By Jami Badershall,Staff Writer

NEW VINEYARD – Four generations of Lanes work the Shady Lane Farm in New Vineyard, the youngest being 2-year-old Mason Rowe, who likes to help out where he can.

Feeding the baby pygmy goats is one of his favorite jobs.

Maine family farms are disappearing rapidly but some, like the Lanes’, are holding on to the tradition.

“Farms are becoming more diversified. They’re doing a variety of things to make a living,” says Jane Aiudi, special events coordinator for the Maine Department of Agriculture.

Along with its milking operation, Shady Lane Farm makes maple syrup, gives horse-drawn wagon rides, and breeds Yorkshire pigs, horned Dorsett, Katahdin and Mouflon sheep, Nubian and pygmy goats, chickens, ducks, geese, miniature horses, donkeys, miniature Dexter cattle and more. They sell livestock and operate a petting farm that travels to fairs in Farmington, Skowhegan, Windsor and Lancaster, N.H.

All the animals, including popular Red the Mule, can be seen at the Shady Lane Farm on Sunday as part of the 17th annual Open Farm Day organized by the state Department of Agriculture. This year, more than 95 farms across the state are participating.

Aiudi said Open Farm Day is an “educational event for the general public to take a look at the agricultural industry in Maine and see what is involved. It’s also an opportunity for them to learn about the width and breadth of agriculture in Maine and how it touches our lives.”

June Lane, Mason’s great-grandmother, said the Lanes have done Open Farm Day every year since 1989 and that it’s an opportunity for “people to see the different animals and get knowledge about the animals.”

The Lanes will also have a pig roast on Sunday, boil maple syrup and offer wagon rides pulled by their Belgians Bud and Vic.

Another Franklin County farm that will participate in Open Farm Day is the Whitehill Farm, a diversified certified organic operation in its 14th year in East Wilton. Owners Michael and Amy LeBlanc will give tours of their gardens and tell visitors about composting, season extension and their raised garden beds.

“We’ll give advice to planters and demonstrations on how to make their own gardens better,” Amy said.

Another organic farm in Turner, the Nezinscot Farm, will showcase its dairy cattle, sheep, goats and vegetables. The Hedgehog Hill Farm in East Sumner is a small diversified organic herb farm that also specializes in dried flowers and nursery plants.

Also becoming popular in farming are alpacas. Several farms participating in Open Farm Day are alpaca breeders, including Good Karma Farm in Kingfield, which started in 2003.

“It was my husband’s idea,” Amy Grant says of breeding alpacas. “He saw some at the Common Ground Fair and thought they were neat. We researched them and saw that they were an investment, so we visited alpaca farms all over the state.”

On Sunday, she hopes to see “people in town who know we have the farm but have never been here and people who are interested in raising alpacas.”

She said visitors will be able to see the animals, wool that was sheared in the spring and the end product: yarn. “They can see the whole process,” she said.