Country Folks, Dairy
Posted on May 20, 2026
What you feed the herd affects both herd health and milk composition. Kevin Harvatine, Ph.D., professor of nutritional physiology and chair in Agricultural Sciences at Penn State, presented “Fatty Acids & Milk Components: Optimizing Milkfat Yield” as part of the recent Herd Health & Nutrition Confer...
Country Folks
by Cheryl Bruce, Senior Consultant, Agricultural Consulting Services 
Posted on May 20, 2026
The title above sounds like it could be the set-up for a joke: A farmer, a logger and a lobsterman walk into a bar… Instead, this was part of the conference schedule at the Northeast Dairy Management Conference, co-hosted by PRO-DAIRY and the Northeast Dairy Producers Association (NEDPA) , which too...
Country Folks, Dairy
by Andy Haman 
Posted on May 20, 2026
Change is inevitable in agriculture, but your operation can find success on the other side. The secret? Intentional strategy – not reactive moments. This was the key takeaway from a roundtable presentation at the 2026 Northeast Dairy Innovation Summit, reflected in the personal experiences of three ...
Country Folks
Horse Tales
Posted on May 20, 2026
Buying a horse is an exciting experience, but also requires caution, careful planning and research, especially when purchasing your first horse. First, determine what you can afford to pay and stay within that number. Horses are expensive to keep and will require money to be budgeted for daily upkee...
Country Folks, Crop Comments
Paris Reidhead 
Posted on May 20, 2026
Three years ago, Canadian wildfires were ramping up. The maximum impact was felt in the northern tier of the U.S. during the second week of June 2023. Firefighters scrambled to put out blazes in Quebec, where more than 160 forest fires were roaring. These fires were fueled by high temperatures and d...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
Posted on May 13, 2026
If a liquid manure system eliminated agitation, saved fuel, increased manure value and created safer working conditions by eliminating deadly gases, would farmers be willing to try it? Farmers in Ireland tried it and liked it, and now farmers in the U.S. can benefit from a manure management system b...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
Posted on May 13, 2026
Is your farm just surviving or thriving? Chris Wilson, business manager at Wilson Family Organic Farms , pondered that question when he began working on the farm in 2017; however, with some major changes, the family turned it around. Wilson presented “Practical Systems, Real Returns: Dairy-Cropping ...
Country Folks
by Sonja Heyck-Merlin 
Posted on May 13, 2026
Benjamin Clark, a former employee on a large Montana organic grain farm, now an organic farm inspector, provided perspective on organic grain certification at a Maine Grain Alliance meeting. Clark is a staff inspector for the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association (MOFGA) Certification Servic...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
Posted on May 13, 2026
Keeping an eye on calves has gone high tech. More than just fancy tools, sensors for calf care can help farmers carefully monitor their animals for the earliest signs of poor health to help curtail more serious problems and possibly stall an outbreak of illness. Taika von Königslöw, DVM, assistant p...
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 Sally Colby 
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 ha...
Country Folks
by Edith Tucker 
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 organ...