Rogers Farm encompasses 100 acres of land on the Bennoch Road in Stillwater, Maine. The facilities consist of one laboratory, a Quonset hut with a shop and drying room, two storage buildings, a 30x50 hoop house for vegetable growing, and the home of the farm superintendent.

Research & UMaine Extension Activities

Rogers Farm continues to be used for forage, small grain, and organic/sustainable agriculture projects. Current research projects include investigations on controlling weeds through the use of various green manures, tillage, residue management, and crop rotation. Other projects include weed control in field and sweet corn and potatoes, the use of cover crops in soybean production to prevent soil erosion, soybean silage variety trials, and cover cropping and mulching in potatoes. Controlling striped cucumber beetles in winter squash and insect management in potatoes are two other projects underway at Rogers Farm.

Along with applied research projects, Rogers Farm is the home of the Penobscot County Master Gardener Demonstration Garden. This three-quarter-acre plot is used by 40 to 50 Master Gardener Volunteers each year. They develop, plant, and maintain the plot, which includes many "gardens within the garden" — a white garden, herb gardens, a perennial border, a Plant-a-Row Garden, and much more.

Rogers Farm also is home to ornamental plant evaluations and shrub rose hardiness trials in the Penobscot County Master Gardener Demonstration Garden. The shrub rose hardiness trials contain more than 125 shrub roses. The annual plant trials include an All-America Selections Display Garden and trials of various groups of annuals.

University of Maine students use Rogers Farm to run their community-supported agriculture program, the Black Bear Food Guild. Students manage a three-acre vegetable garden, providing fresh organically grown vegetables twice a week to 60 share holders. Extra produce is sold at a farm stand at Rogers Farm and at the Orono Farmers' Market.

History of Rogers Farm

Rogers Farm was purchased by The University of Maine in the spring of 1947, as additional land to grow forage for the University's dairy herd. The need for more land was the result of rapidly increasing student enrollment and new building construction during the post-war years. Many of the remaining fields being used for forage production were small, which created problems for the mechanical harvesting of forage crops. A second reason for its purchase was the need to have acreage in the Orono area to conduct research primarily on forage crops and small grains. Approximately 11 acres of the farm were set aside for crop research. The hay barn was renovated to serve as workspace and machine storage.

Research at the farm included extensive studies in the growing and managing of alfalfa and other forage crops. Plots were also used to evaluate new varieties of field corn, oats, wheat, barley, and soybeans. Another project of widespread interest was the search for ground cover for highway planting to stabilize new grading. For several years, research was conducted on the effect of soil moisture stress on tuber formation in potatoes. These studies were useful to growers who were interested in irrigating potatoes.

Directions

Take I-95 Exit 193. Head toward Old Town on Stillwater Avenue. Turn left onto Bennoch Road (Route 16) at the third light. Rogers Farm is located on the right, 1.5 miles out on Bennoch Road, between Stillwater Avenue and Route 43 (Gillman Falls Avenue).