Country Folks
Posted on April 29, 2026
CHAZY, NY – “Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form.” – Jean Luc Godard When a grazing planning workshop gets mentioned, there’s usually an eye roll because it suggests brain-crunching goal setting, too much math and scenario-building toward some future outcome. Many scoff, “I like d...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
Posted on April 29, 2026
Getting a jump on pests can help improve your chances warding off a major infestation. Chloe Yi-Luo Cho, Ph.D. candidate in entomology at Cornell, presented “Early-Season Pest Damage Across New York: Risk Under Different Management Practices in Light of the Neonicotinoid Ban” at the recent Soybean &...
Country Folks
by Kelsi Devolve 
Posted on April 29, 2026
Taika von Königslöw, assistant Professor at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, spoke at the 2026 New Hampshire Dairy Management Conference, explaining the complexities of calf health and management. Calves are extremely vulnerable within their first few days of life, but it’s essen...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
Posted on April 29, 2026
A motivational speaker may not seem a typical choice for a speaker at a farm conference, but the Northeast Dairy Management Conference, presented by PRO-DAIRY and the Northeast Dairy Producers Association, welcomed Matt Booth of Mattitude from Dubuque, Iowa, to speak about one’s outlook effecting po...
Country Folks, Crop Comments
Crop
Posted on April 29, 2026
The U.S. plants significantly less acreage of this summer annual than it did a century ago. Buckwheat was once a much more widespread crop before the late Industrial Revolution introduced new technologies. The center-point of such technologies were fertilizers based on chemical ingredients which inc...
Country Folks
by Sonja Heyck-Merlin 
Posted on April 22, 2026
According to Alyssa Dietrich Warner, it’s commonly recommended to feed a newborn calf a minimum of four liters of colostrum at the first feeding. Some dairy farmers choose to feed more than this. This is a way to achieve excellent transfer of passive immunity (TPI), regardless of colostrum quality. ...
Country Folks
by Ben Simons 
Posted on April 22, 2026
On March 28 and 29, Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School FFA Chapter celebrated a longstanding tradition with Oneida County’s official maple weekend ceremony. It also celebrated the first crop of the year to be harvested – maple syrup. The VVS FFA students served approximately 2,000 pancake breakfasts...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
Posted on April 22, 2026
As a matter of economy, Francisco Leal Yepes, DVM, Ph.D., and assistant professor of ambulatory and production medicine in Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, believes more farmers need to raise their own replacements and pay more attention to their herd’s health. “Heifer supplies are at their...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
Posted on April 22, 2026
Any time between giving birth through weaning or dry-off is the ideal time for ewes or does to develop mastitis. The cost of mastitis is significant due to veterinary costs, milk replacer for lambs or kids that aren’t getting enough milk, culling of relatively young females, increased lamb or kid mo...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
June 24, 2026
Small ruminants have some challenging health issues. One problem occurs almost exclusively in males and can be deadly. In a recent presentation, Dr. H...
Country Folks, Events
by Troy Bishopp, Northeast NatGLC Regional Grazing Manager 
June 24, 2026
News outlets jump at a chance to film mysterious, celestial, crop circles and wax paranormal about their meaning. I wish they showed the same enthusia...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
June 24, 2026
“Workplace culture” seems like a term for boardrooms, not bunk silos and milking parlors. But the right atmosphere in agriculture can make a differenc...
Country Folks, Crop Comments
Crop Comments
Crop Comments A13 
June 24, 2026
About a month after the Strait of Hormuz blockade began, a farmer named Ken called me, asking me to formulate fertilizers for his small cropping opera...