Country Folks
Posted on August 12, 2026
Rob Goodling, business consultant for Farm Credit East, recently provided information on what the dairy industry can expect as producers passed the halfway mark in 2026. Goodling’s information was based on the 2025 Northeast Dairy Farm Summary and 2026 Mid-year Outlook. Summary input is based primar...
Country Folks
by Edith Tucker 
Posted on August 12, 2026
Jaime Garzon, Ph.D., an assistant Extension professor and dairy forage educator, University of Maine at Orono, recently led a pasture walk on an organic farm on Flat Road in West Bethel, Maine. This was his first on a homestead. Christine Trefehen and Eric List, the couple who bought a 6.5-acre parc...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
Posted on August 12, 2026
Anyone thinking about a manure digester might envision a massive unit on a large livestock farm. Matt Steiman, assistant farm manager at Dickinson College, explained that isn’t the case at the Carlisle, PA, farm. “This is a unique system,” Steiman said. “Most digesters are on large farms with 500 co...
Country Folks, Farmers First
Posted on August 12, 2026
What sort of taxes do you pay in your farm life? Chances are you’re familiar with the more common taxes: income, sales, payroll, property, self-employment, inheritance. But what about the switch tax? I only recently learned about the switch tax from one of my podcast guests, and it’s much more costl...
Country Folks, Crop Comments
Crop Comments
Posted on August 12, 2026
On July 23, I was invited by Uri to perform extensive soil sampling on his farm in eastern Chenango County, NY. I’ve been advising Uri in his organic crop program for a couple decades, taking lots of soil samples for him over the years. I met Uri in September 1964 at Cornell University. I was an ag ...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
Posted on August 5, 2026
Employees gather for yet another safety talk, anticipating boredom. Safety talks can be sleeper events, but when there’s injury or death on the farm, safety suddenly becomes the main conversation – for a short time. Incidents can be prevented by familiarizing employees and family members with farm s...
Country Folks
Posted on August 5, 2026
Produced by Lee Trade Shows, the upcoming Small Scale Forestry Expo is specifically for the landowner that has woodlots and wants to utilize them in a way that’s beneficial to both the planet and their pockets. These are woodland owners who prefer cleaner, smaller-scale processing versus clear-cutti...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby soft-eyed, long eared equine that that 
Posted on August 5, 2026
A soft-eyed, long eared equine that that brays and whuffles instead of whinnying appeals to just about everyone. Dr. Carissa Wickens, equine Extension specialist and professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, University of Florida, explained that while donkeys are equines, they are not the same...
Country Folks, Events
Posted on August 5, 2026
Join other forward-thinking graziers at the National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) 2026 “Ultimate Northeast Grazing School,” hosted by John Burns’s Evermore Farms, 8475 Morgan Creek Rd., Lindley, NY, Sept. 8 and 9 from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. For the great value of only $50 for both days, the school feat...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
August 12, 2026
A 4-H’er since he was a boy, Travis Clark, 14, from Rushville, won Grand Champion 4-H Market Animal with his Simmental steer at the recent Ontario Cou...
Country Folks
by Joseph Armstrong 
August 12, 2026
We joke about the weather in New York always changing, but when you have a farm to run it’s not always a laughing matter. Sometimes our weather patter...
Country Folks
by Sonja Heyck-Merlin 
August 5, 2026
Well-planned farm tours can be mutually beneficial for schoolchildren and the farms they visit. Students gain insight into where their food comes from...
Country Folks
Crop
August 5, 2026
The Saharan air layer (SAL), often called Saharan dust, consists of sand, dirt and other dust lifted into the atmosphere from North Africa’s vast dese...