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The Law of Diminishing Returns – How Farms Know When They’ve Reached It
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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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Working with Local Livestock Processors
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By Jason Detzel It is true that there are fewer processors today than there used to be. And on top of that, there are a lot more regulations that cost money to implement. The processors themselves are reporting to us that there is barely enough business to keep them afloat because there are very few…
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Beef Quality Assurance Month is Here
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New York beef farmers, have you considered becoming Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) certified? This certification is free through the NYS Beef Checkoff Program and is valid for three years. So far, the program has over 1,000 certified producers, educators, and students throughout the state. The training for this free certification provides access to the most…
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Building Healthy Pasture Soils
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The following article is an excerpt from the factsheet “Building Healthy Pasture Soils” available in full at www.ATTRA.org and can be downloaded as a free PDF at the website, along with many other guides and resources. Let’s consider the agricultural practices that help build healthy soil. In essence, we want to increase aggregation, contribute soil organic matter, increase biodiversity,…
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Gimme Free Ice Cream!
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One educator’s quest to address a pressing issue. I am a regular visitor to the Stewart’s Shops in my neck of the woods, and I’m not ashamed to admit that their ice cream and ready-to-eat pizza constitute a significant portion of my diet when I am on the road. This morning I was in…
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Marketing Help for Sheep & Goat Farmers
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SheepGoatMarketing.info originated in the late 1990s. It grew out of the Northeast Sheep & Goat Marketing Project at Cornell University which received a grant from USDA with the goal of improving producer access to equitable markets while building regional capacity to supply the growing consumer demand for high quality lamb and goat meat. The emphasis…
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Meat
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Sheepfolds, pigpens, chicken coops, and smoke houses: on a farm with animals, these places have meaning. Cynthia G. Falk writes about the agricultural and architectural diversity of historic farm buildings in her new book: Barns of New York: Rural Architecture of the Empire State (Cornell University Press, 2012). This is a beautiful book about the…
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Pricing Your Meat Cuts
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So, you’re thinking about raising livestock for direct-to-consumer sales. You’ve figured out what kind of livestock you want to raise, what kind of infrastructure you will need, soil tested your pastures, the works. One question remains; how much should you charge your customers? It doesn’t matter if you are selling halves, quarters or single cuts,…
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Realizing the Potential of NY Grasslands
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Report recommends taking action to realize the potential of underutilized grasslands as a farming resource that will spur rural economic development, grow the regional food supply, and enhance environmental outcomes for all citizens of New York State. There are over 3 million acres of grasslands in New York State that are not currently being used…
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Heritage Breeds: Ort’s Barnyard Menagerie
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Sheep with four horns, ducks with red fleshy heads, and pigs that look like cows? This isn’t a scene from ‘Through the Looking Glass’, but a description of the barnyard menagerie found on the Ort Family Farm near Bradford, NY, home to multi-species of Heritage livestock and poultry. Roger Ort and his wife Maria, along…
livestock
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