by Enrico Villamaino
A farmer’s work is never done. She wears many hats, and can be called upon to act as breeder, mechanic, meteorologist, veterinarian or any combination thereof, and almost always at a moment’s notice. (more…)
by Enrico Villamaino
A Connecticut dairy farm and a Pennsylvania energy firm have partnered in a project to promote renewable energy and sustainability. (more…)
by Sally Colby
When the children of John and Bonnie Hess wanted to remain on the family’s JoBo Holstein Farm in Gettysburg, PA, part of the plan included the addition of a new 500-cow freestall barn. Today, several generations of the Hess family are working on the farm, milking more than 900 cows, raising crops and caring for young stock. (more…)
by Stephen Wagner
Scott Weikert on Penn State Extension began his webinar during Pennsylvania’s Ag Progress Days by introducing his panel: Sarah Wurzbacher, forestry Extension educator; Allyson Muth, Department of Ecosystems and Management at Penn State University Park; Art Gover, Extension specialist based at University Park dealing primarily with invasive species and ventilation management; Margaret Brittingham, wildlife specialist at University Park; Calvin Norman, forest and wildlife Extension educator in Blair County; and others with forestry expertise. (more…)
by Edith Tucker
Nearly 2,000 busy farmers across the U.S. took the time to answer survey questions about cover cropping trends, such as “planting green” into living cover crops, using cover crops for weed control and the impact of cover crops on cash crop planting dates during the very wet spring of 2019. (more…)
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Interested in growing oats for human consumption? Practical Farmers of Iowa offered “Growing High-Quality, Food-Grade Oats” as a recent webinar with A.J. and Kellie Blair presenting. The couple operates Blair Farm LLC, a fourth-generation farm near Dayton, Iowa, raising cover crops and small grains in a no-till system. In the last few years, they decided to grow food-grade oats. (more…)
State Senator James L. Seward (R/C/I – Oneonta) recently called for the Farm Laborers Wage Board to put the brakes on any changes to the 60-hour overtime threshold for farmworkers. Senator Seward joined with the Senate Republican Conference and members of the farming community in calling for freezing the threshold at its current level to enable the collection of more data on the mandate’s impact. (more…)
by Enrico Villamaino
Thirty years can seem like a long time. On the other hand, for a farm that has been operating since 1853, it can seem like just the blink of an eye.
The Empire State Milk Quality Council (ESMQC) has been bestowing its Supermilk award for 30 years. In that time, thousands of dairy farms have been recognized for the quality of their milk, but just 16 have earned the distinction every year for the past three decades. (more…)
by Katie Navarra
When Mike Albanese was just five years old, his grandfather reminisced about oxen with horns so large the animals had to turn their head to fit through the barn door. Mike’s grandfather was a shepherd on a small northern Italian village in the Alps before emigrating to the U.S. In 1940, his grandfather purchased land in Jamesville, NY, to start a new farm and often shared memories of home. (more…)
by Evelyn Leubner
After a long day of working, I now have layers of red clay under my fingernails instead of the dark brown New York soil. That was one of the first things I noticed when I moved to Georgia: the dirt (technically, clay). It’s burnt orange color makes me question how anything grows in it. I moved to Georgia for a change in scenery and I got exactly that. So many country songs sing about Georgia pines, and now I know why. They are beautiful, tall, and you can find them just about everywhere you go. They remind me of asparagus, as they are long and skinny with branches only at the very top. Moving here has given me the opportunity to live in a completely different environment compared to New York. Just like the trees, lakes, dirt and animals are different, so are their farms. (more…)
by Enrico Villamaino
In the past, Caleb Vander Groef’s stature may have been working against him, especially when he was showing calves instead of fully grown heifers.
Caleb raised his cow Liberty from a calf and has been showing her for two years. But at the start, he suspects he may have made Liberty seem a bit smaller than she really was. (more…)
by Laura Rodley
In the aftermath of storm Isaias, full-time farmers Laura Timmerman and her son Robin Creamer hustled to fill their customers’ CSA orders at Sweet Morning Farm LLC in Leyden, MA.
They sell pork, beef, eggs from their flock of about 100 chickens and a variety of vegetables from their year-round farm stand. (more…)
