Posts by Kelsie Raucher

Kelsie is from southwest Missouri and grew up on a 150-acre farm helping her family buy and sell horses and cattle. She credits FFA for finding her passion for agriculture and food issues and desiring a career as an “agvocate.” Since coming to Cornell, she has gained interest in local production, global food issues, and environmental impacts of and on agriculture. She joined the Cornell Small Farms Program in May of 2018 and is excited to gain experience to complement coursework in the Agricultural Sciences major and Communication major.

Ecological Collaboratory Learns from Wellspring Forest Farm and School

By Kelsie Raucher / November 14, 2018

Agroforestry extension specialist, Steve Gabriel, works for the Cornell Small Farms Program in addition to owning and operating Wellspring Forest Farm and School with his wife, Elizabeth. Their farm and school run on ecologically conscious agroforestry principles, where each final product they sell is dependent on another aspect of their farm. Their principles of farming…

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Climate Change on the County Level

By Kelsie Raucher / October 31, 2018

If you haven’t already seen the impact of climate change in your area, you can now. A  new tool allows users to view change in climate by county, thanks to work by the Cornell Center for Climate Smart Farming and Cornell Institute for Climate Smart Solutions . The tool should be particularly useful to educators,…

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Small Farms Staff to Present at “Farmer to Farmer” Conference

By Kelsie Raucher / October 15, 2018

If you head out to the Homer C. Thompson Research Farm in Freeville, NY, you’ll find a field filled with permanent beds in the organic section of the farm. These beds have been under trial for four years using different combinations of tarps, mulches, and tillage depths to discover the ideal system for an organic…

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The Law of Diminishing Returns – How Farms Know When They’ve Reached It

By Kelsie Raucher / October 5, 2018

By Betsy Hicks, South Central New York Dairy & Field Crops Today’s economy has every producer struggling to find ways to increase cash flow. We fill stalls, add a few more cows, keep plentiful heifers in the pipeline, and estimate our projected inventory of first calf heifers due to calve and add it to the…

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8 Cooperative Extension Brings Chickens to the Classroom by Jason Detzel 104q6hn

Cooperative Extension Brings Chickens to the Classroom

By Kelsie Raucher / October 5, 2018

By Jason Detzel Last year I received a grant from the New York 4-H Development Program to complete a poultry project with 4-H youth in the County.  Naturally I chose to purchase an incubator, fertile eggs, and some supplies to teach a class on hatching chickens and to showcase the process at the Ulster County…

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10 Animal Welfare Perception Reality by Kimberly Morrill PhD 18gec9v

Animal Welfare: Perception and Reality

By Kelsie Raucher / October 5, 2018

By Kimberley Morrill, phD Do you think cows have emotions? Do you think cows feel pain? Do animals exhibit empathy, sympathy and compassion? These were the questions asked to the attendees of the 2018 Dairy Cattle Welfare Symposium. Speakers, farmers and industry representatives from around the globe gathered in Scottsdale, AZ May 31st – June…

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Milking Cleanliness

By Kelsie Raucher / October 5, 2018

Improve hand milking cleanliness for small ruminants with these few simple techniques By Miriah Reynolds The morning sun sneaks up and over the tall peak of the mountains as I open up the barn door. I am greeted by squinting eyes and eager faces. Pepper, my Saanen doe stretches and curls her upper lip, grunting in…

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5 Rotational Grazing How Often Should I Rotate by Ulf Kintzel 18hl0pn

Rotational Grazing: How Often Should I Rotate?

By Kelsie Raucher / October 5, 2018

By Ulf Kintzel Failure in grass-fed sheep enterprises is still very common. I hear about it often since I am the one being asked why it failed. Among the many reasons why grass-fed sheep operation failed is the misconception of the frequency of pasture rotation. When breeding stock I have sold is picked up from…

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Growing Urban – a Lower West Side Story

By Kelsie Raucher / October 5, 2018

Two farmers are committed to providing the Buffalo, NY community with a variety of produce. By Lynnette Wright, New York FSA Public Affairs and Outreach Specialist A Perfect Blend  Prior to their partnership, Carrie Nader had been working the land since 2014. When she was growing up, she loved helping her grandfather tend his large…

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Chainsaw Safety, Part 5: Tree Felling

By Kelsie Raucher / October 5, 2018

Rich Taber, CCE Chenango In the previous four installments of this series on chainsaw operation we have looked at some of the myriad rules for safe and efficient chainsaw operation. We have looked at the protective gear that is needed by an operator, the safety considerations with the use of the chainsaw itself, and some…

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