Thriving farmers markets have loyal customers and great vendors. The customers spend money, return regularly and bring friends. Successful vendors bring great products, friendly smiles and the right pricing, week after week. During a Farmers Market Manager Conference held in Rhode Island, a brainsto...

When Jason and Amy Ladd received a phone call from a young stranger who confessed his friend had stolen from their business, they were floored. The Ladd’s own Lucky Ladd Farms, a petting farm in Eagleville, TN. The alleged robber was their 19 year-old employee who, in the nature of the young and inv...

Dr. Ernest Hovingh describes himself as ‘a James Herriot kind of man.’ Herriot was a veterinarian in the UK’s Yorkshire Dales who wrote a series of bestselling books about his practice nearly 40 years ago. Dairy cows are where Hovingh has spent the past 20 years of his life. “But,” he explains, “I a...

Western Pennsylvania’s Windy Ridge Dairy is, in many ways, a typical small dairy farm. But in just as many ways, it isn’t. Lindsay Fischer, along with her mother Chris Fischer, milk 40 head of registered Jersey cows at the family’s dairy, just north of Pittsburgh. Her father Steve, along with her br...

Beau Ramsburg and his wife Cat have been farming for about seven years in rural Adams County, PA, raising broilers and heritage breed pork. They own a small farm property, rent an additional 40 acres, and in June of 2013, they purchased a 38-acre farm. “We want to expand our farm operation,” said Ra...

By Sept. 1, the U.S. dairy industry should have an entirely new USDA dairy policy in place. Once the new program rules of the Agricultural Act of 2014 are in place, gone will be decades old milk price support programs, the Dairy Exports Incentive Program and the limited MILC program. Without the wei...

Cover crops are gaining popularity as a way to improve soils, drought resistance and cash crop yields. Grasses, legumes and forbs can be used as cover crops. To protect crop insurance eligibility, farmers must understand and carefully follow the NRCS Cover Crop Termination Guidelines including the t...

The Virginia Forage and Grassland Council held its annual series of winter meetings at four locations: Blackstone, Wytheville, Weyers Cave, and Brandy Station. The Wytheville event was even more well-attended than it had been in previous years, with over 200 people from Lebanon to Floyd present to l...

Dr. Greg Martin has had training in emergency preparedness, has taken FEMA classes, and periodically trains and updates himself on animal rescues. He imparted some of what he has experienced to a full room interested participants at the Penn-Ag 2014 Pork Expo and Poultry Progress Day at the Shady Ma...