by Kristen M. Castrataro
It is often the unexpected, unpredictable things in life that make all the difference. Such was the case for Thomas Farms in Corinth, Maine. In 2000, Frank Thomas found himself in the hospital with a staph infection. It was harvest time, and 300 acres of chip potatoes sat in the field. The family hired a replacement harvester who bruised the produce so badly that the chip company immediately cancelled the Thomas’ contract. [Read more…]
by Samantha Graves
Squicky. That’s the word that came to mind when I stared down an alpaca burger served to me by a farmer on a recent trip to Maine. Squicky embodies a feeling of disgust or repulsion, free from judgment over the rightness or wrongness of an act. For some, eating alpaca is like eating your favorite pet or muppet. But for a growing number of farmers in the United States, culling alpacas is not only about making their farm a sustainable enterprise; it’s about improving the quality of the animals raised in the United States. [Read more…]
by Tamara Scully
Dairy processors, both large and small, have ample opportunities to promote milk and milk products. Two programs – the national Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP) and the Center for Dairy Excellence, in Pennsylvania, offer dairy processors promotional materials, branding campaigns and social media content aimed at increasing consumer consumption of fluid milk. [Read more…]
Producers seeing potential crop loss of up to 50-60 percent, higher production costs associated with hauling water and irrigation
Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball on Sept. 9 joined state leaders, New York Farm Bureau President Dean Norton, members of the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (USDA FSA), and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Wyoming and Genesee Counties to tour several farms in the Finger Lakes and Western New York regions impacted by this summer’s drought. [Read more…]
by William and Mary Weaver
A new revision of the Worker Protection Standard (WPS) will be enforced starting Jan. 1, 2017. “The revision of the Worker Protection Standard covers farmers, foresters, and other growers using pesticides on production agriculture crops.” Although there has typically been an exemption for immediate family members, “Even the owner and immediate family must comply with the new Personal Protective Equipment requirements,” stated Jim Harvey, PSU Farm Safety Extension. [Read more…]