For many first-time horse owners, choosing the best feed for proper nutrition of their horse can be a bit daunting, especially if the horse falls into one of the “special needs” categories (elderly, overweight, underweight, prone to ulcers and the like). Most will be content with continuing the same...

In the July 24 edition of columnist Paris Reidhead’s “Crop Comments” ( available at CountryFolks.com ), he noted that switchgrass, a source of cellulosic ethanol, is “drawing favorable reviews from the sustainable science community, because it’s a perennial crop. This fact alone absolves it from the...

Staying vigilant when it comes to irrigation equipment maintenance and inspection can help farmers keep their costs down. During the active part of your year, carve out a little time to make a thorough inspection of your irrigation system and create a maintenance plan. Be sure to document and take p...

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been a disease of concern for poultry producers for the past several years. While the virus remains a serious threat to poultry producers, farmers who raise other livestock weren’t too concerned until the virus jumped species and infected dairy cattle. Th...

Earlier this year, Jake Tomlinson with Penn State’s Center for Agricultural Conservation Assistance Training presented a session on streambank stabilization and what implementation of it looks like on the farm. Stream erosion is naturally occurring, though sometimes expedited by certain stressors. T...

Weevils are beetles with an iconic Jimmy Durante profile. They use their extended schnoz (which contain antennae and mouthparts) to chew holes into plants, flowers, seeds and nuts. The over 60,000 species of weevils generally develop very specific relationships with their host plants – so specific, ...

On June 20 – the first day of summer and as part of June is Dairy Month and in anticipation of July is Ice Cream Month – New York State Assemblymember Robert Smullen spent the day visiting farms in his Assembly District, which includes parts of the state’s North Country and Mohawk Valley. Smullen re...

Dr. Heather Darby grew up on a dairy farm in northwest Vermont. After earning graduate degrees in Wisconsin and Oregon, she returned to her home state to work at University of Vermont Extension as a specialist in agronomy and soils. One of her areas of study is how to successfully utilize cover crop...

When it comes to monitoring manure components and calculating on-farm manure use, there’s no room for guessing. Dr. Quirine Ketterings and graduate student Agustin Olivo of Cornell University have conducted extensive research to develop assessment tools for managing nitrogen and phosphorus on both a...

On June 10, Troy and Stephanie Finn, owners of Finndale Farms in Steuben, NY, hosted 100, eighth grade students, teachers and chaperones from Holland Patent Central School. The following day, they hosted 160 kindergarten students at the farm to see first-hand how a modern-day dairy farm operates. Bo...

Dan Neenan, director of the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety , is also a rural firefighter and paramedic. Unfortunately, he has responded to skid steer incidents. While skid steers are basic equipment on many farms, they’re often used unsafely. “Skid steers are little Sherman tanks,...

Normally, the process of converting organic waste into organic matter (OM) is a slow and often unseen one. Organisms as large as earthworms and as tiny as bacteria break down dropped leaves, cornstalks and more at an almost glacial pace. However, one particular insect is really, really good at creat...

Wearable tech in ag can help keep farmworkers safe. According to Dr. Aaron Yoder, wearable devices can help keep people safe, but only if folks listen to the reminders and heed the warnings. Yoder is an associate professor at the University of Nebraska and also works with AgrAbility, a Purdue Univer...

Over the past few years, farmers in the Northeast have experienced both ends of the rain spectrum: too much and too little. Much of the time, farmers don’t find out about these extreme weather conditions until right before they occur, when it’s already too late. What can you do so your crops don’t g...

CANDOR, NY – On a picturesque June evening, ripe with delicious dairy products, farmers seeking grazing knowledge and abundant grass swards sprinkled with wildflowers joined the Tioga County Soil & Water Conservation District, who partnered with the Upper Susquehanna Coalition (USC), CCE Tioga and t...