “We have spent a lot of time building on soil health and getting the land regenerated and in production. We produce and maintain healthy grass for high-quality milk.” Through NRCS, Manning Hill Farms has undertaken numerous projects to help the land regenerate and enhance work efficiency. This included invasive species removal, clover seeding, brush hogging, and the application of wood ash and manure to improve soil health, the installation of a well for enhanced water quality and farm viability, and 20,000 feet of high-tensile perimeter fencing, temporary fencing, and a complete above-ground watering system for rotational grazing. Additionally, the farm has installed a solar array to offset electricity usage.
With the Cheshire County Conservation District, Sarah and Sam have been the recipients of the NH Conservation District's Climate Resilience Grant in both 2023 and 2025. In 2023, they were awarded to clear 10 acres of pasture and install perimeter, high tensile fencing to rotational graze inside it. This directly benefits not only the soil but also their cows. In 2025, Manning Hill Farm utilized the climate grant to modernize its milking system by installing a Fre-Heater and replacing its vacuum pump with a variable-speed vacuum pump, conserving energy usage and costs. In 2023, Manning Hill Farm was also the recipient of the Monadnock Food Co-op Farm Fund to upgrade to a new milking parlor, which will save time, increase farm efficiency, and increase milk production.
All of these programs were pursued as a direct result of Sarah and Sam's passion for farming and the goals they set forth from the time they were two young farmers to now, over 15 years later. The dream they had when they were younger is now a reality, one they spend every day working to achieve. Even when it’s unpredictable, you can truly see the care, love, and commitment that goes into building that dream. Sarah shares her final biggest goal moving into the future: “making improvements that make it better for the land, better for the cows, better for us. Things are constantly changing, and we want to keep surviving, reduce our energy usage, improve our land, and improve our cows.”
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