Category Archives: Western Edition

The Cayuga County 4-H Dairy Show took place at the Remember the Big Six Picnic & 4-H Youth Fair event, which was held at the Ward O’Hara Agricultural Museum & Dr. Joseph Karpinski Educational Center on Route 38A, Auburn. A total of 31 Cayuga County 4-H members participated in this show. Continue reading→

by Emily Enger

If you thought the romantic notion of traveling to America to herd cattle was dated to black and white John Wayne films, you would be wrong. At least, Robert Groom has lived in a way to defy such concern. True, he isn’t guiding cattle trains along the Rio Grande, but a slight European accent tells folks that for him, America remains the land of dreams.

Groom comes from a long line of tenant farmers, men who rented acreage and therefore made attachments with the industry and way of life more than the  location. Men unafraid of going new places to get what they wanted. “When my grandfather bought his farm in England, it was 30 miles from his home and everyone thought he was moving to the ends of the earth,” Groom laughs. “Then my father bought his farm in Scotland, which was 320 miles away and everyone, again, thought it was the ends of the earth.”

Apparently, the gene runs in the family. Groom settled in Upstate New York, 3,000 miles away from home. His sister bought a farm in New Zealand, 12,000 miles away. The running family motto, according to Groom, is: “Farming poorly on three continents and two hemispheres.” Continue reading→

Submitted by Katie Navarra
Beekeeping is a challenging vocation; recognizing and diagnosing honeybee disease is important to maintaining healthy bee hives and beekeepers have a responsibility to understand basic bee biology as well as have the ability to recognize the diseases that can afflict honey bees.
For the second consecutive year, the NY Bee Wellness Workshops offered in conjunction with the Empire State Honey Producers Association (ESHPA.org) have offered intensive, two-day workshops covering basic beekeeping skills and hands-on demonstrations.
Led by a team of nine bee experts with the workshops are designed to explain how to identify and treat the diseases that most commonly afflict honey bees. Diseases such as varroa mites, a parasite; nosema — an intestinal fungal type disease and the American Foul Brood, which is a highly contagious spore forming disease, this is a reportable disease with no true cure, all threaten the wellbeing of honey bees.
The workshops are designed, “to teach beekeepers techniques in diagnosing, treating, and preventing honey bee diseases,” Pat Bono, Project Director, NY Bee Wellness Workshops.
The workshops are funded in part by USDA NIFA Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program grant with matching funds from the Empire State Honey Producers Association. The wellness workshops are part of a three year train-the-trainer project. Continue reading→