Small ruminants have some challenging health issues. One problem occurs almost exclusively in males and can be deadly. In a recent presentation, Dr. Heather Glennon, North Carolina small ruminant Extension specialist, discussed urinary calculi. This is a serious issue in wethers and is also referred...

News outlets jump at a chance to film mysterious, celestial, crop circles and wax paranormal about their meaning. I wish they showed the same enthusiasm for “pasture circles” and their real benefit to feeding our biological systems. Maybe we can get cows to strategically poop as a cool art form inst...

“Workplace culture” seems like a term for boardrooms, not bunk silos and milking parlors. But the right atmosphere in agriculture can make a difference between farm success and failure. Adam Seybolt of Stewart’s Shops , Martha Hilton with Wegmans and Richard Stup with Cornell Agricultural Workforce ...

About a month after the Strait of Hormuz blockade began, a farmer named Ken called me, asking me to formulate fertilizers for his small cropping operation in southern Onondaga County. Ken grows corn for grain, soybeans and mixed mostly grass hay. He sent me soil test results for each of the three fi...

“We want to identify what are the top management practices that explain the best milk quality in organic dairy farms,” said Carlos Nino de Guzman, a doctoral student at the University of Florida. This is Nino de Guzman’s goal as a researcher with a multi-university grant funded by the National Insti...

Commercial dairy herds are increasing both in profitable milk components and in overall yields. Does this mean cows should be challenged with more nutrient-rich diets to determine their productivity per unit of energy? Mike Van Amburgh with the Department of Animal Science at Cornell University expl...

Mary, Javier and Lorrie handle moving cows and milking at Cool Beans Dairy. Mary attaches milking units immediately after wiping udders dry while Javier waits a few extra minutes. Lorrie whistles to move cows but Javier uses a rattle paddle. Although the herd has outstanding genetics and performance...

Southern rust seems like a problem that wouldn’t affect farmers in the Northeast; however, Camilo Parada-Rojas, field crop pathologist with Cornell University, presented the on the topic at the annual CCE-sponsored Corn Congress because the pathogen is carried by wind currents and can spread this wa...

Among Pennsylvania farmland, Shady Lane Curtains has built a business around a surprisingly simple idea: healthier livestock starts with better light, stronger ventilation and sturdier shelter. From its headquarters in Bird-in-Hand, the company has spent more than 15 years crafting custom agricultur...

According to John Idowu, Ph.D., plant science Extension agronomist at New Mexico State University, soil compaction can greatly challenge cropland performance and reduce yields, depending on the type of crop grown. However, there are many strategies that producers can use to minimize soil compaction ...

By the time this appears in Country Folks , the numbers will have changed. Stories about New World screwworm (NWS) are hitting nearly every news outlet. Once endemic in the U.S., efforts to push the NWS southward began in the 1950s and resulted in eradication in the U.S. by 1966. Now it’s back, and ...

According to a 2025 state agriculture overview, New York State is home to 30,000 farm operations, 650,000 milking cows, 500 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) with 300 or more mature cows and is number five in the nation for milk production. Extensive acreage in hay, haylage, corn grain,...

When the price of lamb dropped in the 1990s, Janet McNally had to make changes in the way she raised sheep. McNally spoke recently at the Pennsylvania Forage Conference in Lancaster, PA. She decided to focus on grazing when she found her income was less than desirable after deducting feed, vet suppl...

I make it a point to celebrate dairy in every way I know how. I visit my local grocery stores and buy milk by the gallon, sour cream, cheese and my personal favorites, ice cream and Chobani yogurt. The tradition of celebrating June as Dairy Month began in 1937 as a way to encourage consumers to purc...

The gold standard of research is long-term findings. These demonstrate lasting trends and a greater likelihood of predicting future outcomes. Michael Cavigelli, retired lead scientist with USDA-ARS’s Farming Systems Project (FSP), presented “Findings from the Beltsville Long-Term Cropping Systems Pr...