WINTER 2006
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY Good Living and Good Farming – Connecting People, Land, and Communities
Feature Articles Selling Raw Milk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 4 Raising Rural Kids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 5 Reinventing Pork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 6 Reclaiming Fallow Land . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 18 Photo by Michael Yezzi
Supplement to Country Folks
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
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January 9, 2006
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY - Winter 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS SMALL FARM PROGRAM UPDATE Cornell Small Farms Program Update ........................................................Page 3
COMMUNITY/WORLD It Takes a Community to Grow a Farm......................................................Page 19 Women in Sustainable Ag..........................................................................Page 20 Growing Food and Community: Early Morning Organic Farm...............Page 21
COWS AND CROPS Thinking About Selling Raw Milk?..............................................................Page 4 Simplicity Yields Many Benefits ..................................................................Page 8 What Is a Fair Price for Forage? ..........................................................Page 17-18 Homestead Fields: Dairy Changes Ownership & Style ....................Page 19, 21
FARM FOLLIES A Carpenter’s Gift .......................................................................................Page 27
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY Good Farming and Good Living — Connecting People, Land, and Communities Small Farm Quarterly is for farmers and farm families — including spouses and children - who value the quality of life that smaller farms provide. OUR GOALS ARE TO: • Celebrate the Northeast region’s smaller farms; • Inspire and inform farm families and their supporters; • Help farmers share expertise and opinions with each other; • Increase awareness of the benefits that small farms contribute to society and the environment; and • Share important research, extension, and other resources. Small Farm Quarterly is produced by Lee Publications, Inc., and is distributed four times a year as a special section of Country Folks. Volume 3 publication dates: July 11 and October 10, 2005; January 9 and April 10, 2006
Farmer to Farmer Learning: New Roles for Extension Educators ...Page 26-27
FOREST AND WOODLOT Yours for the Asking…Peer Assistance for Forest Owners ..............Page 16-17
GRAZING The Grass IS Greener on the Other Side of This Fence! ........................Page 15 Turning Goldenrod into Green ..................................................................Page 18
HOME AND FAMILY On Raising Rural Kids ..............................................................................Page 5-6
MANAGING RISK Insure Your Revenue Instead of Your Crop with AGR-Lite...................Page 9-10 So You Thought the Slow Moving Vehicle Emblem was Adequate?......Page 23 Working Together to Reduce Risks...........................................................Page 25
MARKETING Lessons from a North Carolina CSA Farm .........................................Page 14-15
NEW FARMERS Cut Flower Farming: A Love Story ..........................................................Page 7-8 Hampshire College’s Farm Center Educating the Next Generation .Page 10-11
NON-DAIRY LIVESTOCK Pasture-Raised Pigs: Reinventing Pork ..................................................Page 6-7
ORGANIC FARMING
EDITORIAL TEAM: • Anu Rangarajan, Cornell Small Farms Program • Fay Benson, Cortland County CCE • Celeste Carmichael, NYS 4-H Teen Program • Madeleine Charney, New England Small Farm Institute • Craig Cramer, Department of Horticulture, Cornell • Janice Degni, CCE South Central NY Dairy Team • Gary Goff, Cornell Natural Resources Department • Joanna Green, Cornell Small Farms Program • Bill Henning, CCE-NWNY Dairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Team/PRO-DAIRY • Martha Izzi, Vermont Farmer • Bernadette Logozar, Franklin County CCE • Rebecca Schuelke, Chenango County CCE • John Thurgood, Delaware County CCE-NYC Watershed Agriculture Program • Lauri Whatley, Cornell Cooperative Extension Human Ecology FOR SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION CONTACT Tracy Crouse, Lee Publications, Inc., PO Box 121, Palatine Bridge, NY 13428 888-596-5329 subscriptions@leepub.com FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom Mahoney, Lee Publications, Inc., 518-673-3237, ext 244 tmahoney@leepub.com SEND YOUR LETTERS AND STORIES TO: Joanna Green Cornell Small Farms Program 135 Plant Science Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853 607-255-9227 jg16@cornell.edu About copyright: The material published in Small Farm Quarterly is not copyrighted unless otherwise noted. However, we ask that you please be sure to credit both the author and Small Farm Quarterly.
Introducing Cornell’s Freeville Organic Research Farm ..........................Page 5 Managing Mastitis Without Antibiotics.....................................................Page 22
SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS:
READERS WRITE..........................................................................................Page 3 RESOURCE SPOTLIGHTS Forest Management Help ...........................................................................Page 16 Reclaiming Fallow Land .............................................................................Page 18 More on Purchasing Forages ....................................................................Page 18 Farm Service Agency Loan Programs......................................................Page 23 NYFarmNet Offers Risk-Management Consulting ...................................Page 25 Highlights from the 4th National Small Farms Conference....................Page 27
Cornell Small Farms Program www.smallfarms.cornell.edu 607-255-9227
www.cce.cornell.edu www.cals.cornell.edu
PRO-DAIRY/CCE-NWNY Dairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Team www.ansci.cornell.edu/prodairy 607-255-4285
New England Small Farm Institute www.nesfi.org 413-323-4531
STEWARDSHIP AND NATURE Natural Steam Restoration: A New Approach for an Old Problem .......Page 24
YOUTH PAGES Racing Pigeons...........................................................................................Page 12 Activity: Living History...............................................................................Page 12 Racing in the Genesee Valley Hunt Races ...............................................Page 13 4-H Chicken Barbecue Contest .................................................................Page 13 A Pig That Can Build Houses ....................................................................Page 13
COVER PHOTO Flying Pigs Farm, Shusan, NY
Watershed Agricultural Council www.nycwatershed.org 607-865-7790
NYS 4-H Youth Development Program www.cce.cornell.edu/4h 607-255-4799
ABOUT OUR ADS... All advertisements in Small Farm Quarterly are managed by Lee Publications. Cornell’s Small Farms Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and other Small Farm Quarterly contributors do not endorse advertisers, their products or services. We receive no revenues from advertisers. To find out how your business or organization can advertise in Small Farm Quarterly, contact: Tom Mahoney, Lee Publications, 1-518-673-3237, ext 244, tmahoney@leepub.com.
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
January 9, 2006
SMALL FARMS PROGRAM UPDATE
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farm operators from the Cornell Small Farm Task Group reviewed 21 proposals seeking a total of $95,950. We awarded funds totaling about $23,500 to ten projects:
Guide to Starting a Farm Business in New York State. Monika Roth and Jacob Schuelke of Tompkins County CCE will revise their "Guide to Starting a Farm Business in New York State", to assist individuals interested in starting a farm business.
Expanding a Multi-Farm CSA. Project leaders Monika Roth, Lael Gerhart, and Jacob Schuelke of Tompkins County CCE will assist the Full Plate Farm Collective, a three-farm CSA, in evaluating opportunities to expand the CSA and to incorporate products from other farms in their CSA sales.
Managing the Small-Scale Vegetable Farm: Recipes for Success. Ted Blomgren and Charles Bornt of CCE’s Capital District Vegetable Program, and Sandy Arnold, farmer, will facilitate farmer-to farmer learning by interviewing and reporting on ten respected and highly successful vegetable farmers.
Sharing Small-Scale Vegetable Farmer Expertise. Molly Shaw, Tioga CCE, will launch a discussion group for small-scale vegetable growers by hosting a winter meeting, followed by a series of discussion sessions focusing on specific topics of interest.
Field Crops Discussion Group. Jeff Miller of Oneida County CCE will develop 1-2 farmer discussion groups for field crop growers in Oneida County. One group will be for farmers producing only field crops, the other is for dairy producers who also produce crops for sale.
Planning for Successful Tie-stall Barn Modernization. John Conway of PRODAIRY/SCNY Team and Frans Vokey of Lewis County CCE will help build assessment and financial tools to help small dairy farmers decide whether a facilities upgrade will improve profits and pay back in a relatively short time.
Long Island Livestock Network. Karen Kazel, Denise Ottavio, and Pat Hubbard of Suffolk County CCE will establish a network of livestock owners and farmers ranging from the novice to professional for the purposes of sharing information, expertise and Extension educational programs and resources.
CCE SMALL FARM GRANT AWARDS ANNOUNCED Since 2000, the Small Farms Program has awarded small grants to Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators for innovative projects targeting small farms. For the 2005-6 funding cycle a team of five small
Two Tuesdays Farmer to Farmer Forums. Robert Hadad and Edelgard Pavel of Niagara County CCE will create a regular networking forum for small-scale produce farmers to exchange ideas and mutual support.
CNY Dairies “In the Money.” Karen Baase of Madison County CCE will meet monthly with a group of 15 or more small dairy farmers,
READERS WRITE
and the plains we have to work hard to get good information sources. I glean info and try and help underserved youth, farmers, and ranchers in our area and appreciate the "lift" your great emails and magazine provide me with.
Editor’s note: Alice Allen is a Vermont dairy farmer who wrote an article last year about the conservation camp she has established at her farm, and about the idea of on-farm elder care. We were glad to get the following update from her last fall:
Noreen Thomas Moorhead, Minnesota
Hi Joanna!
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY RECEIVES AWARD We’re delighted to report that the NYS County Agriculture Agents Association selected Small Farm Quarterly as one of two publications to receive its annual publication award. The award plaque was presented by Monika Roth at the NYSACAA spaghetti dinner on November 2. She rightly credited the entire Editorial Team with SFQ’s success, and added that “SFQ is particularly innovative in that it is being published via Country Folks, and therefore gets a much wider audience and helps focus attention on issues of interest to small farms.”
SMALL FARM BOOSTER HEADLINES CORNELL’S SUSTAINABILITY SUMMIT As part of Cornell’s Sustainable Food and Agriculture Systems for Healthy Communities Initiative, the Small Farms Program brought agricultural economist John Ikerd to the Cornell campus on October 27 for the university’s fall Sustainability Symposium. Almost 200 people attended Ikerd’s keynote talk on Sustainable Capitalism, which was followed by a standing-roomonly local foods reception and working group sessions.
Joanna, Please keep me in the loop for the email [newsletter] and Small Farm Quarterly. I love to hear and learn from these great information resources! Here in Minnesota
How can I get Small Farm Quarterly? Country Folks subscribers automatically receive SFQ four times a year at no extra cost. Country Folks is delivered weekly for $35 per year. SFQ-only subscribers receive just the 4 issues of Country Folks that contain the SFQ insert for only $5 a year. Cooperative Extension Associations and other organizations can offer their members a subscription to SFQ as a member benefit! Your organization collects the names, forwards them to Country Folks Subscriptions, and pays Country Folks just $2.50 for each subscriber. Country Folks mails out the copies. Bulk orders: You can order multiple copies of any issue for just 10¢ a copy! Minimum order is 50. Orders must be placed at least 4 weeks before the publication date - Spring 2006 copies need to be ordered by March 10. To find out more, contact: Tracy Crouse Country Folks Subscriptions P.O. Box 121, Palatine Bridge, NY 13428 1-888-596-5329 email: subscriptions@leepub.com
family members and employees, to share information and explore milk quality management strategies. Chenango County Farmer Mentors. Rebecca Hargrave of Chenango County CCE will organize a Chenango County Farmer Mentor program to help new farmers gain the skills, knowledge and networking opportunities they need to make a successful transition to farming.
Check out our new
Small Farms Web Site! www.smallfarms.cornell.edu Editor’s response: Thanks for asking, Gregg. We’re delighted to share any and all SFQ articles with other publications and websites, as long as credit is given to the author and to Small Farm Quarterly. Your own magazine sounds like a great resource as well. Keep in touch! Joanna,
We did manage to run the conservation camp here at the farm again this summer. It went VERY well! The kids will be doing their presentations to the Newbury Conservation Commission this Tuesday evening. They were here yesterday so we could help them put the finishing touches on the posters and practice their short spiels! We even did a video this year! On another bright note---the weather has been pretty good! Pasture has held up quite well and the corn looks good. So we need to maintain the "attitude of gratitude"! Kindest regards! Alice Allen Newbury, Vermont Dear Bill (Henning), I just read your article "Regenerative Farming - What's in Your Wallet?" in the Oct. 2005 edition of Small Farm Quarterly. Excellent article and answers the questions a few of our readers have been asking. Is it possible that we might be able to republish the same article on our website? Farm & Garden is an online magazine and community website. We publish news, information and resources related to living in a sustainable fashion with a focus on food, flowers, fiber and families. We publish monthly columns in addition to continually expanding our resource library.
Gregg Banse Farm & Garden Montpelier, Vermont www.farm-garden.com
Thanks for the phone conversation of this morning [about reprinting SFQ articles in Empire State Farmer.] I look forward to the information from your Small Farms Program and working with you to educate farm families and the public about the Small Farms Program and the whole wonderful concept of small farming in New York State. I am a “Small Farmer” and proud of it. I would like to see the day when the words “Hobby Farmer” and “Farmette,” coined by the Real Estate, banks and other megaagriculture interests, are no longer used to describe those who farm as a small enterprise and love it! Thanks.
Gerard F. Monnat Advertising Representative Empire State Farmer Adams, NY Editor’s note: You can receive Empire State Farmer twice monthly for free by calling 315-232-2141.
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January 9, 2006
CROPS
Thinking About Selling Raw Milk? It’s easier than you think. By Fay Benson It has always been the norm for dairy farmers and their families to drink milk right from the tank. In fact I’ve never known any farmer that hasn’t drunk raw milk. My father, as well as many other farmers, would allow certain neighbors to buy milk from the farm. It was always understood that it was not something you advertised, and the box for the milk money was kept in a discrete place where inquiring eyes (milk inspector) didn’t see it, because there are state regulations covering not only the sale of raw milk but also the giving away of it.
Quality Milk Production Services (QMPS) program and must have a report showing that each animal was tested for pathogens, including but not limited to Staph. aureus and E. coli. • The permittee must have a milk sample tested for the following pathogens: Salmonella, Listeria, Escherchia coliform, E. coli 0157:H7, and Staphylocci. These tests are required initially and monthly. • A satisfactory farm water test needs to be on file.
According to the Smiths, “A Brucellosis ring test must be done and on file, but it’s our understanding that if you ship milk, the plant you ship to does the test and does the filing. We have had our vet do the testing and the State reimbursed her. She did every cow but we now know that only a bulk tank ring test is required.” The TB test is NOT required, they said, as NY is an accredited or modified accredited tuberculosis-free area as determined by the USDA.
CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS Even Raw milk opponents acknowledge that refrigeration, improved handling practices, and testing equipment have made today’s raw milk supplies far cleaner and safer than ever before. Even with the new technology the milk can’t be any healthier than when it leaves the cow. That’s why the Smiths emphasize their low stress environment for their cows, along with a natural diet high in grasses and keeping the cows clean. These practices go a long way in starting out with a healthy product.
THE NYS REGULATIONS The first part of this article won’t weigh in on these issues, but will attempt to explain the New York State regulations concerning the sale of raw milk from the farm.
This addendum is the source of some confusion. Some producers feel that they can sell up to 3000 lbs. from their farm and are not covered by the permit process. However the exemption is meant for families with 1-2 cows that want to ship their raw milk for processing into cheese or some other nonraw product. Mr. Fredricks advised me to get a copy of Ag & Markets Circular 958 which lists the regulations concerning production, processing and distribution of milk in NY State. (Call Milk Control & Dairy Services 4518-457-1772 to request this pamphlet.) I also contacted Professor David Brown at Cornell’s Dept. of Food Science for help in interpreting the regulations. He explained that there is a permit which allows you to sell raw milk directly to consumers. The producer is required to obtain a “Raw Milk Sales Part 2” permit. Even if the farmer gives away one gallon of milk, a permit is required. To receive a permit the farmer must have: • A Brucellosis ring test on file with Animal Industry, a department within NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets. • A TB test performed on each animal. • The permittee must be enrolled in the
The Smiths like to promote the concept of “terroir,” currently being discussed in farming circles. This is the idea that products from one herd or farm are unique and cannot be duplicated anywhere else. In other words, the milk from their herd is unique because of the particular constellation of factors that make up their farm environment (soil type, mineral profile, location on the earth, climate, vegetation pattern, genetic background of their animals). “The milk from our farm has a unique taste, as will the products made from our milk. This concept of unique regional identity, so familiar to wine and cheese connoisseurs, needs to be promoted to customers,” says Barb.
A number of different issues have stirred interest in drinking raw milk: • Buying locally. People are concerned with the source of their food, plus they can’t see shipping milk back and forth across the state so they want to buy it direct from the farm. • Health reasons. There are books that stress the damage that pasteurization does to milk, and recommend that consumers drink raw milk for health reasons. • Organic. With more and more dairy farms receiving their organic certification, consumers find they can buy organic milk at the farm for 1/3 the price they would pay in the store.
I contacted Bill Fredricks, State Milk Inspector for the Central NY area. He explained that every dairy farm must have a permit to ship raw milk. This raw milk is labeled “prepasteurized,” meaning that it will be pasteurized or processed and will not reach the consumer in the raw form. But there is an addendum to this permit. It states that if a producer ships less than 3000 lbs/month, a permit is not required to ship raw milk. That would be the production of approximately 2 cows or I don’t know how many sheep or goats. This milk is considered to be the same as pre-pasteurized and is not to reach the consumer in its raw form.
State lab checks for the destroyed enzymes to be sure the milk was properly pasteurized. It is these destroyed enzymes that some feel is the lost health benefit that raw milk will give the consumers.
If dairy farmers wonder how healthy their milk is, the Smiths suggest testing raw milk quality by determining if the milk will survive for 14 days in the refrigerator without “going sour”.
Looking for a niche market that will add value to your milk? Selling raw milk might work for you. It takes a lot of work and there are risks but if you have a consumer base close by it can pay dividends. Photographer: Fay Benson
These are the requirements for raw cow milk. There are some additional requirements for raw goat’s or sheep’s milk. A PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE ON SELLING RAW MILK “The licensing may sound complicated, like any licensing procedure, but it really is no big deal, aside from seeing the milk inspectors on your farm every month.” This was the reply I got when I contacted Steve and Barb Smith of Lodi, NY. The Smiths have operated Meadowsweet Farm since 1996. It presently is home to Steve and Barb, 3 of their 6 children, 5-10 jersey cows and their daughters, and a motley crew of other farm animals. They produce yogurt, kefir, and raw milk cheese, and they have a NY Ag & Market permit to sell raw milk. The hard products they can sell at various locations around Ithaca but the raw milk can only be sold from their milk tank on their farm. The Smiths consider themselves lucky since many states outlaw the selling of raw milk. Even though NY has a permit process there are only about 10 of the permits issued across the state. The Smiths found the task of obtaining a raw milk permit a bit daunting because the regulations contained in Circular 958 Part 2 are written in “legalese,” and finding the portions that pertain to the raw milk permit was difficult, almost by design they felt.
As for the other requirements, Steve says, “QMPS is required and we get them out here annually. It’s a very informative service and not very expensive. The Divisions of Milk Control samples our milk monthly and does the pathogen testing. They also do a farm inspection every month. That is the main drawback to the permit. Most dairies have never seen a state inspector and the raw milk permit brings a State inspector to your farm every month. The water testing needs to be on a 6-month cycle, and all raw milk must be sold on farm.” WHY RAW? Raw milk’s most active supporter is the Weston A. Price Foundation in Washington, D.C., an educational organization that promotes “nutrientdense foods.” According to its web site, www.realmilk.org, raw milk has built-in compounds – antibodies, helpful bacteria, and enzymes – that provide natural protection from harmful pathogens. Furthermore, pasteurization changes enzymes, some of which are essential in the absorption of other nutrients, says foundation president Sally Fallon. According to the Smiths, the breakdown of these enzymes is how the State typically tests milk used for yogurt and kefir. The law requires the milk to be pasteurized before production of both products. The
THE BOTTOM LINE “We have found it VERY profitable, with folks coming to us from as far away as Buffalo and even Canada,” says Barb. “I would like to see this information get out to dairy farmers who need all the help they can get and we should not let some intimidating regulations get in the way of doing business. Incidentally, our raw milk sells for $4.50 per gallon in the customer’s own container. And many customers have told us that price is too low.” For more information on raw milk you can visit the Weston A. Price Foundation web site at www.realmilk.org. For NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets milk regulations information visit www.agmkt.state.ny.us/DI/DIHome.html. Fay Benson is the Grazing Educator with the Cornell Cooperative Extension’s South Central NY Dairy and Field Crop Team. You can reach Fay at (607) 753 5213 or afb3@cornell.edu.
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ORGANIC FARMING
Introducing Cornell’s Freeville Organic Research Farm By Marguerite Wells In case you missed it, Cornell started a 30 acre organic vegetable research farm in 2001, and it is now solidly underway. Since the land was bought in 2001, it took three years of getting organized and making the transition to organic, and now we’ve had two summers of research conducted there. I’d like to share a bit of the how, when, and why of the organic research farm’s existence, and what kind of work we do there. To begin with, let me introduce myself. I’m Marguerite Wells, Organic Research Farm Coordinator, former manager of Cornell’s student organic farm, Dilmun Hill. With a lifelong background in organic farming, I am very pleased to facilitate the exciting research going on in Freeville, and hope that it benefits farmers of all kinds around the Northeast. Organic agriculture developed outside the mainstream of land grant universities, and few land grants have programs specifically aimed at this industry. We saw a need for organic research to happen on a truly organically managed farm, since the soil and pest characteristics found on conventional farms do not mirror the conditions on organic farms. To best evaluate organic techniques, we felt they needed to be tested on organically managed ground.
The organic research farm is part of Cornell’s Department of Horticulture. It is adjacent to the existing Thompson Vegetable Research Farm in Freeville, NY, which has conducted conventional vegetable research for decades and may already be familiar to you. The organic farm is a 30 acre parcel at the northeast corner of the existing research farm, contiguous with established research land. The land had been growing conventional grains and forages for several decades before we acquired it, so we needed to transition the land to organic management before doing truly organic research on it. We planted cover crops, spent some time mapping the land, testing the soil, and otherwise getting to know the piece of ground. We also planted a buffer strip of mixed trees and shrubs between the organic and conventional land, to help block any spray drift, and provide habitat for beneficials. By the end of 2003, the land had spent 3 years under organic management, and was ready to host research projects. The summer of 2005 was our second season of research, with a total of 5 different research projects underway. See the accompanying sidebar for brief descriptions of our five research projects underway, and contact information for the
lead researchers. We welcome input and grower interest. We aim to serve the needs of not only established organic farmers, but also those who are considering transition, or who simply want more information on new, more sustainable practices. Feel free to call me and talk about what’s on your mind. In addition to the above research, we maintain a plot of varied cover crops, to help people to become more familiar with some of the many cover crop species available to northeast growers. We expect new research projects to begin in the spring of 2006. Some issues that we are currently grappling with that we'd particularly like to hear from you about include: • How best to emulate an organic production farm while conducting research. • How to embed research into a farm scale rotation plan. • How to broaden the dialogue so that farmers and other organic stakeholders can be most meaningfully involved. We look forward to hearing from you! Marguerite Wells is the Freeville Organic Research Farm Coordinator. She can be reached at 607-255-9911 or mw38@cor nell.edu.
Potato Variety Trial: Trialing several dozen potato varieties, both common varieties and new breeding selections, to evaluate their performance in organic systems. We are looking at stand establishment, pest and disease resistance, and yield. Donald Halseth, deh3@cornell.edu 607-255-5460 Organic transplant media: We’ve been evaluating consistency and long term growth impacts of organic transplant media with tomatoes. Greenhouse and field trials evaluate different potting mix amendments for organic tomato cv ‘Mt. Fresh’ production, including effects on microbial ecology of roots as transplants and longevity of these effects in the field. Treatments include: an industry standard potting medium (Sungrow); a control peat and vermiculite medium with no amendments; and this control medium amended with thermophilicly composted dairy manure; the same dairy manure but vermicomposted; alfalfa meal; sesame meal; or a liquid feed. Anu Rangarajan, ar47@cornell.edu, 607-255-1780. Janice Thies, jet25@cornell.edu, 607-255-5099. Plant breeding for organic systems: Trialing public vegetable varieties on organic farms. Breeding an open-pollinated, cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) resistant bell pepper adapted to Northeast and similar climates. Also breeding melons, summer and winter squash, and cucumbers for success in organic systems. Margaret M. Jahn, mmj9@cornell.edu, 607-255-8147. George Moriarty, gm23@cornell.edu, 607-255-1241. Weed and soil management using soybean and cowpea cover crops: The objective is to develop cowpea and soybean cover crop systems, for summer legume use, with and without small grains mixed in, that can suppress weeds while improving soil health. Dan C. Brainard, dcb15@cornell.edu, 607255-2522.
“We aim to serve not only established organic farmers, but also those who are considering transition, or who simply want more information on new, more sustainable practices,” says author Marguerite Wells, Coordinator of the Freeville Organic Research Farm. Organic vegetable research fields at Freeville.
HOME
Projects Underway at Freeville Organic Research Farm
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FAMILY
On Raising Rural Kids… By Celeste Carmichael
Ever read the Small Farm Quarterly Youth Pages? The stories, written by youth, are amazing! With each issue I become more convinced that I want my family to have a small farm experience. As the Youth Page editor I have become acutely aware that unique opportunities exist on farms for developing healthy minds, bodies and spirits. In most cases it seems pretty clear that the young people writing the articles have found something (often raising animals) that they are excited about. They seem to be happy kids, who are tuned in to their environment and connected to caring adults. I can’t help but wonder how we, as parents, leaders, teachers and friends can help more youth, particularly rural youth, to make good choices.
You may find it hard to believe, but there is a body of evidence that indicates that growing up in the country presents certain risks.
Statistics from across the states show that children in a rural environment face many of the same challenges as inner city kids and they fare worse on several key indicators of positive youth development. For example rural youth are more likely than their urban counterparts to use drugs and alcohol. I’m not making this up. What disturbs me the most is that while there is a great deal published about the problems that rural kids face, there is not much available to help kids (and their families) avoid the toughest of the challenges. So, given our interest, yours as a small farm enthusiast, and mine as a youth development worker and mom of three, I thought that Small Farm Quarterly might be a good place to explore this issue and share interesting resources. In order to do that and keep our collective attention I will be interviewing “experts from the field”– aka. real parents, rural youth and those raised in a rural environment.
My first interview is with Vicki Kerrick, a friend and the babysitter of my 15 month old, quick-as-lightning son. Vicki and her husband Bill have raised six children on a small dairy farm in Moravia, NY. From my own perspective they are a family rich in spirit, family values and laughter. Will that raise resilient kids? Read on. A VOICE OF EXPERIENCE: INTERVIEW WITH VICKIE KERRICK CC: What were the positives/negatives to raising your children in a rural environment? VK: Bill and I both grew up in a rural environment – as rural as can be. In fact some people back home might say that Moravia is an urban city (pop of the Town of Moravia is 4,000). Since I grew up this way and my kids grew up this way, we don’t know any different. Growing up in a rural environment we always had to make our own entertainment, and we had to make do with what we had. We didn’t have stores close by to run out
Effects of soil fertility on nutrient dynamics, weeds, and crop quality during transition to organic vegetable production: Our goal is to refine the best management practices developed by experienced organic growers to develop more productive organic systems that will contribute to optimizing organic vegetable production while ensuring sustainability. Four cropping systems are being compared in terms of soil nutrient dynamics, soil health, crop yield, weeds, pathogens, and arthropods. Charles Mohler, clm11@cornell.edu 607-255-0199 and find the perfect thing. I think that this helped our kids to become problem solvers. Having the fanciest or newest thing doesn’t make you learn any better.
Sometimes being rural meant that you had to take long trips in a car to get to the surrounding cities. This may seem like a negative to some, but I think that it is a positive. Being together helped us to maintain a closer knit family. Continued on next page
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January 9, 2006
NON-DAIRY LIVESTOCK
Pasture-Raised Pigs: Reinventing Pork
By Rebecca Schuelke
A small but increasing number of farmers are challenging beliefs about how swine are raised and what pork tastes like as their pigs join the growing ranks of livestock raised on pasture.
are better for the environment, as well as more natural and less stressful to swine. THIS LITTLE PIG Six years ago, Jen Small and Michael Yezzi purchased a 150-acre farm in Shushan, a small town north of Albany on the New
York-Vermont border, and set out to bring the farm back into production. The couple explored a variety of mainstream and lesser-known farming options, seeking a solution that would “make the land pay for itself,” as Yezzi put it, and mesh with the offfarm jobs they both held at the time. They settled on pigs, starting with three “pink pigs’’ and moving up to 14, mostly Duroc animals, the following year. The farm, Flying Pigs, is a now a fulltime job for
Meats from pasture-raised animals are touted as healthier and more flavorful than their factory-raised counterparts typically sold in supermarkets. Proponents of raising livestock on pasture also claim the methods
Yezzi. The couple anticipates raising 250 pigs this year. Peter McDonald is enjoying his fifth year raising pasture pork from McDonald Family Farm in Romulus, NY, in the Finger Lakes region. The family raises approximately 120 pigs per year, along with chickens, beef, lamb, turkey and eggs, what McDonald called “The Big Six.” “We wanted to sell products on our farm that people eat. We rejected ostrich, emu, buffalo, and veal,” McDonald said. “Pork is a popular meat. What is unpopular is the way it is raised.” GOING WHOLE HOG There’s no standard for raising animals on pasture. Paddocks sizes vary, as does amount of time animals actually spend outside, the amount of additional feed swine are provided and other differences. Flying Pigs Farm uses electric sheep fencing to block out one-acre paddocks for approximately 50 animals each. The rotation schedule varies according to the age of the animals and weather. Yezzi said, but 50 of his animals can typically run through a one-acre plot in two and a half weeks.
Jen Small and Michael Yezzi raise heritage breed pigs on pasture at their Washington County, New York, farm, Flying Pigs. The pork is sold direct to consumers and restaurants. Photo by Michael Yezzi
The pigs drink from gravity waterers and receive additional nutrition from ground corn, soy and mineral supplements. Pigs are tough on pasture and need to be moved frequently. Photo courtesy of Kingbird Farm, Berkshire, NY
Rural Kids
hold on. Because of that we became able to adapt to almost any situation. To this day I try very hard to make the best of every situation and try to look for the best instead of the worst.
Continued from prev. page We’ve always tried to remember that family comes first. If a family, regardless of where they live, plants good values in their children then anything they do is bound to be a positive. Early on, when the kids were young, they did feel peer pressure about living on a farm. But as our kids got a little older, felt more confident, won a few ribbons with their cows, and understood what we did and why we did it, they didn’t care about what others thought anymore. Plus, when parents are comfortable with who they are, so are the kids. And we are very comfortable with being a farm family. This is what we always wanted. CC: Research shows that some rural families don’t feel equipped to overcome academic issues. Did you ever struggle with this? How did you cope? VK: Education is a question of desire and commitment. My last son, Joshua, wanted to learn very much, but he couldn’t read and comprehend the written word. He was diagnosed with a learning disability between 4th and 5th grade. A fifth grade teacher told him that he would never make the honor role, and believe it or not, that helped spur him on. Schools do their best to provide certain things for students, but I’ve learned that whether or not those things are provided is up to the parents and the students as much as it is up to the school. That early on, of course, he didn’t know how to stand up for himself or let others know what he needed to succeed. I had to educate myself about the special education program. Not a lot was volunteered but I learned by going to meetings and serving on committees. This was extra work for me, but in the end, Josh got the help that he needed.
Vicki Kerrick with daughter Crystal and granddaughter Shelby. A child’s education doesn’t stop with the school, it takes parents at home. Josh and I sat many long hours working on papers. Writing was a challenge. Once he began using a laptop computer, he overcame many of the challenges of writing. Good grades became easier after a book-reading machine became available. These were tools that I learned about through the special education program. He still had to do the work, and I still had to nudge him to do the work, but he was better equipped and able to try. Finally, with a lot of self-motivation, Josh graduated with honors and is now attending Nashville Auto-Diesel College. As the mom of six I had to learn to advocate for my family and myself. If I didn’t stick up for the things that I thought were important once in a while, no one would have paid any attention to those things and I would have been left grumbling. I had to become strong in order to help lead a large family. CC: What special learning opportunities did you make sure to provide to your children? VK: We were and still are working poor. We couldn’t afford a lot of outside special opportunities. Odd jobs kept us going along with a 70 hour work week for my husband on our dairy farm. Any extra job that filled the spaces had to be taken just to
• And the most said words of all, when asked “Why?”…I always answered, ”Because Mom (or Dad) said so.” That may seem funny to hear these days, but every organization needs a leader…and so does a family.
Along those lines we became independent 4-H members (did not belong to a club). We had very limited resources so choices for what the kids could do was simple: show cows because we owned them, raise turkeys because we could put some in the freezer if we raised a few extra, raise lambs because we could eat the results, raise chickens for the same reasons. Everything had a purpose. Only purposeful things could survive in our busy lives. We did what we knew…but learned a lot along the way. These were special opportunities, but not in the way that some might think of special opportunities, like lessons or extra-curricular programs. Many people feel that children need to experience everything in life to understand life. Well, we couldn’t and didn’t…and I don’t think the kids missed out on much. Of the six children, I can say that they are all committed. They hold jobs, they love their families and I have yet to hear from any of them that it wasn’t a good life. CC: If you were to give other rural families one helping of advice, what would it be? VK: I’d share a few of the truisms that left my mouth plenty of times: • Work hard! • If you start something, finish it (this can be applied to anything – from sticking with baseball until the end of the season, finishing a project…or doing the dishes). • Understand that just because you don’t like it, sometimes you still need to do the task.
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Many thanks to Vicki for sharing these lessons learned! If you would like to nominate a friend (or yourself!) for an interview in this column contact me, Celeste Carmichael, State 4-H Program Specialist, at: 607-2554799 or cjc17@cornell.edu. Interviews may be anonymous if you prefer. Want to know more about studies related to rural youth? Here are a couple of websites to get you started: • USDA Rural Information Center site about rural youth • www.nal.usda.gov/ric/ricpubs/youth.html. • Issues Facing Rural Youth: A Compendium of Research, Reports, and Public Opinion Polls www.national4-hheadquarters.gov /library/ruralresearch.pdf Celeste Carmichael is Program Specialist with the NYS 4-H Youth Development Program. She is also the Youth Pages Editor for Small Farm Quarterly.
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SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
January 9, 2006
Page 7
NEW FARMERS
Cut Flower Farming: A Love Story By Madeleine Charney
“The earth laughs in flowers.” –e.e. cummings Jane Litwin Taylor never pictured herself as a flower farmer. But the journey of life can take you down unexpected paths, sometimes leading to vibrant and enriching places. This is the story of Sweet Earth Farm, the certified organic farm she coowns with her vegetable farmer husband, Patrick Taylor. Located on Jackson Street in
Continued from prev. page McDonald supplements his pigs’ grass diet with organic grain and said he was experimenting with how much grain swine actually need. Both Flying Pigs and McDonalds send their pigs out to be butchered in USDA-approved facilities, a step required by law for farmers that wish to retail their meat.
Belchertown, Massachusetts, Sweet Earth Farm is part of the Lampson Brook Farms Cooperative, which is based on a 416-acre site. It was a sunny Sunday morning when Jane and I met up on her half-acre field. She bounded up to me with an outstretched hand and a wide smile. Dressed all in black with a digital camera dangling from one wrist, she appeared more like an artist than a farmer, especially against the backdrop of multi-colored flowers ribboning out across the landscape.
Flying Pigs sells approximately half their pork at farmers markets and the remainder is equally divided among sales to restaurants and to consumers via mail order, Yezzi said. He anticipates the portion of his business dedicated to restaurant sales will go up, thanks to participation in Farm to Chef Express, a weekly delivery service that brings fresh produce and meat from upstate farmers to New York City restaurants.
BRUSH HOG “Pigs are basically plows,” McDonald said. Because they are fairly voracious eaters farmers have used them to clear brush on abandoned pastureland they want to bring back into use, or pasture that has become overrun with weeds. They are also used for clear stubble in garden plots and cornfields. Their hooves and their rooting habits help rip up soil, then turn it back down, a sort of animal-lead composting system. Additionally, pigs add nutrients by excreting within their paddocks. “They graze, take three steps and roll the sod back like carpet, rooting up bugs, leaves, pine needles. They work it all back into the soil,” Yezzi said. Pigs can, of course, be too good at grazing and turning over soil, meaning farmers should watch them and rotate them often enough to prevent overgrazing.
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So how does an artist transform herself into a farmer? “It’s natural for me, the way I think about which flowers work well together,” she said. Her first exposure to hands-on gardening began in 1995 when she shared
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McDonald Farms sells meat direct to the consumer, utilizing farmers markets, an on-farm store and what McDonald called “farm connections,” gathering together a group of people who will buy local food.
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I immediately noticed the intricate beadwork of her dazzling earrings. She explained they were her own handiwork, part of a jewelry business she owned and operated for several years. The business savvy she gained through this experience has transferred well to owning and operating a farm. Currently selling her bouquets at the farmer’s markets in Amherst and Cambridge, future plans include sales to local restaurants.
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“They are extremely destructive on pasture. They must be moved regularly and often,” McDonald said. THE OTHER, TASTY MEAT Many pasture-raised pork growers say any doubts they harbored about the practice disappear once they have tasted the meat.
Jane Litwin Taylor’s artistic talents found their creative outlet in flower farming.
“We found the pork was excellent, with great marbling,” Yezzi said. The pigs feasted on nuts, grasses, wild mint and more, a varied diet that brings a more complex flavor to the meat, he said. Growers also typically market their meat as “clean,” whether it’s organic, “natural,” hormone-free or the like. Most grass-based operaA McDonald Farms pig challenges the stereotype that sows are tions shun medicated feeds, medicines and the not maternal by nursing her litter and a few piglets she didn't give like and claim raising ani- birth to. Photo by Peter McDonald mals on pasture cuts down on the need for medicines. Try to minimize capital,” Yezzi said. For “I want consumers to know their food is example, he bought his first tractor in 2003, clean,” McDonald said. three years into farming. Prior to that, he used his pickup truck or did work by hand, Raising animals on pasture can be healthichoosing to wait until his business could er for the soil, advocates say, claiming that support large equipment purchases. frequent rotation of land breaks the cycles of parasite and bacteria cycles that can be harmful to the land and the creatures that live on it. TO MARKET, TO MARKET Direct marketing of pasture-raised meats requires consumer education, these farmers say. Whether selling off the farm or at farmers markets, buyers typically want to be reassured about the way the animals were grown, the quality of the meat and so on. “When you drive up to the farm, you can see all of the animals. You can see the pigs rooting up the garden,” McDonald said. Consumers may be surprised to learn how pasture-raised animals live. “One of the coolest things anyone ever said to me is, `is that a pig?,’” McDonald said. “The general public is so far removed from where their food comes from and the power they have to direct the way food and animals are cared for with their consumer dollar.” Just as consumers might have a learning curve, there are few books or experts on raising swine on pasture, meaning farmers have catching up do as well. “We have seen so many conventional farming truths prove to be untrue,” McDonald said. For example, he said, sows on his farm have proven to be very maternal, even occasionally nursing others’ piglets. GETTING STARTED Both farmers suggested new pig growers start small. Learn to care for the animals and the land and how to work with customers; grow from there.
Pigs, regardless of breed, can grow to be quite large. Pigs have reached 1,700 pounds. McDonald recommended farmers choose their breeders from pigs with calm, gentle personalities, particularly those that may be around children, guests to the farm or more. Handling and manually feeding pigs regularly as they grow tends to make pigs more comfortable with people, he suggested. Yezzi has turned entirely to rare and heritage breed pigs, which he said appeal to his direct-sale customer base, as well as allow him to participate in keeping some animal breeds in existence. “The interest in rare heritage breeds is growing and there is a value in preserving these rare breeds,” he said. The past could hold other answers for meats animals on pasture. “We have to take a giant leap back to find out how farming was done by our ancestors to find out how farming will be done by our children,” McDonald said. For more information about Flying Pigs Farm visit www.flyingpigs.com. For more on McDonald Farm visit www.pasturepride.com. Rebecca Schuelke is a 4-H educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County.
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
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COWS
AND
January 9, 2006
CROPS
Simplicity Yields Many Benefits By Larry R. Hulle Harrison and Esther Brach operate a 60 cow dairy in Montgomery, NY. They decreased the herd size from 100 cows after their daughter Dawn decided to pursue a nursing career. Harrison milks the herd in a double 4-flat parlor using 4 Boumatic automatic take off machines. It takes 90 seconds to let 4 cows out and fill the same stalls. The cows’ teats are dipped with hot water and udder wash solution and cleaned with paper. After milking the teats are dipped with iodine. After 24 years, Harrison is remodeled the stalls of his freestall facility. He used pressure treated lumber as a base instead of cement under the rubber cow mats to provide more comfort for the cows. He uses kiln dried sawdust for bedding. Cows are able to use the beds without stall dividers due to the lower number of animals in the facility.
The cows are fed alfalfa baleage 4 times per day for a total of 80 pounds per cow, then each cow is given 5 pounds of corn meal and 2 pounds of a 24% protein grain at each milking. Each cow also receives 2 ounces of minerals and 2 ounces of yeast each day. Harrison Brach grows has acres of alfalfa and 35 acres of grass; he stopped planting corn several years ago. He cuts the alfalfa based on the calendar. He starts production around May 10-15 each year and then every 31 days thereafter. In a wet season, he might cut about every 34 days. Harrison feeds a mixture of his 1st through 4th cuttings of baleage each day. His baleage tests between 20-23% protein and has a relative feed value of $140–185/ton. Harrison mows alfalfa in the morning then use a tedder and bale the next day with a target moisture between 50-60%. He will harvest each field 4 times a year with select fields being harvested 5 times. He sprays his clear alfalfa with Velpar L to take care of unwanted grass and broadleaf weeds. He normally keeps alfalfa for 8 years in a field; however he has some fields with alfalfa for 14 years. Before replanting into alfalfa, he will no-till clover in for one season and then replant to alfalfa.
Harrison reviews the milk records of his herd. He tests his own herd each month and keeps track of their performance. The cows maintain a protein level at 3.1% and a butterfat level at 4.1%.
Harrison has a limited amount of equipment for his operation. He uses a disk combine, tedder, round baler, wrapper and two small tractors. He doesn’t feed any dry hay, and since the grain is not fed in the freestall he has very little trouble with birds inside the
Harrison built the wood dividers to help prevent the cows from pulling the baleage into the manure system. barn. Harrison brings a “rotational grazing” type of feeding program to his cattle. Harrison has not raised heifers for 40 years. He uses A.I. for all of his breeding and values his genetics so it is important to get his young stock back into his herd. However having someone else raise his replacements allows him to spend more time on his milking herd and field crop operation. Harrison is always thinking about ways to make his labor more efficient. In the process he has made farming as simple as possible to produce a high quality product as well as a high quality of life. And as a Dairy of Distinction, Harrison and Esther Brach take pride in promoting a quality image for the dairy industry. Larry Hulle is the Dairy Science Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orange County.
Flower Farming
Jane’s eye for beauty. Interplanting flowers for cutting with his own crops (e.g. melons, peppers, okra) maximizes their use of space. So while Jane snapped photos of her flowers for marketing purposes, Patrick chimed in with, “Get a shot of those okra blossoms!” as he pointed to the cream-colored beauties dotting his rows. The marketing costs for their vegetables and flowers are significantly reduced by their participation in the Lampson Brook Farms Cooperative.
Continued from prev. page a plot with a friend at the Northampton Community Garden. And now, years later, when asked if she draws inspiration from any well-known people in the agriculture/ growing industry, it is this site to which she refers, “I’m still inspired by regular, ordinary folks doing amazing things in their own gardens.” After moving to Leverett, she began her own home garden. And in 2000 she decided to grow the flowers to embellish a very special event: her wedding with Patrick. The flower project was a great success, with the left over bouquets fetching an unexpectedly good price at a local farmer’s market. That was how Jane was able to begin her vision of flower farming for profit.
“You won’t get rich with flower farming, but you’ll gain a richness of spirit”, she said, resting her palm squarely on her heart. “People respond to brightness and buying flowers makes people happy.” In 2001, she started officially farming for profit, beginning with the space surrounding Patrick’s greenhouses. She still maintains two part-time jobs at UMass-Amherst, working for a labor union and a worker education program.
Jane’s basic criteria for selecting species include: a long stem, long vase life, sweet fragrance, interesting form, hardiness, and a wide range of colors. To that end, Sweet
Harrison, at 74 years young, feeds baleage very easily with his Rissler Baleage unloader.
Jane works closely with her vegetable-farming-husband Patrick. Earth Farm bouquets regularly feature Salvia and Trachelium (throatwort) for their spiky and airy texture, respectively; Asters for their simplicity; Salpiglossis (painted tongue), a lily-like, cupped flower with a mottled “tongue” inside; Lisianthus, an unusual species resembling a cross between a rose and a tulip; Zinnias for their sturdiness and splashiness; Antirrhinum majus (snapdragons) for their spires of fragrance; Celosia (both cockscomb and plume) for their hot hues; and Ageratum for brilliant blueness. Gomphrena (globe amaranth) is also chosen as it is excellent for drying. The result is a bouquet of high-quality, long-lasting, dome-shaped brilliance.
As I appreciated these multi-layered aesthetics, I listened in on an animated discussion between the Taylors about the difference between the “scarlet” variety of zinnias and the one called “deep red.” It is these nuances that illustrate the artistry channeled into the composition of their bouquets. Joining in the debate was Zarinah, a seasonal, paid intern who studies plant and soil science at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Besides helping in the fields, Zarinah learned the art of flower arranging under Jane’s tutelage. While Jane does some hands-on tasks, her chief role is that of Creative Director. Yet Patrick, the official grower, clearly shares
Was marrying a farmer somehow predestined? Jane reminisced about how she and Patrick were walking parallel paths and serendipitously came together to share their love of working on the land. You’ll see them when you drive by, Grower and Creative Director collaborating side by side, until the frost comes. Then they’ll retreat indoors to plan their palette for the blooms of next spring when the sweet earth is under their feet once again. If you’d like to know more about Sweet Earth Farm contact Jane Litwin Taylor at 413-323-0733 or jltaylor@admin.umass. edu. Madeleine Charney is Informational Resources Manager for the New England Small Farm Institute in Belchertown, Massachusetts. Find out more about NESFI at www.smallfarm.org, or call 413-323-4531.
January 9, 2006
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
Page 9
MANAGING RISK
Insure Your Revenue Instead of Your Crop with AGR-Lite This new and improved program might just work for small farmers who don’t think crop insurance is for them. By Wen-fei Uva and Craig Cramer
To improve the program for 2006, the USDA Risk Management Agency recently increased the maximum liability from $250,000 to $1 million and extended the closing date to March 15 (January 31 for renewal policies). That should give you plenty of time this winter to investigate whether or not AGR-Lite is a smart risk management strategy for you.
Editor’s note: This article is part of a series focusing on risk management funded by the New York Crop Insurance Education Program under the Risk Management Agency (USDA) and the NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets.
HOW IT WORKS The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture pioneered AGR-Lite in 2003, specifically to respond to needs of small farms. The following year, it was offered to farmers in New York and 11 other Northeast states.
If you’ve found that most traditional crop insurance programs don’t fit your farming operation, there is a relatively new program that might help you reduce both production and marketing risks.
AGR-Lite uses historic tax information (you’ll need to dig out five year’s-worth of IRS 1040 Schedule F’s) to determine your average insurable revenue. If your operation is expanding, there’s an indexing system that takes increasing revenue into account. When you apply, you’ll also submit a farm report that details what crops and livestock you intend to produce and their expected revenue for the insured year.
Instead of insuring individual crops, the Adjusted Gross Revenue-Lite program – or AGR-Lite – provides whole-farm revenue protection against market fluctuations as well as natural disasters such as drought or flood. It covers crops that are otherwise difficult or impossible to insure (such as forage, fruit and vegetables), as well as revenue from animals and animal products. AGR-Lite is very, very different from most traditional crop insurance programs where you buy coverage for each crop. Here, one plan covers the whole farm. It’s like a revenue safety net that’s not tied to individual crops. AGR-Lite is especially well-suited for those faced with volatile markets or where weather can radically affect crop quality. If you raise meat goats, for example, and prices plummet when cheap imports flood the market, you’re covered. Or if your freshmarket apples are hit by hail and you have to sell them for processing, AGR-Lite coverage can help make up some of the difference. This program also rewards diversification by providing better coverage and lower premiums for farms that produce two or more crops.
Coverage levels, which determine how low your revenue needs to drop before indemnity payments kick in, range from 65 to 80 percent. Then you can choose payment levels between 75 and 90 percent. These determine how much of your loss below your coverage level will be reimbursed. If you grow three or more crops, you are eligible for the highest levels of coverage. For example, say your coverage level was 80 percent, your payment level was 90 percent, and your insurable revenue was $100,000. If bad weather or markets forced your revenue down to $70,000, that’s $10,000 below your 80 percent coverage level ($80,000). You’d receive a nice check for $9,000 (90 percent of your loss below the coverage level). Premiums are subsidized by about 50 percent, which makes the program a good value if the coverage matches your needs. But we still see farmers get sticker shock even though the premiums amount to only about 1 to 3 percent of gross revenue.
WORKS FOR ORGANIC FARMERS, TOO You can combine AGR-Lite with other insurance programs. If you grow lots of sweet corn, for example, you can insure that with traditional crop insurance and use AGR-Lite to cover your overall revenue. If this is the case, your AGR-Lite premium will be reduced. But AGR-Lite isn’t a panacea. It doesn’t absolve you of your responsibilities to farm well. It’s designed to cover revenue losses from market fluctuations and unavoidable natural perils, such as drought or hail or even delayed planting caused by wet weather. But payments will not be made for losses due to negligence, mismanagement or wrongdoing by you, your family, employees or others. For example, if drought dries up your irrigation well and your revenue is reduced, you’re covered. But if there’s water in the well and you fail to maintain the pump, you’re not. Similarly, if a storm causes a power outage and crops in the cooler spoil, you’re covered. But if your compressor breaks down, you’re not. Same goes for other mechanical failures, theft or failure to use “accepted production practices.” Fortunately for organic farmers, certified organic production is considered an accepted practice. THE FINE PRINT That’s the gist of the program. But there are more details that you should discuss with your insurance agent – many designed to prevent people from taking unfair advantage of the program. Also, keep in mind that: • While the program may work well for many farmers who direct-market, commodities purchased for resale must account for less than half of total revenue. • AGR-Lite is based on gross revenues, so it doesn’t cover valueadded expenses. If you sell your fruit in fruit baskets, and the cost of baskets goes up, AGR-Lite doesn’t help you cope with those added costs. • Similarly, the program doesn’t cover added weather-related expenses. If you lose your pumpkins to drought and buy pumpkins to maintain your market, the program doesn’t cover the added expense for purchasing the pumpkins. Same goes for livestock producers who purchase feed during drought seasons. Their expenses go up, but AGR-Lite payments are based on gross revenues, which may not fall much. • The program also doesn’t cover custom-hire machine work, land rent, timber and forest products or animals for sports, pets or show. • Crop insurance proceeds are currently not counted as income. So if you’ve had claims in the past, it will lower the historical average income that determines your AGR-Lite coverage. One other consideration: Because the program is based on revenue – not crop losses – you can’t file your
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Learn More About AGR-Lite Here are more resources to help you make decisions about AGR-Lite: Meet the co-author -- Wen-fei Uva, co-author of this article, will be talking about AGR-Lite on February 3 at the NYS Farmers’ Direct Marketing Association Conference in Cobleskill, NY. (The conference runs, Feb. 3-5. More info at: www.nysfdma.com or call 315-475-1101.) She will be available for individual consultations on AGR-Lite on Feb. 3 and 4. You can pre-register for a one-on-one session on your conference registration form. Walk-ins will be available as space allows. Check in at conference registration desk. Educational sessions -- The NYS Crop Insurance Education Program (NYCIE) sponsors educational events explaining AGR-Lite and other insurance programs and risk management strategies. Look for events in your area on the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets crop insurance calendar (www.agmkt.state.ny. us/cropins.html) or the NY Farms! calendar (www.nyfarms.info/calendar.html). For more information, contact Jerry White at (607) 255-9854, gbw2@cornell.edu. Individual help – Charlie Koines, NYCIE consultant and educator, can provide brief AGRLite consultations and referrals by phone. Call him at: (518) 858-3337. As part of the NYCIE Program, FarmNet/FarmLink consultants visit individual farms throughout New York to conduct an overall risk assessment. More information: Steve Richards at (607) 255-9854 or str4@cornell.edu. Other states have similar crop insurance information programs. Here are key contacts: Connecticut: Norman Bender, University of Connecticut, 860-885-2827, norman.bender@ uconn.edu. Massachusetts: Rick Chandler, Mass. Department of Agricultural Resources 413-577-0459, rchandler@umext. umass.edu; Kathy Ruhf, Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group 413-323-9878 kzruhf@verizon.net. Pennsylvania: Gene Gantz, USDA Risk Management Agency, 717-497-6398, gantz@pa.net, Kyle Nagurny, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, 717-772-3094, knagurny@state.pa.us. New Jersey: Sharon Kinsey, N.J. Department of Agriculture, 609-984-1966, agmkins@ag. state.nj.us. Or check with your local Cooperative Extension or FSA office. Crop insurance agents – If you are considering AGR-Lite or other options, it helps to work with a trusted crop insurance agent. Word of mouth is a good way to find one. Your county’s FSA office can provide a list of local agents, or you can find agents through the USDA-RMA website: www3.rma.usda.gov/apps/agents Risk Management for Horticultural Crops – Cornell Department of Applied Economics and Management website includes comparison of AGR and AGR-Lite programs, AGR-Lite case studies and more crop insurance and risk management resources. hortmgt.aem.cornell.edu/ programs/riskmgt.htm Premium calculator – USDA Risk Management Agency hosts an online tool that allows you calculate AGR-Lite premiums.ww3.rma. usda.gov/apps/premcalc
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January 9, 2006
NEW FARMERS
Hampshire College Farm Center Educating the Next Generation This article was first printed in NOFA-Mass. Newsletter Dec-Jan 2005. “Is the Hampshire College Farm Center a test bed for future farmers?” According to Nancy Hanson, CSA Manager and Leslie Cox, Farm Manager at the Center, the answer is… “Sort of; but not really.” The fall semester at this private college in Amherst, Massachusetts often begins with 45 ambitious student workers, many possessing a rosy outlook on farming as a path toward a wholesome and rewarding lifestyle. When October rolls around and the intensity of the labor becomes apparent, about ten students will remain on the job. AN ON-FARM REALITY CHECK And as far as Nancy and Leslie are concerned, that’s just fine. This self-selection is part of each student’s personal response to the challenges of farm life. “They may only last one day,” says Nancy, “but that day deepens their understanding of where lettuce comes from. Their experience on the farm is often their sole opportunity to produce their own food.” She reminisces about an Asian student who helped harvest daikon radishes one season. Dangling a freshly dug root in his hand, a grin of realization crept across his face as he exclaimed, “Hey Nancy! I’ve been eating these all my life but I never knew how they grew!” Rather than growing a crop of new farmers, the Hampshire College Farm Center is educating the next generation of wise consumers as well as agricultural entrepreneurs, educators, and policy makers. The Center, which includes a 14-acre Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), provides a small but robust and viable business model. Here, students become conscious of the structure and operations of a New England farm and the lifestyle and workload of the producer.
FOUNDED BY STUDENTS Against the backdrop of a working farm, the Center serves as a thriving research, education, and outreach facility dedicated to sustainable agriculture. Programs for the college, local community members, and school groups are also offered. Originating in the late seventies as an experimental project of the Natural Science faculty, it was two Hampshire College students who collaborated on the Division III project (final project) which launched the CSA on the land in 1992. Like many “DivIIIs,” this one took root and became an established aspect of the College. The CSA’s winter greens offerings began in a modest hoop house designed for another DivIII project centered on trialing varieties. Funds donated by an alumnus allowed for the structure to expand into a 30’ x 96’ heated greenhouse. Recently, another student transformed her DivIII project into a cookbook called Local Delectables: Seasonal Recipes from the Pioneer Valley (author: Andrea Davis, available at Collective Copies in Amherst). A host of other impressive innovations have been completed by students over the years. They include: building a cob oven for baking bread; compiling seeds and data for growing heirloom tomatoes; designing a tractor fueled by sunflower oil; building systems for composting food waste from the dining commons; designing an instrument for controlling corn ear-worm; and constructing permaculture and dye gardens. Nancy reports that only about one student per year chooses farming as a vocation. Rather, students leave the Center with a firm grasp on small-scale farming, farm education, agricultural policy, and the social implications of our food system. Some also go on to own and operate small enterprises like beekeeping or maple sugaring. Leslie points out that the diversity of student projects truly reflects New England’s
Hampshire College student Mirada Cook weeds her 4 season garden in November before enclosing it with plastic. agricultural history. Lessons learned are reinforced at the annual Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) conference, held on the campus each August. At NOFA, students meet apprentices from other farms and proudly present their personal efforts during tours of the Center.
process. An extra-curricular outgrowth of the course was “Friends of Fermentation,” a student group dedicated to making and consuming their own fermented products. Palpable signs of their enthusiasm can be found in the form of cheese dripping in the bathtub at the farm house.
CONNECTING CURRICULUM AND COMMUNITY Back in the classroom, Nancy co-teaches a course about agriculture, food and human health with a professor of epidemiology. Part of their students’ assignment involves harvesting and delivering 25 shares of CSA produce to Women Infants and Children (WIC), a program designed to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children who are at nutritional risk. Through this interaction, students become acutely aware of an irony-- while the USDA implores citizens to “eat more fruits and vegetables,” it subsidizes mostly low nutrition foods. Aiming to bridge this gap, students are inspired to take an active role in advocating for the availability of healthier food for everyone.
FALL-SEASON CSA The CSA runs from the first week in September until the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Serving those in the 5-College system*, this fall-only operation eliminates competition with other CSAs in the area. Members joining in the summer can also pick their own tomatoes, herbs, and flowers.
Another professor teaches a course called Zymurgy, which examines the technological and biochemical aspects of the brewing
Being a fall-only operation requires some creative thinking and organizing. “The trick is to get the plants through the heat of the summer,” explains Hanson. To this end, they have adapted their irrigation nozzles to emit a fine spray. The result is extra flavorful vegetables that mature under cool weather conditions.
And while the Center is not officially certified, their vegetable growing practices reflect official organic standards. For instance, compost from the dining hall, aniContinued on next page
AGR-Lite Continued from prev. page claim until you file your taxes. So you won’t get immediate cash in case of a crop failure like you would with traditional crop insurance. As with traditional programs, you should still report major problems (like when the well runs dry) to your insurance agent within 72 hours and document them when they occur. It’s important to have a good working relationship with your insurance agent. So how can you tell whether or not AGR-Lite is worth looking into? Why not go ahead and dig out those Schedule F’s. Has your income been erratic or consistent? If erratic due to fluctuating markets and fickle weather, it’s more likely that this program might work for you. If you like figuring things out for yourself, you can visit our Risk Management for Horticultural Crops website to read more about AGR-Lite. There’s also an online tool at the USDA’s Risk Management Agency website that can help you calculate AGR-Lite premiums.
349 Roses Brook South Kortright, NY 13842 (607) 538-9464
AGR-Lite may help reduce direct-marketing risks says Wen-fei Uva (right), farm business expert at Cornell University. Craig Cramer, photographer You should also talk to a crop insurance agent and attend one of the educational meetings sponsored by the New York State Crop Insurance Education Program, or similar programs in other states. See Resource spotlight sidebar for more information on all of these follow-up steps.
Wen-fei Uva is a Senior Extension Associate in the Department of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Craig Cramer is a Communications Specialist in the Department of Horticulture.
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SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
Page 12
January 9, 2006
Small Farm Quarterly
Youth Pages Racing Pigeons Racing Pigeons By Katrina Blackwell, Age 15, Bald Hill Eagles Club What are racing pigeons? What do they do? What is their purpose? These are the most common questions I am asked about my racing pigeons. We don’t know exactly when pigeons were first kept domestically, but they are pictured in Egyptian hieroglyphics and paintings. Racing Pigeons have been used in wars to carry messages as far back as Julius Caesar. More recently they have been used in both World Wars as message carriers. One of the most famous of all pigeons, Cher-Ami, became a hero after carrying a message 25 miles in 25 minutes while wounded in the head and foot. Cher-Ami received the Dickin medal for his bravery. In recent times pigeons have been kept mainly for pleasure, though there are some people who fly their birds professionally. These professional races cost thousands of dollars to enter birds. Racing pigeons are unique in that they can find their way home after being released up to a thousand miles away. Not all pigeons have this ability, only pigeons that have especially been bred and trained for that purpose. Racing pigeons have been recorded to fly at a constant speed of 100.6 miles an hour over several hundred miles. Racing pigeons are also unique in the fact that any one can keep them. The Queen of England has her own pigeon loft and over 20,000 people race pigeons in the U.S. alone. Racing pigeons are usually bred in early February. Training starts as soon as the pigeons can eat independently. Races start in the spring for old birds (birds over a year old) and in the fall for young birds (birds under a year old).
Last year when I joined the Greater Rochester, NY, Racing Pigeon Club (GRNY), a chapter of the American Racing Pigeon Union, I was required to have a mentor. It turned out that my mentor, Bob Marciano, was the President of our club. Through my mentor I have been able to learn many things such as choosing a good bird, breeding, raising, training and racing. My mentor has also provided me with countless birds, helped me through a major health problem with my birds, and given me the opportunity to call him any time I had a question. I acquired my first Racing Homers in the summer of 2004 from my mentor. I had about 2530 birds, which is a good starting flock. I then designed and built, with the help of my dad, a loft where my 50-odd birds now live. This spring was my first time to completely raise and train my birds myself. To train my birds, I had to release them outside the loft and then entice them to come back in with food. After they had the hang of that, I took my birds one mile from their loft and released them. The next day I released them at the same distance. From then on, I increased how far they went from 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 miles and so on until the were flying at least half the distance of their first race which is usually 100-200 miles. This training took place in the same general direction as their first race. For my first race we met at a club member’s house. Members that were racing brought their birds. We set our racing clocks, which tell us exactly when each bird arrived home. We then had each bird banded with a leg band, called a counter-
Bald Hill Eagle Club member Katrina Blackwell, holding one of her racing pigeons.
mark, for identification. Another club member drove all our birds to a designated release site and then released them at a particular time. Although I did not win this year, I learned many valuable lessons in caring for my birds and will race again next year. For more information about the American Racing Pigeon Union, call or visit: (405) 478-2240 or www.pigeon.org.
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
January 9, 2006
Page 13
Racing in the Genesee Valley Hunt Races By Janey Barrett, Age 15, Hooves & Things 4-H Club, Livingston Co.
taste of steeplechase racing, but it was safer.
On October 8, 2005, I raced a horse in the Genesee Valley Hunt Races. The Hunt Races are held in Geneseo the second Saturday in October every year and include a day of horse racing, dog activities and tailgating. I have raced before, but this was my first time racing at the Hunt Races. I rode a horse named Star Atalanta in a paced race over fences.
Usually there is a junior pace race and an adult pace race. This year I was the only junior that entered so I ran in the adult race. I almost beat the first place adult. I came in second in the actual race, but since I was the only junior I got the junior prizes, which consisted of a perpetual trophy that my name gets engraved on, a pewter plate that I can keep and a Genesee Valley Hunt Race tee shirt. It was a really awesome experience. I had a ton of fun and hope to do it again next year!
In a paced race, the racers have to stay behind a person who sets the pace while you jump jumps. If you pass the pacer, you are eliminated. At a designated point, the pacer pulls off to the side and then you really race. It was really fun because it gave me a
For more information about the 4H Horse programs, visit www.ansci.cornell.edu/4H/horses
y Barrett receives her award for winning Hooves & Things 4-H Club member Jane the 2005 Genesee Valley Hunt Race.
the junior pace race at
4-H Chicken Barbecue Contest 4-H Chicken Barbecue Contest By Katrina Blackwell, Age 15, Bald Hill Eagles Club This year for the first time in New York, teens from Livingston County participated in the 4-H Chicken Barbecue Contest. The contest starts at the county level. Matt Whiteman and I each won at the senior level at our county fairs. Both of us then went on to the state level where we competed at the New York State Fair for a chance to go to Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. We each cooked two halves of chicken using our selected sauce. We then did an oral presentation on the poultry industry, food safety, nutritional information, versatility and cost. After the cooked chicken was judged, I was declared winner and will now go on to compete at nationals. The National 4-H Chicken Barbecue contest is part of the National 4H Poultry and Egg Contest held annually in Louisville, Kentucky. The national contest is similar to the contests at the county and state levels in that each person has to cook two chicken halves with a commercial or personal barbecue sauce for a maximum of 2 1/2 hours. Contestants are judged on technique and time usage. The chicken is then judged on appear-
ance, taste and thoroughness of cooking. After being judged, each contestant does a 5-10 minute oral presentation on the topics described above. Participating in the chicken barbecue competition has not only greatly improved my cooking skills but has given me an opportunity to sharpen my public speaking skills using a topic I dearly love. Mary Ann Whipple of Canandaigua trina Blackwell, Club member Ka icken Barbees gl Ea started the Chicken Barbecue ill H ld Ba H Ch icken for the 4Contest in New York State and barbequing ch has coached and supervised the quing contest. contestants in all phases of the Befor e beginning barbecue contest. Due to her tion, Katrina la her chicken barbequing com We look forward to having more youth pe ys out everythi initiative and persistence, Mary ng she will need tibecoming involved in poultry competitions . Ann has helped many youth to be involved and anticipate even greater success in the with poultry on the state and national levment to me. She is always willing to future. els. Although national poultry competitions help me improve my skills and is always have been occurring for many years, we are cheerfully available to answer any questions For more information about the 4-H Poulgrateful to Mrs. Whipple for getting New or concerns. I firmly believe if it were not for try programs, visit: www.ansci.cornell.edu/ York onboard. Mary Ann has also started Mary Ann I would not be competing nationally. 4H/ birds.html other poultry contests in New York State including the Avian Bowl, Poultry Science and Although New York has only been involved in For more information about the National Egg Preparation contests. She has traveled national poultry competitions for a short 4-H Poultry and Egg Contests and Conferwith and coached the New York State Poulwhile, our poultry teams have placed amazence, visit: http://ulisse.cas.psu.edu/ try team since its inception in 2003. Peringly well. We are thankful for everyone who Nat4hpoultry/ Default.html sonally, Mary Ann has been an encourage has helped us to enjoy this level of success.
A Pig that Can Build Houses By Jolene Barrett, Age 12, Hooves & Things 4-H Club, Livingston Co. This summer my sister Janey, my cousin Max and I raised a pig to sell at the Livingston County 4-H Livestock Auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity. Each of us was raising a pig anyway so we decided to raise one more pig together and donate the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity. We thought it would be a good way to give back to the community. We liked the thought that Habitat for Humanity helps people in our community own their own homes.
Hooves & Things 4-H Club member Jolene Barrett along with her sister Janey Barrett and their cousin Max with their pig “Habitat”.
pounds! Warsaw Meat Packing purchased him for five hundred and fifty dollars – all of which went to help build houses for deserving families. I was happy to be able to help a charity that helps so many people. For more information about 4-H swine projects, visit www.ansci.cornell.edu/4H/swine.html For more information about Habitat for Humanity, visit www.habitat.org/
So with the help of Avon Feeds, who donated the grain to feed the pig, we raised “Habitat the Pig” from forty pounds to over two hundred fifty
Articles for the fall edition of the Youth Page have been contributed by teens from the Livingston County 4-H Youth Development Program. If you have something you‚d like to share with other young readers, please send it to: Celeste Carmichael, 4-H Youth Development Program, 340 Roberts Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853.
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
Page 14
January 9, 2006
MARKETING
Lessons from a North Carolina CSA Farm By Bernadette Logozar In October, I had the opportunity to attend the 4th National Small Farm Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina. This is a three-day event that brings together farmers, Extension Educators, USDA personnel and others from across the country and continent. It was an amazing opportunity to network and discover a bit more about US agriculture—specifically how small farmers are doing in various regions of this country. During the conference, I visited 3 different farm operations on a scheduled tour. I want to take this opportunity to share a bit about one of these farms, Maple Spring Gardens, and the marketing strategies they use. With the understanding that their growing season is longer than ours here in the Northeast, and that there is a difference in the population base, there are still some tips from these farmers that can be applied to ANY farm in ANY region of the US. ABOUT THE FARM Maple Spring Gardens is a family owned and operated farm in the town of Cedar Grove, North Carolina, about 20 miles from Chapel Hill and about an hour from Greensboro. Owners Ken Dawson and Libby Outlaw raise about 80 different varieties of vegetables, cut flowers and small fruits for sale to local markets. Maple Spring Gardens produce is available at the Carrboro Farmers Market and Durham Farmers Markets throughout the season, and by subscription through their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). They also do business with the Weaver Street Market in Carrboro and a few local restaurants. Ken serves as general manager while Libby works part-time on the farm, primarily working with the flowers. She also works off the farm as a massage therapist. “Currently our farm provides enough for us to have comfortable living,” explains Ken. “The offfarm income isn’t necessary for us to meet our lifestyle needs.” Their niece Sara Fuller, who has been involved with the operation since 2001, is in charge of produce distribution through their CSA. An additional 3-5 seasonal workers round out the crew. Ken began raising and marketing organically grown vegetables in Orange County in 1972. Ken and Libby first sold produce at the Carrboro Farmers Market and to Wellspring Grocery (now Whole Foods Market) in 1981. Farming has been Ken’s full time occupation since 1984. “It has always been our goal to earn a decent income from the farm while practicing good stewardship of the land. We believe the two are compatible. We want to serve as a model of a viable, environmentally sound farming operation, supplying food to the local community,” says Ken.
The membership fee for a 25-week season is $550 for a Regular Share, $375 for Smaller Household Share. A cut flower share is also an available option. It costs $90 for an 18-week season running May thru August -- $5 for each weekly bunch of flowers. Members may initially make full payment, or pay a deposit, with the balance due May 1.
Mid-October lettuce still growing in Maple Spring Gardens greenhouses. Photographer: Bernadette Logozar Their present location, purchased in 1990, is a 61-acre farm that was once the back end of a worn out, run down, eroded tobacco farm. Through the use of organic soil building practices such as composting and cover cropping Ken and Libby have transformed a badly neglected piece of land into a fertile and productive farm. Improving and maintaining the health of their soil will be a lifelong endeavor. Ken claims that the only livestock on his farm are earthworms, which he feeds regularly by planting cover crops, which are tilled into the soil to bring up the level of organic materials. During our visit, Ken pointed out a plot of sorghum grass, which was 3-4 feet tall. “I’ll be taking a mower to this within the next couple of days, then turning all that plant material into the soil. This particular plot has a southwest slope so it is protected from the north winds. We can plant crops here much earlier than other areas of the farm. That is something you need to be aware of, the micro-climates on your farm, then use these to your advantage,” Ken advised our tour group. MAPLE SPRING GARDENS CSA The 2004 season was the first time Maple Spring Gardens offered their customers a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). In a CSA, members pay an annual fee before the season
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of the season the farm produces approximately 40 different kinds of vegetables and berries, and the contents of the boxes change with the season. Members also receive a regular newsletter, containing recipes and updates from the farm. A members-only open house and tour at the farm is offered at least once during the season. Members are also welcome to visit at other times and look around, with the understanding that the farmers’ work must go on!
begins to reserve their share. This helps the farmers plan production and provides cash to get the crop planted. Members then receive a weekly box of produce for the duration of the season. Originally, their goal was for 100-members. They reached this number within a few short weeks of opening for CSA applications. Their final count was 108 members. “This is about all we can handle. It’s not that there isn’t more interest, there is. But we feel we are best able to meet the needs of our members at this number,” says Ken. The CSA enables Maple Spring Gardens to connect with more of the community in a direct and personal way. And achieving a wider distribution for their organically grown crops was rewarding for both Maple Spring Gardens and their customers. So what do you get with your CSA Membership at Maple Spring Gardens? Their season runs from late April thru late October, and boxes are delivered mid-week to several different pickup locations in Durham and Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Over the course
THE BOTTOM LINE Ken admitted to the group that he will gross $30,000-$40,000 per acre during the cropping season. In order to meet the demands of their customers, he has a carefully schedule for successive plantings. “You will find me planting something from April till September to ensure we have a steady supply of produce coming in,” Ken said. Ken looks forward to every winter; since that is the time he gets to settle down in front of the fire with a hearty cup of tea to plan the crop rotation for the next season. He admits needs the break. The CSA, which has been an add-on to the farm operation, was a great asset. “In January, I am opening letters with members checks in them. That is a great thing. I don’t have to worry about how I will cover all my spring bills, the money is already in the bank,” Ken admits with a smile. It was intriguing to visit a well-managed farm with a clear marketing plan and management system. True, CSA is not necessarily the route for every farm to take. Maple Spring Gardens has a 25-week season for their CSA, not all areas of the country can support this long a growing season. However CSA enables the community
Continued on next page
January 9, 2006
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
Page 15
GRAZING
The Grass IS Greener on the Other Side of This Fence! By Nancy Glazier As part of the Graze New York grant project in Wayne County, Cornell Cooperative Extension’s NWNY Team held a pasture walk at Joseph Schmucker’s farm in Clyde. We couldn’t have had a better evening for early October, other than we ran out of daylight! Background. Joseph grazes 91 sheep on about 20 acres. His goal is to have 140. He considers himself a grass farmer, which is really the way to look at grazing. The most important commodity on the farm is grass. He has only been on this farm since August 2004. He had the pasture seeded the spring of 2004 with Alice white clover/ perennial ryegrass, fine-leafed fescue and meadow fescue pasture mix at 35 lbs per acre. Seeding Rate. Do you think 35 lbs of seed per acre is high? It depends on what your goals are. Joseph wishes he went higher! If you are looking for high animal production, you need premium forage. Joseph says you shouldn’t see one speck of soil, it all should be covered with forage. This greatly reduces soil loss from rain, and water loss in dry conditions. He did go in early last spring and do some frost seedings on some of the thinner spots of the paddocks. Drill vs. Broadcast. Joseph prefers broadcasting seed to drilling for pasture establishment. He feels with drilling too much
ground is bare at the seedling stage which encourages weed growth. Seed depth needs to be shallow at _” and can be pressed in with a cultipacker. With the time and effort put in to pasture establishment, it needs to be done right. Joseph says establishment costs can be paid for the first year. Fertility. High forage production requires high fertility. The grass needs more nitrogen than what is provided by the legume. Legume percentages need to be 30-40% maximum to prevent bloat in ruminants. Joseph applies a commercial nitrogen fertilizer at spring green-up and another application in summer. For intensively managed grasses the recommendation is 100 lbs actual Nitrogen at green-up, 50 lbs every 30 days with the final application prior to last grazing rotation for the season. Joseph knows the importance of soil testing, that is on his “to do” list for the fall.
Fencing and Paddock Size. The farm has a perimeter fence of woven wire with interior fencing of high tensile and some areas of woven wire. On the interior, the bottom high tensile wire is low enough to keep the lambs in, but high enough to let the sheep graze under the fence. The only time the sheep have gotten out was when the gate was left open. Half the pasture is subdivided into one-acre paddocks where the sheep begin grazing in the spring. The other half of the pasture is harvested for hay. Joseph plans for the dry summer months and utilizes the hay paddock for grazing when grass growth slows. Three days is usually the limit he will leave the sheep on a paddock; any longer and they begin to graze the regrowth, which will delay further growth. He only needs the fence electrified for the third day when he is trying to get the sheep to “clean up” the paddock. Plenty of good grass keeps them in! Weeds. One problem Joseph did have was with the weed horse nettle. Horse nettle
contains atropine, which is toxic to ruminants. Fortunately, the sheep won’t graze it since there is ample forage available. Weeds may need to be spot sprayed when a grass/legume mix is used. Sometimes clipping the paddocks will control weed growth. This will benefit the pasture as well as it helps stimulate regrowth. Make the sacrifice. Joseph has a couple of areas he utilizes as sacrifice areas for the sheep during inclement conditions. He can feed the sheep hay and keep them off the paddocks to allow them to rest or regrow. At 24 feet wide his alleyway is wide enough to use for sacrifice area, along with two small paddocks adjacent to the barn. Joseph may be grazing sheep on his pasture, but the same principles can apply to beef, dairy and even buffalo! Nancy Glazier is a Technical Associate with the NWNY Team of Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Days of Grazing. Joseph pushed the limit on the number of days grazing on his short time on the farm. He grazed last season up until January 1 and had the sheep back on pasture April 1! Every growing season is different, but the key is not to overgraze the pastures. He turns the sheep into a paddock when forage height is 10-12” and doesn’t let the livestock graze it shorter than 2-3”. He warned one day of overgrazing in the fall could mean two days of delay in spring grazing. Granted, he does say his farm is not up to carrying capacity, but that’s still about 275 days of grazing.
Bill Henning, Small Farms Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension’s NWNY Team, checks out grass height at Joseph Schmucker’s farm during a pasture walk last fall.
Continued from prev. page (members) to share in the success and the failure of the harvest. An increasing number of small farms are going this route, especially those located near a population center.
Not all CSA’s are alike. For example, the Maple Spring Garden CSA does not have a member labor component where CSA members are expected to contribute a specified number of hours of labor to the farm. The arrangement of the CSA is as unique as the farmers who create them.
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If this is a marketing option you would like to explore in greater detail an excellent resource for more information can be found at: www.attra.org/attrapub/PDF/csa-ct.pdf which gives you a quick snapshot of CSA’s and some resources. And of course the “one stop shop” for CSA information can be found at: www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/ Bernadette Logozar is Rural & Ag Economic Development Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Franklin County. If you have questions about any information found in this article or would like more information on CSA or subscription farming feel free to contact Bernadette at 518483-7403 or via email at bel7@cornell.edu.
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
Page 16
FOREST
AND
January 9, 2006
WOODLOT
Yours for the Asking…. Peer Assistance for Forest Owners Pennsylvania Forest Stewards and NY’s Master Forest Owner/COVERTS volunteers help spread principles of forest stewardship By Gary Goff and Allyson Muth “Sharing with other people and explaining new forest stewardship ideas to landowners opens their eyes. They realize the possibilities of their woodlot and they get interested.” -- Pennsylvania Forest Steward “The power of the program is that it comes to you. Everyone tends to procrastinate, and to have someone come to me and schedule a visit was what it took to get moving on my woodlot plan. Thanks for the program!” – Forest owner visited by a NY Master Forest Owner/COVERTS volunteer. Volunteerism is alive and well AND is delivering much needed and appreciated help to NY and PA private forest owners through the Pennsylvania Forest Stewards and NY’s Master Forest Owner/COVERTS programs. Both of these programs have trained over 300 volunteers in the 12+ years they have been running. Both state programs are modeled after the COVERTS wildlife volunteer programs that started in the 1980s in Connecticut and Vermont. The Ruffed Grouse Society (RGS) and Cooperative Extension formed a partnership through which the mission of
RGS, “Dedicated to improving the environment for ruffed grouse, woodcock and other forest wildlife,” and the forest stewardship education objectives of Cooperative Extension could both be served. COVERTS programs currently run in 13 central and eastern states. FOSTERING FOREST STEWARDSHIP The goal of the PA Forest Stewards and the NY Master Forest Owner/COVERTS volunteer programs is to train volunteer woodland owners in the principles of forest stewardship so that they will not only better manage their own forestlands, but also motivate other woodland owners to become actively involved in the future of their personal and states’ forest resources. Through these programs, volunteers learn how stewardship practices can ensure healthy and productive forests for years to come. “I’ve developed a tremendous awareness of the forest environment from the people I’ve met from Cooperative Extension, state forestry, as well as other private landowners, and professional foresters,” explains one PA Forest Steward. “This knowledge and help have been a gift. With that has come a greater passion for sustaining the woodlands.” The benefits to forest owners are impressive on an individual and collective basis. NY’s 200+ volunteers report visiting over 150 forest owners annually who collectively own around 11,000 forested acres. They also report an additional 200+ activities where they interact with forest owners, thereby reaching approximately another
PA Forest Stewards test their eye at forest management. Photo by Allyson Muth 8,000 people with information and advice on forest stewardship. In 2003, 300+ volunteers in PA contributed over 36,000 hours of forest stewardship outreach efforts. 2005 preliminary survey numbers indicate an equal or greater volunteer outreach effort this year. PA and NY volunteers promote good forestry via many community venues including writing articles for newspapers and magazines, staffing booths at community fairs, giving presentations at youth education events, conducting forest owner education workshops, serving on natural resources and environmental committees, and participating in forest owner organizations such as the NY Forest Owner Association and PA Forestry Association. “I get great satisfaction from being able to encourage a sense of awareness, responsi-
Resource Spotlight
Forest Management Help Connecticut Steve Broderick UConn Cooperative Extension 860-774-9600 sbroderi@canr1.cag.uconn.edu www.canr.uconn.edu/ces/forest/coverts.htm
Foresters from Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Forestry Service share their knowledge with new PA Forest Stewards volunteers. Photo by Allyson Muth
New York Gary Goff Department of Natural Resources Cornell University 607-255-2824 grg3@cornell.edu www.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/mfo Vermont Farley Anne Brown Vermont Coverts, Inc. 802-586-2250 farley@vtcoverts.org • www.vtcoverts.org Pennsylvania Allyson Brownlee Muth School of Forest Resources Penn State University 814-863-0401 abm173@psu.edu www.paforeststewards.cas.psu.edu
New York’s 2005 class of new Master Forest Owner/COVERTS Volunteers at Cornell's Arnot Forest. Photo by Gary Goff
Massachusetts David B. Kittredge UMASS Forest & Wildlife 413-545-2943 dbk@forwild.umass.edu www.umass.edu/umext/nrec/pages/land mgt_curproj.html
bility, guardianship, and wonder in these landowners,” says another PA Forest Steward. Stewards work closely with their local Bureau of Forestry and Cooperative Extension foresters, conservation districts, and conservation organizations. Between NY and PA, over 1 million private forest owners manage 26.5 million acres. The ecologic, economic and recreation value of these lands is immeasurable to the owners, their communities, and their states. State and federal agencies and non-governmental organizations provide scores of programs designed to assist forest owners with achieving their ownership objectives. Similarly, professional organizations and forest industry have a stake in wise stewardship and can provide technical assistance to forest owners. Both NY Master Forest Owners and PA Forest Stewards help forest owners make wiser management choices and connect with other sources of assistance. The volunteers are an invaluable source of community expertise based on their personal experience and training conducted by these two programs. “I feel that the [PA Forest] Stewards provide positive benefits to the community because the work they do provides information for community forest landowners about the positive benefits of managing forestland,” notes a PA Forest Steward. “I hope that through my role as a Forest Steward I can help at least some people make better decisions,” adds another. Volunteers from both states undergo approximately 40 hours of classroom and field training in forest ecology, biodiversity, silviculture, wildlife science, environmental resource management, education techniques and other subjects related to stewardship. In exchange, PA Forest Stewards agree to invest an equal amount of their time relaying what they have learned to motivate forest landowners in their communities. NY’s MFO program requires that volunteers conduct at least five on-site visits to neighboring forest owners. The power and success of these peer to peer visits is indicated by the results of surveys of visited forest owners: • 34% of the forest owners prepared a written management plan, and 18% plan to do so • 60% met with a professional forester …20% plan to do so • 32% implemented wildlife management practices …21% plan to do so
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What Is a Fair Price For Forage? By Joan Sinclair Petzen, Extension Issue Leader, Business Management Rainfall was short and sporadic in Southwestern New York in 2005. Many farms here expect to be short on hay crops and may need to buy additional feed. Others, where rainfall was in step with harvest management, will have a little extra to sell. How do neighbors arrive at a fair price when buying or selling forage? Several factors come into play when determining the price of forages including: quality and form of product, cost of alternative feed products, cost of transporting forage, availability and demand in your area. All these factors must be considered within the delicate balance of the cow’s ration. One key to a fair transaction is not to guess on things we can measure, namely quantity and quality. These are easily assessed by weighing the forage that is bought or sold and taking a representative sample and getting a forage analysis. QUALITY AND FORM OF PRODUCT Quality or forages relates to the palatability and nutrient density of the crop or product. One of the first considerations when purchasing forage is the dry matter content of the feed stuff. This is particularly important when purchasing silage crops which are highly variable in moisture content. Since silage crops generally contain 50 to 70 percent moisture, it is important to correct the price to a dry matter or hay equivalent basis when determining price. Because of how moisture impacts fermentation, moisture content outside the normal range for each specific forage storage system can have an adverse affect on nutrient content and availability. Two methods are available for standardizing forage prices for moisture or dry matter content. The first is to convert the quoted price, of hay for example, to a dry matter basis and then convert the dry matter price to an as-fed price for the specific feed we are pricing.
Continued from prev. page • 42% sought out more information on forest management … 7% plan to do so • 20% used the information to save or earn on average $7,000 in the year preceding the survey HOW TO GET HELP In New York, forest owners interested in a visit from a volunteer should contact their county Cooperative Extension Association or regional Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) office to get names of area volunteers. Contact information to the program or the volunteers is also on each state’s website (see sidebar). Typically, the interested forest owner then calls a volunteer to arrange a half-day on-site visit. In Pennsylvania, the Bureau of Forestry Service Foresters are the first contacts for private forest landowners interested in forest stewardship. These Foresters and others help create opportunities for outreach that match the skills and interests of the volunteers. Volunteers have performed site visits, but also lead tours, give presentations to school children and adult groups, write articles for the media, work with community tree projects, volunteer in state parks or forests, staff exhibits at farm and timber shows, and give input to government agencies.
Example: Dry Matter Conversion Dry hay is selling for $119 per ton. Dry hay is generally 90% dry matter (DM). The balage you want to buy is 60% moisture, or 40% dry matter. What is the equivalent price for the balage? $119/ton divided by 0.9 DM = $132.22 per ton of dry matter. $132.22/ton times 0.4 DM = $52.89 per ton of balage as fed. Another method for converting the price of dry hay to an as fed basis for silage feeds is to divide the dry hay price by a hay equivalent factor (HEF) for the percent moisture in the forage.
Hay Equivalent Factors Hay Crop Silage Moisture Content
Hay Equivalent Factor (HEF)
40%
1.50
50%
1.80
60%
2.25
70%
3.00
80%
4.50
price of a standard or base carbohydraterich feed (corn) and partly on the price of a base protein-rich feed (soybean oil meal). Two factors (constants) are used for each feed that is valued. Petersen's Constants are used in computer programs like the Feed Valuation Template developed by Pennsylvania State University Cooperative Extension. These programs make adjustments for fiber requirements to determine the value of feeds relative to shelled corn, 44% soybean meal, and average analysis legume hay as the energy, protein and forage alternatives, respectively. A web link to download the Feed Valuation Template is available at: www.cce.cornell.edu/~alleganycattaraugus/agriculture/agriculture04.htm, in the Dairy/Livestock Production Section. There are many sources of information about agricultural commodity prices. On the web you can access price information from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, www.nass.usda.gov. Each month a price report is published that includes prices paid by farmers for common inputs in addition to a wealth of other infor-
mation about production and prices of farm products. Another good source of prices is your local feed supplier. This may be the best price basis for valuing forages. If you were unable to locate an adequate supply of forages, you might need to think about substituting more concentrates into the ration and your feed suppliers price is what you would be paying for these substitute feeds. Using the Feed Valuation Template and current prices for shelled corn ($4.00/bu.), soybean oil meal ($260/ton), and alfalfa hay ($120/ton), prices were generated for some common forages. The Forage Values table lists prices, for example purposes, calculated using the Template. These values reflect the average feeding value of these forages at the current local price of the base feeds above. The template allows you to enter current prices for the base feeds and a specific analysis for the feed ingredient you are seeking to price. The template then generates a feeding value price based on the information you provided.
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Example: Hay Equivalent Factor Use same dry hay price and silage moisture. $119.00/ton divided by 2.25 (HEF) = $52.89
COST OF ALTERNATIVE FEED PRODUCTS When a commodity is in short supply it may be necessary to find a suitable substitute. The challenge is determining a fair price in your market place when few buyers and sellers are involved. Petersen's Constants for corn and soybean oil meal provide a convenient way to determine feeding values for many feeds. In the Petersen method, the value of any feed depends partly on the In both states, the volunteers ARE NOT trained as professional foresters. Their primary value and attribute is that they are (mostly) forest owners and have thereby gained much personal experience. They have no biased intentions beyond helping other forest owners to identify their own goals and find the assistance they need. BECOMING A VOLUNTEER The first step to becoming a PA Forest Steward or NY Master Forest Owners volunteer is to contact the state coordinator, Allyson Muth in Pennsylvania or Gary Goff in New York. Application forms and some minimum requirements for acceptance into the program are on each state’s website. PA candidates must be able to attend two weekend training sessions in the fall; NY candidates must attend a 4-day training held in mid-September at Cornell’s Arnot Teaching and Research Forest. Training agendas are also on the websites. PA’s training is free; NY’s costs $50 per attendee. Volunteers who go through the training workshops unanimously give high praise for the content and the knowledge of the many speakers. A 2005 graduate of NY’s program wrote on his program evaluation, “Absolutely fantastic program. I can think of many people in many venues where the information I gleaned will be helpful. Thank you very much!!!”
Gary R. Goff is a Senior Extension Associate in Cornell’s Department of Natural Resources. He can be reached at 607255-2824. Allyson Muth is with Penn State University’s School of Forest Resources. She can be reached at 814863-0401.
New York Master Forest Owner/COVERTS Sponsors: • The Ruffed Grouse Society • Renewable Resources Extension Program • New York Forest Owners Association • NYS Chapter of National Wild Turkey Federation • Robert H. Wentorf Foundation, Inc. • USDA Forest Service, State & Private Forestry • With cooperation from: NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
Pennsylvania Forest Stewards Sponsors: • Penn State University Cooperative Extensions • USDA Forest Service • Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry • The Ruffed Grouse Society
Testimonial from a NY Volunteer I'd like to share with you a pleasant outcome of one of the Master Forest Owner visits that I did this fall. This visit was to a gentleman who owns about 40 acres of early successional forest. I did my usual thing, of spending a couple of hours with the forest owner, devoting the first 30-45 min to sitting down and talking about the history of his ownership, his interest in the woods, what he has done so far, and so forth. The remainder of the time was spent walking his woods, talking about what he has and what he might do. In the end, I steered him to the DNR website at Cornell, where I know he could download the publication “Enhancing the Stewardship of Your Forest,” which seems to me like the logical next step for him. Well, yesterday I got a lovely thank you card from this gentleman, in which he stated that my little visit “really opened his eyes to his woods and led him to lots of things he had never previously considered.” This is the first time I've gotten such a note. I feel like I really succeeded on this one.
Tom Seeley, NY Master Forest Owner
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GRAZING
Turning Goldenrod into Green Reclaiming Fallow Land By Grazing By Troy Bishopp Fallow land really sticks out on the landscape, doesn’t it? But when you go by a fallow field, have you ever noticed the riding paths or the occasional attempt at mowing a portion of it? Nice and green and vegetative, aren’t they? Well, maybe not in January, but they sure are during the growing season. Imagine for a moment if you duplicated that greenness on the 55,000 acres that go fallow each year in New York State. You can get pretty excited about this untapped resource once you understand the fairly simple dynamics of bringing it back into
production with livestock. A strategic mowing and subsequent grazing pressure to stir up the natural soil seed bank can yield a totally renewed landscape. WEEDS CAN BE GRAZED Your arch nemesis on fallow land is usually is a combination of goldenrod, knapweed, multiflora rose and other frustrating socalled weeds. These weeds are highly competitive and contain allelopathic compounds that sicken the surrounding area so they can thrive. They are also very unfriendly to our underground soil life. They do have a downfall however. They hate to be cut or grazed on a regular basis.
Resource Spotlight Close up of grazed knapweed. Looks pretty tasty doesn’t it?
The author’s stocker calves, raised on this 85% knapweed farmstead, looked as good as the ones eating “good grass.”
Continued from prev. page COSTS OF TRANSPORTING FORAGES Since forages are a bulky commodity, transportation costs have a big impact on the cost of the product. With fuel prices high, it may pay to purchase forage of a little lesser quality right in your neighborhood rather than paying expensive freight charges for hauling forage a long distance. You need to strike a balance between the commodity price and the cost for transporting it to your farm. Both of these factors impact the bottom line when it comes to profit. Most neighborhoods in our local region are fairly tight knit communities. If you are looking to purchase some forage, get the word out to a few neighbors. Ask them if they know of anyone who might have some
Livestock can actually do fairly well on these weeds. This past year some of my custom grazed stocker calves were on an 85% knapweed farmstead and they actually looked as good as the ones eating “good grass.” The big trick is to keep the plants vegetative enough so that your animals will eat it. And it really helps to have animals in the pasture that have learned to eat these plants. They’ll soon teach the others that it’s not all that bad. If you have ever read Newman Turner’s book, Fertility Pastures, you know that there are many
When it comes to grazing, author Troy Bishopp sure knows what he’s talking about.
Forage
This entire field is mostly knapweed. The grazed area is lush and green, the ungrazed area, by now totally unpalatable, has gone to seed.
forage for sale. This just might help you save on hauling costs by finding some forage locally. If you need to widen your search, particularly for hay, you might try checking out the Farm Service Agency’s Hay Net, http://www.fsa.usda.gov/haynet/ default.asp. This has list of both people who are buying and selling hay on a state by state basis. One might also consider going in with a neighbor or two to purchase a truck load lot of dry hay, and share the hauling costs to reduce the trucking costs for all concerned. Buying or selling quality forage has its challenges. For a relationship to develop between a buyer and a seller, trust must be built. Having a good working knowledge of the market place and the quality you are looking for is the best insurance for striking a fair deal. It would be easy to say good
January 14 Symposium on Reclaiming Fallow Land Learn how you can reclaim fallow land using livestock as a tool for change. Understand the relationship between the soil seed bank, animal impact, grazing management. Explore opportunities for landowners and farmers to work together. The “Turning Goldenrod into Green” Symposium will be held Saturday January 14th, 2006, 8:30am to 4:00pm at Morrisville State College. Speakers include NY Senator David Valesky, Matt Sanderson, Darrell Emmick, Troy Bishopp, Dr. John Addrizzo, Paris Reidhead, Phil Metzger, and Mark Twentyman. Seating is limited, pre-registration is required. $10 admission. For information call Troy Bishopp, Madison County SWCD grazing specialist at 315 824-9849, or email troy.bishop@ny. nacdnet.net.
forage is worth $X, but because so many factors are involved, it is critical for people buying or selling to learn as much about the forage market as possible.
medicinal benefits that come from weeds. Maybe this was a factor in the weight gain my own cattle showed. Isn’t it neat how Mother Nature may take care of us after all? I have also found that after a timely deposit of manure in the soil seed bank, and a little moisture and sunlight finally reaching the starved canopy, good things start to happen. Matt Sanderson from the ARS Pasture Systems Research Unit has informed me that Northeast pastures contain about 6.5 million seeds per acre in the soil naturally. The seed profile is broken down into 5 classes: annual/biennial forbs; annual grasses; legumes; perennial forbs; and perennial grasses. Overall, forbs represent 70% of the seed bank while the grasses and legumes make up the rest. PASTURE SALAD On average there are about 3 pounds per acre of grass seed and 2 pounds per acre of legume seed. Not a bad pasture salad for the livestock and wildlife if you think about it. The deer, goats and sheep like those forbs while the pigs, chickens and turkeys like the seeds and roots and the cattle like the grasses. Good management of these different species on the land may bring back some of our most valued resource. Could we ever turn those 55,000 acres of fallow into productive grazing land? Maybe connecting forward thinking farmers with like-minded landowners would be a start. It’s not an easy road to take, but something worthwhile to investigate in this day an age. We must start somewhere as the price of fuel, feed and credit hampers our young people from getting into agriculture. What are your thoughts on these ideas? Troy Bishopp is a fourth generation farmer-grazier and a grazing specialist with the Madison County, NY, Soil and Water Conservation District.
Resource Spotlight
More On Purchasing Forages Farm Service Agency’s Hay Net This site provides a list of people who are buying and selling hay on a state by state basis. www.fsa.usda.gov/haynet/ Valuing Forages Based on Moisture and Nutrient Content. A Pacific Northwest Extension Publication. PNW 259.
Joan Petzen is an Extension Issue Leader and Business Management specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Allegany and Cattaraugus Counties.
Buying and Selling Hay and Straw By Dan Undersander, UW-Extension Forage Agronomist Horse Hay Tips By Krishona Martinson, University of Minnesota Extension Service. www.extension.umn.edu/extensionnews/2005/horsehay.html
January 9, 2006
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COMMUNITY/WORLD
It Takes a Community to Grow a Farm
going on a farmer's property and teach your children and guests to do the same.
By Mary Peabody
Communities can choose to be farmerfriendly in any number of ways. Sponsor farmers’ markets and festivals which promote opportunities for community interaction. Host public meetings on the future of agriculture in the community and invite farmers and landowners to talk about what they do and why they do it. Recognize that farms often contribute a disproportionately large share of local property taxes relative to the services they receive. Be sensitive to any proposed ordinances which might affect farming by allowing adequate time to hear from all affected parties. Finally, when farm-related land-use concerns arise, community leaders should encourage problem solving that satisfies the interests of both parties.
Farms are an important component of rural economies. They provide food and fiber, consume other local goods and services, protect open space and attract tourists. However as farms expand in size and as more non-farmers move to the countryside, conflict between farmers and their neighbors is also going to increase. In view of these trends, farmers cannot afford to ignore the impacts of their operations on others in their communities. Change is inevitable, and rather than resist it, farmers need to make it work to their advantage. But farmers should not be alone in this. Their neighbors and the community at large also share the responsibility for good relations. The best approach for creating community harmony is one which brings farmers and neighbors together, promotes understanding, and minimizes conflict. Successful communities learn how to manage negative impacts and take advantage of the many positive contributions of agriculture to the rural landscape, the economy, and society as a whole. It is important to understand the underlying causes of farm-related land-use conflict. Common complaints that rural residents often have against farmers include: odor
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from manure or chemicals; increased noise, dust, insects; large, slow-moving equipment on roads; concerns about surface or ground water pollution; and animal welfare. As farms adopt more high-tech production strategies they often become targets for criticism. The flip side of the coin is that farmers also have complaints about their neighbors and the general public. Most farmers’ complaints relate to trespassing, vandalism, and municipal ordinances that result in increased operating expenses or unrealistic compliance requirements. Problems with unwelcome hunters, hikers, or other people looking for recreational opportunities create frustration. Theft or destruction of property may also be a serious problem for farmers near urban development. Understanding the potential sources of conflict is not enough to prevent these clashes from happening. Farmers, their neighbors, and the community all have a role to play in maintaining good relationships. For example, farmers can implement community-friendly farm management practices. This doesn’t necessarily mean more work or more expense. It might be as simple as notifying your neighbors of your work plans so that they can plan accordingly. If farmers want community support they have to be willing to get involved in the communi-
ty. Anticipate the concerns of others and be ready with explanations. Be advocates for farming by educating neighbors and community residents about your seasonal work demands. You’d be surprised at how little non-farmers know about your work.
“If farmers want community support they have to be willing to get involved in the community.” Non-farm neighbors can help support the farms in their communities by buying direct from the farmer at U-pick operations, farm stands, and farmers markets. Remember that farms are businesses, and expect some seasonal disruptions. If you’re planning a special event, let the farmers know far in advance and work with them to accommodate your needs. For example, it is perfectly reasonable to expect that you could hold an outdoor wedding in your garden and not have the farmer mowing hay a few feet away but only if you communicate your needs well in advance. Always ask permission before
If rural communities are going to survive and thrive, agriculture needs more than ever to be more fully integrated into the community. Through mutual understanding and consideration, farmers and their neighbors can help make this possible. Mary Peabody is Extension Specialist in Community Resources & Economic Development with University of Vermont Extension, and Director of the Women's Agricultural Network. You can reach Mary at 802-223-2389 extension 13 or toll free at 866-860-1382 extension 13, or email mary.peabody@uvm.edu.
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Homestead Fields: Dairy Changes Ownership & Style Ed and Ann Walldroff bought the family’s dairy after being in farming for 20 years with Ed’s parents, five brothers and a brother-in-law. Upon taking over ownership, the Walldroffs made several changes, which included converting to grazing. By Peggy Murray Homestead Fields, as Ed and Anne Walldroff call their dairy, has been in the Walldroff family for more than 100 years, making Ed the fifth generation to work this farm. During the 1970s, Ed’s parents ran a 200cow dairy, a 1,500-acre crop operation and a farm equipment business with Ed, his five brothers and a brother-in-law. Each family member had specific responsibilities, with Ed managing the dairy. After 20 years of doing business together, the family decided to sell the dairy, move the equipment business to Watertown and get out of the cash-crop business. There were some conflicts along the way, but for the most part the family was able to separate business from family. The Walldroff family always held Monday night business meetings to discuss all parts of the business. Family members were able to agree to the terms of the sale without involving a third party. With his knowledge of the dairy, Ed felt it could be profitable. He knew there was still a future in dairying, but the Walldroff dairy could only support one family. With that knowledge, the couple decided to buy the dairy from the other family members and exit the family’s equipment business in 1995.
MECHANICS, MANAGEMENT & RESOURCES Today, the Walldroffs milk 125 cows and have approximately 400 acres, with 375 tillable. The Walldroffs house their Holsteins, Jerseys and crossbreds in a freestall barn and milk in a double-seven swing (highline) parlor. Once they took over as sole proprietors of the dairy, the Walldroffs converted to grazing. The Walldroffs made a conscious decision to give up operations that generated the least amount of profit, such as raising heifers and growing crops, to concentrate on their dairy herd. Instead of doing their own cropping, the couple leases land to Ed’s brother Larry and buys back the forages. The Walldroffs feed a mix of haylage and high moisture corn, which they buy in the fall and store in upright, sealed silos. Ed points out that his total cost of buying forages is less than what a 125-cow dairy usually spends on machinery and its repair and maintenance, as shown in the Cornell Dairy Farm Business Summary. Larry also has use of the dairy manure and Ed does not have to pay to have it spread. A contract grower raises the Walldroffs’ heifers beginning at approximately four to five months of age. The herd maintains 60 pounds of milk per cow all year. Costs are much lower during summer months when the herd is grazed. Though he could make more milk with conventional dairying, Ed, who carefully tracks his costs, feels his cows are healthier and his costs are lower with grazing. Homestead Fields employs one full-time person. Ed handles the day-to-day operations of the dairy, and Anne works off the farm. They own all the assets together as
sole proprietors. Upon making the decision to buy the dairy, the Walldroffs first had to get financing. Based on Ed’s 20 years of experience, they got a loan from the Farm Service Agency through its Beginning Farming Program. Charles Colbert of the Farm Service Agency in Canton was also instrumental in securing that loan. At that point, the couple Homestead Fields has been a family farm for more than 100 years. had to ensure that the The grazing operation has 125 cows milking. business cash flowed. Though they didn’t do a helped them implement their rotational complete financial analysis to determine grazing program. An attorney familiar with the dairy’s viability, Ed, a business graduate dairy operations reviewed the business of Canton Agricultural Technical College transfer. Ed often attends Cornell Cooperawith accounting savvy, knew the business’ tive Extension workshops and reads many inputs, outputs and costs. farm publications. He tracks the business’ finances with One Write Plus accounting For the first three years of ownership, the program. Walldroffs put every dollar back into the business to help renovate the barn. Ed creTHE FUTURE ated a drive-through feed alley and a comEd, who is happy with how he runs the pletely automated AO Smith Harvester Sys- dairy, plans to keep the business at its curtem specifically for haylage and high moisrent size. The Walldroffs feel they have the ture corn. He can feed 120 cows in 20 minright resources – land, buildings and labor utes and never leave the barn. – to milk the number of cows they currently do. Ed feels his most valuable resource is He bought a new bulk tank and put in his abundant supply of natural spring water. manure storage. Because Ed culled heavily, There is room to become more efficient, Ed he also had to buy replacement heifers. said, but he isn’t interested in growing his business. In the beginning, the couple was 100% leveraged. By the end of the fourth year, The couple’s goal is to make $1 more per the Walldroffs could see an improvement in cwt. than the Boston Blend price. Ed’s goal cash flow. is to make 60 pounds of high component milk per cow and do it as cheaply as possiIn making these changes, the Waldroffs ble. The Walldroffs hope to be debt free in used many resources including Sonny five years, expecting the business to take Golden from Golden Associates, who Continued on page 21
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COMMUNITY/WORLD
Women in Sustainable Agriculture SARE Conference Celebrates Expanding Opportunities By Martha Herbert Izzi You had to have been in Vermont recently to catch the infectious energy and enthusiasm for farming that over 400 women brought to a two and a half day event from thirty five states and six countries. Women In Sustainable Agriculture: A Celebration of Hope and Opportunity was organized by the University of Vermont Women’s Agricultural Network. Absent were the all-too-familiar legion of desperate stories of loss and hardship which have driven so many farmers out of farming and off the land. Stories which we have almost come to equate with agriculture. To be sure there were tales of missteps and steep learning curves, but they were countered by an air of optimism as people talked about preserving rural communities, new production methods, land stewardship and ways to be more sensitive to nature’s limits. The conference provided an opportunity for participants to learn and connect with each other through a choice of eight farm tours, dozens of workshops and over fifty exhibits. In one farm tour we saw how the goat industry is changing the fortunes of many producers as a result of the growing taste for cheese and burgeoning ethnic populations. In another we saw an expanding agritourism business which will soon include special animal viewing parlours and a larger professional kitchen to cater a variety of events.
ring provided us with important opportunities to network and problem-solve. Women have always been involved in agriculture. That’s not news. The news from the conference is that women are buying and operating farms at rates faster than men. We are cultivating niche markets with websites, farmers’ markets, and CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and using the internet for profitable direct market sales. We are in the vanguard of the locally grown, farm-to-restaurants toschools to-tables movement. And we are campaigning for legislation to protect small farmers from legal consequences of butting up against the behemoths of agribusiness; those corporations with “bullying power” as keynoter Frances Moore Lappe put it. Women are helping new and immigrant farmers get a foothold in farming. And older women are inheriting farms as the biggest land transfer in our history takes place in the next twenty years and 400 million acres become theirs to own, manage and/or sell. STORIES OF SUCCESS A key isssue for organizers and participants was, of course, profitability. One Wisconsin farmer vowed “we weren’t going to be poor.” The former city dweller spoke of the importance of her initial business plan. Five years and twenty five acres later, she grows fiftytwo vegetables and herbs for her CSA, which now numbers 980 members and provides her “a comfortable living, and a cook to prepare healthy lunches for her farm workers who were gulping junk food during the heavy growing season.” A shepherd from Western Massachusetts direct markets her locally grown lamb. “Sometimes I can’t believe that so many people come from Boston and all over Southern New England to pick up their orders. I don’t need to leave the farm.” A Pennsylvania woman spoke of the perils of the “thousand mile Caesar salad.” As a result of being forced to buy supermarket food that had traveled thousands of miles, she organized what has become a thriving farmers’ market “where none existed before in a city of 250,000 people.”
CSA farmer Barb Perkins illustrates “Fast Food from The Farm” -- a cooking demonstration of healthy meals for busy farmers.
NON-STOP LEARNING Throughout the weekend we were able to talk to the many exhibitors, who created veritable learning centers in the halls of the conference center. There were many examples of both new and old methods using minimal equipment, including lowinput grass-based systems, smart methods of livestock management, and alternative health therapies to replace conventional antibiotics and other chemically based prescriptions. Books and specialists on agritourism, marketing, organic farming, cheese-making, financial management, and farm transfer-
A Vermont shepherd spoke of selling lamb to a Northern Vermont farmer for her ballooning sausage business while a West African group from a large community in Lowell, Massachusetts is growing vegetables native to their country with plans to open a market. “We can’t get any of our vegetables at the local supermarket, so we need to grow and sell our own,” she said. Another dairy woman who is in the process of transferring her farm to her two sons and their wives holds weekly staff/family meetings to work out the “unbelievable number of financial and emotional issues” connected with their diverse needs and ambitions for the future operation. THE NEED FOR SMALL FARM ADVOCACY Despite the growth in female-owned and operated farms (numbering 250,000 farms naitonally) few women sit on the critical agricultural decision-making committees. The Federal Farm Bill, for example, is now being readied for the 2007 budget. As one workshop leader said “it is being decided by political science majors and not farmers.” The Bill is currently in the public comment phase as this is written.
According to speaker Kathy Ruhf of the Northeast Sustainable Ag Working Group, “it is critical for regions such as the Northeast to become vocal… We are waging a fight against the big dollars going to commodity growers. The Northeast is underrepresented in terms of subsidies. We are using a strategy of regionalism to get the Feds to give us a bigger share of the federal farm dollar.” She encouraged everyone to provide comments to the USDA about the upcoming Farm Bill. Contributing to the air of celebration over the weekend were seven meals that earned the chef a standing ovation, and local farmers and food suppliers a large percentage of the food dollars. I and hundreds of others came away from the conference feeling a great deal of hope, and thankful for the expanding opportunities taking shape in the world of small farming. Keynote speaker Frances Moore Lappe spoke passionately about the future of food, farming, and democracy.
Conference Keynote Frances Moore Lappe on “Democracy’s Edge” Frances Moore Lappe has been thinking, writing and speaking about unhealthy food production and how it got that way since before 1971 when her landmark book, Diet for a Small Planet, became a household word. She saw then as she does now that “feeding the earth’s people is more profoundly a political and economic problem than an agricultural one.” Lappe has written more than a dozen books and cofounded two national organizations, Food First and Small Planet Institute. She has traveled throughout the world exploring the problem of “Why there is hunger in a world of plenty?” Nobody, she points out, gets up in the morning thinking that “it is okay that thousands of children will die of hunger today.” “How is it,” she asks, “that in spite of the basic goodness of people as individuals, we have always created societies plagued by war and hunger, which as individuals we abhor?” And “Why are there 691 billionaires in the United States with a combined annual income of half the world’s people?” In her quest to answer these questions Lappe has come full circle to the significance of the democratic values introduced to her as a child -- and the absence of them when it comes to farm and food production. For Lappe, it is “thin democracy” -something done to us or for us, and not by us or with us -- which has resulted in countries like the US getting half of its food supply from ten corporations. “That means that the 140 or so people who make up those company’s boards of directors make the decisions about the food we eat.” As an example of the consequences of limited choices, she spoke of the phenomenal growth of the use of high fructose
corn syrup as a substitute for sugar in the last fifteen years. She pointed out that three quarters of the food in our local supermarkets contain high levels of fructose corn syrup, a significant contributor to obesity and compromised tryglycerides. She argued vehemently that there are “choices other than chemical agriculture, genetically modified foods and corporate globalism.” She held the conference participants spellbound as she spoke passionately about how we have consolidated food production and distribution through narrow channels which, in this country, means the “destruction of family-based agriculture and the bulk of government dollars going to agribusiness.” No wonder when there are “fifty six registered lobbyists in Washington for every elected official.” In a lighter moment with a strong message, Lappe spoke of the Quaker woman who invented Monopoly to teach us the lesson that “we all go to bed broke except for the winner” when we fail to restrain the concentration of wealth and power. In her new book, Democracy’s Edge, she speaks of thousands of Americans who are rising up in their communities to tackle problems, “remaking the ground rules that lead to concentrated wealth and power.” The problem of “thin democracy,” she believes is being countered by the flames of “living democracy,” where the future marketplace is subordinate to society’s core ethical and religious values and is responsive to our voices.” Lappe ended her talk with a quote from Maggie Kunin, founder of the Grey Panthers, exhorting us to “Speak even if your voice shakes.”
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
January 9, 2006
Page 21
COMMUNITY/WORLD
Growing Food and Community: Early Morning Organic Farm By Lael Gerhart
rotation, where each field is planted with a different vegetable family every year.
At the Early Morning Organic Farm in Genoa, NY, partners Anton Burkett and Laurie Pattington employ a range of skills and knowledge to keep their farm growing, and a lot of growing they do. The twentyacre farm is home to chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, pigs, and over a hundred different varieties of at least thirty vegetable crops. Although this may be what many of us picture when we think “farm,” in reality most farms today are specialized and grow only a few different crops or a specific type of livestock. In current agricultural terms, the Early Morning Organic Farm would be classified as a small scale diversified farm. The reason Laurie and Anton chose to farm this way is two-fold; they wanted to sell their products directly to the people who would be consuming them and they wanted to manage their farm in a way that would ensure the health and fertility of the land for themselves and their community. Because Early Morning has such a diversity of crops, they have not needed to use synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. They grow their vegetables on a
“Moving different families of vegetables around gives the fields some space, time wise, between crops, Anton explains. “That helps with the disease and pest control because we are able to break up the life cycles of many diseases and pests. One year we will plant cabbage in a certain field and the next year plant tomatoes and the next year plant onions or beets. So every year there is a different plant family there and it will be a number of years before I get back to the cabbage again.” These same fields also get taken out of vegetable production and are given a chance to rest. When taken out of crop rotation, Anton and Laurie plant them in legumes or perennial grasses. Typically fields out of vegetable production are used to pasture livestock, so when the vegetables move out, the pigs move in. The pigs root around in the field and incorporate the legumes or grasses into the soil. This process, along with pig manure, builds up organic matter which keeps the soil healthy and fertile. The management of the farm works like an integrated system and this is the way the
When the vegetables move out, the pigs move in. Photos by Lael Gerhart folks at Early Morning Farm see themselves in relation to their community. Through weekly home deliveries within the Aurora/King Ferry/ Genoa areas and sales at the Ithaca Farmers Market, Laurie and Anton feel that selling directly to their immediate and extended communities gives them an opportunity to make connections and build relationships with people. “Establishing a relationship between the community and the farmer seems like a really important thing,” says Laurie. “It connects people to their food source. People know where their food comes from and how it is produced. They get to really understand what is seasonal here.” Through direct marketing people don’t only get to learn about how their food is produced, but who is producing it.
Continued from page 19 Ed to retirement in approximately 10 years. They are careful to keep an up-to-date will and carry sufficient life insurance. The Walldroff families get along better
Williams
since the separation of the enterprises. Since the sale of the dairy, the family has created a transition plan for the rest of the businesses. Ed’s brother Larry runs the cropping business, and his other brothers run the equipment business.
The Walldroffs have three children who are pursuing careers outside the Come Buy family business. Maria, age What The 24, a graduate of the Fashion Professionals Institute of Technology, worked for FAO Schwartz in Are Using! New York City and is a May
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Lael Gerhart is the Community Foods Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County and serves as staff support to the Finger Lakes Culinary Bounty Program. She loves eating and growing fresh and delicious vegetables!
“What I would like to see is in this area,” Laurie continues, “is thriving communities of people that are really connected to each other on lots of levels. We see the same people every week. We get to know them,
Laurie Pattington and her daughter Noni.
Homestead
we know their names, they know our names, and we watch each others’ children get older and bigger. And we met all of these people through selling them vegetables.”
2005 graduate with a Degree in Elementary Education. Ben, 23, earned a degree from Clarkson University and works for an engineering firm in the Baltimore, Maryland, area. Monica is a junior at Lafargeville Central School and is looking at St. Lawrence University as a political science major.
Family and community are important to the Walldroffs. They’re involved in many agricultural and civic organizations as well as their children’s activities. By grazing his cows, boarding out heifers and buying all his forages, Ed has time for both The Largest JOHN DEERE TOY, his cows and his family. He CLOTHING, AND MERCHANDISE still sees dairy Selection on the Web! farming as a viable business and is happy to Shop online 24 hours a day, have the 7 days a week! opportunity to be involved in HENDREN’S milk producPO Box 130 • Franklin, IN 46131 tion.
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TRANSITION TIPS • If you are not going to do the cropping yourself, make sure you have a good, reliable person to do this for you. • Keep good records, and know your cost of production. • Especially when working with family, keep the lines of communication open. • It helps when going through a transition process, if you have off-farm income and benefits to help with family living expenses. • If you are going to be 80 to 100 percent leveraged, be sure to have an exit plan in place. Peggy Murray is a farm business educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Lewis County. This article is one of twelve in the new “Profiles of Successful Strategies for Small Dairy Farms” publication from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. Other profiles are online at www.nnyagdev.org. For more information on NNYADP, contact Board Chairs Joe Giroux, Plattsburgh, 518-563-7523 or Jon Greenwood, Canton, 315-386-3231, or call Dave Smith at Cornell University at 607-255-7286.
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
Page 22
January 9, 2006
ORGANIC FARMING
Managing Mastitis Without Antibiotics Tips From an Organic Dairy Farm By Kathie Arnold Over fifteen years ago (when we were still conventional), we went cold turkey and quit all antibiotics for mastitis. After years of drytreating every cow and treating every clinical case of mastitis, we were amazed when a hard quarter was down at the next milking without any treatment. We learned that such a reaction was not always because of antibiotic use, but could happen spontaneously—apparently generated by the cow herself. For several years we did no intervention practices for mastitis other than general hygiene and keeping cows with clinical mastitis out of the tank. However, after a number of years we started to have more mastitis and higher cell counts, so we again began selectively dry treating and using some antibiotic treatments during lactation. When we went organic almost eight years ago, our herd somatic cell count (SCC) was right around 400,000, which is the limit for organic certification. While we felt we could again do without antibiotics for mastitis control, we also knew we could not be as relaxed about it as we had been before. We needed to be as management-intensive about mastitis as we are with pasture. We needed to know what we were dealing with, and what management steps could be taken to get and keep our SCC lower. The first step we took was to have Cornell University’s Quality Milk Production Services (QMPS) come and culture the entire herd to tell us what organisms were in our cows.
Since we’ve realized that some cows may have the environmental strain that can be cured, we have gone to putting a green leg band on newly diagnosed Staph. aureus cows, milking them just prior to the other positive cows who have orange leg bands. In this fall’s herd survey, we plan to have QMPS do molecular strain typing on any new Staph. aureus cow to identify whether it is the environmental or the cow-borne strain. Their strain typing work over the last couple of years has shown that there is clearly a different, identifiable pattern between the two types.
“I believe our mastitis management is as effective as when we used antibiotics” Kathie Arnold
Through the testing that has been done on our farm and some others, QMPS has determined that there are both environmental and cow borne strains of Staph. aureus, and that cows can beat the environmental strain. We have had a small portion of newly positive cows that had lower SCCs a month or two after culturing. When re-cultured, some of these cows showed negative. One test is not adequate for making decisions, because it may be that she wasn’t shedding the day the sample was taken. But if a cow comes back negative on three tests, we will take that as evidence that she is no longer carrying Staph. aureus.
TREATMENTS When we have clinical mastitis, our treatment protocol varies. When we’re short on time, we may do nothing other than milking out the cow. Or, we may go as far as a regimen that includes three consecutive days of a subcutaneous shot consisting of 30 cc. of Vitamin C and 30 cc. of a colostrum whey product (Bio-cel CBT or Fertrell’s Fresh Start), giving homeopathic pellets, and rubbing an essential oil mix (Crystal Creek Soft Oil or Dairy Liniment, or Van Beek’s Royal Udder Care) on the affected quarter to bring blood flow and healing to the area. Often a cow will come around, but not always. It does take more time to apply alternative treatments, which is why some cases don’t get treated. When we have a chronic quarter that does not clear up, our long term policy has been to stop milking the affected quarter and let it go dry (milking it out a few times when it looks like it needs it). However, if a cow has multiple chronic quarters, then the beef truck is more likely the answer.
PREVENTIVE MEASURES We had no Strep. ag, but about a third of the herd cultured positive for Staph. Aureus, which is generally resistant to antibiotics. Because Staph. aureus can be transmitted from cow to cow, we began identifying all positive cows by putting leg bands on them, and then always locating them at the end of our tie- stall barn so that they are milked last. Since being organic, we have cultured cows every six months. Occasionally we culture high-SCC or clinical cows between whole-herd surveys. We are down to about 8% of our herd positive for Staph. aureus. It hasn’t been a quick fix: for every three or four positive cows that go out the door on the beef truck in a year, one or two new cows test positive. In general the older, higher producing cows are the ones that test positive, but we will ship them when that high milk production is coupled with a chronically high SCC. However, not every positive cow will have a high SCC, and many never even have a clinical case of mastitis.
Heifers grazing on author Kathie Arnold’s farm in Truxton, NY. Photo by K. Arnold.
Good hygiene is only a first step in preventing mastitis. Photo by QMPS We have mastitis flare-ups from Strep. and other Staph. species occasionally as well. But in general these are not known to be transmitted from cow to cow (although QMPS believes that Strep. uberus can be, at times), so we do not segregate cows that culture positive for these organisms. A few years ago, we had a bout of coliform mastitis, and lost a few cows. We have since vaccinated the herd with J-Vac for ecoli/coliform each year, and have lost no more cows. Only a couple have come down with what we thought was coliform. Their symptoms were much milder than the cases before we vaccinated, and they pulled through the episodes. Our vet says that vaccinating for coliform mastitis will not eliminate it entirely, but will make its impact milder. In addition to the above preventive measures, our management includes: pre- and post-dipping with a 1% iodine teat dip, drying with single-use paper towels, wearing milker gloves, and having our milking equipment checked twice a year by both the company service people and QMPS at the time of their herd surveys. We also add Vitamin E and a bio-available form of selenium (Sel-Plex) to our total mixed ration, since both are very important in immune system function.
We have more three-quartered cows than we’d like—about 6% of the herd is three quartered due to mastitis/high SCC—so we are going to try a new product for intramammary treatment that meets organic specs. Phyto-Mast is a mixture of herbals and Vitamin E in organic canola oil. The tubes were developed by Dr. Hubert Karreman, a veterinarian with Penn Dutch Cow Care in Pennsylvania. Dr. Karreman sells the product through veterinarians— not directly to farmers. He says it should be part of a multipronged approach used in conjunction with a colostrum whey product. His clinic and a Cornell University researcher are conducting a clinical trial. When drying cows off, we put them in a corner of the barn, take them off all TMR and pasture, and just feed them poor quality dry hay for a few days to drop milk production. We don’t withhold water, as we’ve heard this can be detrimental to the fetus. When production is sufficiently low, we’ll milk them out one last time, wipe the teats with a homemade alcohol wipe to remove any dip residue, and tape up the teats with paper tape to give external protection for a few to several days. I believe our mastitis management is as effective as when we used antibiotics. We have not treated a single
case of mastitis with antibiotics since going organic. Last year we culled about 10% of our herd for mastitis or high SCC, but with an involuntary cull rate of 24%, we still have more than enough animals to keep our barn stocked, and often we have some to sell. Over the past couple of years, our SCC has been running at 200,000-300,000 most of the time. Our hope is that since we have culled heavily for mastitis over the years, we are selecting for family lines that are more resistant. We have definitely seen a family association with mastitis susceptibility. We have been doing some breeding to Scandinavian Red over the last several years, as that breed has been selected for mastitis resistance. When we stopped using antibiotics, it lifted a lot of stress—the worry that we would make a mistake and put milk from a treated cow in the tank. That worry no longer exists, which is one important side benefit to what we’re doing. Kathie Arnold farms in Truxton, NY. This article first appeared in Graze, a monthly publication for livestock producers interested in management-intensive grazing and family-scale agriculture. For a free sample copy of Graze, call 608-455-2402; e-mail graze@ticon.net; or go to www.grazeonline.com.
January 9, 2006
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
Page 23
MANAGING RISK
So You Thought the Slow Moving Vehicle Emblem Was Adequate? By Bill Henning On October 18 there was a car-farm tractor accident in Steuben County, NY. A large tractor pulling a five-bottom plow was proceeding down a main highway. The tractor’s right wheels were on the shoulder, the left wheels on the pavement. The tractor driver was operating both of his flashing amber lights. A car came up behind the tractor, struck the plow and traveled underneath it. Very significant damage resulted to the car.
The driver of the tractor, in this case, was issued two tickets for traffic violations. The first ticket was for no slow moving vehicle emblem. That’s understandable. The second ticket was for no red flag or red light on the rear of the plow. That’s the one that’s surprising, not that it doesn’t make good sense. I was just not aware of it. How often have we, myself included, gone on the highway without the proper warning devices? It is so easy to overlook it or
think there won’t be a problem this time – and I’m just as likely to do it again. That’s the easy way out.
The real easy way out is to just take care of safety precautions before hand.
We think that’s the easy way out until we have to pay the traffic tickets – but that’s not all. We live in a litigious society. After the tickets come the increased insurance rates, not to mention the probability of law suits. And if that’s all that happens, you should feel fortunate – thankful that no one got hurt or killed.
NEW FARMERS Resource Spotlight
Farm Service Agency Loan Programs Stabilizing farm income, helping farmers conserve land and water resources, and helping farm operations recover from the effects of disaster are the missions of the US Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency (FSA). FSA also provides credit to new and beginning farmers and ranchers who cannot qualify for conventional loans because they have insufficient financial resources. FSA makes direct and guaranteed farm ownership (FO) and operating loans (OL) to family-size farmers and ranchers who cannot obtain commercial credit from a bank, Farm Credit System institution, or other lender. FSA loans can be used to purchase land, livestock, equipment, feed, seed, and supplies. Their loans can also be used
to construct buildings or make farm improvements. FSA guaranteed loans provide conventional agricultural lenders with up to a 95 percent guarantee of the principal loan amount. The lender is responsible for servicing a borrower's account for the life of the loan. All loans must meet certain qualifying criteria to be eligible for guarantees, and FSA has the right and responsibility to monitor the lender's servicing activities. Farmers interested in these loans must apply to a conventional lender, which then arranges for the FSA guarantee. FSA direct loans make and service FO and OL loans. They provide credit counseling and loan supervision to increase farmers’ success rates in their agricultural operation.
Because FSA receives limited funding for direct loans, applicants may need to wait for funds to become available. To qualify for a direct loan, the applicant must be able to show sufficient repayment ability and pledge enough collateral to fully secure the loan. The FSA website, www.fsa.usda.gov, provides a wealth of information, including: a loan information chart which describes maximum loan amounts, rates, term, and use of proceeds and FSA loan application forms. Contact your local office or USDA Service Center to learn more about FSA programs and guidelines for completing a loan application.
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SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
Page 24
STEWARDSHIP
AND
January 9, 2006
NATURE
Natural Stream Restoration: A New Approach for an Old Problem By Tom Mallory During the summer of 2004, the Delaware County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) Stream Corridor Management Program completed its first demonstration stream restoration project. The project was designed to mimic the function of a natural, healthy stream. The project site is located at Dave Post’s Pineyvale Farm on Town Brook, a tributary of the West Branch of the Delaware River, in the Town of Stamford, New York. A total of 1,200 feet of stream was restored. One of the cardinal rules of stream restoration is that each stream should be naturally adjusted in size and form to match the valley where it is located. The stream should function properly in accordance with its type, and erosion and deposition should be in balance. That is, banks should not be eroding rapidly, and the channel should not be filling up with gravel. The stream should provide adequate biological habitat for fish and other organisms. The “reach” or section of stream on Pineyvale Farm exhibited many problems prior to restoration. The stream was too wide and the banks were too high or incised, preventing the stream from overflowing naturally onto its floodplain. There were too few pools, and those present tended to be shallow. Severe bank erosion was causing gravel bars to form downstream; one very large gravel deposit had formed after a localized flood in 1999. These factors contributed to a poor trout habitat in this reach. Natural channel design is usually based on dimensions, layout, and profile of a reference reach, transferring the characteristics of the reference reach to the stream to be restored. As defined by renowned stream hydrologist Dave Rosgen, a reference reach is one that over time, in the present climate, maintains a stable dimension, pattern, and profile without aggrading (deposition) or degrading (erosion).
Both the reference reach and the project reach must be in the same geologic setting and in the same type of valley. Two references reaches were available for this project, one on Town Brook and one on Pettis Brook near Delancey. Hydraulic channel equations that were applicable to this project were also used, as well as aerial photos dating back to 1943. The design of the restoration was to duplicate the layout of the stream as it appeared in the 1943 photos. The radius, length and spacing of each bend were checked against the reference reach information and equations to ensure that a stable stream was designed. The cross-sectional shape of the channel was designed based on the reference reach information. It was also checked to ensure that there would be enough energy, or shear stress, to move the gravel commonly made available to the stream at this reach. Shear stress is largely dependent on depth, so it was important to make sure that the channel would be neither too shallow nor too deep. The floodplain was designed to a minimum of 2.2 times the top-width of the channel to successfully convey, without damage, floods greater than the normal (bankfull) capacity of the channel. The most noticeable features of the project are the rock vane structures which serve three purposes. Rock vanes act as grade control structures to maintain the desired stream slope, create and maintain pools and direct the flow of water toward the center of the channel, taking stress off the banks. A total of fourteen U-shaped rock cross-vanes and eight single-arm vanes were constructed. The exact duplication of the 1943 stream alignment was not possible. Therefore, a straighter channel was built on the downstream end, allowing the project and existing stream to meet correctly. The use of cross-vanes made it possible to maintain
Before: Eroded banks and limited access to floodplain seen here prior to restoration. Photographer: Scotty Gladstone
The floodplain should be 2.2 times the top-width of the channel to function well. Photographer: Scotty Gladstone proper pool to pool spacing. This spacing is vital because pools operate like “speed bumps” to slow the water down, helping to prevent erosion. Pools also provide a place for mature trout to live. David Post, sixth generation owner of the farm, is very pleased that this stream reach no longer erodes and that native trout have returned. “I was skeptical at first but realized early during construction that this project was going to help. They hardly had begun construction when we got a real big storm. I expected what they had done to be washed out but it held up and very little erosion had occurred. I also noticed nice sized trout had returned to the stream before the project was completed.” The project was finished in September 2004, at a cost of $226,000, weathering three major storms during construction
without any permanent damage. It also weathered Hurricane Ivan and the flood of April 2005. So far, the project has held up well and will be monitored for the next three years. The lessons learned will be beneficial to the Delaware County SWCD Stream Corridor Management Program and will be applied to future stream restoration projects. For more information on this project or natural stream restoration in general please contact Tom Mallory or Scotty Gladstone at the Delaware County Soil & Water Conservation District, 607-865-7162 or tom-mallory@ny.nacdnet.org. You may also contact David Post at Pineyvale Farm at 607-5389056. Tom Mallory is Stream Program Engineer with the Delaware County Soil & Water Conservation District.
After: The same location after restoration. Note sloping banks that allow overflow onto the floodplain with minimal erosion. Photographer: Gideon Frisbee
Check out our new Small Farms Web Site! www.smallfarms.cornell.edu
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
January 9, 2006
Page 25
MANAGING RISK
Working Together to Reduce Risks Careful cow care and cautious expansion help this dairy family prepare for the next generation. By Julie Berry
Editor’s note: This profile is part of a series focusing on risk management funded by the New York Crop Insurance Education Program under the Risk Management Agency (USDA) and the NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets. Healthy and happy cows, family members, and employees combined with careful and conservative financial management. That’s a recipe for reducing risks for the Beller family – Glenn, Emily and their son, Jon – whose 150 cows produce award-winning milk on their farm in Carthage, N.Y. The Bellers work together to anticipate problems before they arise, and to reduce risks across the farm. They use a cautious business style and aren’t afraid to seek professional advice when needed. “We don’t do everything right,” admits Glen. “But we’ve always been open about working together and taking suggestions from others. We’ve always been surrounded by good people.” To encourage Jon to stay on the farm – and to reduce risk to the business should he decide to leave – the Bellers recently formed a Limited Liability Company (LLC) with help from Farm Credit consultant John Lehr. The move transfers part ownership of cattle and machinery to Jon over a sevenyear period. “We want to encourage him,” Emily says. “But it protects the farm if Jon decides to leave. The farm would survive.” Jon graduated from the Agricultural Business and Animal Science program at the State University of New York at Cobleskill, and worked for a year on another progressive farm. His return and eventual partnership provides a future for him, but also allows for his parents’ eventual retirement, and protects the farm if one of them becomes debilitated. The family also purchases health insurance. “We own too much not to,” Glenn says. MEASURED GROWTH A cautious approach to expansion has helped the Bellers manage financial risks while growing the business so it can support the whole family. With Jon’s return from school and encouragement from veterinary consultant John W. Ferry, the family in 1999 built a free stall barn for their cows. To prepare, the Bellers researched facility plans and used their own labor to reduce costs while finishing a milking parlor in the adjoining tie stall. “They have used education as a risk-management tool,” observes Frans Vokey, a dairy educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Lewis County. Vokey recently featured the Bellers in a program about low-cost parlor construction. He was impressed that the couple made time to attend a three-day parlor design and construction conference in Pennsylvania months before building their own. The family’s careful cow management helped them fill the new free stall solely
through internal herd growth. To ensure no lapse in reproductive performance or health status of the cows, the Bellers rely on sound preventative management practices and regular visits from veterinarian Mark Thomas. For example, with help from Thomas and Quality Milk Production Services, they learned to culture their own milk so they can respond rapidly to any mastitis outbreaks. The family meets weekly to discuss herd health issues so that they can nip any problems in the bud. “We’ve always been kind of conservative in our approach,” Glenn says. “When we built the free stall, we never purchased animals and we didn’t borrow any more money than we had to.” LOW-STRESS ENVIRONMENT Although the new free stall and parlor save labor, the Bellers still admit they work long hours. To avoid burnout, each family member takes most of one day off each week, and limits chores on Sundays. They reduce frustration and keep everyone working efficiently by making sure that equipment is well-maintained. “We do work long hours, but we try to have a low-stress environment, and we try not to run up against disaster,” Glenn says. To help with the work load, the Bellers hire one year-round person and up to five parttimers during crop season, when they harvest 500 acres of corn and hay on their own and rented ground. Keeping stress low for employees, as well, helps avoid labor shortages, the Bellers believe. Writing weekly paychecks also helps keep employees happy. And the farm’s workers compensation plan protects the farm against legal and financial risks. “We’re extremely fortunate. We like to think we’re good employers,” Glenn says. “We try to make it low-stress and tell them to take their time and do a good job. Going fast doesn’t always get the job done quicker.” REINING-IN COSTS Family members also draw a salary, and together create a budget that they know they’ll have to live up to. Every other month, they meet with Dr. Ferry to compare “performance to budget.” “In a word it’s accountability,” Emily says. During these meetings the family evaluates finances, including salary, milk production and grain costs. They also track cow and heifer numbers and cull rates, and deal with any other concerns, such as feed inventory. For example, recent budget analysis revealed that semen expenses were on the rise because they were purchasing higherquality semen and maintaining a larger inventory. “The budget allowed us to see spending was out of line and it opened the doors for discussion,” Glenn says. The Bellers also keep a written multiyear projection of equipment, facilities, land, and machinery needs and costs based on the previous year’s budget. This plan includes a strategy for purchasing land and a machinery replacement schedule that helps the
Jon, Emily and Glenn Beller. The Bellers filled their free stall without purchasing new cows. Photos by Julie Berry
What you can learn from the Bellers: Here are a dozen ways the Bellers reduce risks on their dairy farm: 1. Seek professional help when needed. 2. Structure the farm business for smooth transition to the next generation. 3. Invest in labor-saving facilities without breaking the bank. 4. Build herd from within without purchasing new cows. 5. Provide everyone with time off. 6. Slow down and do the job right. 7. Be a good boss and neighbor. 8. Meet regularly to analyze finances and other issues. 9. Develop a long-term plan for machinery replacement and land purchases. 10. Purchase health insurance to protect farm assets. 11. Be a low-cost producer. 12. Develop a conservation plan.
family resist impulse purchases that they can’t afford. “This really helps when we see this good deal on a chopper,” Glenn says. The farm also uses benchmarking surveys through Cornell’s Dairy Farm Business Summary, Dr. Ferry and Farm Credit. These summaries help the farm identify their weaknesses as well as their strengths. “Year in and year out the Bellers are the
lowest-cost producers I work with,” Dr. Ferry reports. Based on a recent risk management selfsurvey from Cornell University’s NYFarmNet program, the family is also considering an annual review of their farm insurance policies to be sure they have adequate coverage as the farm grows. (See Resource Spotlight) GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY The Bellers developed a conservation plan for their highly erodible lands to help minimize environmental risks. And with growing concern about nuisance lawsuits, they try their best to be good neighbors. They encourage neighbors to tell them when they plan outdoor events and avoid spreading manure during holidays and hot weather. They quickly scrape off any mud tracked onto the roads and all equipment has appropriate safety signs. But the bottom-line focus of this National Dairy Quality award-winning family is their cows. “We make sure everybody is watching the cows,” Jon says. Although each person is responsible for a specific area – Jon for calves, cows and herd health, Emily for milking and Glenn for feeding – they all are committed to making sure each job is done well. “We all know what has to be done,” Jon says. Julie Berry is a Resource Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County.
Resource Spotlight
NYFarmNet Offers Risk-Management Consulting The NYFarmNet program based at Cornell University offers free and confidential onfarm consultation on risk management and other business, financial, family and personal topics. NYFarmNet consultants often come out to the farm to meet with the family to help them develop a personalized risk management plan that takes into account all types of risk – production, marketing, people, financial and legal. NYFarmNet also offers risk management publications, including Using Crop Insurance: Profiles of 13 Farmers Who Use Crop Insurance as a Risk Management Tool and its companion workbook Do I Need Crop Insurance? Self Evaluating Crop Insurance as a Risk Management Tool in New York State. Free to New York farmers. Phone: 800-5473276. Visit NYFarmNet’s website at: www.nyfarmnet.org.
SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
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January 9, 2006
THOUGHT
Farmer-To-Farmer Learning: New Roles for Extension Educators By Anu Rangarajan and Joanna Green The Cornell Small Farm Program was established in 2000 with the mission to “Foster the sustainability of diverse, thriving small farms that contribute to food security, healthy rural communities, and the environment.” In support of this mission we provide information to producers and their exten-
Working With Groups of Farmers Facilitation Skills for Success ■ Understand Group Evolution. Groups are dynamic and go through an evolution over time (forming, storming, norming, performing, maybe adjourning). A facilitator should be flexible and adjust their role based upon the group and its stage. ■ Communicate Clearly. Be an active listener. Ask open questions to encourage people to share their ideas and keep discussion rolling. ■ Maintain Clear Logistics. Help the group start and end its meetings on time. Make sure the room is comfortable. Help them set clear agendas with goals. For example, is an agenda item for Announcement, Discussion, or Decision? ■ Keep Focused on Process. Monitor group dynamics, and help maintain an open environment for discussion, with participation from all. Help the group stay on task but not at the expense of good communication. ■ Intervene When Needed with difficult or dominating people, or to clarify viewpoints or conflicting information. ■ Develop Working Agreements. This is a list of simple agreements that the group makes, defining how members desire to interact with each other. They help create and maintain an environment of respect. Examples might include “Speak for Yourself,” “Participate Fully,” “Respect Risk Takers,” “Listen for Understanding,” or “Share the Air Time.” ■ Cultivate Ownership and Leadership by Group. This can occur by making the group responsible for agenda setting, and sharing roles for meeting management (chair, notes, time keeper, process observer). Request regular feedback on group process and facilitation. Rotate snack responsibilities or even meeting site to different host farms. On an individual basis, be supportive and coach/mentor farmer leaders in the group. ■ Let go of being the expert.
sion educators via Small Farm Quarterly, our website www.smallfarms.cornell.edu, and our email newsletter; we conduct meetings and focus groups with producers to gather information about their research and extension needs; and we foster teams at Cornell and with our community partners to conduct research and extension projects focused on small farm viability. We also put a lot of energy into professional development for Extension educators to support them in their work with small farms. WHAT FARMERS WANT FROM EXTENSION Over several years of listening to farmers, we have found some key themes for how extension can serve small farms. These needs include the usual technical assistance roles for extension and research. But increasingly, small farm operators are also asking Extension to play an organizing and community development role, beyond the usual duties of agricultural educators. They want Extension to: • Help build bridges with other farmers, to overcome the isolation small farmers experience and build more connection and cooperation • Facilitate networking among farmers on a county or multi-county basis • Develop farmer-to-farmer mentoring and apprenticeship programs • Play an active role in developing local/regional marketing systems and processing infrastructure, such as slaughter facilities • Help groups of farmers develop more coordinated marketing and purchasing systems, e.g. farm-to-restaurant, marketing cooperatives, group purchases • Advocate for small farm needs by summarizing their interests, sharing these interests in various communities and helping link producers with leaders Within the mission of the Cornell Small Farm Program, we have some larger goals that build upon these needs. We seek to develop greater leadership among NY’s small farm operators, to do the needed advocacy and promotion work for their sectors. This is challenging given that most small farms have limited flexibility in their management and schedules to allow for greater off-farm involvement. We recognize that technical information is not scale-neutral, and to be effective, our educational approach must meet more than one need for these busy operators. We seek to increase the amount of research and extension focused on small farm by Cornell and Cornell Cooperative Extension. While doing this, we focus very heavily on building CCE capacity for facilitation and leadership development, since strengthening the ties among farms will help meet several of the needs expressed by farmers as well as help cultivate the leadership needed within the small farm community. To achieve these goals, the Cornell Small Farm Program has invested the New York
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The Small Farms Program has provided numerous mini-grants to Extension educators working with farmer discussion groups, such as this beef producers group in Ontario County.
Cornell University Cooperative Extension of New York City is one of a handful of Extension Associations that have organized farmer-to-farmer mentoring projects with support from the Small Farms Program. Here Hector Tejada, an immigrant farmer participating in NYC Extension’s New Farmer Development Project, meets with his mentor, well know small farmer and author George DeVault. State allocation of USDA Small Farm funds, • about $25,000 per year, into an “Innovative Small Farm Education Grants” program for extension educators. All projects must cul• tivate farmer-to-farmer educational strategies to help build local learning networks. These educational strategies may be struc• tured numerous ways including: • Farmers as Examples, as workshop speakers, case profiles, or farm tour • hosts • Farmer Networks, both informal (occasional meetings, listserves, newsletters) and formal (regular meetings) HEATMOR • Farmer Discussion Groups, in which a local group of farmers meets several times over a period defined by them
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Farmer Mentors, involving pairing of experienced producers with those needing training in a one-on-one relationship Farmer Mentor Training, to help these experienced farmers become more effective teachers On-farm Internships/apprenticeships, to provide on-farm experience and mentoring Farmer Cooperation, in which a group of producers set some specific goals to work together
Continued on next page
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SMALL FARM QUARTERLY
January 9, 2006
FARM FOLLIES
A Carpenter’s Gift Once upon a time two brothers who lived on adjoining farms fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side by side, sharing machinery, and trading labor and goods as needed without a hitch. Then the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference, and finally it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence. One morning there was a knock on John's door. He opened it to find a man with a car-
penter's toolbox. “I'm looking for a few days work” he said. “Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there. Could I help you?” “Yes,” said the older brother. “I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That's my neighbor, in fact, it's my younger brother. Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I'll go him one better. See that pile of lumber curing by the barn? I want you to build me a fence - an 8-foot fence - so I won't need to see his place anymore. Cool him down, anyhow.” The carpenter said, “I think I understand
the situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you.” The older brother had to go to town for supplies, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day. The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing. About sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer's eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped. There was no fence there at all. It was a bridge... a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work handrails and all - and the neighbor,
Page 27 his younger brother, was coming across, his hand outstretched. “You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I've said and done.” The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then they met in the middle, taking each other's hand. They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox on his shoulder. “No, wait! Stay a few days. I've a lot of other projects for you,” said the older brother. “I'd love to stay on,” the carpenter said, “but, I have many more bridges to build.”
Author Unknown
Resource Spotlight
Highlights from the 4th National Small Farms Conference Small Farms Program Director Anu Rangarajan, SFQ Editorial Team members Bernadette Logozar and Bill Henning, Leadership Team member Monika Roth, CCE Educator Bob Weybright and Duncan Hilchey from Cornell’s Community, Food and Agriculture Program recently participated in the fourth National Small Farms Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina. The conference included over 130 presentations, 52 exhibits, 58 posters, and ten different tours to agribusinesses serving small farms, research facilities, and farms. Anu, Bernadette and Monika presented a poster highlighting the Cornell Small Farm Program. Anu also made an oral presentation on our CCE Small Farm Grants program and professional development efforts for extension educators. Conference highlights from Bill Henning: Entertainment farming is on the increase. The average visitor to a farm will return at
Continued from prev. page FARMER DISCUSSION GROUPS In the last three years we have focused a lot of effort on fostering farmer discussion groups. These groups, with careful facilitation, can evolve to be self-directed, with farmers setting the agenda and goals. Discussion groups, by their nature, foster peerto-peer learning, brainstorming and analysis of information. Farmers trust other farmers’ experience, and by evaluating how technologies or practices fit on a farm-tofarm basis, these discussions cultivate systems thinking. Some of the most important benefits, however, are the networking and socializing that occur. Educators are sometimes surprised to find that farmers will stay well past the end of the meeting just to carry on their conversations. Through our grants program, we have sponsored at least 19 discussion groups around NYS, focusing on numerous areas, including livestock (e.g
least four more times. They will spend $45 per visit and will travel about 80 miles for the experience. Some corn mazes have grossed $15,000 in one weekend. Producer/consumer cooperatives capitalize on the ‘Buy Fresh, But Local’ campaign and the slow food movement. One Nebraska cooperative handles 1,600 different items, not all food. Both the producer and the consumer pay a 5% commission. Food marketing alliances create product identity and assure product quality and verifiable production methods. They enhance marketing clout with supermarket chains while providing the chains with unique marketing opportunities. A commission is charged to the producer for the service provided. In return the producer gets an organized marketing system along with premium prices. Firing Your Customer was another topic. Don’t be cheaper. Be better. Be different.
group action. To cultivate this type of shared leadership requires solid facilitation skills and good planning, often beyond most Extension educators’ training.
The success of these groups depends, in part, on good facilitation skills, especially early on. The facilitator serves as a “neutral process guide.” This is a new role for most Extension educators. The facilitator’s goal is not to be the expert but to help the group of farmers have a constructive discussion. This involves making the process easier by encouraging participation, creating ownership and cultivating decision-making by the members, and ultimately, serving the group.
BUILDING FACILITATION SKILLS IN EXTENSION Given our larger goal of increasing small farmer leadership, we realized that supporting educators to host discussion groups was not enough. We needed to help educators be successful facilitators and help them understand group process. So we initiated a professional development program two years ago specifically focused on these skills. Thus far, about 85 agricultural professionals have been through a basic training on facilitation offered through the Small Farms Program.
The ideal is to see a discussion group move from being one where the primary responsibility and leadership rests with one person (for example the Extension educator) to a group where the members share responsibility for peer teaching, logistics and problem-solving, and perhaps even
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Highlights from Bob Weybright: In Illinois, there is a program called Marketmaker(tm) that represents a significant opportunity to advance the selling capability of small farmers across the country. At this time the program is a comprehensive frame work that allows buyers and sellers of products to locate each other. This effort differs from others that have been tried in that it uses modern technology to search and identify buyers and sellers by address, need, interest, or size. What is particularly exciting is the fact that the framework has been developed and is ready to be back filled with data to make it usable. Towards this end the University of Illinois is looking for partners across the
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These programs are taught by professional facilitation trainers, skilled in all types of group process. The training goals include enhancing strategies for getting groups started, understanding group process and development, exploring ways to change roles and transfer leadership, and troubleshooting for difficult situations. We purposely have structured the trainings to balance theory with practice. After learning some aspect of group facilitation, the trainees practice new skills in small groups with other educators. In each small group, roles include facilitator, time keeper, recorder and process observer. Thus, each individual can practice skills for group facilitation in a safe and supportive environment. Given the strong interest expressed thus far, we have assembled a professional
country to work as partners, which will result in a national information resource usable by all. The Piedmont Co-Op has been making 100% bio-diesel for their members to operate their vehicles for some time. They have refined their system to include quality specifications for both incoming and outgoing materials. They conduct quality assurance tests on incoming waste oils to adjust their processing materials so that a quality output is received. In addition to this they have evaluated their processing flow to determine the best manner with which they handle waste outputs from the bio-diesel refining process. The Piedmont system has chosen a catalyst that results in glycerin that is compost friendly. They have constructed a water garden system to naturally filter undesirable compounds from the waste cleansing water. And, most important from a consumer acceptance perspective, they have a well defined quality assurance system to keep vehicle operation on par with modern expectations..
development team to help plan for additional training. Our team includes groups that focus on all aspects of community development. Future trainings include advanced facilitation skills, team-building, working constructively with conflict, and collaborative problem-solving. Thus, to help build leadership and stronger networks among NY’s small farm operators, we have focused on strengthening our educators’ abilities as facilitators. We believe that by fostering ongoing discussion and interaction among local farmers, educators can play a key role in helping farmers overcome isolation, learn from each other, and ultimately develop collaborative efforts that will increase small farm profitability and viability in New York. Anu Rangarajan is Director and Joanna Green is Extension Associate with Cornell’s Small Farm Program. Anu can be reached at 607-255-1780; ar47@cornell.edu; Joanna at 607-2559227, jg16@cornell.edu.