East Berne, NY — A family, a farm and a flock of sheep is a beautiful thing especially if you’re a soil microbe under a thick, diverse blanket of grass at the Helder-Herdwyck Farm in East Berne, NY.
Hosts Ray, Erin and Rena Bradt opened up their growing operation to 20 farmers and agency personnel for an all-day grazing workshop entitled “Manage Your Livestock So They Work for You”. It was a snapshot of how grazing animals, properly managed, and dialing in adequate pasture recovery times improves the health of the sward while mitigating the parasite presence. The Bradts demonstrated how they took a weedy pasture and scrubby hedgerows and made them into vibrant ecosystems using animal impact and portable flex-netting while feeding the soil manure and trampled forage. Continue reading
Author Archives: Lee Publications
Proper grazing of livestock requires patience and solid advice
by Pat Malin
AVA, NY — When he started raising beef 10 years ago at Quaker View Beef Farm in northwestern Oneida County, Paul Snider recalled learning through trial and error. Though he has left his novice mistakes behind and has made his business profitable, he feels it is important to pass on his lessons to others.
Snider and his wife, Mary, recently hosted a pasture walk at their farm with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County. As Paul showed off his Angus herd, he discussed his methods for rotational grazing, fencing, feeding and watering, bookkeeping and sales.
Quaker View Farm was established in 1867. Mary Snider’s father, Paul Kirk, grew up here and purchased the farm from his parents in 1965. He and his wife, the former Lou Ann Mumpton, operated Kirk Farm as a conventional dairy farm with their six sons and daughters until 2000. Kirk later sold the cows, but maintained the farm as a hay operation. He died in 2010 at the age of 66. Continue reading
County princesses and the public’s disconnect with dairy
by Steve Wagner
Sometimes writing up the Dairy Princess Coronation, which is a kind of milky nightcap to the All American Dairy Show that closes a week before, is like penning a theatrical review. There is much theater with princess contestants donning costumes and regaling speeches about the virtues of their chosen interest. There is pageantry with formal entrances and fewer formal exits. A keyboardist plays subtle milk cocktail segue music to ease the audience from one segment into another. The event closes with the inauguration of a state dairy princess and two alternates, a trio who will spend much of the remainder of this year and most of the next promoting dairy farming around the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And of course, there are a plethora of awards and recognitions for contributions above and beyond the call of duty. Continue reading
Dairy farmers at FarmAid: many ways to advocate
by Lorraine H. Lewandrowski
Remembering back to Farm Aid concerts that have been held around the country, I was surprised to hear that Saratoga, NY, was selected for Farm Aid 2013. Initial public relations materials didn’t seem to mention that dairy is New York’s top agricultural product. So, a group of farm women reached out to Farm Aid staff in Cambridge, MA, offering high resolution photos of dairy farms and farmers for use during the concert. We were fortunate to have a pool of photos not only from professional ag photographers, but also from Michael Femia, a volunteer who has been traveling New York’s country roads to capture images of dairy farmers and our support people. Continue reading
