It’s been tough in the poultry sector for the past several years, but resiliency in the industry has proven key to survival, according to Jeannette Kreher Heberling and Jamey Payne, representing Kreher Family Farms in Clarence, NY, at this year’s New York State Agricultural Society Forum. The farm h...

The 2022 season for soybean and small grain growers was “not a dramatic season,” said Gary Bergstrom, plant pathologist with Cornell University, at the 2023 Soybean & Small Grains Congress. The Congress included presentations on yield promotion and disease and pest control. New York experienced very...

This column is written on the last day of winter. Six days ago, the NYS DEC ordered a mandatory outdoor burn ban effective until further notice. The compulsory burn ban is based on the average expected late winter/early spring conditions. These conditions normally include little or no prolonged snow...

At the recent annual meeting of the National Association of Conservation Districts in New Orleans, keynote speakers included the expected –USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and NRCS Chief Terry Cosby – as well as someone a little outside the box. Speaking at the meeting was U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Dir...

All dairy operators want to offer a quality product. Farmers providing raw, organic milk face additional challenges for keeping bacteria populations low. Nicole Martin, Ph.D., from Cornell University’s Food Safety Laboratory, recently presented “Bacterial Populations in Organic Raw Milk Impacting Fi...

The acquisition of farmland by foreign entities has become a growing concern to a number of members of Congress. And purchases with ties to one nation in particular have spurred a sense of unease. According to the USDA, Chinese agricultural land ownership increased by a modest 550 acres between 2015...

Each task on a dairy farm is important to the farm’s bottom line and depends on “things done right.” But it’s easy for employees to drift from the procedure, which can result in breaches in safety procedures, compromised animal health and significant financial loss. Dr. Lisa Holden, associate profes...

Grazing dairy farmers are constantly thinking about forages and nutrition. Planning for the grazing season means optimizing spring forages, finding ways of coping with the summer slump and strategizing for autumn. Improving forages and forage utilization by enhancing quality and quantity of availabl...

A yield enhancement network (YEN) may be your key to growing more per acre than you ever imagined. Established in 2012 by UK ADAS crop physiologists, this global series of networks includes farmers from the UK, EU, Canada and the U.S. YEN emphasizes maximizing a higher percentage of a farmer’s yield...

LANCASTER, PA – Robert Louis Stevenson said “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.” Harvesting knowledge with seeds of education and practical experience was the hallmark of the Pennsylvania Forage and Grassland Council’s 2023 annual conference at the Wyndham Lanca...

It was noted by Cody Lovercamp, USDA Risk Management Agency specialist, that there are currently 604 varieties of crops covered by USDA crop insurance, which includes livestock. Lovercamp provided updates on some programs available for cattle producers – Livestock Gross Margin (LGM) for beef cattle,...

Male sterility means a plant will not translocate nutrients for grain or seed production. All of the nutrients remain in the leaves and vegetative plant tissue, producing very high-quality forage. With male-sterile sorghums no grain is produced, unless foreign pollen from a sorghum-type plant is mad...

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall got his start in the organization by joining his local Young Farmers & Ranchers (YF&R) Committee when he was a young man. Today, he leads a Farm Bureau family that’s 2,800 counties strong. That call to leadership has to start somewhere. The AFBF...

First generation farmers Nicole and Derrick DeBoer started At Ease Acres in Berne, NY, in 2006 with almost nothing. Today, their cattle are making a name for themselves. Derrick grew up on his family’s veal farm, participated in 4-H with pigs and commercial cattle, started his own Angus herd, then m...

UTICA, NY – Ohio dairyman Andrew Coblentz shared his passion for farming within a grass-based context. “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow,” said the guest speaker. His message resonated well with the 150 farmers who attended this sixth annual...