Posts by Fay Benson
Dairy farmer and Cooperative Extension Educator Fay Benson shares the results of a three-year study testing his Pasture Compaction Ratio hypothesis. He describes best management practices and how to measure compaction on the farm. In my work, first as a grazing dairy farmer and now as a Cornell University Cooperative Extension educator working with graziers…
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Soil compaction by grazing animals leads to loss of pore space, which can have tangible impacts on pasture productivity. I had a pasture soil compaction epiphany while working in a St. Lawrence County pasture on a NE SARE-supported project. The project was to plant radishes and other brassicas into established pasture swards. The goal was…
Read MoreWith more than 600 dairies, New York has more organic dairies than any other state. Four months have passed since the COVID-19 pandemic caused a shutdown of nearly all aspects of people’s lives. In the food markets, the shutdown impacted everything from production to processing as well as how consumers purchased their food. Even though…
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The current and future disruption of the dairy industry will require producers to think outside the box and possibly inside the fence. Two dairy enterprises that can benefit the most from pasture are the heifers and cull cows. Raising livestock on pasture can reduce the cost of production for certain groups of dairy animals. Allowing…
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Raising an organic dairy heifer can be costly. The first year of a dairy heifer’s life has the highest per day costs mainly due to the whole milk fed and labor required for young calves. This fact is the reason why the inaction of the USDA to close a known loophole in the National Organic Program (NOP) has allowed certain dairies to raise their young stock with conventional methods…
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As the government moves away from disaster payments and programs, New York farmers are increasing their reliance on crop insurance to take some of the risk out of their cropping enterprises. During the period between 2007 and 2017, liabilities covered by New York farmers increased by 46% according to the USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA)…
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As the government moves away from disaster payments and programs, New York farmers are increasing their reliance on crop insurance to take some of the risk out of their cropping enterprises. During the period between 2007 and 2017, liabilities covered by New York farmers increased by 46% according to the USDA Risk Management Agency…
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Farmers who have used bedded packs were featured at the NY Certified Organic (NYCO) meeting on January 8, 2019. Small dairy farm operators in New York may soon be faced with the prohibition of winter spreading of manure by the State Department of Environmental Conservation. As an option to winter spreading, farmers considering updating barns…
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Small dairy farm operators may soon be confronted by the prohibition of winter spreading of manure. Any farmer looking to update their barns should consider a design that can accommodate a deep bedded pack (DBP) system. A DBP system incorporates animal feeding and manure storage into one open barn, and can be especially helpful to…
Read MoreThe purpose of this article is to help dairies that are interested in having their milk processed into salable dairy products. Off-farm processing will alleviate the considerable time, effort, and expense of creating a farmstead cheese house. This alternative method of dairy processing can have benefits such as: Off farm processing reduces capital to enter…
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