Harvest and field work isn’t quite finished, which means hundreds of young children will be extra riders in tractors and other farm machinery. Fortunately, the majority will not be involved in an accident, but other dangers may not be immediately obvious. Marsha Salzwedel, project scientist and agri...

The work of Australian veterinary parasitologist Dr. Matthew Playford is helping to raise awareness of the Asian longhorned tick (ALT) among U.S. cattle producers. While many consumers have learned about the meat allergy (alpha-gal) that can result after a bite from an ALT, Playford focuses on Theil...

We’re six weeks past the date where many crop people in the Northeast – though certainly not all – experienced their first killing frost. This morning at dawn in downtown Hartwick, our remote-sensing thermometer read 25º F. In the last couple weeks, there have been several freezing readings most loc...

On Oct. 3, Tompkins County Soil & Water Conservation District Manager Jonathan Negley received a cursory email from a group known only as the “NYS Watershed Health Coalition” led by CCE Tompkins Policy & Funding Subcommittee Chair Megan Brosterman, who introduced fundamentally changing state soil an...

The doors have closed after another successful All-American Quarter Horse Congress. The highly sought-after bronze trophies have been awarded to the best of the best after 30 days of grueling competition at the largest horse show in the world. Attendees left Columbus, Ohio, already making plans to r...

To Jenny Green, the owner of Fisher Green Creative, a Maine digital marketing firm, the holiday season means a lot more than Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. It really runs from November through January and includes holidays like Veterans Day, Small Business Saturday, the Winter So...

Back in 1993, the “Got Milk?” campaign launched and was an immediate success. It was the brainchild of a collective, formed by milk producers, who banded together to get the word out about milk. Following in their footsteps, Mark Cannella, University of Vermont Extension, has been working with the I...

It’s been a beautiful autumn so far, but it won’t be long before winter sets in – and with the weather still favorable, now is the best time to prepare for those long, cold days ahead. One morning last week was cold enough to turn the water a bit “slushy” – a reminder to set up the heat lamp and get...

While most livestock manure is land-applied in one form or another, Dr. Rebecca Larson, University Wisconsin-Madison, said there are opportunities to integrate new technologies for manure management that would benefit producers and, ultimately, the environment. “A perfect system would be keeping it ...

Short rotation woody crops such as willow and poplar, along with C4 grasses, have been the primary feedstocks studied for bioenergy. Expanding upon those requires obtaining knowledge of the ecophysiological requirements of other potential feedstocks. John S. King, Department of Forestry and Environm...

In the October 2022 edition of Organic Vision (a bi-monthly newsletter of Global Organic Alliance, an organic certifier), Charles Eisenstein wrote an article titled “The Heartland.” With such a title, the subject of Kansas served as a logical starting point. He discussed sustainable farming in that ...

When raising a herd of cattle, the type of housing system used can highly influence the cleanliness, well-being and production of the cows, as well as the ease of management and profits for the farm. One of the most well-known barn management techniques is a free-stall barn. In these barns, animals ...

Whether calf housing is new construction or a conversion, ventilation is a major factor in maintaining healthy animals. John Tyson, Penn State ag engineer, said young dairy calves deal with a variety of health threats – from fecal/oral disease transmission, animal-to-animal disease transmission, poo...

When it comes to proper soil fertility management, maintaining proper soil pH is key. The relative acidity or alkalinity of soil is indicated by its pH. The pH scale runs from 0 to 14. Any pH reading below 7 is acidic and any pH above 7 is alkaline. Consequently, soils are often described as acidic ...

When those who raise livestock can’t find a breed that suits their needs, crossbreeding is often the answer. Individual animals are selected for desirable traits and carefully crossed to produce offspring that meet strict genetic standards. This is how breeders developed a new pig breed known as the...