Having animals that are naturally adapted to pasture, and grow well on a 100 percent grassfed diet, is of prime importance to Bird’s Hollow Beef producers Candice and David Eldredge. They’ve selected purebred Whiteface Herefords, crossed with purebred Black Angus bulls. The resulting calves are know...

On a cold, gray skied June 14, Wild West Frogfest and Rodeo 2014 presented by White’s Farm Supply took place at the Herkimer County Fairgrounds in Frankfort, NY. The smell of French fries, onion rings, barbecue, and pizza made the fairgrounds seem not as cold. The Painted Pony Rodeo, from Lake Luzer...

Kathi and John Wagner, who own JKW Polled Herefords in Athens, NY, started raising purebred Hereford cattle in a rather unique way. “John’s grandparents came over from Germany,” said Kathi. “They ran a German boarding house and had a dairy farm. Then his parents took over the dairy until the 1960s w...

Poultry are relatively easy to raise and do well with basic food, water and shelter. While it’s fairly simple to raise poultry it is important to be prepared, plan ahead and do some research prior to bringing chicks or older birds to your property. First, you’ll have to decide if you’re raising a la...

ONEIDA, NY — When Ross Hasty proudly showed off the robotic machines that are used in the warehouse at the HP Hood milk processing plant in Oneida, he spoke of them fondly in a paternal manner. “We’ve come a long way,” said Hasty, who has been the Hood operations manager for 30 years. The robotic pa...

On June 10, the federal Food & Drug Administration said it may be backing down from a policy that cheese-makers would no longer be able to age their cheese on wooden boards. The policy change was announced in Forbes Magazine and other media outlets: “The FDA does not have a new policy banning the us...

Extension veterinarians like Dr. Ernest Hovingh get to see a lot of milking parlors over the years, and come to expect certain problems crop up. Dr. Hovingh has seen ways milkers could, but often don’t, prevent parlor-acquired mastitis. Let’s look at this potentially costly problem. 1. Gloves are gr...

Where have Dorpers been all our lives? And now that they’re here, what can we do with them? “Dorpers are a breed of sheep that have been in this country for about 20 years,” according to Doug Gillespie, executive secretary for the American Dorper Sheep Breeders’ Society, “and they are growing by lea...

Soil health is one of the most important factors that crop-growers face and an educational clinic about soil health and the role that winter forage cover crops can play, was recently presented by Delaware County’s Soil and Water Conservation District, Delaware County’s Cornell Cooperative Extension ...

A previous edition of Country Folks provided information from a seminar given by Dr. Ernest Hovingh at the Penn State Mastitis and Milk Quality Conference on the importance of recognizing the different pathogens that cause mastitis in dairy cows so the appropriate treatment can be implemented. A con...

Youth ages 5 to 17 had the opportunity to learn fitting and showmanship tips to help them succeed in showing beef cattle at the county fair or at sanctioned beef shows. A clinic sponsored by the Washington County Junior Beef Club provided youth ages 5 to 17 with fitting and showmanship tips for a su...

As dairy farmers, we need to learn to manage mastitis using a whole arsenal of information rather than routinely treating all our mastitis cases with antibiotics. One step in intelligently managing mastitis, according to Dr. Ernest Hovingh of Penn State, is to learn to culture the organisms causing ...

“It’s food donations like these that make it possible to serve as many people as we do,” stated Fulmont Community Action Outreach Center Coordinator Aimee Kollar. “I never have to turn anyone away.” Kollar was speaking about the generous donation made to the Fulton Montgomery Food Pantry by ladies r...

Approximately 50 CSA farm owners gathered to participate in a daylong program presented by Penn State Extension and Dickinson College covering important aspects of CSA Farming, including food safety, finances and finding shareholders. The notable Jean-Paul Courtens of Roxbury Farm of Kinderhook, NY ...

The United States has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions and has almost reached its 2020 goal. There is still a long way to go to meet the goals set for 2050. The use of biomass products will play a large role in reaching this goal, and today’s farmers are gearing up production of alternative fuel...