Many New Yorkers are wondering how three people received so much power over 19 million daily plates of food. The farm community is head-scratching over percentages and how majority rule isn’t as transparent as it seems. No matter the consternation over the Farm Laborers Wage Board decision to lower ...

With a shortage of glyphosate, it seems like farmers should expect their cornfields to suffer yield losses this year; however, Dr. Bill Johnson, professor of weed science at Purdue University, offered farmers a few options in his presentation “Corn Weed Control in the Herbicide Shortage Era” as part...

We’ve just come through one of the coldest Januarys we can remember, but with a lot more winter to come, it’s a good time to review your cold-weather horse care. While some think horses should receive increased rations of concentrated feed during cold weather, it’s actually hay or roughage that’s mo...

Mules, once having almost disappeared from the agricultural scene, have become the subject of a great deal of speculation. In the past six years, the price of a good team of mules has soared to formerly unbelievable prices at auction – $20,000 to $40,000 for a team is no longer unheard of. Even youn...

The Cass County Farm Bureau (CCFB) in Minnesota has designed a curriculum for police cadets to learn about livestock as well as the trucks and trailers used to transport them. “Law Enforcement Education: Introduction to Livestock” was first introduced in June 2021. Seth and Rachel Connell, both memb...

Webster defines conformation as “the shape or structure of something, especially an animal.” This is rather vague, as everyone looks at a horse with a different set of eyes. Take away color and markings and you can get down to the business of analyzing a horse’s structure for strength and longevity....

Right before Christmas just past, DS asked me to pick up a few soil samples he’d just taken. He runs a small organic dairy farm one county away from me. I picked the samples up, brought them home, air-dried them, then screened them, using a wide-mouthed plastic jar in whose lid I had drilled a coupl...

The unusually mild months of last November and December concern me about how such benign weather might impact crops like winter forages and perennial alfalfa stands. My cropping confidant, Tom Kilcer, was worried about the matter enough to address the subject in his January 2022 newsletter, “Advance...

Seed corn maggot has begun to resurge in New York State, according to Elson Shields, field crop entomologist at Cornell University. Shields presented at the 2022 Corn Congress. “People think seed corn maggots are not a big issue, but those of us in the field who are over 50 remember before neonic an...

The Danforth Jersey Farm in Jefferson, NY, has over 200 years of experience and tradition that have survived the test of time through seven generations of dairy farmers. The farm, which has been in Shannon Finn’s family since the land was first cleared and settled by her ancestors in 1817, has made ...

After 190 years, the New York State Agricultural Society’s Annual Forum looked pretty different as the audience was asked to consider what actions are necessary to grow a greener New York and what implications agriculture will be challenged by as the New York Climate Leadership and Community Protect...

“Farmers and ranchers are a breed all their own,” said Natalie Roy. “They’re incredibly tough and resilient, but they’re not invulnerable.” For this reason, the AgriSafe Network was formed. Founded in 2003 by a group of nurses at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, the AgriSafe Network is a nonprof...

Although there’s a fairly standard way to fabricate (or cut) a lamb carcass, there are options for those who sell inspected meat directly to consumers. Prior to presenting such options, Dr. Jonathan Campbell, Penn State Extension meat specialist, began with a story about the modern inspection system...

Storied farmer, New York State Agricultural Society member and State Assemblymember Harold “Cap” Creal, via the NYS Ag Society, shared three journalism awards with another farmer and storyteller. Troy Bishopp, “the Grass Whisperer” of Deansboro, NY, was selected in three categories for his Country F...

Dr. John Goeser of Rock River Laboratories has been working to increase efficiencies in dairy feed costs by generating more data on the actual nutrients being fed from the bunker. For Goeser, it all starts with optimizing the information being analyzed. He spoke of the need for enhanced forage nutri...