Country Folks, Crop Comments
Crop
Posted on December 3, 2025
As I wrote this column, the actual holiday was three days away. The happening should be considered more a season, not just a single square on a calendar page displaying the fourth Thursday of each November. A look at early colonial history in Massachusetts supports my reasoning. The first Thanksgivi...
Country Folks
by Ben Simons 
Posted on November 25, 2025
On Oct. 21 the Oneida County Farm Bureau hosted their 70th anniversary annual dinner meeting at Franklin Hotel Restaurant in Rome. The dinner menu was made up of locally grown products from Twin Orchards Farm Stand, Jake’s Gouda Cheese, John Collins Farm & Creamery, Neil Collins Family Maple, Simmon...
Country Folks
by Laura Rodley 
Posted on November 25, 2025
Shelley Gray and her husband Roger have been raising turkeys for 30 years at Gray Family Farm in New Windsor, NY. First they raised chickens at the farm. “Since we did chickens, I thought I could do turkeys. You think you know chickens, so you think you know turkeys,” she said. Not so, she found. “F...
Country Folks
by Kelsi Devolve 
Posted on November 25, 2025
Receiving funding through a grant is a huge honor and success, but it takes a lot of work to earn it. Going through the process of applying for a grant can be really overwhelming, but the Tri-State Extension Dairy Team hosted a webinar to make the process easier to comprehend. UVM Extension Dairy Re...
Country Folks
by Kelsi Devolve 
Posted on November 25, 2025
Virtual fencing is a relatively new farming option in the Northeast, but it’s very effective and reduces labor when moving animals between pastures. Virtual fencing is a way to create boundaries in a pasture without putting up a physical fence. This technology allows farmers to create digital bounda...
Country Folks
Crop Comments
Crop Comments A9 
Posted on November 25, 2025
The fertilizer market, both nationally and internationally, has been anything but boring since the new administration took over Washington 10 months ago. I keep my eyes on the seesaw economic behavior of fertilizer ingredients more than most people do. Expecting that change might be brewing in the c...
Country Folks
by Sonja Heyck-Merlin 
Posted on November 25, 2025
Allison Wilton is a market analyst for the National Milk Producers Federation and U.S. Dairy Export Council . In a recent episode of the “ Cow Convos ” podcast, Wilton discussed the current state of the dairy industry in the U.S. and New York State. The monthly podcast is hosted by Kaitlyn Lutz and ...
News
Courtney Llewellyn 
Posted on November 19, 2025
After being in practice for more than 40 years, Dr. Pam Ruegg, DVM, Michigan State University, has seen many changes not only in how mastitis is detected, but how it’s treated. “What I’m seeing around the U.S. is a lapse in people using DHIA individual cow data, fewer people doing foremilking and re...
News
Courtney Llewellyn 
Posted on November 19, 2025
As water grows scarcer and feed costs climb higher, dairy producers are turning their attention to an old crop with new potential. Sorghum, once seen as a secondary silage source, is moving to the forefront of forage innovation. In “Profit‑Focused Feeding: Sorghum’s Value in Dairy Nutrition,” a rece...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
March 4, 2026
As African swine fever (ASF) inches closer to the U.S., many countries are already dealing with the devastating disease that can shut down both large ...
Country Folks
by Maddy Poitras 
March 4, 2026
I am Maddy Poitras, an active Junior member in the seven major dairy breeds associations. Every year the event I most look forward to, which starts th...
Country Folks
ning of different colors. Go out every by Karl H. Kazaks 
March 4, 2026
Over 650 people attended the 2026 North Carolina Commodities Conference. One of the highlight speakers was Alex Harrell, farmer from southwest Georgia...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
March 4, 2026
For Kerry Hollier, owner of Teasel Meadow Farms in Red Creek, NY, raising pigs is in his blood. For the past 10 years, he’s raised freezer pork and fe...