Posts by Erica Frenay

Erica has had several different roles with the Small Farms Program since she began working there in 2005. In 2006 she co-founded the Northeast Beginning Farmer Project, and launched the first online course in 2007. For 10 years she facilitated and organized the Beginning Farmer Learning Network, a professional development network for service providers in the Northeast who support beginning farmers. She has shepherded the development, publishing, and updating of several key SFP publications, like the Guide to Farming in NYS, the On-Farm Poultry Processing Guide, and the Guide to Direct Marketing Livestock and Poultry. As the SFP’s menu of online courses surpassed 20, she shifted her role primarily to managing these courses, providing ongoing training to instructors, and ensuring a high quality experience for students.
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Our Team Is Growing: Now Hiring Agroforestry Specialist

By Erica Frenay / September 18, 2023

The Cornell Small Farms Program team is continuing to grow, and we are hiring! We are excited to share that the application is now open for our newest team member, Agroforestry Extension Support Specialist. Our dynamic team is working to help diverse small farms thrive and to make farming more equitable. For this position, we’re…

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Starting to Save Seeds Intentionally

By Erica Frenay / July 3, 2023

How the Seed Producers Course, offered by a collaboration of Cornell Cooperative Extension educators, experienced seed producers, and regional seed companies, helped to level up one farmer’s seed-saving skills. At the end of last year, like every veggie grower I know, my mailbox filled with seed catalogs. And I, like every veggie grower I know, delighted in perusing the bright colors and optimistic…

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Stress Management Through… a Decision-Making Framework?

By Erica Frenay / April 3, 2023

Farmers are particularly susceptible to both chronic and acute stress, and one underappreciated strategy for reducing this stress load is our mindset and approach to decision-making.   What causes you to feel stressed out? Major sources of stress in my life include, in no particular order: money, kids, livestock, off-farm job, my farm business, and the…

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Join Our Team: Now Hiring Online Course Coordinator

By Erica Frenay / May 2, 2022

The Cornell Small Farms Program is hiring! We are excited to share the application for our newest team member, a part-time Online Course Coordinator (Extension Aide IV). Over the years our suite of distance learning opportunities for farmers has swelled to include over two dozen courses with two dozen dedicated instructors. The Online Course Coordinator will take on most of the…

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Red Meat Processing in NYS: Bottleneck in the Local Food Economy

By Erica Frenay / July 5, 2021

By Dr. Mike Baker, Dana Havas, Nancy Glazier, Lynn Bliven, Dr. tatiana Stanton, Erica Frenay  A team of Cornell faculty and Cooperative Extension educators interviewed meat processors in NYS during the COVID pandemic to better understand where there are opportunities to increase capacity and improve the resilience of our local meat industry. Executive Summary  The…

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New Report Summarizes NYS Meat Processor Needs and Perspectives

By Erica Frenay / May 10, 2021

Building a resilient local food system requires sufficient meat processing capacity. The COVID pandemic revealed that NYS did not have the ability to absorb shocks, including increased consumer meat demand, leaving farmers and consumers frustrated and meat processors overwhelmed. In Fall 2020, a team of Cornell Cooperative Extension educators, Cornell Animal Science Dept faculty, and…

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Meat Processing Webinars Help Answer Livestock Farmers’ Questions

By Erica Frenay / March 31, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on both livestock producers and processors, neither of whom could keep up with the demand for local meat. As a result, the Cornell Small Farms Program and Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Livestock Program Work Team (PWT) offered a series of webinars to address some of the most common questions we were…

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New Self-Paced On-Farm Poultry Processing Course Available

By Erica Frenay / March 1, 2021

Has your insurance provider told you they won’t underwrite your on-farm processing of poultry unless you complete a training? Do you need to brush up on best practices for processing meat birds on-farm? Our new self-paced online course offers detailed videos and lessons on food safety and humane techniques for dispatching and processing chickens and turkeys on-farm under…

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NYS Livestock Industry Poised for Growth but Impacted by COVID-19

By Erica Frenay / January 11, 2021

The Cornell Small Farms Program contributed to a Cornell CALS white paper on COVID-19 impacts on food and farming, offering insight on the livestock industry.  The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted individuals, families, communities, and businesses throughout New York state, and continues to do so. In an effort to detail the impact of COVID-19 on selected agricultural sectors, experts from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences…

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Upcoming Webinar on Starting a Slaughterhouse

By Erica Frenay / November 16, 2020

This has been a challenging year for livestock farmers and red meat packers in New York State. With many packers already booked solidly for 2021, livestock farmers are feeling panicked about how to get their animals harvested in a timely way. This has driven unprecedented interest in opening new slaughterhouse facilities in the state. But…

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