Small Farms Quarterly
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Army Veteran turned blueberry farmer and beekeeping mentor to other veterans My wife and I started our farm in 2010 by planting 600 blueberry bushes. I had done a lot of research on blueberries during my deployment overseas the previous year, or a least I thought I did. The plan was to become more self-sufficient…
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John Navazio’s new book provides a detailed, step-by-step guide to saving seed on a commercial scale. One of the first points that John Navazio lays out in his recently released book on seed saving,”The Organic Seed Grower,” is an often overlooked one: “Until very recently, the growing of seed was an integral part of all…
Read MoreNew Report Summarizes NYS Meat Processor Needs and Perspectives 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…
Read MoreAs the summer weather has begun in upstate New York, our team has been spending even more time tending to our farms and gardens. From herbs grown on a window ledge to sheep in the pasture, we’re all watching things grow. There’s even been some nosy neighborhood chickens trying to join our team Zoom meetings.…
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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…
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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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A $90,000 federal grant has enabled the Cornell Farmworker Program to provide critical resources to non-English speaking farm employees, whose health is critical to the stability of New York State agriculture. As COVID-19 bore down on New York state, the Cornell Farmworker Program used mobile phone technology to provide rapid guidance and clear health information…
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In part five of our “What’s Your Beef?” series on raising cattle on small farms, we look at how much hay you need to plan for winter feeding your beef herd. When you receive this edition of the Small Farm Quarterly in July, we will be in the throes of the summertime grazing season. It…
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Help preserve the history of organic/sustainable agriculture! In the past few years, a confluence of concerns about climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and racial inequities have highlighted many flaws in the American food production and distribution systems, emphasizing the importance of creating more resilient, sustainable systems that can survive changes in an uncertain future. Local,…
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Think like a sheep and you will be able to catch it. How often have you been outsmarted by a sheep when you tried to catch it? Here is some advice on how to win that battle of minds. Sheep are not stupid like many people claim. In a sheep’s world, all of what it…
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