Year: 2012
Address: 339 Abe Boice Rd. Sidney Center, NY 13839. Website: http://www.cmpdorpers.com/ Description: Tim and Jean McCumber raise a pasture based flock of 50 Dorper sheep on their 58 acre farm. Tim installed their 6.72 kwh grid tied solar PV electric system (with financial help from the NY Power Authority) and an evacuated tube hot water…
The Small Farms Update includes small farm announcements, events, job and internship opportunities, grant and loan opportunities, and latest handbooks, tools and other small farm resources. It is intended for farmers and agricultural service providers in New York and the Northeast. If have an item to be included in the update, please contact Violet Stone…
The Cornell Small Dairy Team has released a series of 6 new resources to help small dairy farms. The team, whose members include farmers and Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) educators, received a grant from the Cornell Small Farms Program in 2011 to provide new educational resources and tools to small dairy producers. “Small dairies have…
A series to highlight creative strategies on family dairies to take place between May 9th– July 11th, 2012 Are you interested in how small dairy farms across New York are improving profitability, sustainability, and quality of life? Whether you are a farmer, educator, homesteader, or just curious, the Cornell Small Farms Program has teamed up…
Address: 44301 Cross Island Rd. Wellesley Island, NY 13640. Website: www.crossislandfarms.com Description: Dani Baker and David Belding are the owners of this highly diversified organic farm, with retail sales of vegetables, eggs, beef, chicken, goat and pork. Dani and David will lead us on a tour of their recently completed sustainable energy project, including a 10KW…
By A. Fay Benson Small dairy farm operators may soon be faced with the prohibition of winter spreading of manure. Any farmer considering updating their barns should consider a style of barn that would provide manure storage plus animal comfort, and may be eligible for government assistance. That style of barn is a deep bedded…
by Corey Hayes and Peggy Murray Have you ever heard the old saying “Go big or go home”? Usually it is referencing taking on a new challenge in someone’s life or a business adventure, implying that someone should take a leap of faith and see where it takes them. The dairy industry is no strangers to…
by John J. Hanchar INTRODUCTION Economic efficiency is the ability to realize a favorable relationship between input use and output based upon economic measures such as the value of production, costs of inputs, and others. Production is economically efficient when goods are produced at minimum cost. Various costs of producing a hundredweight (Cwt.) of milk…
by Mariane Kiraly This Farm decided that the upfront cost was less than the return of high quality forages and lower labor needed to complete the harvest. Streamview Dairy has been in business around 30 years. The last five years have brought about some thoughtful changes to the operation to reduce labor, lower feed costs…
Dairy Farm Profit Benchmarks A Farm Business Educator once used the analogy of barrel staves as a way to describe portions of the dairy farm business. If the whole farm was a barrel, then the staves would be represented by: Milk production, Animal Husbandry, Crop Production, Business efficiency, etc. He said that a farm could…
