This is the time of year for crop growers when the days are not long enough to accomplish all the work that needs doing. Often it seems that folks assigned these tasks need to keep their blood caffeine levels high. In the Northeast, the season is increasingly shaping up as a growing season that tran...

Despite a colder start to the weekend, New York Junior Beef Producers had a great turnout and show at the 2022 NYJBPA Spring Preview Show. Approximately 90 youth exhibited over 150 head of commercial and registered cattle in Batavia at the Genesee County Fairgrounds April 22 – 24. The show was judge...

Raising beef cattle is only half the struggle; the other half is actually selling the meat. To help producers with both sides of the equation, North Carolina Cooperative Extension presented “Raising Cattle for Freezer Beef” as part of its “Beef: Beyond the Basics” series. Alamance County Agriculture...

Far more than just providing fodder, grazing can help a farm improve its resilience to future calamities. Regenerative grazing specialists Linda Poole and Justin Morris presented “Grazing for Resilience: Bouncing Forward from Catastrophic Events” as a webinar hosted by Food Animal Concerns Trust. “C...

Corn yield is a product function of yield components, according to Dr. Fred Below, Ph.D., professor of crop physiology at the University of Illinois. And your yield is comprised of plants per acre, kernels per plant and weight per kernel. Producers have the most control over plants/acre, and thanks ...

As I write this May 3, the outdoor temperature is 72º. Spring is trying to come to life, without much success. Maple trees are pollinating enough to cause lots of coughing and sneezing, an unwelcome milestone arriving about a month later than normal. Shade trees are just starting to blossom, somethi...

Professor of Environmental Biology at Cazenovia College Thad Yorks led a lab class of watershed management students hosted by the Cody Farm and Monica and Bill Cody in Cazenovia, NY. The group of students, with varying career paths within an environmental context, toured the 250-head dairy farm and ...

There’s something special about a horse. One of the largest and most powerful of our domestic animals, a horse can bring a smile to the face of even a tiny tot. Known for their great strength, beauty, grace, stamina and spirit, these magnificent creatures can cause your pulse to quicken as they gall...

As part of “The Role of Birds on the Farm” series, ag professionals and farmers are learning how to support beneficial birds and discourage pest birds. A recent lesson on insect-eating birds supported by nest boxes and buildings was presented by Robyn Bailey of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology ...

If you’re contemplating obtaining a USDA processing license for your on-farm meat processing facility, Jim Eklund, owner of Eklund Processing in Stamford, NY, offered some advice: Get ready to do a lot of paperwork. Eklund spoke at the NOFA-NY conference, hosted online. He presented “USDA Processing...

Tom Kilcer and I first met at a Cooperative Extension conference in autumn 1977. At that time, I was winding up the last few months of my 64-month career as a dairy/field crops Extension agent in Otsego County and he was just beginning what would blossom into a 22-year profession as a field crops Ex...

Maybe you think you’re doing okay. Maybe you’re struggling to make ends meet. Maybe you’re planning for retirement. There are many different money goals, but the key to achieving them lies in the ability to accurately assess your financial health. Alex White, Ph.D., instructor in the Department of D...

Many farmers have begun to diversify their operations and use their resources in different ways to bring in more revenue. Offering lodging via Airbnb represents one additional income stream, as explained in “How to Create and Operate a Successful On-Farm Airbnb” by Matt Baumgartner of June Farms in ...

“Insecticides are very popular in the United States,” said Penn State entomologist John Tooker. At the 2022 Northeast Cover Crop Council conference, Tooker focused on the overuse of insecticides in no-till corn and soy crops that incorporate cover crops. “They have been overused since they were intr...

The next big thing in crop growing may actually be smaller. In presenting “Short Stature Corn: The Next Evolution of Corn Production That Will P.A.Y.” at the 2022 Commodity Classic, Denise Bouvrette, Ph.D., the North America Corn Project manager and launch lead with Bayer Crop Science, noted that sh...