KANSAS CITY, MO — The “Show Me” state welcomed 660 junior Hereford exhibitors from 40 states with 1,100 head of cattle to the Junior National Hereford Expo (JNHE). The annual event is held every year in a different state to showcase the nation’s top Hereford cattle and junior members compete in 23 s...

Pest management means scouting for pests. If you don’t know what is out there, or if they are out there en masse or just at a tolerable level, any control program is going to be more costly and less effective than a targeted approach. Whether a young farmer, just learning the ropes, or an experience...

by Richard Smith, Saratoga County Extension Agent Summers bring out the best in farm youth. Many of them besides doing their normal chores around the farm spend time preparing their animals for exhibition at the county fair. The 172nd Saratoga County Fair just finished and the 4-H’ers of Saratoga Co...

Mike Pearson is familiar to viewers of Weekly Journal of Rural America . Speaking on the topic titled above at the 135th Penn-Ag annual meeting, he acknowledges that one of his guiding principles is ‘Trust, But Verify!’ Before you know where you are going in the next marketing year, you have to know...

During early 1993 a small group of ag people from the Penn Yan, NY area started talking about developing an International Harvester Club. A small ad was placed in the local paper with a location and time for this first meeting and 70 new members came. With this many new members enthusiasm and ambiti...

It is something to be known for growing the largest rutabaga in the Adirondacks. Putting that impressive anecdote aside, and Joseph Orefice, owner of North Branch Farm, still has accomplished quite a lot in his first three years of owning the farm. Orefice, who purchased the farm at 24 years old, is...

Time is running out for farms and agricultural enterprises to submit an application through New York State’s Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) process. In 2013, Governor Cuomo has made $760 million in grants and tax credits available through 30 programs across 13 state agencies. The CFA process...

“I bought this farm in 1950,” states 91 year-old Warren Canary. “When I came here I only brought 17 cows with me.” He points out the many changes made over the past decades. The 175-acre farm management was taken over in 1974 by Warren’s son Jim and became an established LLC when Jim, Jr. rejoined t...

Mary Kraft is the owner, CFO and human resource director for a large western dairy farm, but what she knows about maintaining an effective work force applies to operations of all sizes. Kraft was raised on a 500-cow dairy, and now manages 5,000 cows with her husband Chris. “You have to come up with ...

Seneca Falls, NY – The New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health will celebrate 25 years of farm safety programs with its new NYCAMH-to-Go Mobile Unit at the August 6-8, 2013 Empire Farm Days. To meet the needs of busy farmers, NYCAMH now offers a mobile health van staffed by health and s...

Dr. Darrell Emmick shared his experience with animal foraging behavior and explained how to train livestock to eat weeds. This talk was part of a workshop called ‘From We-Feeders to Weed-Eaters: Controlling Weeds through Animal Grazing’ hosted by Watson Farm in Jamestown, RI. Dr. Emmick also spoke a...

The owners of Land View Farm, LLC in Eagle Bridge, NY, have made strategic business throughout its 61-year history. With careful planning, the growth has been controlled and deliberate allowing the farm to thrive. Today, the farm owns 1,225 Holsteins and maintains 2,100 acres of field crops. The ear...

Getting optimal milk production from cows in an organic pasture-based dairy system requires excellent soil health. Amending poor quality soils will result in economic rewards in terms of added milk production. Dr. Cindy Daley, of California State University, recently shared her experience with amend...

It’s July or August, and the heat of the summer is causing once-lush pasture to dry out. Providing high quality forages during the summer months, when traditional perennial forages are slowing down, can be challenging. Add drought conditions to that, and it can seem impossible. According to Heather ...

Although a group of dairy cattle isn’t typically referred to as a ‘mob,’ that’s what they are when they’re grazing a small section of highly nutritious pasture in a short amount of time. USDA-ARS pasture researcher Dr. Kathy Soder says dairy farmers are asking a lot of questions about mob, or tall g...