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Feature ArticlesGetting Started With Christmas Trees . .Page 8

Sheep Breeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Blind Cultivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 17

Grasstravaganza 2008! . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 18

SMALL FARM QUARTERLYGood Living and Good Farming – Connecting People, Land, and Communities

Supplement to Country Folks

WINTER 2008

2 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY January 7, 2008

SMALL FARM QUARTERLYGood Farming and Good Living —

Connecting People, Land, and Communities

Small Farm Quarterly is for farmers and farm families — including spouses and chil-dren - 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.• Share important research, extension, and other resources.

Small Farm Quarterly is produced by Lee Publications, Inc., and is distributed four times ayear as a special section of Country Folks. Volume 5 publication dates: July 9 andOctober 8, 2007; January 7 and April 7, 2008.

EDITORIAL TEAM:• Anu Rangarajan, Cornell Small Farms Program• Joanna Green, Cornell Small Farms Program• Brian Aldrich, Cayuga County CCE• Fay Benson, Cortland County CCE• Laura Biasillo, Broome County CCE• Celeste Carmichael, NYS 4-H Youth Development Program• Gary Goff, Cornell Natural Resources Department• Bill Henning, CCE-NWNY Dairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Team/PRO-DAIRY• Martha Herbert Izzi, Vermont Farmer• Sarah Johnston, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets• Betsy Lamb, CCE Integrated Pest Management Program• Bernadette Logozar, Franklin County CCE• Sue Neal, New York Farmer• Rebecca Schuelke, NY Farm Viability Institute• John Thurgood, Delaware County CCE-NYC Watershed Agriculture Program

FOR SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION CONTACTTracy Crouse, Lee Publications, Inc., PO Box 121, Palatine Bridge, NY 13428

888-596-5329 [email protected]

FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION CONTACT:Bruce Button, Lee Publications, Inc., 518-673-3237

[email protected]

SEND YOUR LETTERS AND STORIES TO:Joanna Green

Cornell Small Farms Program135 Plant Science Building, Cornell University

Ithaca, NY, 14853607-255-9227 [email protected]

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.

ABOUT OUR ADS...All advertisements in Small Farm Quarterly are managed by Lee Publications. Cornell’s SmallFarms Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and other Small Farm Quarterly sponsors andcontributors do not endorse advertisers, their products or services. We receive no revenues fromadvertisers.

To find out how your business or organization can advertise in Small Farm Quarterly, contact:Bruce Button, Lee Publications, 1-518-673-3237, [email protected].

SMALL FARM QUARTERLY - WINTER 2008TABLE OF CONTENTS

SMALL FARM PROGRAM UPDATECornell Small Farms Program Update ........................................................Page 3

COWS AND CROPSSmall Dairy Success Story, by Joan Sinclair Petzen...................................Page 4Blind Cultivation, by Ken Wise ...................................................................Page 17

BUSINESS MANAGEMENTSmall Farms: Make Your Numbers Known .................................................Page 4Carrot Project Seeks Input on Smal Farm Financing Needsby Dorothy Suput .........................................................................................Page 13

The 5 C’s of Credit, by David Leverett ........................................................Page 16

FOREST AND WOODLOTOur Woodlot Ownership Plans and Memories, By Barbara Wenke.........Page 13

GRAZINGWhat Makes a Profitable Grazing Dairy? by Jim Grace .............................Page 6Whole Farm Health, by Karen Hoffman Sullivan.........................................Page 18Added Nutritional Value of Grass-fed Beef, by Thomas Gallagher ..........Page 22

STEWARDSHIP & NATURERed-Tailed Hawks, by David Kline ................................................................Page 5Agricultural Environmental Management

-- Farming in Harmony with Stream Health, by Barbara Silvestri .....Page 23

MARKETINGI Want to Leave a Market: Lydia Ratcliff, by Martha Herbert Izzi .............Page 19

NEW FARMERSPassing on the Farm, by Edward Staehr......................................................Page 3Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery, by Chanda Lindsay .................................Page 12

NON-DAIRY LIVESTOCKLivestock Processing Service by Rebecca Schuelke and Kathy Houvis ...Page 7Choosing A Breed for a Pasture Based Sheep Farm, by Ulf Kintzell......Page 14New Statewide Work Team Tackles Livestock Processing Issues,by Martha Goodsell ......................................................................................Page 24

WOMEN IN AGRICULTURELiving History, by Susan Neal.....................................................................Page 11

ORGANIC FARMINGGetting Your Vitamins Starts with Variety andGrowing Method, by Sarah Johnston..........................................................Page 10

HOME AND FAMILYDiet for Small Planet, by Susan Lang.........................................................Page 15

HORTICULTUREGetting Started in Christmas Tree Production, by Elizabeth Lamb ...........Page 8

RESOURCE SPOTLIGHTSNew Guide to High Tunnel Berry Production .............................................Page 9Living History Museums ............................................................................Page 11NESARE Farmer Grants .............................................................................Page 12Economic Viability of Grazing Dairy Farms .............................................Page 17Northeast Grasstravaganza 2008 ..............................................................Page 18

YOUTH PAGESA Wonderful Opportunity ...........................................................................Page 20My First State Fair Experience ..................................................................Page 20Livestock Judging ......................................................................................Page 21New York State Maple Queen .....................................................................Page 21

Cornell Small Farms Programwww.smallfarms.cornell.edu607-255-9227

PRO-DAIRY/CCE-NWNY Dairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Team

www.ansci.cornell.edu/prodairy 607-255-4285

Watershed Agricultural Councilwww.nycwatershed.org607-865-7790

NYS 4-H Teen Programwww.cce.cornell.edu/4h

607-255-0886

www.cce.cornell.edu www.cals.cornell.edu

SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS:

Cover photo: Cross-bred piglets (50% Large Black, with Duroc, Yorkshire, Poland China, andBerkshire.) Photo by Bill Henning

by Edward Staehr

So far this year, over 50 farms are in theprocess of being transferred to the next gener-ation through the efforts of NY FarmNet/FarmLink consultants. Our consultants have awide range of experience, and many havespent an entire career working with farm fami-lies. Consultants employ excellent facilitationskills to guide families through transferring bothassets and management to the next genera-tion.

While there are new legal tools to help accom-plish one's transfer and estate planning goals,concentrating on family goals is an initial stepto success. Families have varying objectives,and every farm transfer is different. NYFarmLink has guides for both the senior andthe junior generation, which identify options forsuccessful transfers. Since the goals of eachgeneration can be different, the NY FarmLinkconsultants facilitate transfers by helping eachgeneration communicate and learn how tohave successful farm meetings to plan thefuture of the business.

In some cases, a farm may have to makechanges to improve profitability before a trans-fer can proceed. Financial consultants fre-quently help farm families evaluate options toimprove the business. In the interim stages ofthe transfer, FarmLink consultants can helpplan a gradual transfer of management respon-sibility to the junior generation, while helpingthe senior generation acclimate to their newrole as a mentor.

Once all members involved in the farm have amutual understanding about how the farm willcontinue in the future, families are ready tocontact an attorney, who will formalize a trans-fer. A competent and experienced attorney is akey final step in drafting a transfer plan thatboth generations find acceptable. An effectivefarm transfer agreement will address theissues of protecting assets, limiting liability, andestate planning.

For more information about farm transfer,please look for the upcoming documentary tobe aired on PBS, entitled NY FarmLink- ABridge Across the Generations. This documen-tary celebrates the successes of NY FarmLinkand its approach to achieving effective farmtransfers. Three farm families tell their stories

of how NY FarmLink facilitated a farm transferbetween two generations, and helped eachgeneration through implementing decisions ontheir path to success.

Ed Staehr is the Communications Director forthe NY FarmLink and NY FarmNet programs.He can be reached at (800) 547-3276 [email protected]. If you are in New York Stateand are interested in transferring your farm,you can contact the NY FarmLink program at(800) 547-3276.

3January 7, 2008 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY

MIKE BAKER NAMED INTERIM PROGRAM DIRECTOR NYS Beef Extension Specialist Mike Baker has been appointedas interim Directors of the Cornell Small Farms Program duringAnu Rangarajan's six month sabbatical, which began in October.Mike is the in Cornell's Department of Animal Science, and a longtime ally of the Small Farms Program. Since almost all of NY'sbeef farms are small, part time operations, Mike has a real appre-ciation for the importance of small farms in our state and we'revery pleased to be working with him.

THE NY SMALL FARM SUMMIT - FROM IDEAS TO ACTIONOur 2006 Summit drew attention to key small farm opportunitiesin New York State. Based on these opportunities and recommend-ed investments, we launched three new statewide Work Teamsthis fall to move forward in the areas of Local Markets, LivestockProcessing and Grasslands Utilization. Each of these teamsreceived a "Small Farms Grant" of $5,000 in October to pursue astatewide strategy in their respective issue area. A fourthstatewide team - the NY Beginning Farmer Project - had alreadybeen organized and funded through other sources.

Each of the four Work Teams is working to improve coordinationamong the agencies supporting NY small farms, and to identifypriorities for additional funding and staffing to develop economi-cally viable opportunities for small farms.

The 2007 Small Farms Summit took place on November 29 withover 120 participants at four videoconference sites. Local discus-sions focused on providing input for the four Work Teams. Wewere also very pleased to be joined by Patrick Hooker, NYSCommissioner of Agriculture. Farmers at the four sites had anopportunity to voice questions, suggestions and concerns directlyto Commissioner Hooker and to hear his thinking on importantsmall farm issues and opportunities.

NEW BEGINNING FARMER RESOURCES Our Beginning Farmer Project team recently published a newGuide to Farming in NYS, which has been extremely wellreceived by farmers, educators, lenders and others in New Yorkand beyond. Organized as series of 1-3-page fact sheets, theGuide provides comprehensive information on legal, financial,

marketing, regulatory, and other critical issues. It is availableonline at www.smallfarms.cornell.edu/pages/resources/ beginning/index.cfm.

The team's new Beginning Farmer Website offers learning mod-ules, decision aids, a personal profile for customized assistance,events calendar, links to helpful agencies, and an educator tool-box at http://beginningfarmers.cce.cornell.edu. In addition theteam has also developed a new 9-week, online course titledBeginning Farmer 101. The class is facilitated by Extension edu-cators using content from the new Beginning Farmer Website. Itintegrates several dynamic elements including discussion groups,quizzes, real-time Q&A, and active networking among peers. Theonline course will be offered publicly this Spring.

SMALL FARM EDUCTION GRANTSWe were also pleased to announce our 2007-8 grant awards forinnovative small farm education. These grants are made availableto Cornell Cooperative Extension educators with creative programideas that specifically target local small farm businesses and thefamilies who live and work on these farms.

This year we received twenty proposals seeking a total of$83,715. Two teams from the Cornell Small Farm Task Group(including five small farm operators) reviewed the proposals.Eleven projects were funded for a total of $30,000. A list of fund-ed projects and reports from previous projects can be found atwww.smallfarms.cornell.edu/pages/projects/working/index.cfm.

ORGANIC DAIRY INITIATIVE UPDATEOur NYS Organic Dairy Initiative launched a new website this fallat www.organic.cornell.edu/organicdairy/Initiative.html. The siteincludes the latest in organic dairy news, resources, FAQ's, pro-duction and marketing. The Organic Dairy Initiative is also work-ing on a new consumer education project to help consumersidentify where their milk is processed so that they can supportNew York farms and processing companies. The project is gettingthe word out that the first two digits of a code stamped on eachmilk carton traces the milk to the state in which it was processed.The processing codes can be found at:www.organic.cornell.edu/organicdairy/ConsumerEd.html.

Cornell Small Farms Program Update

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 2008 copies need to be ordered by March 7.

To find out more, contact:Tracy Crouse

Country Folks SubscriptionsP.O. Box 121, Palatine Bridge, NY 13428

1-888-596-5329 email: [email protected]

NEW FARMERS

Passing on the FarmNY FarmNet/ FarmLink consultants excel in facilitating farmtransfers

NY FarmLink clients Rosemary and Brenda Hayes evaluating their vineyard.Photograph by Ed Staehr

Need Info?Subscribe to the Small FarmsUpdate, a monthly email newslet-ter with announcements, upcom-ing events, resources, funding andfarming opportunities and more.Send an email to [email protected]. Please provideyour name, farm name, postaladdress, and county.

Bill Henning Moving OnIt is with mixed emotions that we report that

SFQ Editor Bill Henning is leaving Cornell CooperativeExtension and our Small Farm Quarterly editorial team.

Bill was the founding father of SFQ back in 2003 and hasbeen a regular contributor and editor since that time.

Thankfully, Bill will continue to write for SFQ on his usualwide range of topics.

We want to thank Bill for his outstanding service and dedication to small family farms in our region, and to

congratulate him on his new position with the Animal Welfare Institute. He will be serving as

Northeast Farm Advisor for AWI's Animal WelfareApproved certification program.

To find out more, you can contact Bill at 585-728-5783 or [email protected].


by Joan Sinclair Petzen

People say a young person can't get started indairy farming today. Sara Hatch would dis-agree. Four months after graduating from col-lege with her associates degree, Sara decidedworking on a large dairy was not her cup oftea. So she put together a business plan, bor-rowed some money for cows and start-upcosts, rented a barn, and started farming onher own in 2001.

Since then she has gotten married, had fourchildren, moved the herd, and gone organic.Sara and her husband Jeremy manage risk byconcentrating on maximizing the use of theiron-farm assets and reducing out of pocketcosts.

START-UP SUPPORTSara admits she has had a little help along theway. With only a few sheep and her car asequity, she couldn't have borrowed the moneyto purchase her dairy herd without her parentsas willing cosigners. A USDA-guaranteed loanfor beginning farmers cut her interest rate by 4percent below market rates and protected herlender, Farm Credit of Western New York, fromthe exposure of lending to a new farmer. Withthe loan proceeds she purchased a herd of 50cows and 31 heifers and put aside $10,000 forunforeseen start-up costs.

Friends and neighbors were another keysource of help, like the gentleman from whomshe and Jeremy purchased their first tractor.Sara told me, "He charged us no interest andlet us pay whenever we had extra money."They continue to trade work and barter withneighbors.

The community involvement is important totheir success. It helps them get new ideas andallows them to share their experience with oth-ers as they did this summer when they hosteda pasture walk for others to learn more aboutorganic production practices and pasture man-agement.

KEEPING COSTS DOWNDuring the start-up phase, Sara traded herown labor for the use of her parents' equip-ment to plant and harvest her crops. Grazingwas a part of Sara's dairy farm business planfrom the beginning. Another way she savedmoney was by living at home with her parentsat first. These tactics along with strong milkprices allowed Sara to use her cash to paydown debt quite rapidly.

Because Sara had been concentrating onmanaging her cows naturally and the organicmilk price was much more stable, it only madesense for her to transition the dairy and startselling organic milk at the beginning of 2004.

But according to Sara, "The bottom line is youhave to make money and spend cautiously."

A little over a year after getting started Saragave birth to twin girls. She relied on her par-ents for help with the calves and child care.Sara's husband Jeremy owns a house near hisparents' farm in Centerville five miles fromwhere Sara's rented barn was. Children in tow,

Sara would make the trip back and forth to thefarm. Sometimes, she would stay at her par-ents home on the farm for the children's sake.

In 2004 after renovating a former chicken barnon Jeremy's parents' farm into a dairy barn,they moved the herd closer to their home. Themove was critical to Sara being able to man-age her dairy and be a stay-at-home Mom. Atthis point, expecting another child, they decid-ed to down-size to 20 or fewer cows to Jeremycould do much of the work and still work forthe town highway department.

CAREFUL BUDGETINGBudgeting is the key risk management toolSara and Jeremy employ to mitigate risk. Alldecisions both at the farm and in the home arebased on one principle: "Know how much youhave coming in and don't spend any more."They carefully limit the use of credit. Whenconsidering a major purchase like a tractor or

a truck, they figure out how many more poundsof milk each cow will be required to make eachday to pay for the purchase. If they are uncer-tain whether the added production can beachieved, they don't make the purchase.

They also strive to keep the required produc-tion to support their farm and family low,between 30 and 35 pounds per cow per day.To keep their costs low the Hatches graze,concentrate on a solid breeding program, treatcows naturally, and try to grow and harvesthigh quality forage.

They maximize the forage intake from their lim-ited pasture acres by rotationally grazing. Tocapitalize on the cow's natural grazing behav-

ior, they make certain the cows are on pastureduring the "grey light" hours at each end of theday. They carefully select the sires they mateeach cow with using artificial insemination toimprove their herd.

Because of strong family values, their laborgoal is to make every job on the farm one thateither of them can do alone. This allows themtake turns with farm tasks and to raise theirfour children without relying on others for childcare. In late 2006, their farm profits were greatenough to allow Jeremy to leave his off-farmjob and concentrate on producing crops for thedairy.

SENSIBLE PURCHASESSince the move in 2004, they have acquired acomplete line of farm equipment. Each pur-chase was planned carefully. They always lookfor a good deal but are not afraid to pay forthings they use every day. For example, they

purchased a new tractor for moving bales andfeeding the cows because it is important forthis tool to be reliable.

When looking for items they will only use sea-sonally, like a grain drill or a corn picker, theykeep their eyes open for a gently used one.They don't hurry into equipment purchases.They generally spend a year or more budget-ing and researching the purchase to find theright piece at the right price.

Controlling costs is just as important on thehome front as it is in the business. Jeremy andSara carefully scrutinize household purchasesas well. They believe it is important to differen-tiate between "wants" and true needs.Therefore, they try to never buy anything onimpulse. Whether it is a trip to the grocerystore or a department store, the Hatch Familypractices fiscal discipline by carefully planningto purchase only the things their family reallyneeds.

Keeping operations simple helps to reducemental strain and makes for a better life fortheir family. Their goals include being nearlydebt free, having time to spend with their chil-dren each day, and being as productive aspossible with the assets they have.

To achieve these goals they are constantlyasking questions of each other and their advi-sors. They believe that good ideas come fromquestioning the status quo. They credit theirstrong interpersonal communication skills withhelping them to achieve their maximum profitpotential.

GROW OR BUY FEED?One way they keep costs low is to grow asmuch of their feed themselves as possible if itmakes financial sense. They constantly ana-lyze whether it is more cost effective to growtheir own inputs or purchase them from off thefarm. Growing most of their own feed includinggrains is one way that they are able to keepcosts low.

Jeremy spends four to five weeks each yeardoing intensive crop production work eachyear. This last year they rented additional acresand grew their own corn grain to supplementtheir home grown forages. This allowed themto further reduce their farm expenses andincrease their profits. In 2008, they plan togrow some small grains to further reduce theirinput purchases.

Sara and Jeremy Hatch feel that after six yearsin the dairy business they are successful. Byconstantly paying attention to their financial sit-uation and exposure, they are able to mitigatemany of the risks associated with operating anorganic dairy farm. Management, constantlymeasuring, monitoring, and making the neces-sary changes to improve their financial per-formance helps them keep risk in check.

Joan Sinclair Petzen is an agricultural educatorwith Cornell Cooperative Extension inCattaraugus and Allegany Counties, NY.

COWS AND CROPS

Small Dairy Success StorySara and Jeremy Hatch prove that, with careful management,young farmers can get started in dairy farming today.

Greene County, NY farmer Maria Alvarez isurging small and immigrant farmers acrossthe region to make their numbers known inthe upcoming 2008 Census of Agriculture. “Itis important for small farmers like me to becounted,” she says.

She should know. Alvarez serves on thesteering committee for the National ImmigrantFarming Initiative which reports soaring num-bers of immigrant and refugee beginningfarmers. According to the Census ofAgriculture, Latinos constitute the fastestgrowing sector of farmers in the United

States, increasing by 50% between 1997 and2002.

Alvarez says, “A better count in the 2007Census of Agriculture will show public officialsthe important contributions we make. Weneed more programs directed toward begin-ning and immigrant farmers.”

Many farmers hesitate to report data to theCensus of Agriculture because of concernsover confidentiality, but lack of reportingresults in misinformation about nationaltrends. The Census data helps direct national

policy and funding decisions toward agricultur-al sectors demonstrating growing need. TheCensus of Agriculture website assures surveyresponses are absolutely confidential andused only for statistical purposes. Therecords are also protected from disclosurethrough the Freedom of Information Act.

“I’ve met many leaders of the NationalAgricultural Statistics Service, the agencyresponsible for the agricultural census. Ibelieve they are sincere and honest aboutconfidentiality and the privacy of every farm-ers individual report,” says Alvarez. TheCensus of Agriculture is mailed to reachhouseholds around January 1st, 2008 andmust be completed and returned by February4, 2008.

If you don’t get one in the mail, you can callfor one at your state’s office of the NationalAgricultural Statistics Service (NASS.) Theywill have Spanish language forms on hand

and will also have Spanish speaking personsavailable to help complete census forms ifneeded.

The Census of Agriculture is taken every fiveyears and is a complete count of U.S. farmsand ranches and the people who operatethem. “I encourage all small farmers of anyethnic group or race to fill out a 2007 Censusof Agriculture report,” Alvarez stressed. TheUSDA website states, “For America’s farmersand ranchers, the Census of Agriculture istheir voice, their future and their responsibili-ty.”

For more information about the NationalImmigrant Farming Initiative, visit the websiteat www.immigrantfarming.org or contact themat 607-865-8747.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Small Farms: Make YourNumbers KnownIt’s important for all small farmers to stand up and be counted in the 2008 Census of Agriculture

Sara and Jeremy Hatch chose organic dairy farming because of price stability and the smalldairy way of life it offered for raising their children, baby Rachel, twins Emily and Abigail, andbrother Matthew. Photo by Joan Petzen

Need Info?Visit the Cornell Small Farms Program online atwww.smallfarms.cornell.edu.

by David Kline

In late September a pair of red-tailed hawksstarted building a nest 70-feet up in a blackwalnut tree in the middle of our lower pas-ture field. The pair worked at a leisurelypace through the golden days of autumn, astick here and a twig there, and the nestbegan to take shape. By mid-November itwas completed.

The hawks must be an experienced olderpair because the nest is well and securelyplaced in a four-pronged fork and it survivedthe early November storm that ravagedWooster and flattened local corn fields. Itwas built for the long haul. From my vantagepoint the nest appears to be the size thatwould fill a wheel barrow with sticks.

Measuring at least three feet in diameter atbreast height, the black walnut towers to 90feet or more and lumbermen have gazedupon it with desire for its value as veneertimber. Since the tree is in the open it isbranchy. I could never see much sense insacrificing a massive tree for a ten-foot sawlog. Neither could my dad. So we left it inpeace and harvested its annual crop of wal-nuts.

The tree always yields more walnuts thanwe use and those are harvested by the foxsquirrels. Located between the woods andcreek, all winter squirrel tracks cross the150 feet of meadow to the tree and thenback to the woods like spokes leading fromthe hub of a wheel. Around the base of thetree cracked walnuts litter the ground likegravel. I understand the squirrels' fondnessfor the nuts because the meats are big andplumb and exceptionally sweet.

When the hawks began work on the nest, Ithought it a bit odd for redtails to be buildinga nest in the autumn, so I checked the liter-ature. Bruce Perterjohn in his Birds of Ohiosaid that Lou Campbell reported a pairbeginning nest construction as early asJanuary 24. John K. Terres in Encyclopediaof North American Birds likewise says asearly as January.

Arthur Cleveland Bent in his Life Historiesof North American Birds doesn't give anearly nest building date, but he does saythat red-tailed hawks "stake out their claim"late in February, a month before the eggsare laid. He was likely referring to NewEngland, where spring is short and late, orabsent. Frank and John Craighead say Mid-February in their thorough study of raptorsin southern Michigan, titled Hawks, Owlsand Wildlife. Some scientists, just like histo-rians, tend to go to their predecessors forfacts instead of investigating on their own.

In spite of what the experts said, our red-tails did build in the fall when the weatherwas a lot more pleasant for home-buildingthen it would have been in January. Plusinterest rates were still low. All of theexperts also write that red-tailed hawks arecautious during nest construction and willstay away from the site if humans are near-by. This pair was not shy at all. Our familycamped one evening and into the nextforenoon about three hundred feet down-stream from the nest and the hawks contin-ued with their nest-building while wewatched.

Now that the nest is finished, the pair ispatiently waiting for March to lay their two

eggs. Early the other morn-ing, both were soaring overthe farm and the onescreamed its shrill cry, which

has been described as similar to the squealof a pig or steam escaping from a tea pot.To me it simply sounded like the familiarand wild call of the redtail.

Red-tailed hawks are common in this neigh-borhood and have nested on our farmbefore. But it was always in the woods andin oak trees that tenaciously cling to theirheavy leaves until late fall. We were hardlyaware they had nested until we heard thehesitant calls of the young in late summer.Here in the walnut tree they will be muchmore visible because walnuts leaf out latein the spring and shed foliage early in thefall. Besides, from the ridge in our woodsthe redtails' nest will almost be at eye leveland should give us a good view during incu-bation, feeding and rearing of their young.

Locally, redtails are still called "chickenhawks" for their supposed preference fordomestic chicken. According to friends whohave laying hens in an "egg mobile," red-tails do like an occasional free-range chick-en. Smart hawks. According to theCraigheads' study in Michigan, 60 percentof the red-tailed hawk's prey is the meadowmouse or vole. The rest ranges from cotton-tail rabbits to snakes.

The talons of a redtail are formidable hunt-ing objects, as I discovered one autumn. Wehave a V-top house sparrow trap that sup-plies needed protein for our barn cats tosupplement their milk diet. Their were a fewhouse sparrows in the trap that attracted amigrating Cooper's hawk, which pushed itsway through the narrow V of wire. The hawkpromptly caught and ate the cats' sparrows,but then was also trapped.

A hunting redtail saw the Cooper's hawkand forced (I still can't understand how) itsbig body through the V-top meant for housesparrows. Once the redtail was inside itrealized its mistake and dropped the idea ofeating its cousin. Now it too was trapped.When I approached the hawks were waitingat opposite ends of the trap. I caught thefierce-eyed Cooper's hawk, which turnedquite passive, and released it.

The redtail however, was something else. Itflipped over on its back and presented itssharp and powerful talons. I gingerly offeredmy foot and sacrificed a new Tingley boot.Then I pulled on my gloves and picked upthe irritated hawk. It righted itself, grippedmy arm with its free leg and sank its talonsthrough the lined chore coat, flannel shirt,and deep into my wrist as easily as pene-trating Swiss cheese. I endured the painand carried the hawk, like a falconer, to thehouse for the family to see. Then I releasedmy grasp and after a few moments, thehawk relaxed its grip on me and flew awaydevoid of its usual imperial hauteur.

David Kline farms and writes inFredericksburg, Ohio. He is the author oftwo books, Great Possessions andScratching the Woodchuck. He is also theeditor of Farming Magazine (www.farming-magazine.net) which is available for $18 peryear from Farming Magazine, PO Box 85,Mt. Hope, OH 44660. For a free copy writeto the above address.

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We Want To HearFrom YouWe welcome letters to the editor -Please write to us! Or send aquestion and we’ll do our best toanswer it. We’re also looking forbeautiful, interesting and/or funnysmall farm photos to print.

Write or email Joannna Green,Cornell Small Farms Program,135C Plant Science Building,Cornell University,Ithaca, NY [email protected]


By Jim Grace

Dairy farmers in New York State have beenparticipating in the Dairy Farm BusinessSummary Program for over 50 years. For thepast eleven years, farms that identified them-selves as practicing rotational grazing havebeen studied as a subset of all the farms par-ticipating in the Summary.

Last year 42 farms classified themselves asrotational grazers. For comparison purposesthey were divided into two groups, based onlabor and management income per operatorper cow. The groups were the Top 30%, withtwelve farms, and the Lower 70%, with 30farms.

The business characteristics are similar for thetwo groups. Slightly more than half were stan-chion barns with pipelines and, with the excep-tion of one farm in the Lower 70%, milkedtwice a day. One farm in the Top 30% and 5 inthe Lower 70% consistently used BST. Bothgroups had slightly over 70% Holsteins in theirherds with the remainder Jersey or mixedbreeds.

The tables presented here some of the keyfactors between the two groups.

BUSINESS SIZE ANDPRODUCTION FACTORSThe Top 30% tend to have larger herds buthave lower production per cow. Average cullrates are similar for both groups. The Top 30%have higher average corn silage yields peracre. However the forage dry matter harvestedper cow was less, resulting in higher roughagepurchases than the Lower 70%. For compari-son, last year the 226 farms in the state sum-mary harvested an average of 7.96 tons of drymatter per cow from 1.79 forage acres percow.

Table 1. Business Size and Production Factors

*Forage acres plus non tillable pasture

While the Top 30% purchased more forages,this may be one of the factors that allowedthem to have a higher stocking rate, sell moremilk per total crop base, and keep real estateinvestment lower, all factors that help improveprofitability.

LABOR AND CAPITAL EFFICIENCYThis is another area that the Top 30% differfrom the Lower 70%. On average they handlemore cows per worker, sell more milk perworker, have less invested per cow and carryless debt per cow. The lower debt enabledthem to have a lower interest cost per cow andper cwt of milk produced.

Table 2. Labor and Capital Efficiency

MILK PRODUCTION COSTSCost control is an area that the Top 30 %excelled in. Average labor costs for the Top30% is higher but that is a reflection of theirbeing larger and having more paid family andhired labor. Their grain costs average $1.01per cwt less than the Lower 70%. Due to lessharvested forage the Top 30% purchased moreroughage than the Lower 70%. On a per cowbasis the Top 30% averaged total accrual costsof $430 less than the Lower 70%. Their aver-age operating cost was $2.65 less per cwt andtheir total cost of milk production was $4.31less per cwt. Their milk price exceeded theirtotal cost while the Lower 70%'s total costsexceeded their milk price.

Table 3. Milk Production Costs

PROFITABILITYIn these four measures of profitability the Top30% had a large advantage: a higher netincome per farm and nearly $500 more netfarm income per cow; a $444 difference inlabor and management income per operatorper cow; and over a 13 point difference in

return on equity and a 9.69 point difference onreturn on assets. Net farm income per farm isnot a good comparison to use as farm sizeaffects it. Rates of return is a more accuratecomparison

Table 4. Four Measures of Profitability

*Labor and management income per operatoris the return farm operators receive for theirlabor and management, without appreciation,used in their farm business. It is calculated bydeducting a charge for any unpaid family laborand an opportunity cost of equity capital fromnet farm income. This amount is then dividedby the average number of cows to arrive atlabor and management per operator per cow.

GRAZING PRACTICESAt the same time that farm data is collectedgrazers are asked to fill out a survey about

their practices during the grazing season. Thisyear 30 of the 42 grazers did so. This groupwas also divided into the Top 30%, nine farms,and Lower 70%, twenty one farms. The goalwas to ascertain if there is a linkage betweenprofitability and graz-ing practices.

This year, as in mostyears, the farms thatsupplemented withcorn silage had ahigher profit thanthose that supple-mented with otherforages. The Top30% averaged$433/cow versus$391/cow, or in thecase of the Lower70%, a smaller lossof, -$34/cow versus -

$206/cow. Supplementing pasture with cornsilage has consistently been linked to higherfarm profit.

The average percent of forage that came frompasture was 65% for the Top 30% and 67% forthe Lower 70%. Average pounds of grain fed

per cow per day was identical at 16 lbs.Surprisingly, this year farms in both groups thatrotated after each milking or that had water inevery paddock were not as profitable as thosethat rotated less often or had water outside thepaddock. This was the opposite of other yearsand may be due to the fact that 2006 was wet-ter than normal in much of the region anddrinking water was not an issue.When comparing the two groups as to season-ality of calving, the continuous group in the Top30% had a higher profit than semi-seasonal orseasonal herds. In the lower 70% it was theopposite. The semi-seasonal and seasonalgroups lost less than the continuous herds.

The results indicate that controlling costs, asthe Top 30% did, has a larger effect on prof-itability than various grazing practices. The

focus needs to be on the major cost items andat the same time keeping the investment percow low by maximizing the milk that can begenerated by the pasture base.

If you are interested in receiving a copy of thisyear's Intensive Grazing Farm's Summary orparticipate in the Dairy Farm BusinessSummary Program contact your localCooperative Extension office.

Jim Grace is an extension educator at CornellCooperative Extension in Steuben County. Hecan be reached at [email protected] or 607-664-2316.

GRAZING

What Makes a ProfitableGrazing Dairy?Cornell's Dairy Farm Business Summary program sheds lighton factors affecting profitability of grazing farms

Comparison of the top 30% of grazing dairieswith other grazing dairies suggests that con-trolling costs has a larger effect on profitabil-ity than specific grazing practices. Photo byJim Grace shows Kevin and Lisa Engelbert'sorganic dairy in Nichols, NY.

Milk cows graze brown-rib sorghum at Sto-Ridge Farm in Cazenovia, NY.

Photo by Troy Bishopp

Farms Top Lower30% 70%

Hired labor/cwt 1.88 1.30Grain & concentrate/cow $562 $768Grain & concentrate/cwt $3.41 $4.42Grain and concentrate as % of milk receipts 26 31Purchased roughages/cow $104 $37Purchased roughage/cwt $.63 $.21Vet and medicine/cwt $.39 $.54Fertilizer and lime/cwt $.68 $.43Machinery costs/cow $460 $672Total accrual costs/cow $2,186 $2,616Operating cost/cwt $8.92 $11.57Total cost/cwt* $13.79 $18.10Average milk price** $14.21 $14.07


Net farm income $92,893 $16,800Net farm income per cow $685 $194Labor and management income/operator/cow* $291 -$153Per cent rate of return on equity 6.08 -7.20Per cent rate of return on assets 6.13 -3.56


Number of farms 12 30Number of cows per farm 136 87Milk sold/cow 16,505 17,398Cull rate 23% 25%Hay crop, tons DM/acre 2.15 2.23Corn silage, tons/acre 19 14.5Harvested forage DM/cow, tons 4.5 6Feed acres land base* 318 289Stocking rate: Feed acres land base per cow 2.34 3.32Pounds of milk sold per acre* 7041 5218


Worker equivalent 3.15 2.66Cows/worker 43 33Pounds milk sold/worker 711,600 567,588Farm capital/cow $7,020 $8,072Debt/cow $1,681 $2,296

by Rebecca Schuelke and Kathy Houvis

A venture to bridge the communication gapbetween farmers who raise livestock and meatprocessors is reaping profits for both parties.

Dan Gibson, who raises Angus beef cows inGhent, near Albany, New York, plans to doublehis herd size next year, thanks to increasedprofits and better financial returns on his ani-mals.

Gibson and others around New York State areattributing this turnaround to the NortheastLivestock Processing Service Company, afarmer-run group that aims to improve condi-tions for both livestock farmers and meat pro-cessing facilities by serving as an intermediary.The Livestock Processing Service bringstogether farmers that raise meat for retail andfreezer sales with processors who have agreedto killing and cutting standards.

The Livestock Processing Company offersadvice in marketing quality, efficiency and cost- to help decrease the stress and frustration forboth producers and processors.

"It's an emotionally charged issue when thingsdon't go well," said Kathleen Harris, coordina-tor for the Livestock Processing ServiceCompany. "But having a third party involvedreally diffuses a lot of tension and solves prob-lems before they get to be overwhelming."

In late 2006, the Northeast LivestockProcessing Company received a $72,000 grantfrom the New York Farm Viability Institute tohelp the company grow beyond its 41 livestockand 8 processing clients. The nonprofit, farmer-led Farm Viability Institute directs and fundson-farm research to help farmers increase prof-its.

"The Institute is interested in working with theNortheast Livestock Processing Service to helpit become self-sustaining,'' said Tom Sleight,executive director of the Institute. ``We believethis service is an important part of addressingmarketing infrastructure for a profitable NewYork livestock industry that can grow and flour-ish.''

The Northeast Livestock Processing Servicewas founded by the Hudson Mohawk ResourceConservation and Development Council, a non-profit organization that promotes economicdevelopment and natural resource conserva-tion in Albany, Columbia, Greene, Montgomery,Rensselaer and Schenectady counties. TheRC&D council is a program of USDA NaturalResources Conservation Services.

In 2005, the processing service became a limit-ed liability corporation with a farmer board ofdirectors.

Seymour Vander Veen is a livestock farmer andpresident of the Northeast Livestock

Processing Service board. He is also chairper-son of the Hudson Mohawk ResourceConservation and Development Council.

The livestock industry in the Northeast is in aprecarious position, Vander Veen said, in part

because of the shrinking num-ber of small-scale meatprocessors. Quality of servicefrom some processors, includ-ing concerns that someprocessors do not return meatfrom the same animal thefarmer brings in, has turnedaway some producers fromlivestock slaughter.

"Rather than having to spend alot of time chasing afterprocessors, NELPSC does itfor me," said Gibson, owner of

Grazin' Angus Acres. "Kathleen ... ensures thatmy cuts are as requested, packaged attractive-ly for my consumers and, on top of that, she'snegotiated favorable rates for NELPSC clientsas a result of the volume she can deliver to theprocessor. It's a huge time and money savingservice for us."

Now that he has a reliable processor, Gibson isdirect marketing his grass fed Angus beef atfarmer's markets, restaurants and local stores.

Gibson said he plans to process 18 beefersthis year, "but we'll do as many as 40 next yearnow that we know we have a solid set ofprocessors to choose from combined with theflexibility offered by NELPSC."

The Northeast Livestock Processing Servicegot its start with an idea from five livestockfarmers who were frustrated with their process-ing experiences. Research suggested theywere not alone: livestock farmers were angrythat cutting directions were ignored, yieldswere low, costs were high and turnaround timewas too long.

Meat processors were irked that cutting direc-tions were not well-written, farmers did notunderstand the hand cutting technique andwere expecting higher yields than could bedelivered without the mechanized slaughterperformed in the Midwest and elsewhere.Farmers asked for products, cuts and servicesthe plant could not provide.

"We had given up on ever having beef from ourown cows," said Henry Eykelhoff, owner ofBlack Creek Farm in Cold Brook, NY. "Weweren't even getting our own meat back."

Since joining the processing service, theEykelhoffs, who raise grass-fed Angus cattle ontheir 400-acre farm and process one or twoanimals per year, found a processor whogained back their trust.

Farmers pay a $50 start-up fee and sign a one-year contractto join theProcessingServiceCompany.Each slaugh-ter includes aper-head feefor facilitation.Beef cattleproducers paya $20 perhead chargeto the compa-ny for slaugh-ter and pro-cessing serv-ices, and $3per head forslaughter only.Poultry pro-ducers pay 50cents per

head for slaughter and processing, and 25cents per head for slaughter only.

Harris connects producers with one of eightprocessors who have agreed to work with thecompany. These processors provide schedulingpreferences for clients of the processing com-pany and some off-season discounts. Theprocessors have also signed statements assur-ing producers that they are humane in livestockhandling and slaughter and that their trackingprocedures assure producers they are gettingtheir own meat back.

Harris does in-plant supervisions on the firstjobs and conveys cutting instructions. She alsooffers advice to producers about the mostappropriate cuts of meat for their animal andmarketing ideas for processing depending onthe time of year - roasts and stews in the fall,rib roasts around the holidays, steaks and grill-ready items in the summertime.

The Processing Service Company's producerroster now includes growers of beef, pork,lamb, goat, veal, bison, ratites (ostrich, emu orria), elk, farm-raised venison, rabbit and poul-try.

Producers reported in a June 2007 survey bythe Hudson Mohawk RC&D that they were sav-ing time and money and seeing improvementsin quality and packaging. Seventy-one percentof clients said they were able to expand theirbusiness, and 29 percent saw an increase intheir yields.

Producers reported they saved an average of 9hours finding a processor, scheduling anappointment, conveying cutting instructions,arranging for pickup and resolving problems.Sixty-five percent paid less for processing. Onefarmer saved $125 in slaughter costs per headof cattle.

The processing service company helps clientssave money on transportation by co-mingledloads from different farms.

One-hundred percent of farmers said theyexperienced a shorter wait for a slaughter dateand that their cutting instructions were followed100 percent of the time, compared to 65 per-cent of the time before becoming a member.

Seventy-three percent of clients reported anincrease in the quality of packaging, an impor-tant factor in marketing success.

"What they're doing is good both for the farmerand the processor," Linda Eykelhoff said. Alongwith connecting small farmers to qualityprocessors, the processing service companyoffers processors an expanded customer base,even during off-peak times.

In March 2007, the Northeast LivestockProcessing Service Company expanded itsservices to connect farmers to more profitablemarkets for live animals, carcasses andprocessed meats. The service company alsowill review clients' marketing methods, educa-tional programs and technical information.

Elizabeth Marks, coordinator of HudsonMohawk RC&D, said the company's successhas been in being flexible and responding toneeds and opportunities.

"The original thinking was that the companywould exist on processing facilitation andwholesale ground beef sales, but they're nowfinding a large market for premium cuts ofmeat. Kathleen is finding the animals, makingthe connections and arranging for processing,"she said.

The board of directors is examining the compa-ny's next steps, possibly to include expandingthe marketing component.

For information about the Northeast LivestockProcessing Company, call (518) 828-4385extension 105.

Rebecca Schuelke is a CommunicationsSpecialist with New York Farm ViabilityInstitute. She may be reached at (315) 453-3823, Extension 103 or [email protected] Houvis is a freelance writer in Locke, NY.This article first appeared in New York FarmViability Institute's "News and Notes" and isreprinted with permission.


NON-DAIRY LIVESTOCK

Livestock Processing ServiceConnects Farmers, Processorsto Raise Profits for Both

The Northeast Livestock Processing Service Company is helping farmers get through the meat-processing bottleneck to reach a growing customer base. Photo by Troy Bishopp

349 Roses BrookSouth Kortright, NY 13842

(607) 538-9464

See us for information on any of theabove company lines.

DairySanitations

by Elizabeth Lamb

Christmas tree production is often considered forland not suited for other plant and animal produc-tion or to add crop diversity to an existing farm.While Christmas trees can be profitable, financialreturns can vary greatly. It is important to remem-ber that, as for any other crop, it takes time, moneyand labor to produce a quality tree - and Christmastree production is a long-term process.

This article will cover some basic information onstarting a Christmas tree farm. Additional, more in-depth resources are provided in the ResourceSpotlight. One of the best things a potentialChristmas tree farmer can do - before digging thefirst planting hole - is talk to other local growersand go to regional Christmas tree growers associ-ation meetings. Most growers will help you avoidthe mistakes they made - so you can make yourown!

DO YOUR HOMEWORKRecord keeping is essential so you might as wellset up a system before you start anything else. Itwill help you keep track of information you gatheras you plan and will encourage you to keep therecords you will find you need later.

Create a business plan and gather information oncosts of production and expected income.Compare plans based on wholesale, pre-cut,balled and burlapped, or choose and cut harvestmethods. While it is difficult to estimate prices overthe whole production period, pre-planning will keepyou from making mistakes and allow you to adaptyour plans as you go along.

Check on local regulations. Tax laws vary withrespect to what can be considered businessexpenses for Christmas tree farms. Some stateshave regulations on movement of plant materialsto prevent the spread of invasive pests, whichmight affect your shipping plans or choice ofspecies.

SITE EVALUATIONSome land is even too marginal for Christmas treeproduction. Trees stressed by a poor environmentare more attractive to insect and disease pests,grow more slowly, and are unlikely to be high quali-ty - none of which is going to help your bottom line.So before you choose where to put your trees,check the environment.

Soil characteristics to consider include soil texture,soil fertility, soil pH and drainage. Soil texture -whether you have sand or clay or loam, or allthree- can be found on county soil survey maps. Asoil test will tell you fertility and pH levels. Test thesoil separately for each area of the farm that youthink might be different from the others. Existingplants can tell you a lot about drainage - look forswamp grasses or rushes. Check the land after aheavy rain to see where water puddles the longest.

Also check for differences in microclimates. While awarmer site might seem better, it may allow forearlier budbreak, which can result in frost andfreeze damage. Consider those factors that inter-rupt air drainage and trap cold air around a site.Few Christmas tree farms have irrigation systemsso avoid areas that will be too dry during droughts.

Slopes are good for air drainage, but can you driveyour tractor up them? And if you choose to sellyour trees as 'choose and cut', will your customersbe willing to walk up them? In the snow? Don't for-get to consider where to place roadways when youare evaluating your site. Plan your layout for easeof spraying, mowing, and harvest - with the size ofthe trees at harvest in mind.

And last - although it should perhaps be first - canyour customers get to you? Consider access toyour farm from nearby cities and towns.

SELECTION OF SPECIESMost Christmas tree farms grow a variety ofspecies because of differences in environmentwithin the farm and because customers have arange of preferences. One of the challenges forgrowers is to predict preferences when styles andavailable species change.

Success is more likely if you choose species thatare best adapted to your site and are least likely tobe susceptible to diseases and insects. A highquality tree will sell, regardless of whatever thenewest thing is. But consider trying some of thenew species as you replant as they might workwell for you.

Table 1 lists some of the common species grownin the northeast with general comments on charac-teristics. Species can vary by seed source so yourbest bet is working with your seed source or nurs-ery to find types best adapted to your site. In addi-tion to the familiar species listed, others being con-sidered for use as Christmas trees include Serbianspruce (Picea omorika), Nordmann fir (Abies nord-manniana), Grand fir (Abies grandis), MeyerSpruce (Picea meyeri) and Noble fir (Abies pro-cera).

SITE PREPARATIONYou may be faced with anything from bulldozing to

just opening planting holes, depending on the pre-vious use of the land. While the intent is to use theleast intrusive methods to avoid damage to yourtopsoil, you also need to match your site prep toyour intended management methods. If all workwill be manual, it may not be necessary to removeall the stumps and rocks that would stop a tractorin its tracks.

If you are on marginal soils, you need to avoidcompaction and any practices that would furtherdegrade the soil, or encourage soil erosion. Claysoils may require tillage to loosen the soil so theplanting holes close around the roots. If your sitehas dense weed cover, especially woody plants,you may need to apply herbicides before clearing.


HORTICULTURE

Getting Started in ChristmasTree Production

Species Culturex Disease Growth Color Fragrance Twig Needle Otherinsect rate stiffnessz retentiontolerancey

Fraser fir Avoid drought Good Medium Very Good Good Very Abies fraseriand poor soil good good Dark green,aeration soft needles

Balsam fir Cool, humid Good Medium Very Very good Fair Very Abiesclimates, good good balsameasomewhat acid Very fragrantsoils, shallowrooted

Concolor Tolerates dry Very good Slow Very Very good Good Very Abies(white) fir thin soils, shade good good concolor

tolerant Citrus aroma,soft needles

Canaan fir Deep well Good Medium Very Very good Poor Good Abiesdrained soils, good balsamea varacidic phanerolepis

Douglas Wide range Good Medium Very Very good Fair Very Pseudotsugafir environments good good menziesii

Colorado Tolerates high Good Slow Very Good Very Good Picea pungensblue soil moisture, good good Sharp needles,spruce some shade dries out quickly

White Tolerates high Good Slow Very Poor Very Poor Picea glaucaspruce soil moisture, good good Called ‘Cat

shade tolerant spruce’ forfragrance

Norway Full sun, rich Good Slow Good Good Good Poor Picea abiesspruce well drained soil,

shallow rooted

Eastern Avoid wet areas, Fair Rapid Good Good Fair Very Pinus strobeswhite pine susceptible to air good Minimal

pollution fragrance

Scotch Wide Poor Rapid Varies Good Very Very Pinus sylvestris(Scots) adaptation good good Notpine recommended in

some areasbecause ofpest problems

Eastern Tolerates drought Very good Slow Varies Good Poor Poor Juniperusred cedar and poor soil virginiana

Prickly, dries outquickly

x - General trendsSoil moisture

Pines do better on drier soils than firs or sprucesLate frost

Firs and spruces leaf out earlier than pines so are moresusceptible to damageFraser fir is more tolerant than other firs

y - This rating does not include damage by deer. Deer feeding can be sig-nificant on many Christmas tree species, especially true firs, Douglas fir andpines.

z - Ability of branches to hold ornaments

Other species being considered for use as Christmas trees”Serbian spruce (Picea omorika) Nordmann fir (Abies nordmanniana)

Grand fir (Abies grandis)Meyer Spruce (Picea meyeri)Noble fir (Abies procera) (mostly in NW)

Information from:Laurel Gailor, CCE Warren County

Stephanie Mallozzi, CCE Dutchess County

Growing Christmas Trees in North Carolina http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/forest/xmas/growing/

National Christmas Tree Association websitehttp://www.christmastree.org/types.cfm#index

Ohio Christmas Tree Producers’ Manualhttp://ohioline.osu.edu/b670/index.html

Table 1: Characteristics of Christmas tree species

(Cont. on next page)

A newly planted field of firs with good early weed control. Photos by: Elizabeth Lamb


Any problems that can be eliminated before plant-ing will save time and money in the long run.

Site preparation is the prime time for soil improve-ment. The soil test that you had done back in Step2 will now be invaluable for determining if you needto add nutrients. Don't add nutrients that leach eas-ily, like nitrogen, as they may be gone before yourplants can use them. However, lime for pH man-agement and phosphorus are often added at thistime.

PLANTINGSuccessful planting starts long before you orderyour seeds or plants. Will you grow your own trans-plants? How many trees do you need when youstart? And how many trees per acre should youplant? In general, it is better to start small and'grow into' your available space. And losses of 1-2% during the first year after planting are normal,so don't forget that in your calculations.

Starting from seed to grow your own transplants isnot as common as it once was. A transplant orliner ready for the field has grown 2-5 years closelyspaced in a seed bed, and then an additional 0-3years after transplanting to a nursery bed. Nurserystock is sold by age - two digits separated by adash to tell you how many years in the seed bedand how many years in the nursery. Differentspecies may have different types available for sale.Older transplants are usually more expensive, butalso larger and quicker to harvest. But alwayscheck your plants on arrival as there can be differ-ences in quality even within an age class.

Some nurseries are now selling container-grownseedlings - which unlike the more common bareroot seedlings, arrive in pots. As you would expect,they cost more than bare root plants but have bet-ter survival and faster early growth. They may bemost appropriate for the slower growing species, ifthe resulting trees can bring in a premium price.

The benefits of container-grown plants may leadyou to believe that keeping transplant roots happyis essential to survival of your trees - and youwould be right. Regardless of which types of linersyou buy, you must keep the roots moist and cool atall times. Survival depends on the care of plantsboth before and after planting.

Christmas trees in the Northeast are usually plant-ed in the spring after danger of frost - the trees aredormant, and there is enough rain to keep the soilmoist.You still need to find that happy mediumbetween enough water and too much. However,overly wet soils can be damaged by equipmentand leave air spaces around roots that can killtrees. Whether you choose hand or machine plant-ing may depend on the characteristics of your site,the number of trees you are planting, and youravailable capital for equipment purchases.

Although it may be tempting to put as many treesas possible in your field, appropriate spacing canhelp you make money. Consider the species you

are planting, the size of your trees at harvest, thesize of your equipment, and the ease with whichtrees can be removed after cutting when you planbetween and within row spacing.You are trying togive each tree the space it needs, with no crowd-ing or shading that can affect quality.

Even trees from the same nursery source maygrow at different rates, so a field is not usually har-vested all at the same time. This can present aproblem in the future, especially if land area is anissue. Many growers interplant new trees wheretrees have been cut. While this does maximize theuse of available land, consider the effects on soilmanagement. Pest control can also be a problem,especially if a different species is used to inter-plant.

MANAGEMENT Like most things in life, you get out what you put in.Using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) andBest Management Practices (BMPs) will help youproduce quality trees while reducing unnecessaryinputs.Integrated pest management is based on identify-ing the pests you have and knowing when theyneed to be controlled. That may depend on thenumber of insect pests, the stage of the disease,or the age of your trees. Scouting manuals can tellyou what to look for, on which species and whenor where. Management practices that keep yourtrees in vigorous growth can reduce their suscepti-bility to pests. Keeping records of what you findand how you controlled it can help with future plan-ning and prevention.

Weeds can be the most persistent pests in aChristmas tree farm. Weed competition can causeloss in quality and slow growth rates, particularly inyoung plantings. Tillage for weed control is notcommonly used because of the potential for rootdamage. Mowing and herbicides are effective butyou must know what you are trying to control to besuccessful.

Weed species can change with management overtime. Many growers are starting to use groundcov-er management, either using low growing weedspecies or overseeding with low growing grassesor clover. This can limit the growth of more damag-ing weeds, keep soils cool, reduce erosion losses,and even reduce disease and insect pressure. Itdoes require some work, however.

Fertilization and soil improvement should be basedon soil tests. Tissue analyses, while more accu-rate, may be difficult to get if there are no stan-dards for Christmas trees in your area. Applicationmethods will depend on the site, number of treesand tree age. Consider the effects of the nitrogensource chosen on soil pH and the possibility ofleaching.

Starting about the third year in the field, trees areshaped. Early shaping is primarily aimed at creat-ing a strong single leader. As the tree grows, it willbe sheared to create the desired taper andencourage the development of lateral buds to

avoid that Charlie Brown Christmas tree look.Pruning may also be used to remove damagedbranches or correct deformities.

Trees that are about 2/3 as wide as they are tallare considered ideal. Different species may besheared to different tapers based on their growthhabit and what consumers prefer. Pines aresheared earlier than other Christmas tree species.Shearing can be done manually with a knife orwith mechanical pruners. It takes a lot of work tomake a tree look natural.

HARVESTINGWhile the basic method of harvest is the same,handling of the trees is determined by the methodof marketing. Some growers may market in severaldifferent ways, or may change their marketing tomatch consumer demands. Knowing your marketis essential to determine size of tree to harvest.

If you are shipping trees, or selling them precut,

managing time of harvest with tree freshness iskey. With choose and cut marketing, pruning offlower branches before harvest and cleaning up tallstumps and debris during the harvest period maybe necessary. Shaking, baling and other services,as well as elements of agrotourism, add to theconsumer experience of cutting their own tree.Selling boughs or making wreaths can be an addi-tional source of income for choose and cut opera-tions. Poor quality or overly large trees can be har-vested for boughs.

Producing Christmas trees can be rewarding, but itmay also seem daunting with all the factors to con-sider and with the long production cycle. Advanceplanning can help you determine if growingChristmas trees is for you!

Elizabeth Lamb is the Coordinator of OrnamentalIPM for the New York State Integrated PestManagement Program. She can be reached at 607254-8800 or [email protected].

HORTICULTURE

Getting Started in Christmas Tree Production

Clover groundcover for weed management.

Firs ready to cut.

Resource SpotlightNew Guide to High Tunnel Berry Production

Northeast growers can capture more of the lucrative local market for fresh berries bygrowing brambles (raspberries and blackberries) in high tunnels, according to researchersat Cornell and Pennsylvania State Universities.

These relatively low-cost, usually unheated, plastic-covered hoophouses can help growersfill late-spring and late-fall gaps in the market. Instead of mid-June, high-tunnel berriescan be harvested in May. The field-grown season for brambles usually ends in earlyOctober. But growers using high tunnels continue to harvest berries through November.

Other benefits of high tunnels include:* Berry yields from tunnels can be two to three times greater than field-grown, and theberries can be significantly larger.* Tunnel-grown berries also have longer shelf-life with reduced pesticide inputs.* Primocane-fruiting blackberries (those that set fruit on first-year growth) ripen where thegrowing season is otherwise too short.* Floricane-fruiting raspberries and blackberries (those that fruit on second-year growth)can overwinter in climates where they would otherwise be killed by cold temperatures.

A new publication, High Tunnel Raspberries andBlackberries, spells out in detail how it's done. The29-page guide is available online at www.fruit.cor-nell.edu/Berries. Or you can order print copies. (Seedetails below.) Topics include:* Site selection* Tunnel types and construction* Choosing and establishing plants* In-ground and container plantings* Care and management* Season extension and harvesting* Budget for in-ground high tunnel raspberries

If coupled with brambles grown in heated green-houses, Northeast berry growers could producebrambles nearly year-round. An earlier publication,Greenhouse Raspberries, describes those growing practices. It is available online atwww.fruit.cornell.edu/Berries/bramblehtml/ghrasp.html. Rising energy costs make green-house berries more expensive to grow. But these two practices could help shift marketsupply along the Atlantic seaboard to local sources instead of berries imported from otherregions or hemispheres.

To order hard copies of these publications, send a check payable to Cornell University for$10 for the high tunnel guide or $9.50 for the greenhouse guide to: Max Welcome, Dept.of Horticulture, 134A Plant Science Bldg., Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853-5904.

The "Guide to High Tunnel Berry Production" is part of a new outreach and education ini-tiative aimed at increasing profits for commercial berry growers. The initiative is funded bya two year grant from the New York Farm Viability Institute, a farmer-led nonprofit groupthat funds research projects to help farmers increase profits. The Institute helps to foster aNew York agriculture system of diverse farm sizes, production practices, commodities,sectors and geographic regions.

(Cont. from previous page)


by Sarah Johnston

What most people know about vitamins and min-erals in foods comes from the label required byfederal law on packages of processed and/orprepared foods. We don't carry home a label withpurchases of fresh fruits and veggies. Perhapsthat is one reason why the public hasn't noticedthat increases in crop yields over the years havecome at the cost of decreases in vitamin andmineral content per serving of most fruits, veg-etables and grains.

In a report titled, "Still No Free Lunch", publishedon line by the Organic Center, author BrianHalweil describes the literature relevant to thisissue. The report looks at trends in breedingcrops and vegetables and what we know to dateabout the impacts of production methods on cropquality when measured in terms of vitamin andmineral content, including comparisons of organ-ic and conventional growing methods.

INCREASING YIELDS;DECLINING NUTRIENT CONTENTIn 2004, researchers at the Biochemical Instituteof the University of Texas in Austin published areview of 50 years of changes in the USDA'sfood composition data for 43 garden crops,focusing on 13 nutrients. They found declines inmedian concentrations of six nutrients from the1950s to 1999, including protein, calcium, phos-phorus, iron, riboflavin and vitamin C (see Table1.) No nutrients increased, however, the vitaminsthiamin and niacin barely changed. The studywas published in the Journal of AmericanCollege of Nutrition.

In 2005, a British team published a review ofstudies and half a century of data for Britishfruits and vegetables, and found that averageconcentrations of minerals have decreased sig-nificantly from the 1930's and 1980's. P. J. Whiteand M.R. Broadley published their findings in theJournal of Horticultural Science & Biotechnology.

Plant breeders have largely focused on increas-es in yield and total harvested nutrients (SeeFigure 2.) The studies reviewed clearly indicatethat as breeders have sought to increase yields,vitamin and mineral content has been reduced.For example, broccoli head size appears to beinversely correlated with calcium and magnesiumcontent, according to findings by researchers atthe U.S. Vegetable Laboratory. They compared43 cultivars and found that the smaller the headof broccoli, the higher the mineral concentrationby weight.

Breeding advances have resulted in the doublingor tripling of yields in grains. A comparison of 63historical and modern soft white wheat varietiesindicates that selection for increased protein byplant breeders has contributed to decreasedmineral nutrient content in modern wheat culti-vars. The Washington State researchers founddeclines in mineral concentration for all eight

minerals they tracked for soft white wheat, butnot for hard red wheat. (Their study is in press.)

A team of U.S. Department of Agricultureresearchers compared 14 varieties of hard redwheat introduced from the 1870's to 2000 andfound that yields per acre increased by about 1%each year, while the micronutrients iron, zinc andselenium declined by .16 to .38 percent eachyear (see Figure 1.) The study waspublished in the Journal of theScience of Food and Agriculture,2006.

Most of the focus has been onincreasing the content of gluten, aform of protein that makes thegrain more conducive to baking.Breeders point to the differencesin the hard red wheat results of thetwo teams as a hopeful sign thatmineral content and yield increas-es are not necessarily mutuallyexclusive.

PHYTOCHEMICALSMore elusive crop quality charac-teristics, such as taste, have beenthought to be subjective andhave not been rigorously studieduntil recently. Plant chemicalsthat have been associated withtaste, including flavonoids andother phytochemicals, alsoappear to play important roles as antioxidants incells. Levels of these nutrients, as well as manyvitamins, appear to be higher fruits and vegeta-

bles that are allowed to ripen onthe tree or vine.

With the heightened search tounderstand how the body fightscancer and aging, some ofthese plant substances havegained in status and are nowconsidered nutraceuticals. Thenutraceutical industry manufac-tures its products by concentrat-ing or synthesizing specific plantchemicals for use as therapeuticfood supplements.Consequently, more attention isbeing paid to both amount andvariability of these substances inplants.

In addition to varietal differ-ences, growing methods appear

to play a significant role in the amount and vari-

ability of phytochemicals in plants, as well asconcentrations of vitamins and minerals. "Still NoFree Lunch" reviews several studies - showingthat higher levels of vitamins, minerals, antioxi-dants and phytochemicals are often found inorganically grown crops. These studies also helpshed light on the specific production factors thatmay be responsible for these higher levels.

Production factors known or believed to impactvitamin content include:* Soil type. Heavier, clay soils tend to yield morevitamin content than sandy soils.* Season. Dry weather concentrates more vita-mins than wet.* Irrigation practices. Heavy irrigation is like toomuch rain.* Type of soil fertility, especially the form of nitro-gen used.* How quickly the crop is grown. Faster-growingvarieties tend to accumulate fewer nutrients.

In addition, density of planting is used to achievegains in yield, usually accompanied by increas-ing the major crop components nitrogen, phos-

phorus and potassium. However, the mecha-nisms responsible for actual differences in cropquality are far from understood.

WHAT ABOUT ORGANIC?A side by side comparison of wheat grownorganically and conventionally at WashingtonState University found that the organic crops hadhigher concentrations of copper, magnesium,manganese, phosphorus and zinc, while calciumand iron were slightly lower (see Table 2.) In longterm experiments at Rodale Institute, organicoats where manure was used were higher in cal-cium than were either the organic legume nutri-ent system, which was the lowest in calcium, orthe conventionally managed crop.

In the European Union, the EuropeanCommission has been funding research that willshed light on the relationship between crop man-agement practices and nutrient content. Dr. CarloLeifert is the leader of the Quality Low InputFood project, a rigorous and carefully designed4-year project to compare organic and conven-tional methods in England.

According to Leifert, preliminary results indicatethat organically produced crops and organic milkcontain more beneficial compounds, such asvitamins and antioxidants, than their convention-ally grown counterparts. The research team isnow focusing on identification of the agriculturalpractices likely to be responsible for these

trends. The research report will be peer-reviewedand published over the next 12 months.

In the debate about the value of organically pro-duced crops, phytochemicals have come underparticular scrutiny because of taste surveys andother claims that organic fruits and vegetablestaste better and/or provide health benefits.Tomato varieties that score highest in flavor testshave high levels of several phytochemicals.Research has shown that treating plants withpesticides reduces the plant's ability to producephytochemicals either by directly disrupting plantphysiology or by reducing the factors thatencourage plants to produce these compounds.

There are studies that indicate higher levels ofphytochemicals in organic tomatoes, accordingto researchers at UC Davis. They indicate thatflavonoid content in tomatoes seems to be relat-ed to available nitrogen, with more flavonoidsproduced by the plant where there is less avail-able nitrogen, including less nitrogen from com-post.

EFFECTS OF SOIL FERTILITY PRACTICESSome practices that are organic, but not exclu-sively so, appear to assist with plant accumula-tion of vitamins and minerals. Using animalmanures, compost and cover crops instead ofsynthetic fertilizers generally results in a lower,steadier supply of nitrogen throughout the grow-ing season The less concentrated fertility associ-ated with nutrients bound in carbonaceoussources appears to contribute to overall planthealth as well as providing nitrogen to the plantsin the later part of the season.

Anhydrous nitrogen, on the other hand, producesa burst of growth when applied, but dissipatesbefore the crop has finished growing. Nitrogen inthis form seems to make the plant produce largercells. There is some thought that larger cells inhigh nitrogen systems have thinner cell walls thatcan be more permeable to viruses.

Another factor at play may be that generallyhigher levels of organic matter may stimulatehealthier root growth. According to researcherWalter Goldstein at the Michael FieldsAgricultural Institute in Wisconsin, conventionallygrown corn had a higher percentage of diseasedroots - 26 percent - than did organically growncorn, where up to 15 percent of roots were foundto be diseased.

BOTTOM LINE? BROADEN THE DEBATEABOUT FOOD QUALITYAccording to "Still No Free Lunch," the majorityof American diets are deficient when it comesto vitamin E, magnesium and calcium. Morethan 40% of diets are deficient in vitamin A;25% are deficient in vitamin C and small per-centages - 5% or less - of diets are only mini-mally deficient in 11 of the other vitamins and

minerals most frequentlytracked.

Society's views of food qualityparameters have been chang-ing, as the medical professionincreases our understanding ofdisease, health and nutrition.The complexity of factors thatcome into play has made it dif-ficult to study and understandhow much particular productionmethods used by organic grow-ers may be contributing to whatappears to be a fairly clear, but

inconsistent trend of higher lev-els of vitamins, minerals, antioxi-dant and other phytochemicallevels in organic foods.

Perhaps most important, though, is that thedebate about organic food quality is helping tospur a serious look at how society measuresfood quality. "Still No Free Lunch" puts a fewmore key arguments on the table for the read-er's consideration. This report, which can befound in its entirety at www.organic-center.org,is well worth everyone's consideration.

Sarah Johnston is working for the New YorkState Department of Agriculture and Markets astheir new Organic Agriculture Specialist. Shecan be reached at (518) 457-4531, via email [email protected] or by mail at10B Airline Drive, Albany, NY 12235.

ORGANIC FARMING

Getting Your VitaminsStarts with Variety andGrowing MethodThe September 2007 report "Still No Free Lunch" by Brian Halweil sheds light on the impact of farming practices on the nutrient content of foods

Declining Zinc Content of Hard Red Wheat Varieties GrownBetween 1873 and 2000. From "Still No Free Lunch". Originalsource -- David Garvin, J Sci Fd Ag, 2006, 86:2213-2220.

Yields of Assorted Crops Grown in the U.S.1961-2000. From "Still No Free Lunch",Original source -- UN Food and AgricultureOrganization

Trends in Vitamin and Mineral Content in 43 Garden Crops,USDA data, 1955-1999. From "Still No Free Lunch". Originalsource -Davis, Epp & Riordan, J AM Coll Nutr, 2004; 23:669.

Mean Mineral Content of wheat grown in organic and conven-tional systems. From "Still No Free Lunch." Original source -Kevin Murphy, Washington State University


by Susan Neal

While our nation and culture are still young bysome standards, American historians havebeen making great strides since the 1930's topreserve and interpret aspects of Americanlife that might otherwise be lost to time. Notsurprisingly, farming has been a predominanttheme in preservation, and in the establish-ment of living history museums, underscoringagriculture's importance to our society.

The Northeast has a long history of settle-ment and agricultural activity, so naturally theregion offers many wonderful living historymuseums from which to choose. They arequite varied as to their collections, interpreta-tions, and purposes. But at all of them, youwill find dedicated women working in paid andvolunteer positions, making these placescome alive for us every day.

THE FARMERS' MUSEUMThe Farmers' Museum, located in historicCooperstown, NY, was established in 1943 asa rural life museum that recreates a mid-nine-teenth century rural village and working farm-stead. Its impressive collection of relocated,historic buildings include a blacksmith shop,tavern, pharmacy, general store, print shop,church and schoolhouse in the CrossroadsVillage, and barns, animal sheds, a smokehouse, and a historic farmhouse on the LippittFarmstead.

Actual crops, such as historically importanthops, are grown on the farm and a number ofheritage livestock breeds, including Devoncattle, Dominique chickens, and Narragansettturkeys, are also raised. During the summermonths, the museum recreates a 1910 coun-try fair, complete with a handcrafted carousel.Numerous programs and special events areoffered at the museum throughout the yearand its collection of artifacts now numbermore than 23,000 items.

Barbara Fischer is the Senior Director forHuman Resources at The Farmers' Museum.She was raised on a 200 acre Holstein dairyfarm not far from the site. Her father, an agri-culture graduate of Cornell University, oftenhosted graduate students on the family farm.During the summer, with the farm overseen bythese hard-working scholars, Barbara's familytook an annual three-week vacation andexplored -- of all things -- museums acrossthe country.

When Barbara headed off to the AlbanyBusiness College to get her degree, her fathersold the farm and took a position at TheFarmers' Museum. Several years later,Barbara followed in the footsteps of her latefather and also applied for a position at themuseum. She has been with the organizationfor 15 years now and enjoys combining herlove and knowledge of farming and historywith her keen business experience.

Barbara notes, "There was once a time whenbeing a farm kid was a great source of pride.Our parents were landowners and business-people who served as community leaders."She regrets the loss of this sense of prideamong rural families and recognizes society'sattitudes toward farming have changed con-siderably since the 1950's.

But she sees in the museum staff and volun-teers with whom she works many of the samequalities that were once fostered by hard-working farm families...small town pride,appreciation for family, and satisfaction in ajob well done. She and her fellow employeesrecognize that they are not only saving collec-tions of interesting artifacts, they are preserv-ing our ancestor's traditions and values, andoffering future generations a tantalizing tasteof our forefathers' way of life before it is lostforever.

THE BILLINGS FARM MUSEUMIn Woodstock, Vermont the Billings FarmMuseum offers us a different perspective onpreserving farm history. Built in 1871 byFrederick Billings, the farm is still located onits original property. Mr. Billings was an earlyenvironmentalist and he intended that thefarm serve as a model of responsible steward-

ship in both farming and forestry. He was alsoa keen innovator, and appreciated theadvances that the Industrial Revolution wasbeginning to realize.

By 1890, the original 270 acre farm hadgrown to 1000 acres, and was a model dairy

operation or "showcase farm,"utilizing and promoting all themodern farming innovationsand technologies of the day.The Billings Farm also pro-duced some of the top Jerseycattle in the country, andtoday the farm is still a trueworking farm, dedicated tobreeding championship-caliberdairy cattle. The milk producedby the farm is utilized by localVermont cheese companiessuch as Cabot Creamery andGrafton Village CheeseCompany.

Historic structures on the siteinclude the dairy barn (visitorsmay watch the afternoon milk-

ing every day at 3:30pm), horse barns, a milkroom, and the old farmhouse. The museum'sextensive artifact collections and multi-mediaexhibits are on display throughout severalconnected, nineteenth-century barns. And inaddition to the Jerseys, the farm is also hometo a number of other historically importantbreeds.

Susan Plump has served as Public RelationsCoordinator at the Billings Farm for the last

seven years. She is quick to point out that themuseum hosts more than twenty specialevents and activities throughout the year, andthat because it is still a working dairy farm,remains open throughout much of the winter,unlike many other living history museumswhich typically close for the slow season.

Susan explains that the museum uses oxenand Percheron horses for wagon and sleighrides and plowing demonstrations. Southdownsheep, a breed that was once raised on theoriginal farm, now produce wool for educationevents. And chickens contribute eggs formany historically accurate dishes prepared inthe 1890's farmhouse kitchen.

She estimates that at least half of the muse-um's staff and volunteers are women, and thatmost have a rich background in agriculture oreducation. Together they pool their collectiveskills and talents and serve as interpreters,gardeners, farm hands, and Jills-Of-All-Tradesas they share their love of history and farmingwith visitors.

HANCOCK SHAKER VILLAGEOffering yet another unique view of agricultur-al history is the Hancock Shaker Village inPittsfield, MA. This unique agriculturally-based, utopian community was founded in1783 by a group of devoted Shakers. TheirCity of Peace, as the community was named,was a model of efficient and industrious rural,spiritual life.

The agricultural crafts and industries practicedby the Shakers included woodworking, bas-ketry, broom making, milling, medicinal herb

gardening, and dairy produc-tion. The community main-tained a working dairy farmright up to the 1950's. Shakerbrothers and sisters consid-ered all work a form of prayer,and they undertook their dailyfarming activities with a senseof profound humility and joy.

Ellen Spear is President andCEO of Hancock ShakerVillage. The reverence shefeels for this living history siteis clearly evident in her pas-sionate descriptions of theVillage and its original inhabi-tants. She has come to believethat the siteoffers a calm-ing, almost

magical, quality, a spiritualbalm that is experienced (andsought) by many who visit.

Spear notes that "many peo-ple seem to be looking forsolutions to the pressuresposed by life in the 21st cen-tury. The Shakers understoodhow to find peace and joy inliving a simple, principled life."These timeless values arevery important to Ellen per-sonally, and she enjoys help-ing others discover these

Shaker ideals.Today the Hancock ShakerVillage is proud to showcase the incrediblytalented workmanship of its original residentsthrough the museum's collection of twenty his-toric structures and numerous artifacts. Toursare offered daily during the visiting seasonand special events are held throughout theyear.

In addition to educating visitors about theShakers and their beliefs, the museum alsoactively promotes sustainable agriculture, aconcept which many modern farmers are justdeveloping an appreciation for, but which theShakers practiced faithfully on a daily basis.The museum engages in valuable seed sav-ing projects, raising and preserving importantspecies of heritage and heirloom vegetablesand herbs.

Many of the plants produced by the museum'sworking gardens are used by local restau-rants, as are eggs that are produced by themuseum's chickens. And as the originalShaker farmers did, the Village's dedicatedstaff and volunteers continue to produce hopsand cider for local brewing and pressing oper-ations.

Every living history museum offers a uniqueperspective of our ancestor's lives and theirincredible bond to the land. These are sitesthat should not just be visited, but experi-enced. So enjoy the rich educational opportu-nities that our region has to offer. And be sureto thank the women and men you encounterat such sites for their tremendous dedicationin helping to preserve our Nation's farminghistory.

Author Susan Neal farms and writes atWiccaway Farm in Beaver Dams, NY, and is acontact person for the NY Women inAgriculture Network. She can be reached at607-535-2135 or [email protected].(607) 535-2135 or [email protected] Davenport of the Family Farm Store,Spencer, NY, can be reached at (607) 589-7866. Carol Clemens or Heather Ridge Farmsand Farm Store, Preston Hollow, NY, can bereached at (518) 239-6045.

WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE

Living HistoryDedicated women help make rural history come alive at threeof the region's most prominent living history museums

Resource SpotlightLiving History Museums

For a listing of living history museums across the country: The Association forLiving History, Farm and Agricultural Museums www.alhfam.org Click on"Resources" and "Museum Links." For more information about the sites men-tioned in this article, such as dates and hours of operation, and a listing ofspecial events, contact:

Threshing Machine Exhibit-Billings Farm Photographer: Susan Neal

Barbara Fischer and Devon Photographer: Barbara Fischer/NY Farmer's Museum

Shaker Woodworking Techniques-Hancock Shaker Museum Photographer: Susan Neal

New York Farmer's MuseumCooperstown, NYPhone: 888-547-1450www.farmersmuseum.org

Billings Farm MuseumWoodstock, VTPhone: 800-457-2355www.billingsfarm.org

Hancock Shaker VillagePittsfield, MAPhone: 800-817-1137www.hancockshakervillage.org


By Chanda Lindsay

Rose Marie Belforti and her husband, TimWallbridge, dreamed about having a smallfarm in the country. In 1999, this dreambecame a reality when they purchased a farmhouse and 12 acres in Ledyard, NY. Theiroriginal thoughts were to have a large gardenand possibly a few animals. Never did theythink that they would soon be undertaking acheese making venture!

After building a barn and laying out a pasture,they purchased a very small herd of IrishDexter cattle and started milking them. Today,

the farm is producing and marketing a unique,semi-soft raw milk cheese cultured with kefirgrains. How did they get there? The CayugaCounty Local Foods/Local Markets DiscussionGroup paid a visit to the farm in June to getsome insight and ideas.

The family developed a vision of what kind offarm they wanted. They researched variousbreeds of cattle and finally settled on Dexters.Originally from Ireland, Dexter Cattle werepopular on small diversified farms of the 19thand early 20th centuries for their multi-pur-pose attributes as milk, meat and draft ani-mals. Dexters were appealing to Rose andTim because they produce rich, creamy milkexcellent for cheese, and their small sizemakes them suitable for limited acreage. Rosebelieves very strongly in wholesome, healthymilk produced with a minimum of inputs and alow environmental impact.

Kefir grains are a type of living, beneficial,microbial bacteria. They have been used forcenturies by traditional peoples to culture milkand are renowned for contributing to healthand longevity. According to Rose, "Kefir grainspropagate naturally when immersed in milk,making them an ideal, sustainable natural

resource". Rose discovered kefir whenresearching alternative foods because of longterm food allergies. Prior to the Finger LakesDexter Creamery, kefir grains had never beenused in commercial cheese production.

Rose and Tim applied for a producer grantfrom the USDA Sustainable AgricultureResearch and Education (SARE) program in2005 and received funding for the project inJuly of 2006. They worked with Cornell SmallFarms Program, Cornell CooperativeExtension of Cayuga County and NY FarmNetto develop their proposal.

Their plan was to scale up a home recipe to acommercial process for Kefir cheese usingauthentic living Kefir grains. In cooperationwith the Cornell University Food Processingand Development Laboratory, they set out toestablish a standard for the new Kefir cheese.The result was an authentic kefir cheesemade with raw milk, containing full cream andaged for 60 days or more.

The process of transforming a home cheeserecipe into a certified commercial productproved time and energy consuming. It had allbegun when Rose started producing toomuch cheese for her family's consumptionand started looking into other possible outlets.She began talking with NY State milk inspec-tors about the rules and regulations for settingup a cheese making operation.

As Rose and Tim started designing the dairyand researching the cheese-making process,it was clear that they needed help gettingstarted. Upon reading the instructions for theSARE grant, Rose discovered the require-ments fit with their desire to produce some-thing that would both promote sustainablefarming and provide a model for other farm-ers.

According to Rose, the most important ele-ment to consider when seeking a grant is howclosely it matches your objectives. "Each granthas very specific ideas on what kind of proj-ects it wants to fund, and if your project doesnot fit, it may be a waste of time to apply," shesays. Another tip is to make sure that youread all the instructions carefully and providecomplete and concise responses.

Developing a business plan was critical tohelping Rose and Tim prepare for writing thegrant. Defining their goals and projected costsfor the proposal helped them to provide realis-tic and sensible plans that they felt confidentliving up to.

Setting up a dairy was a challenge for some-one who was not raised in the dairy life. Roseand Tim worked extremely closely with theNYS Ag and Market inspectors to adhere toregulations at every step. As Rose says, "It isbetter to get it right the first time than to haveto go back and do it again!" Along the way,there were all kinds of set backs, delays, andfailures in cheese production. Because theprocess is so new and different, there was notemplate to follow and no recipe to consult.

One relatively unique management practice isthat Rose and Tim keep the calves with theirmoms for as long as they can. That meansless milk and less cheese. However, they feelthe sacrifice is important, not only for the wel-fare of the animals, but because they want topromote a new model for harvesting milk.According to Rose, "Cows are the ones whomake the milk, and we want to respect them,and give them a quality life for as long as theyhave been genetically designed to calve andproduce milk."

Since Dexter cattle are still rare but in growingdemand on small niche farms seeking a ver-satile animal, the calves are typically sold topeople who are starting their own Dexterherds. Rose prefers to sell to people who arecommitted to keeping the breed in existence.

As far as the future goes, it takes a long timeto become a cheese maker. "The more Ilearn, the less I feel I know", says Rose.

Skilled cheese production not only demandsexpertise in the science of culturing, acidifica-tion, coagulation and ripening, but alsorequires dedication to technique. AlthoughRose is just getting started, she looks forwardto many years of hand-crafting kefir cheese,perfecting her recipe and raising qualityDexter cattle.

To see a step by step documentation of thecreation of Rose's Kefir cheese, visit theSARE final report at:www.sare.org/reporting/report_viewer.asp?pn=FNE06-595&ry=2006&rf=1. To learn moreabout Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery, visittheir website: www.kefircheese.com

Chanda Lindsay is an Extension ResourceEducator with Cayuga County CooperativeExtension in Auburn, NY. She can be reachedat 315-255-1183 or [email protected].

NEW FARMERS

Finger Lakes Dexter CreameryA SARE Farmer Grant helped beginning farmer Rose MarieBelforti launch a unique cheese-making venture

Resource SpotlightNESARE Farmer Grants

For over thirty years, USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)Program has been a critical resource for agricultural innovators across the nation. TheNortheast SARE program, or NESARE, has several grant programs designed for farmers,researchers and educators.

The goal of NESARE's Farmer Grant Program is to develop, refine, and demonstrate newsustainable techniques and to explore innovative ideas developed by farmers across theregion. To apply, you must be a farmer in the Northeast SARE region, which includesConnecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey,New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

To be eligible for a farmer grant you need not be farming full time, but your operationshould have an established crop or animal product that you sell on a regular basis.Nonprofit farms may apply, but the primary activity of the farm must be to produce andsell food under the kinds of economic constraints that affect commercial growers. Manycommunity-supported farms qualify, but farms where the primary mission is educationalnormally do not.

The deadline for 2008 Farmer Grant applications is past, but it is not too late to beginplanning for a 2009 application. A useful guide to developing a Farmer Grant application,with examples and explanations of what makes a strong proposal, is NESARE's 44-pagebooklet: How to Write a SARE Farmer Grant Application. It can be ordered by contactingthe NESARE office at 802-656-0471 or [email protected]. It is also available online atwww.uvm.edu/~nesare/07Farmerguide.pdf.

To learn more about past Farmer projects, you may view the national project database.This database allows you to sort by grant type, region, interest area, and a variety ofother criteria. The national database and much more is available atwww.uvm.edu/~nesare.

Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery developed theirunique kefir cheese with help from a SAREgrant.

Dexters produce rich, creamy milk excellent for cheese, and their small size makes them suitablefor limited acreage.

The new creamery building.

Tim with Dexter baby and mom. Photos by Rose Marie Belforti


by Barbara Wenke

Greetings from Western New York.

My husband Tim and I are the proud ownersof a 50-acre tree farm in Western New York.We have been creating our own managementplan for our diversity of tree growth and landuses for the past few years. Having purchasedthe property from my great aunt 6 years ago,we have been busy.

We had been doing some minor land man-agement on our property for a few years butour recent participation in Cornell University'sMaster Forest Owners/COVERTS workshopat the Arrnot Forest facility really strengthenedour land commitment.

We spent a long weekend of intense butenjoyable training with other land owners whowant to maintain sustainable management intheir woodlands and help others do the same.The various seminars included hiking throughthe woods identifying and measuring trees fortimber value and a visit to a good-sizedsawmill where we watched logs being milledto various lumber dimensions.

As MFO volunteers we share our knowledgewith other woodlot owners about how they canestablish their own goals and commitments totheir land. We have rescued a few new andold friends and neighbors from the uninvitedlogger who knocks on their door with an offertoo good to refuse. Too often forest ownerscome to realize that they do not fully under-stand the value of their property and timberand have no management plan and goals.

We have joined the New York Forest OwnersAssociation and are currently pursuing beingcertified by the American Forest FoundationTree Farm Association through our NYS DECforester.

Our old timber plot hosts a variety of trees.We have Sugar Maple, Red and White Oak,Cherry, Hickory, Birch, Cucumber, Tulip,Osage Orange, Hemlock and Ash. We aregetting pretty good at tree identification evenwhen there are no leaves to see their charac-teristics.

The management plan that we have decidedupon is to maintain a small, but continuedprofit from the harvest and sale of timber andfirewood as well leaving the nut trees for

wildlife and old snags for aesthetics purposes.Currently, we log for timber and firewoodevery year and through this we had to developsome unique timber pulling apparatuses toget the timber down some very steep grades.

We have found that replanting our trees infiber pots is a successful technique as we cangroup these containers close together andwater them during the drier periods. We alsokeep them behind fencing where the deer andrabbits in February can't browse down theoaks to nubs. We had to establish a deermanagement plan with knowledge that whenthey herd up in the winter they can wipe out awhole year's work in a few days.

We actually enjoy the planting season! Weorder seedlings from various sources as wellas soil and containers to plant them. Werecruit the help of volunteers to accomplishplanting 3000+ trees in one weekend. Afterthe trees sit in containers for several growingseasons we move them out to the sectionalplots we have set aside for their final plantingin the woods or old fields.

In the spring we tap the Sugar Maples andgather a few hundred of gallons of sap thatwe boil down to maple syrup to enjoy through-out the year and give as gifts to friends andfamily. We would do a bigger harvest but wehave a large creek that roars during thespring thaw which is between us and the sug-arbush.

We have a future plan to run sap lines acrossthe creek to a central container. Our currentsystem is a primitive setup where we still boilwith wood over large stainless steel pans set-ting above the roaring fire. The wafts of thesweet smell of sap turning to syrup is trulywonderful. It is a favorite scent of spring.

In our spare time we also raise bees and havedone so for the past few years with varyingdegrees of success. We enjoy bottling ourhoney in the early and late summer and havequite a following of buyers who enjoy thisorganic product.

The property has been lightly logged on theback 25 acres. The front 25 acres once hadgrapes, followed by corn in the seventies. Thatsection of the forest is now in various stagesof reforest succession. Tim and I faithfullyplant a few thousand trees every year and Ikeep track of our work through MS Excel

spreadsheets and a program I created usingVisual Basic where we log in the species andgrowth data. We spend winter evenings plan-ning for the coming year's planting and timberharvesting.

We have looked into establishing agriculturalcrops in the understory with hopes of growingmushrooms and ginseng, but we need toexamine the logistics of turning this into asecondary income generator.

In between enjoying our woodlot we havemade capital improvements to our barns andhome. We are putting up a greenhouse thisspring to do some early nursery plantings sowe won't have to rely on ordering seedlings. If

I could fast forward to fifty years in the future,I hope that the next generation of landownerswill see that the strategies and plans wedeveloped here have improved rather thanimpaired this property.

To learn more about Cornell University'sMaster Forest Owners/COVERTS VolunteerProgram at the Arrnot Forest facility, visit thewebsite at www.cornellmfo.info and the NewYork Forest Owners Association website atwww.nyfoa.org.

Barbara Wenke is a NY Master Forest OwnerVolunteer in Evans, NY. She may be reachedat 716-549-3986 or [email protected].

FOREST AND WOODLOT

Our Woodlot Ownership Plansand Memories

by Dorothy Suput

The Carrot Project is asking farmers to partici-pate in a survey to better understand the

financing gaps confronting them. The CarrotProject and more than 25 organizations arereaching out to farmers across New Englandand New York asking them to respond to the

survey because there is little information on theroles of debt and financing gaps as they affectsmaller farms. Responses will help addressfinancing gaps for beginning farmers, farmerstransitioning to more ecologically friendly prac-tices, farmers looking to expand their business-es, and farmers working to maintain the viabili-ty of their farms.

It is estimated that twenty percent of farmerscan't find the financing needed to run theirbusinesses. They need the money to repair aroof, add a greenhouse, or purchase farmland.

Farmers can't find the necessary financingbecause they live in an area without agricultur-al lending expertise, don't have sufficient prop-erty to secure financing, have a non-traditionalbusiness plan, or are simply looking for toosmall an amount.

The Carrot Project is working to create smallfarm financing solutions to address financinggaps confronting small and midsized eco-friendly and financially viable farm enterprisesby making loans and guarantees available andexploring equity solutions. The Carrot Project's

model pulls together and takesadvantage of the intersectionof smaller farmers' financingneeds, limited access tolenders, and sources of appro-priate capital to both increasethe amount of financing avail-able to farmers and increasetheir access to financing.

For more information about thefarmer survey or to completethe survey, please go towww.thecarrotproject.org andclick on "FARMER SURVEY." Ifyou have questions, pleasecontact [email protected] or call 617-666-9637.

Dorothy Suput is the ExecutiveDirector of the Carrot Project.She may be reached [email protected] orby calling 617-910-8499.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Carrot Project Seeks Input onSmall Farm Financing Needs

A starkly beautiful day at the author's 50-acre tree farm in Evans, New York.Photo by Barbara Wenke

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by Ulf Kintzell

In 1995 I settled in New Jersey and startedWhite Clover Sheep Farm. In New Jerseythere is a shortage of large flocks and ofcommercial sheep. Thus, I bought any smallnumber of sheep of many different breeds inthe area that was available for a reasonableprice and bred all ewes to Texel rams. Thisturned out to be a great learning experience.

HAMPSHIRESMy Hampshire Sheep came from a commer-cial flock. They performed well on pastureand were fairly docile sheep, though somewith a percentage of Suffolk blood in themwere livelier. Their lambing percentage waswell above average, reaching about 1.8lambs per ewe. The lambs managed to gettheir nutrition from pasture.

The biggest disadvantage was that theselambs didn't finish at a weight between 80and 90 pounds, the weight that I desired. Thebone to meat ratio was too high and the fatcover was not at the desired level. Secondly,the ewes were bigger than a medium sizedewe, which I feel is too high-input when itcomes to maintenance.

POLYPAYSThe Polypays also performed well on pas-ture. Their biggest disadvantage was a lack

of uniformity. Some of the Polypays werehuge but produced just one lamb year afteryear. Some of the Polypays clearly took afterFinnsheep. They produced triplets andquadruplets and then lacked milk and bodysubstance to raise these lambs.

The Polypays that produced the best werethose that took after Dorset sheep. The lamb-ing percentage was high, at about 2 lambsper ewe, and the lambs finished nicely on

pasture at the weight I desired. For a shortwhile I produced female lambs for reproduc-tion using a Dorset ram from a commercialfarm. These sheep performed well, yet I part-ed with them when I received a good offer.

TEXELSThe Texel sheep is not a sheep with out-standing mothering ability, nor high fertility.However, this can be helped by stronglyselecting for both. I achieved a lambing per-centage of 2 lambs per ewe with good moth-ering and milking ability after selecting for itfor several years.

Texels have a number of things going forthem. They produce very meaty lambs, withoutstanding prime cuts such as the loinchops and the leg of lamb. Furthermore,Texels are very docile. Both ewes and lambsperform well on pasture. They do need a lotto eat but the pasture does not have to be

first class. The lambs can be sold at a lighterweight (the so-called hot house lambs) aswell as high weights.

Texels are known for producing lean carcass-es: Getting a Texel too fat is rarely a con-cern. However, there are downsides to rais-ing Texels. Texels are heat sensitive, sufferparticularly when it is humid, and must beoffered shade. Another undesirable trait isthe difficulty during lambing. Due to theirbroad head and shoulders it is not uncom-mon for a ewe to need help delivering herlambs.

Last but not least, if you need sheep withstrong flocking behavior don't go with Texels.Some of them do not care whether or not theflock moves on. They just stand still.

In the past years I raised mainly Texel andTexel percentage ewes. These sheepseemed to be the best compromise for mypasture-based farm and the market lambs Iwanted to produce. In 2005 I purchased twoWhite Dorper rams. My first half-blood eweslambed this year and I retained my firstthree-quarter White Dorper ewe lambs thisyear.

WHITE DORPERSMy White Dorper percentage ewes have out-performed my Texel and Texel percentageewes in most areas. This is, in my opinion,not due to a crossing effect, but rather it isdue to the breed traits of White Dorpersheep. White Dorpers thrive on pasture andalso utilize shrubs and bush-es better than other breeds.In fact, at times they seemlike goats when you see themlined up along a hedgeroweating leaves.

Dorpers are also quite heattolerant. But be aware, WhiteDorpers are lively when han-dled, a fact I found out quick-ly when I de-wormed them forthe first time in my chute.Another down side can be thefact that this breed tends toget too fat quickly when heav-ily grain fed, a problem I don'thave since they are all fin-ished on pasture. There is noproblem with them getting toofat when they weigh less than100 pounds. As of this writingI have market lambs that wellexceed 100 pounds. Whetherthese lambs will be too fatremains to be seen.

NO BREED IS PERFECTGenerally speaking, there isno perfect breed. Choosing abreed means making compro-mises. However, you get tochoose the breed and there-fore the compromises you arewilling to accept. If thesecompromises affect the bot-tom line, you might want tosearch for a different breed ortry to compensate with a ter-minal sire.

Other undesirable traits suchas too lively, heat sensitivityor lambing problems dependmore on the sheep farmer'snature and whether or not heor she can tolerate the trait.Undesirable traits can also bedealt with by using certainoperating systems, such asfrequently checking the ewesduring lambing season helpsavoiding lamb losses, oroffering shade in every pad-dock limits the influence ofhot weather.

These undesirable traits donot necessarily affect the bot-tom line. What is true anddesirable for one farm doesnot need to be true and desir-able for the next. There are

very few universal truths. You will need toevaluate what works for you. That is thebeauty of entrepreneurship.

Ulf Kintzel owns and manages White CloverSheep Farm in Hushville, NY. Info at:www.whitecloversheepfarm.com

NON-DAIRY LIVESTOCK

Choosing A Breed for aPasture Based Sheep FarmWhat's best for one farm is not necessarily best for another


Finishing on grass and legumes is the single most important trait for a breed of sheep in apasture based farming system. All Photos by Ulf Kintzel

Both Texel (left) and White Dorper (right) are breeds that are very suitable to be raised on pas-ture.

Texel sheep are very docile and often allowhumans to approach

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by Susan Lang

A low-fat vegetarian diet is very efficient interms of how much land is needed to supportit. But adding some dairy products and a limit-ed amount of meat may actually increase thisefficiency, Cornell researchers suggest.

This deduction stems from the findings of theirnew study, which concludes that if everyone inNew York State followed a low-fat vegetariandiet, the state could directly support almost 50percent more people, or about 32 percent ofits population, agriculturally. With today's high-meat, high-dairy diet, the state is able to sup-port directly only 22 percent of its population,say the researchers.

The study, published in the journal RenewableAgriculture and Food Systems, is the first toexamine the land requirements of completediets. Using only foods that can be producedin New York State, the researchers compared42 diets with the same number of calories anda core of grains, fruits, vegetables and dairyproducts, but with varying amounts of meat(from none to 13.4 ounces daily) and fat (from20 to 45 percent of calories) to determineeach diet's "agricultural land footprint."

They found a fivefold difference between thetwo extremes.

"A person following a low-fat vegetarian diet,for example, will need less than half (0.44) anacre per person per year to produce theirfood," said Christian Peters, a Cornell post-doctoral associate in crop and soil sciences

and lead author of the research. "A high-fatdiet with a lot of meat, on the other hand,needs 2.11 acres."

"Surprisingly, however, a vegetarian diet is notnecessarily the most efficient in terms of landuse," said Peters.

The reason is that fruits, vegetables andgrains must be grown on high-quality crop-land, he explained. Meat and dairy productsfrom ruminant animals are supported by lowerquality, but more widely available, land thatcan support pasture and hay. A large pool ofsuch land is available in New York Statebecause for sustainable use, most farmlandrequires a crop rotation with such perennialcrops as pasture and hay.

Thus, although vegetarian diets in New YorkState may require less land per person, theyuse more high-valued land. "It appears thatwhile meat increases land-use requirements,diets including modest amounts of meat canfeed more people than some higher fat vege-tarian diets," said Peters.

"The key to conserving land and otherresources with our diets is to limit the amountof meat we eat and for farmers to rely moreon grazing and forages to feed their livestock,"said Jennifer Wilkins, senior extension associ-ate in nutritional sciences who specializes inthe connection between local food systemsand health and co-authored the study withGary Fick, Cornell professor of crop and soilsciences. "Consumers need to be aware thatfoods differ not only in their nutrient contentbut in the amount of resources required to

produce, process, package and transportthem."

According to the U.S. Department ofAgriculture, the average American ate approx-imately 5.8 ounces of meat and eggs a day in2005.

"In order to reach the efficiency in land use ofmoderate-fat, vegetarian diets, our study sug-

gests that New Yorkers would need to limittheir annual meat and egg intake to about 2cooked ounces a day," Peters said.

The research was supported in part by theNational Research Initiative of the USDACooperative State Research, Education andExtension Service. This article first appearedin the Oct. 4, 2007 issue of the CornellChronicle.

HOME AND FAMILY

Diet for Small PlanetThe most land-efficient diet may include some dairy and meat,Cornell researchers report


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Even though a moderate-fat plant-based diet with a little meat and dairy (red footprint) usesmore land than the all-vegetarian diet (far left footprint), it feeds more people (is more effi-cient) because it uses more pasture land, which is widely available.

Illustration by Steve Rokitka, Cornell University Communications

by David Leverett

Perhaps you love animals. Perhaps youlove working outdoors. Perhaps you feeldeeply connected to the land. Perhaps youbelieve in producing the best food possiblefor the world we live in today. Whatever thereason, my job is to review requests frompeople interested in starting or expandingan agricultural business. I'd like to tell youwhat it takes to get a banker like me to sayyes to your business proposal.

When I am asked to lend money to a farmbusiness I think of the five Cs of credit:Character, Capacity, Capital, Collateral andConditions. Let me tell you a bit abouteach.

CHARACTERThe kind of person you are and the valuesyou use when doing business are criticallyimportant to a lender when making a loandecision. Lenders want to do business withcustomers who are responsible and honest.Character is measured by credit reportsand letters of reference from people withwhom you have done business. Past expe-rience is a very good indicator of futureperformance.

CAPACITYHow much money you can earn throughyour hard work and your ability to pay thenecessary bills is your capacity. Lenderswant to make loans to people with a busi-ness plan that is realistic. The business willneed to create enough income to pay oper-ating expenses, repay loans, and provide asatisfying living for the borrower.Additionally, the business would need togenerate enough income to provide forfuture growth and savings to insure againstthe inevitable down times that happen inthe agricultural industry.

Lenders judge the capacity of existing busi-nesses by examining tax returns from sev-eral years. These contain important infor-mation about income and expenses for thebusiness. Most farm operators follow theirown established production patterns. Somefarmers keep their expenses low by havingmodest production goals; others may gen-erate a large income but spend a greatdeal of that income achieving high produc-tion.

We look closely at these patterns, whichcan vary greatly, for indicators of futuresuccess. If you are a first time borrower it isharder to prove the future success of yourfarm business. Setting production goals andmaking budgets that are realistic is the bestfirst step.

CAPITALSimply put, capital is what you are worth --in dollars, of course. Add together every-thing you have of value, your assets, andsubtract everything you owe, your debts, tofind your net worth. Lenders want cus-tomers to have a strong reason to succeed.People with nothing to lose don't work ashard as people with everything to lose. Ifyou have invested heavily in your businessyou are going to want it to succeed.

COLLATERALCollateral is what you own that you canpledge to the lending institution as a way topay off the loan if you are unable to makescheduled payments as planned. In a per-fect world loans would always be paidusing the repayment schedule initiallyagreed to by the borrower and lender. Thisis the way bankers like it to be, but unfortu-nately, this doesn't always happen.

Think of collateral as a back-up plan. Thelender knows the loan can be repaidbecause the borrower can sell the itemslisted as collateral in order to pay off theloan. Having collateral reduces the risk tothe lending institution when deciding tomake the loan.

CONDITIONCondition, unlike the other Cs of credit, isnot controlled by the borrower. Businessconditions in the agricultural industry canswing wildly from year to year. Although theborrower has no control over the conditionsthat exist, the lender must take into consid-eration trends in the current economybefore deciding to make a loan.

In addition to these five Cs there is oneother characteristic I appreciate in loanapplicants, accuracy in record keeping.Those who keep up-to-date production andfinancial records are able to make deci-sions about their businesses based onproven facts and trends. This critical skill isoften overlooked but not difficult to achieve.Financial information can be kept in a sim-ple ledger book or on a computer usingaccounting software. An applicant shouldprepare a loan plan and a financial state-

ment for the business. Financial statementsare a summary of the applicant's assetsand liabilities (debts).

I hope these five Cs of credit will help youunderstand better how lenders make deci-sions about giving agricultural loans.Lending institutions are eager to makeloans to applicants who demonstrateintegrity, have well-defined goals, keepaccurate records that substantiate theirplan and are ready to work hard to bringtheir goals to reality. Perhaps one of thosefuture agricultural businesses is yours.

A resource available to both first-time andexisting farmers in New York State is NYFarmNet. This agency consults with farmerson topics such as budgeting, conflict reso-lution, estate planning, and much more.Their services are free. They can bereached at 1-800-547-3276 or on the webat www.nyfarmnet.org.

David Leverett is an Assistant VicePresident in the Agriculture LendingDepartment of the Norwich branch of NBTBank, NA. He can be reached at (607) 337-6152 or via email [email protected].


BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

The 5 C's of Credit:How to Get a Bank to Say Yesto Your Loan Request

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Typical loan documents at NBT Bank, NA. Photo by David Leverett

by Ken Wise

Cultivation has been used for thousands ofyears to reduce weed competition with rowcrops. It is only recently that we have had her-bicides to control weeds. Due to concerns forthe environment and costs of herbicides, culti-vation is slowly starting to be used again byfield crop producers. All organic corn produc-ers use cultivation. Interest in revisiting thisweed management practice is also increasingamong conventional corn producers.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING!Timing early-season weed control is a veryimportant aspect of maintaining good cornyields. Weeds and crops compete for limitedresources. If weed control is delayed untilafter the V4 (fourth leaf) stage of corn growth,yields start to drop dramatically. The question

most fieldcrop produc-ers ask is,"How do youcontrol early-seasonweeds withcultivation?"

One methodthat is beingused is "blindcultivation",also knownas "broadcastweed cultiva-tion". No, this

isn't done by closing your eyes while drivingthe tractor(!); rather, "blind" refers to the factthat cultivation is done before the weedseedlings can be seen, when they are at theirsmallest and most vulnerable size. Blind culti-vation uses certain kinds of cultivators to dis-rupt the top one-half to one inch of soil,uprooting and exposing the newly sproutingweed seedlings to desiccation.

Scouting your fields is a requirement to knowwhen weeds are in the "white root stage," thatis, the stage where the seed begins to sproutand the seedling hypocotyl is elongating. Blindcultivation works best when it is hot and thesun is hitting the surface of the field. The goalof this method is to kill weeds when they aremost sensitive to disturbance. Normally ablind cultivation occurs one week after plant-ing, and is repeated when the corn is two tothree inches tall, depending on the cultivatorbeing used.

Planning is essential if you want to use blindcultivation as a means to control annualweeds. One aspect to consider is what kind ofcultivation tool will best fit your farming situa-tion. Rotary hoe, flex-tine weeder, and spiketooth harrows are some of the mechanicalweeders being used to control early-seasonannual weeds in field corn.

THE ROTARY HOEThe rotary hoe is a common mechanicalweed control tool used for blind cultivation.This is a high-speed tool that plucks tinyweeds from the soil. Spider wheels with

curved teeth rotate around a straight staff.Alternate wheels are offset for maximum soilcontact. A rotary hoe can be used for weedcontrol pre-emergent or post-emergent(before or after weeds emerge). But the fin-gers on the hoe are very aggressive and candamage the emerged corn if cultivation is notperformed correctly.

The rotary hoe is very effective at uprootingand killing weeds. It can penetrate the soil oneto two inches deep without damaging thecrop. Increase your seeding rate by two per-cent per weeding pass to compensate forpossible damage. In addition to its role inweed management, a rotary hoe is very effec-tive at breaking up and aerating crusted soilconditions. The rotary hoe should not be usedafter corn height exceeds six to seven inches.Do not expect to kill green weeds becausetheir root systems have become too deep. Soilwith stones can damage and get stuckbetween the rotary hoe fingers.

FLEX-TINE WEEDERFlex-tine weeders are becoming common forearly-season broadcast weed control. Thistool has multiple round orangle-iron framing membersthat hold round or flat springsteel teeth that run about ahalf-inch deep into the soil,vibrating and moving aroundobstructions. This tool can beused pre-emergence or post-emergence when annualweeds are in the white rootstage. Do not let weedsgreen-up because the rootsystem will become too deepfor the tines to uproot them.

A flex-tine weeder can beused on corn up to seveninches tall without much cropdamage. While the rotary hoeis best for breaking up soilcrusting, the flex-tine weederalso does a good job of crust-busting if the tines are at a 45-to 80-degree angle. Oneadvantage to flex-tine weedersis that a stony field does littleor no damage to the tines. Adisadvantage is that theaggressive action can damageemerged corn if you are notcareful. As the angle of theflex-tines increases, theybecome more aggressive,increasing the soil disturbanceand the possibility of damageto the corn crop.

SPIKE-TOOTH HARROWThe spike-tooth harrow hasalso been used for blind culti-vation and can be effective.The harrow has horizontalbars that hold square metalrods about eight inches long,

turned at a 45-degree angle so that the cor-ner runs forward. Make sure that the weedsare in the white root stage. While this worksbest as a pre-emergence control, it can beused post-emergence in corn that is up toseven inches tall. Weeds are most effectivelycontrolled when the weather is sunny andwarm. Stones can be a problem for a spike-tooth harrow. Rocks can damage the teethand/or get caught between teeth, and can ripout rows of corn if not watched carefully.

By using blind cultivation, a producer canreduce or eliminate the use of herbicides onthe farm. If blind cultivation is combined withrow cultivation later in the growing season, theuse of herbicides may not be needed. Byusing blind cultivation early in the season, andjust a post-emergent application of herbicideslater in the season (as needed), a producercan reduce the use of herbicides on the farm.

Ken Wise is the Eastern NYS IPM Educator inthe area of Livestock and Field CropProduction at Cornell University. He can bereached at (518) 434-1690 or [email protected].

COWS AND CROPS

Blind CultivationMore growers are trying this alternative early-season weedcontrol for corn


The key feature of "blind cultivation" is to kill germinated weedseedlings while they are very small, before they break the sur-face. Sketch by Brian Aldrich

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Resource SpotlightEconomic Viability ofGrazing Dairy Farms

A new report from Michigan State University entitledEconomic Viability of Grazing Dairy Farms shows thatlow-capital, managed grazing dairy production offers aviable management option for small- and medium-sizedfarms and beginning farmers. Findings include the follow-ing:

* Grazing dairies require less capital investment per cowthan confinement operations, and often have higherreturns to assets and equity.

* Grazing dairies have greater net income per cow andper hundred weight of milk than confinement dairies. Agrazing dairy can provide a livable family income on ascale that can be operated and managed primarily byfarm family labor.

* With reduced costs, lower capital investments andviable net incomes, grazing dairies may present moreaccessible start-up opportunities for beginning farmers.

* Opportunities exist for differentiated, niche, or value-added products to add to profitability, but do not appearnecessary to achieve satisfactory net incomes.

* Socially and economically, rural communities with rela-tively large numbers of medium-sized farms tend toscore better in various measures of well-being than docommunities with small numbers of larger scale farms.These measures include, for example, lower poverty andunemployment rates, and greater civic engagement.

* Dairy operations that rely more heavily on managedperennial pastures can provide enhanced ecosystemservices, including reduced soil erosion, reduced phos-phorus losses, and increased soil carbon sequestrationpotential.

* Some states are working to address the decline of theirstate's dairy farms and foster scale diversity throughlong-term planning, industry diversification, strategicfinancial assistance, and individualized technical assis-tance.

The entire report is available online at:www.mottgroup.msu.edu/Portals/mottgroup/downloads/ReportForWebsite-Grazing%20Dairy%20Farms.pdf

by Karen Hoffman Sullivan

We all know somebody, or some group, thathas fit the cliché, "can't see the forest for thetrees". It's easy to get caught up in the littledetails of a problem or project, and not see thebig picture, the long term goal, or even thewhole farm.

There are a lot of farmers who are caught upin the day to day details of managing the land,the animals, the equipment, and the check-book. Unfortunately, they don't seem to evertake the time to step back and think about it allas an integrated system.

But decisions that are made with respect toone aspect of the farm have an impact onother areas of the farm as well. You may haveheard the term "holistic" in relation to decisionmaking or management, and many farms havebenefited from using a formalized holisticapproach.

In July, we hosted Dr. Ann Wells for a series offour "whole farm health" pasture walks in aperiod of two days. Dr. Wells is a veterinarianfrom Arkansas, and she advocates the use ofwell-managed pasture to keep animals healthyand reduce their stress level. However, herapproach to animal health is about more thanjust pasture. It is about looking at the wholefarm, from the soils and plants to the animalsand the people, and is a good place to start ifyou want to try applying some holistic princi-ples.

Ann's approach is pretty simple, and involveswalking the farm, knowing and consideringsome of the history of the land, and looking atthe animals. By walking the farm, you can lookat what kinds of plants are growing in yourpastures. Knowing what kinds of fertilization,tillage, or chemicals that have been appliedcan help to pinpoint opportunities to improvethe health of the soils and plants, leading tobetter health of the animals. Observing youranimals from a distance provides many behav-ioral clues as to their health status. Watchingthem in the pasture and seeing how theyrespond to you is indicative of certain healthparameters.

STUDY YOUR PASTURESSome plants, which are commonly thought of

as weeds, can indicate either good or poorhealth of the pastures. If they are plants thatanimals will eat, you may not want to try toeliminate them just because you think they areweeds. They may have a benefit to the ani-mals, such as medicinal or nutritional proper-ties, which the animals become aware ofthrough trial and error and biofeedback mecha-nisms. Thus, it helps to really look at what isgrowing, and determine whether or not the ani-mals are grazing those plants.

There may be some plants that really are notdesirable, and which may be a problem toeliminate without plowing or spraying. In decid-ing what to do, consider other aspects such ashow your decision will affect the longer termhealth of the pasture and the soils. For exam-ple, instead of treating the symptom by spray-ing the weeds, consider that the real cause ofthe problem may be low fertility, and choosethe option that has the best result for the pas-ture plants you want to keep.

KNOW YOUR FARM'S HISTORYThe history of what you or a predecessor onthe farm has done with the land can also helpyou assess the health of the farm. Soil health -- high organic matter, appropriate pH, and bio-logical activity from bacteria, insects, andearthworms -- is affected by the previous treat-ment of the land. Thus, if you know your pas-tures had been plowed extensively or receivedlittle to no fertilization in the past, you can pre-dict that the soil health may be low.

If chemical treatments such as herbicides havebeen used frequently, there may be little bio-logical activity in the soil to help the plants takeup nutrients. If soil health is low, it may be diffi-cult for desirable grasses, legumes, and forbsto grow on that land, or to be of high nutritionalquality for your animals. Thus, if your planthealth is low, look to the previous treatment ofthe soil, and determine how to improve thataspect of the farm.

OBSERVE YOUR ANIMALSGrazing animals will exhibit certain behaviorswhile in a pasture and undisturbed by people.If we watch them from a distance, we cansometimes observe behaviors that may indi-cate a health problem. Recognizing the differ-ences between normal herd or flock behaviorand when something is not quite right can bebeneficial to both the animal and your healthmanagement practices.

For example, if one cow is standing or lyingdown away from the rest of the herd, she maynot be feeling well. Taking note of which animalshe is, and taking a closer look at her whenyou can, may help you to determine if treat-ment is necessary long before she reallyshows clinical signs of illness.

Observing how your animals relate andrespond to you when you visit them in the pas-ture can also be helpful in determining theiroverall health. If they are curious, andapproach you with ears up and forward, heads

held high, and energy in their step, you can betthey are healthy. However, if there are animalswho do not respond to your presence, it shouldbe a flag for you that they may have a healthissue. Take a closer look at those animals totry to determine why they have little or no inter-est in your presence.

In both distant and close-up observations,determining the cause of the abnormal behav-iors is important. It is your opportunity to thinkthrough what the animal may have done, notdone, or encountered that would cause it tobehave differently from the rest of the group.Asking yourself questions about where the ani-mals have been, any environmental or feedchanges they've encountered, or previoushealth issues they have had can give you cluesas to what the current health problem may becaused by and how to help them improve.

Take into consideration any other stress thatmay have affected the animal, because stresscan also cause immune system problems. Thisthought process is where the integration ofyour observations can really have a positiveimpact on your decisions.

"Whole farm health," therefore, is taking thetime to step back and really look at your farmand figure out where the weak link is. Beingaware of subtle changes in all the factors thatinfluence health, from the soil to the plant tothe animals, including stress, can help you todiagnose and treat problems early. Over time itwill become second nature to look and thinkholistically, and your animals will remainhealthy and happy most of the time.

Karen Hoffman-Sullivan is the Grazing LandsConservation Initiative Coordinator and AnimalScientist with USDA-NRCS in Norwich, NY.

GRAZING

Whole Farm HealthDr. Ann Wells advocates the use of well-managed pasture tokeep animals healthy and reduce their stress level


Resource SpotlightDon't Miss the Northeast Grasstravaganza 2008!Grazing never looked or tasted so good

The Northeast Grasstravaganza is returning to Binghamton, New York on March 28th &29th, 2008. This upbeat and energizing conference at the Holiday Inn Arena is intendedfor a region-wide audience of farmers, consumers and agriculture professionals.

Participants can expect to hear an outstanding selection of nationally known speakersincluding:* Kathy Voth -- Colorado-based consultant and owner of Livestock for Landscapes, abusiness that teaches using animals for weed control, local food production, fire preven-tion and improving biodiversity; Research Associate with Utah State University'sBEHAVE Program; and Stockman GrassFarmer contributor.* Kevin Fulton -- Nebraska beef farmer whocustom grazes and grass-finishes over 1000head on 2,300 acres of native prairie grassand cropland.* Janet McNally -- Minnesota sheep produc-er and owner of Tamarack Lamb and WoolCo. She is nationally known for practicalsmall ruminant grazing production and profitstrategies. Janet is also a regular columnistfor the GRAZE magazine.* David Smith -- Maryland based grazier,marketer and president of the AmericanPastured Poultry Producers Association. His67 acre multi-generational family farm hasbeen in operation since the 1700's. Davidhas a wealth of knowledge about on-farmmarketing and working with the media.* Dan Barber -- Chef/owner, Blue Hill & BlueHill at Stone Barns and Creative Director ofthe Stone Barns Center for Food andAgriculture in Pocantico Hills, NY. Dan hasbeen featured in the New Yorker, GourmetMagazine, CBS Sunday Morning, New YorkTimes, House and Garden, Martha StewartLiving, Breathe, and named as "the nextgeneration" of great chefs for Bon Appetit's10th annual restaurant issue.* Shannon Hayes - Mohawk Valley farmerand author of The Farmer and the Grill andThe Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook* Dr. Darrell Emmick -- USDA/NRCS NYSGrassland Specialist* Kim Seeley -- grass-based dairyman andPresident of the Board of the PennsylvaniaAssociation for Sustainable Agriculture.

Practical workshops are planned that spanevery topic from pasturing strategies, grassfinishing, marketing to restaurants andschools, soil health and holistic planning,and how to get started with a grazing opera-tion.

A highlight of the Grasstravaganza will bethe New York State Grown Grass-Fed Meatstrade show. For more details visit the SmallFarms Program website at: http://www.small-farms.cornell.edu/pages/events/index.cfm orcall the CNY RC&D office at (607) 334-3231 Ext. 4

The 2008 Northeast Grasstravaganza is organized and sponsored by the Central NYRC&D Project Inc.; NYS Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative; The Cornell SmallFarms Program; Upper Susquehanna Coalition; Soil and Water Conservation Districts ofOnondaga, Cayuga, Madison, and Chenango Counties; Cornell Cooperative Extensionof Cayuga County; Cornell Department of Animal Science; USDA/NRCS; Rural HealthNetwork of South CNY; Cornerstone Farm Ventures; Creekside Meadows Farm; andHigh Lonesome Farm.

Health is more than just the animals - it's the whole picture! Photo by Karen Hoffman Sullivan

Take time to study the plants in your pas-tures, and carefully observe what your ani-mals are choosing to eat.

Photo by Bill Henning

All Photos by Troy Bishopp

by Martha Herbert Izzi

She sits on her tractor on her good days teth-ered to an oxygen tank and sets out to mowthe fields. She'll need 10,000 bales of hay overthe winter to feed her goats, sheep, cows, andveal calves. What hay she doesn't need shewill sell as part of several income streamsneeded to keep her farm going. She won't giveit up despite the effort that it takes just to geton the rig. It is through sheer will and feistinessthat this Vermont farmer, seventy-four year oldLydia Ratcliff, gets through the days to workthe farm and the phones.

The phone and fax are her financial lifelines. Inaddition to farming, Ratcliff manages FancyMeats From Vermont, a product marketinggroup which sells the custom meats, eggs andcheese from about thirty small farmers. Theirproducts, and often their farm names, are onthe menus many of top-of-the-line restaurantsin New York and Boston.

FANCY MEATS FROM VERMONTFancy Meats From Vermont is currently gener-ating about $400,000 a year in sales, with avolume and return that is optimal to balanceproducers sales. Ratcliff's philosophy in termsof running the organization is to "Keep it small,lean, sharp manageable, personal, and cus-tomized." To that she adds, "We have neverfailed to pay any producers. We have no debts.We have low overhead. And the customer isalways right."

Ratcliff is known to some of the nation's mostacclaimed chefs. And if there is any languagebarrier, she will speak to them in fluent Frenchor Italian, an undoubted asset for a class ofchefs who don't expect to work with bi-lingualfarmers.

But chefs know that Lydia Ratcliff is no ordi-nary producer. Over the many years since shebecame her own marketing and sales agent,they've seen this woman matter-of-factly carrywhole meat carcasses into their kitchens onher delivery rounds through the city. Today, apaid driver makes twenty to thirty weekly deliv-eries in New York City and Boston for FancyMeats From Vermont.

To be sure, Ratcliff is an unusual woman withan unusual background. Foremost in her mindis to establish a marketing model for small farmsurvival, and for the most part hers is a suc-cess story.

When she moved to Vermont and began farm-ing her 125 acres in the mid- seventies shechose to return to her own back yard, New YorkCity, for her market and went to the people withwhom she had something in common. Goodfresh, locally grown food. Those were the dayswhen that phrase was largely unfamiliar tomost of us, but one that she espoused. Shetakes some credit for the years that shedoggedly worked to connect farmers with con-sumers with fresh products at fair prices.

To those who know her she is a farmer and aneccentric, strong-willed, some would say, dicta-torial leader. She is also a teacher who willshare her encyclopedic knowledge of hus-bandry, genetics, philosophy, writing or any-thing else one may want to know or even notwant to know. She has no trouble telling some-one where they failed...and what they might do

to succeed.

She is also a writer who once worked as aresearcher for Time Magazine. Later she spentthirteen years partnered with Sylvia Porterwhose Money Book was published in 1975 andsold millions of copies.

With the money she made from that effort shecame to Vermont, bought an 1820 farm houseand built a twelve sided, almost-round barn.Although she began her life as a pig farmer,she quickly diversified, and thinks every smallfarmer should do the same.

Apart from the fact that Ratcliff spent twoweeks early on in a Massachusetts slaughterhouse learning the craft, she is largely self-

taught. She rails against the "office-bound pro-fessors of Agriculture who don't know what ittakes to keep a farm afloat or to make it eco-nomically." She never married nor has any chil-dren so she did most, if not all, of the hardwork and "got accustomed to the leanness andpoverty that went with it."

She says that everyone who is in farmingshould do the same thing, "and also have anoutside job." Among other things, she editedprofessional papers for faculty and researchersat the Harvard Medical School for many years,often in the wee hours, to supplement her farmincome.

LOW OVERHEADThe conversation turns to the specifics of thebusiness. It begins with introductions to the fourpeople who help Ratcliff operate her farm. Twoof them are trainees who live on the farm.When she speaks of low-overhead she meansit. We are in her living room. "This is the office."It is a card table piled with papers, a phoneand the ubiquitous oxygen apparatus.

"I'm the manager, which means selling andhelping the bookkeeper collect funds. I'm thecoach... I'm involved with the farmers from thebeginning. How they grow. What they grow."Ratclifff has someone go out to visit eachfarmer, to check their breeding and feedingprograms in an effort to maintain consistentquality.

Maintaining quality, she says, "is very difficultfor small producers." She points out that "wesell all sizes of young lambs plus mutton -depending on what the customer wants." Thefarmer gets $5.50 a pound (carcass weight)minus the marketing fee for prime younglambs, well above the auction prices.

"I deal with individual chefs about individuallambs and I know which lamb went to whichchef. We sell lambs, pigs, goats, rabbits, veal,eggs and sheep's milk cheese as well as goatmilk cheese. I get a 6% commission and nocharge for the management."

WHAT CHEFS WANTRatcliff will go to great lengths to please a chefand even though it might not be profitable, itwill reap rewards the next time she calls to getan order. Some chefs want specialties such asoffal brains, innards, calf head, heart, lungsand cheek. "Cheek is one of the most succu-lent parts of a pig, veal or beef," she says.

She says that pigs have really taken off. "WhenI started out in pigs some thirty years ago, Ilearned that they were hard to handle, that wehad a high mortality rate in babies. They eat anenormous amount and I was feeding them forsix to eight months. The alternative is to sellyoung suckling pigs for the same price as babylambs. A fifty pound suckling pig dresses atthirty pounds at six weeks. So why not getthem off farm before they cost you? It's thesame for baby lambs, we make mom do mostof the work and then ship them at ten weeksversus ten months."

As for grass-fed meat, Ratcliff says, "the chefsthink they want it until they order it once. Thenthey don't like it. I'm a firm believer in givinggrain to our animals for our market. Grass feed-ing produces a darker color which chefs see asa sign of older age. Grass-fed animals aretougher, redder, with little or no fat. Most peo-ple prefer meat which is marbled."

Ratcliff's producers don't pasture lambs. Theyare grain and hay fed in small areas wherethey move around freely but don't run up anddown pastures where they will gain muscle andbecome tough. "Chefs want melt-in-your mouthbaby lamb, with a fat cover from grain and cornwhich results in light colored, tender meat witha delicate flavor."

We move on to the challenges of keeping thebusiness going in an era of savage competitionin the restaurant industry, spiraling gas prices,and a litany of agricultural rules and regula-tions. "The top five per cent of restaurants willcharge what they want," she says, "but the vastmiddle are struggling and most are loweringprices to compete."

LIVESTOCK PROCESSING CHALLENGESIronically the rules covering slaughtering andprocessing are becoming stricter and moreprohibitive just as the demand for fresh, locallygrown products is skyrocketing. A stunningexample reported by the operator of one

slaughterhouse is that he must complete threeforms just to kill one cow and twelve forms inthe course of a day's work.

Ratcliff says there is a "rumor floating aroundthat we might see a shift in the inspectionprocess from the Federal level to the States,"and she hopes it is true. It might help reducecosts and perhaps some of the documentationprocess. "Our state inspectors are more realis-tic, more attuned to our problems and theyhave ways of appraising big and small dan-gers."

"We are being strangled by dubious regula-tions," she says, citing one which requires that"eggs and meat can't be in the same process-ing room. They cannot even be in the samecooler together... There is no one in New YorkCity who is doing any curing or smoking,because they have been regulated out of busi-ness by people who have never made asausage. People are scared of sausage.People are being forced to abandon a majorpart of their cuisine, or they are making themillegally... I cannot imagine that there isn't someconstructive approach to work with cultural andculinary traditions."

The other potentially crippling issue is the ever-decreasing number of slaughterhouses. Sheand her producers are trucking and haulinganimals as far away as Goffstown, NH andAltamont, NY. It is not surprising that shelaments her age and says "I would be a lobby-ist in another life and would concentrate onpromoting intelligent deregulation."

As for the small farmer, she says, "We needcash. I would like to have a dime for every pro-gram to help small farmers... Some form ofdirect subsidy is necessary. Only pennies getto the farmer when what they need is $1,000 to$5,000 a year to keep afloat. Farmers are feed-ing people, they are the land stewards, keepingland open and free from becoming overgrown."They are a boon to the tourist industry as well.

REWARDS OF FARMINGAs our discussion winds down Lydia Ratcliffspeaks to what makes her want to continue.What makes anyone choose a lifestyle thatdemands so much, for comparatively littlefinancial return? She has to be smart and takeadvantage of any and all income possibilities.She rents rooms, she has local customers, shesells Maremma puppies at $400 a dog.

But for Ratcliff, "the benefits of small farmsdon't get counted" in a purely economic calcu-lation. "Being your own boss, land stewardship,attending to the soil, the benefits to childrenwho have their own jobs on the farm, animals,an opportunity to work with parents" are hugemotivators.

And she has heroes. "The inventors of the landtrusts and intentional communities... DanBarber, a New York chef whose heart and soulhas been to buy local, to know and supportsmall farms... Robert Rodale, a legend in theorganic farming movement... E.F. Schumacherand the Schumacher Institute in the Berkshireswho wrote and lived by the creed that Small IsBeautiful."

And so does Lydia Ratcliff.

Martha Herbert Izzi raises Tunis Sheep andAlpine Goats on Bel Lana Farm in Shrewsbury,Vermont. She can be reached at 802-492-3346or [email protected]. For further informationplease contact: Lydia Ratcliff, Lovejoy BrookFarm, Chester Vermont 05143. Phone/Fax 802-875-3159.


MARKETING

I Want to Leave a MarketA conversation with small farm champion Lydia Ratcliff

Lydia Ratcliff heading off to mow.Photos by Martha Herbert Izzi

The "almost-round" barn at Ratcliff's Lovejoy Brook Farm.

Some of Ratcliff's 75 breeding ewes.

Lydia Ratcliff in her "office"

Small Farm Quarterly

Youth PagesBByy RRoobbyynn ZZeeoollllaa,, AAggee 1133,, SSuuffffoollkk CCoouunnttyy

My name is Robyn and I live in Suffolk County, on LongIsland. My town, Middle Island, is a pretty typical subur-ban town. We have large, crowded schools, departmentstores, and discount warehouse stores all within a 10 mileradius of my house. Yet, I live on an acre of land where I amfrequently visited by deer, raccoon and opossum.

Three years ago, I discovered a great program at theCornell Cooperative Extension Suffolk County Farm inYaphank, which is only five miles from my house. The pro-gram is called "4-H Livestock Animal Showmanship" and isavailable to kids ages 8 - 19. This program has providedme with the opportunity to work with animals and learnthings that I never would have thought were possible whileliving in Suburbia.

My first two years in the program, I worked with dairygoats. I learned how to clip and trim them, bathe them,trim their hooves, ears, etc. I also learned how to taketheir temperature, de-worm them and tattoo them. Welearned proper health and nutrition for the animals andalso how to "show" them in competition.

My second year working with dairy goats, I was able totake what I learned to the New York State Fair inSyracuse. This was truly an incredible experience. At the

fair, I got to meet other kids from all over New York State,many of whom live on farms and breed and raise their ownlivestock. I learned a lot by talking with them. Most weremore than willing to lend advice to novices like me.

The New York State Fair also presented me and other kidsfrom Suffolk County with the opportunity to enter option-al competitions such as Goat Fitting, Goat Bowl (like ajeopardy game) and Goat Products and Knowledge. Here,we learned how to work together as a team. We won a fewribbons, but more importantly, we gained knowledge aboutour animals and made good friends by working togetherand learning teamwork.

This past summer, I was able to compete again at theNew York State Fair. This year I chose to work with MeatGoats, providing me with even more knowledge. Now, I'veeven seen goats and sheep being born.

As a 13 year old girl from suburbia, I feel so fortunate tohave had all these opportunities and experiences. I'vegained confidence in competing, working with teammates,and have learned how to have fun and learn by observingother events. These experiences have helped me to decidethat I would definitely like a career working with animals.

For more information about raising goats, visithttp://www.ansci.cornell.edu/4H/goats/ . Robyn Zeolla showing her goat.

The Youth Pages are written by and foryoung people. Many thanks to the 4-HTeens from Suffolk County who contributedto this issue.

We believe there’s a bright future for youngfarmers in the Northeast. Whether you liveon a farm or only wish you did, we’d love tohear from you!

Get your article published by sending it to:SFQ Youth Pages

c/0 Celeste Carmichael4-H Youth Development Program SpecialistCCE State 4-H Youth Development Office

340 Roberts Hall Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853607-255-4799 • [email protected]

A Wonderful Opportunity


BByy JJhhaarraa TTuummmm,, AAggee 1177,, SSuuffffoollkk CCoouunnttyy

My name is Jhara Tumm and I am a new member of the 4-H program. While growing up, I always wanted to becomeinvolved in working with animals. I started joining some ofthe animal camps offered by the Suffolk County Farm andfell in love with them. As I got older, I realized that I want-ed to become a Veterinarian. However, once I found outhow much school I needed to receive my license, I decidedthat I wanted to be a Veterinary Technician. Ever sincethen, I have been doing everything possible to get as muchhands-on experiences with animals as I can.

My most recent hands-on experiences were shadowingVeterinarians at animal hospitals, participating in a local

4-H Veterinary Medicine Career Exploration Program. SinceI live in a condominium, my only chance to experience afarm has been at the Suffolk County Farm in Yaphank.

I first became a 4-H member during the summer by joiningthe ten week showmanship program. After the tenth week,we had the opportunity to participate in a small fair atour farm. We then had the option to continue on to theNew York State fair.

During the program, I was able to choose between two ani-mals to work with. One choice was a lamb; the other was ababy goat, or kid. I chose to work with a kid and named herTia. She was one of a set of twins. I was taught how tosocialize her, groom her, and how to show her in a ring with

a judge. By the time the County fair came, I felt well pre-pared due to the information I had learned in a time spanof ten weeks.

I also competed in the New York State fair in Syracuseand did really well, considering the other competitors hadthese kinds of animals in their backyards. The whole expe-rience was extremely helpful to me since I desire a careerworking with all kinds of animals as a VeterinaryTechnician. I had a lot of fun and would definitely recom-mend it to anyone who loves animals and wants to learnmore about them.

For more information about Veterinary Science, visithttp://www.ansci.cornell.edu/4H/vetsci/ .

My First State Fair Experience

Jhara Tumm with her goat Jhara Tumm showing her goat

BByy KKrriisstteenn TTaannggeenn,, SSuuffffoollkk CCoouunnttyy

I have spent my last 6 summers at the Suffolk County 4-H Farm learning and doingthings that most kids on Long Island will never get the chance to do. I work with live-stock. Not only do I learn about animal care, but I show these animals. Although workingwith and showing cattle have been amazing, my most memorable experience has to becompeting in Livestock Judging.

In the summer of 2006 I was persuaded to try for the New York State Livestock JudgingTeam. At the time I said "yes," I don't think I truly understood how much work it wasgoing to be. I spent my free time during summer studying l to prepare for the competi-tion at the end of August. I had to learn everything from note taking to proper term use,what the "perfect" animal should look like, and how to give oral reasons.

My most challenging endeavor was building my vocabulary. I had a tendency to use simpleterms rather than judging terms and phrases, so I usually ran out of ways to describethe animal. It was frustrating: I could usually look at an animal and see that it was bet-ter than the others, but I couldn't find a way to put it into words. I struggled when I gaveoral reasons. I would get nervous, and I would forget everything I had tried to memorize. Itwas tough to act calm, collected, and confident when I didn't feel that way at all.

I put a lot of effort into studying for the competition and it paid off. I, along with threeother 4-Hers from across the state, qualified for the New York State team and traveledto the National Competition in Louisville, Kentucky. I was surprised I made the team; Iknew that there was still a lot I didn't know about judging. I had my work cut out for me!Through the course of the trip I continued to pick up more tips on judging from my coachand teammates. Looking back, I don't think I stopped learning at any point on the trip.

It was hard to balance judging practice and school work between the competitions. Ialways had school work to do while I was away. One weekend I had to study for the ACTsas well as compete in a beef cattle judging contest. After making it through that week-end, I knew I was capable of balancing my work and managing my time.

November seemed to come so fast that it was unreal. Even though I was excited tospend a week with my new friends, I couldn't help but think about the massive amounts ofschool work I would have to make up. Once the trip got stared, those thoughts werepushed out of my mind. All I did was eat, sleep, and breathe judging. Come the day of

competition, I didn't think I could hold anymore information if I tried. When the competi-tion was over I remember feeling so relieved, but sad at the same time. I had worked hardto get there and I had such a great time, I didn't want it to end.

Being a member of the New York State Livestock Judging Team was, to say the least,awesome! I walked away with great friends and memories, as well as knowledge that willlast a life time. I learned about Livestock Judging, and also about myself. I am more con-fident and not afraid to get up in front of a group of people to give a speech. I realizedthat I am a very driven person when I have a goal ahead of me.

I proved to myself that I was successful at balancing heavy loads of work. If I put timeand effort into something I want, I can get it even when it seems out of reach. I alsoknow that in the end even if I don't reach my goal, I walk away from the experience with agreat accomplishment. I can thank 4-H and my County Livestock Program for providingme with the opportunities that have helped me grow and be better prepared for thefuture.

For livestock judging information, visit http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/4H/

Kristin Tangen with the New York State Livestock Judging Team

Livestock Judging

BByy LLaacceeyy PPiittmmaann,, AAggee 1177,, SSuuffffoollkk CCoouunnttyy

Many little girls dream of becoming princesses or queens, but this only hap-pens to a few. When I was little, I often dreamt of how neat it would be to weara crown, a sash and a beautiful dress. Now at the age of seventeen, my littledream has come true.

On May 19, 2007 I was crowned New York State Maple Queen, in Croghan, NewYork. It took me a couple of days to realize that I was representing the entirestate as Maple Queen. I could have never wished for this in a million years andI am so happy that I was given this title.

Before I became the New York State Maple Queen, I represented the ChenangoArea as their Maple Queen. To be a Maple Queen I had to know all the maple

facts. And believe me, Iknow them all.

Since I was five, I havehad the opportunity tohelp my family makemaple syrup . I am thefourth generation in myfamily to make syrup.Being a part of thesugar making processesis a family tradition, andmaking maple syrup is agreat way to be withfamily and to build mem-ories. At 7 years old, myfirst job in the maplesyrup industry wasgathering the sap buck-ets. I used five gallonbuckets and, believe me,they were heavy!

As I got older, I startedsplitting the firewoodand packaging maple

syrup into cans and bottles. Then, at the age of 14, my mother and fathertaught me how to drain off the maple syrup and place it in a filter. Now at theage of 17, I am a tremendous help to my family in the process of making maplesyrup.

When dreaming of becoming a queen or a princess, most people think thatthere is not a lot of work involved, but there is. As the New York State MapleQueen I have participated in numerous parades, fairs and other events. It is alot of work but I have fun doing it. The one thing I like about being the New YorkState Maple Queen is meeting new people and seeing new places. I wouldn'ttrade it for anything.

Becoming a Queen is something that all little girls wish for. A sash and gownwould mean a lot to most girls. To me, though, it is not about wearing thecrown or the sash, it's about the representation that you hold and the knowl-edge you give out. I consider it a great honor to represent New York State asits Maple Queen.

For more about maple production in New York, visit http://www.nysmaple.com/

New York State Maple Queen



by Thomas Gallagher

I was fortunate enough last winter to freeup some time in my schedule to attendthe National Grass-fed Beef Conferenceheld in Harrisburg PA, February 28-March2. With so many producers trying to makelabel claims such as grass fed, natural,organic, humanely raised, born andraised in the USA, and even predatorfriendly, this conference was very timely.

As a livestock specialist with CooperativeExtension, I was very interested in thepresentations on various production prac-tices. Managing perennial pastures forfinishing, animal genetics for effectiveuse of pastures, grass-fed protocols andproduction benchmarks for northeastgrass-fed beef farms were just a few ofthe 34 topics presented by speakers fromas far away as Santa Rosa Argentina. Ienjoyed and learned a lot from all of thepresenters, but what really caught myattention were two speakers on the claimthat grass-fed beef is healthier and morenutritious.

AN EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVEThe first speaker on this topic was Dr.Lauren Cordain, with Colorado StateUniversity's Department of Health andExercise Science. Dr. Cordain's presenta-tion began with a discussion on the evo-lution of grass-fed beef in the diet start-ing with the Auroch breed of cattle over11,000 years ago. To this day Europeancattle breeds maintain a lineage thatreflects a genetic mixture of local wildAurochs. Throughout most of recordedhistory, cattle were typically fed by pro-viding them with free access to pastures,grassland and rangelands. It is only in thepast 150-200 years that animal hus-bandry practices have substantiallychanged.

The period of the industrial revolutionsaw the greatest changes in animal agri-culture. The steam engine was invented,which allowed us to ship grains and cattleacross the country. This started the feed-lot concept of feeding cattle. Before 1885,cattle were raised on grass and slaugh-tered at 4-5 years of age. After 1885, thescience of fattening cattle in feedlotsmade it possible to finish a steer in 24months, the product from which exhibited"marbling" - something pasture fed cattlerarely displayed.

Modern feedlot operations involving asmany as 100,000 cattle emerged in the1950's and have developed to the pointwhere a 30% body fat steer can be readyfor slaughter at 15 months of age. Almost99% of all beef consumed in the US isnow produced from feedlot cattle, whichhas led to muscle tissue with low proteinand omega-3 fatty acid content, as wellas high total fat, absolute saturated fattyacid content, omega-6 fatty acid and anelevated omega-6/omega-3 fatty acidratio.

Grass-fed beef, on the other hand, hasbeen shown to elevate levels of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids andcontain elevated concentrations of beta-carotene and alpha tocopherol as well ashigher concentrations of omega-3 fattyacids and conjugated linoleic acid, allsubstances reported to have favorableeffects on human health.

Dr. Cordain went on in her discussion tocompare the nutritional characteristics ofgrass-fed beef to feedlot beef (see Table1) and how those differences could affecthuman health and diseases such ascoronary heart disease, hypertension,type 2 diabetes, arthritis, autoimmunediseases and cancer.

NUTRITIONAL DIFFERENCESThe next speaker in the program was Dr.Cynthia Daley from California StateUniversity Chico. Dr. Daley's presentationsummarized information currently avail-able to support the enhanced nutrientclaim for grass-fed meat products, and

reviewed the importance these specificnutrients have with regard to humanhealth. The specific nutrients that havebeen found to be at elevated levels ingrass-fed beef are beta-carotene andalpha tocopherol, Omega-3 fatty acidsand conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). All ofthese nutrients have shown favorableaffects on human health.

Beta-Carotene is a fat-soluble antioxi-dant, which belongs to a family of naturalchemicals known as Carotenes orCarotenoids. Carotenes produce theorange yellow color found in fruits andvegetables and is converted to Vitamin A

by the body. Vitamin A is a critical fat-sol-uble vitamin that is important for normalvision, bone growth, reproduction, celldivision and cell differentiation.

Vitamin E is also a fat-soluble vitaminthat exists in eight different forms withpowerful antioxidant activity, the mostactive being alpha-tocopherol.Antioxidants protect cells against theeffects of free radicals that may con-tribute to the development of chronic dis-eases such as cancer and cardiovasculardisease.

There are two essential fatty acids inhuman nutrition: alpha-linolenic acid(ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid, and linolet-ic acid (LA), an omega-6 fatty acid. Bothserve as precursors to other importantcompounds to the body. A healthy dietshould consist of one to four times moreomega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fattyacids, yet the typical American diet is 11to 30 times more omega-6 to omega -3.

Conjugated linoleic Acid (CLA) is a groupof polyunsaturated fatty acids found inmeat and milk that have shown signifi-cant health benefits to humans. Researchhas shown that grass-fed beef is higherin vitamin A, Vitamin E, CLA and Omega-3. However, as percent body fat in thebeef animal decreases, so does the con-centration of these important lipids.Research is currently being done toaddress grass-finishing practices andattaining an acceptable degree of fat-ness. Some of this research may lead usall the way to the genetics that were partof the Auroch breed mentioned earlier.

POTENTIAL HEALTH BENEFITSBoth Dr. Cordain and Dr. Daley have citedresearch that grass-fed beef contains ele-vated levels of nutrients that could possi-bly have a positive impact on a person'shealth as compared to grain fed beef. Thequestion remains that these differencesmay have little or no physiological rele-vance because the total amount is smallcompared to daily-recommended intakes(RDI).

That being said, many of the currenthealth problems and chronic diseasesthat afflict the American public result fromextreme consumption of refined sugars,grains, vegetable oils, fatty meats anddairy products. Human health and well-being could potentially be impacted byincluding more lean, grass-fed beef in ourdiet at the expense of fatty, feedlot pro-duced meats, refined sugar, grains, veg-etable oils, fatty meats and dairy prod-ucts.

Consumers are very concerned aboutfood safety, health and nutrition whenpurchasing beef products. A locally growngrass-fed beef product of the correctgenetics and fed properly could addressall of their concerns. I am currently work-ing on a grass-fed research project inAlbany County funded by a USDA SAREgrant. By the end of next year, I hope tohave an answer to that all-importantquestion: Can we raise grass-fed beeflocally with our current genetics and gen-erate a profit for the producers and meetthe needs of consumers?

Tom Gallagher is the Agriculture &Horticulture Issue Leader with CornellCooperative Extension of Albany County.He can be reached at 518-765-3500or [email protected]

GRAZING

Added Nutritional Value ofGrass-fed BeefNational Grass-fed Beef Conference examines evidence ofhealth benefits

Grass-fed beef has been shown to elevate levels of several nutrients reported to have favorableeffects on human health. Photo by Bill Henning shows mixed breed beef herd of Ros and GailParks in Seneca Falls,NY.

Nutrient Grass Feed Lotomega-3 fatty acids Higher Loweromega-6 fatty acids Lower Higheromega-6/ omega-3 ratio Lower HigherLong chain fatty acids Higher Lower(both omega-3 and omega-6)Fat content Lower HigherSaturated fatty acids Lower HigherP/S Ratio Higher LowerConjugated linoleic acid Higher LowerVitamin E Higher LowerVitamin C Higher LowerBeta carotene Higher LowerProtein content Higher Lower

Table 1. Potential nutritional differences between feedlot and grass fed beef

Throughout most of recorded history, cattle were typically raised on forages, with little or nograin. Photo by Troy Bishopp.


By Barbara Silvestri

Is there a stream or brook that runsthrough your farm? Traditionally farmshave been located near water sources tomeet farm needs. Even as times change,healthy streams provide multiple benefitsto farms. Streams enrich the soil withseasonal flooding, provide fish andwildlife habitat, and enhance scenic beau-ty and land values.

Streams also link farms to the rest of thewatershed. Your farm's interaction withstreams is one of its most immediateopportunities to benefit the environmentor to cause pollution risks. Our continuingseries on New York State's AgriculturalEnvironmental Management (AEM)Program focuses this quarter on theStream and Floodplain ManagementWorksheet. This worksheet will walk youthrough a quick assessment of yourstream's health and help identify potentialrisk factors. The best part is that there arecost-sharing programs that offer incen-tives to farmers to improve stream corri-dors. These opportunities are available tofarms of all types and sizes.

WHAT IS A HEALTHY STREAM?A stream is a complex ecosystem inwhich physical, biological and chemicalprocesses interact. Streams naturallychange course over time as they mean-der across the landscape. Some streambank erosion and changes in channel are

normal in a healthy stream as it graduallychanges its course. However, active downcutting and excessive lateral cutting aresigns of an unstable stream channel.

Periodic flooding and "bankfull flow,"when the stream channel is full withoutoverflowing, are healthy stream functions.They maintain channel shape and func-tion, such as sediment transport, andsustain physical habitat for plants andanimals.

Thriving streamside vegetation is one ofthe most important elements of a healthystream ecosystem. Stream protectionincreases with the width and complexityof the woody vegetation along thestreambanks. Ideally, natural vegetationshould extend at least one channel widthon each side. This not only helps stabilizethe streambanks, but also provides excel-lent habitat for wildlife.

Trees shading the stream channel coolthe water and provide leaf litter andwoody debris, improving fish habitat. Treeroots help stabilize streambanks by hold-ing soil in place during periods of highflow. Streamside vegetation can also

increase crop yields by providing habitatfor beneficial insects, and maintainingstable streambanks can help you reducethe risk of losing valuable cropland tostreambank erosion.

Water quality can be protected by ensur-ing that there is adequate vegetationbetween the stream and crop fields orpastures to filter farm runoff before itreaches the stream. Proper timing ofnutrient application in floodplains can alsoreduce the risk of nutrients being washeddownstream by floodwaters.

Nutrient inputs from farms, householdsand businesses can compound in thewatershed and cause pollution concernsdownstream. Reducing the risk of nutrientrunoff from farm fields is one way farmersare doing their part and helping maintainthe status of agriculture as a preferredland use for water quality protection.

Conducting an AEM Risk Assessmentcan give you an accurate picture of howyour farm operation is interacting withstreams and whether improvements areneeded to benefit the farm and the envi-ronment. The AEM program is designedto assist you in environmental steward-ship while protecting your bottom line,and stream management doesn't have tobreak the bank.

Often stream health can be improved bysimple management changes such aspreventing livestock access to streams,which has the added benefit of improvingherd health and adding to the bio-securityof the farm. For more expensive needs,such as fencing and alternate water sup-plies, there are cost-share programs thatcan help.

COST-SHARE PROGRAMSOne funding opportunity is the New YorkState Conservation ReserveEnhancement Program (CREP). Madepossible through a partnership betweenthe State and US Departments ofAgriculture, this program provides incen-tives to landowners who create vegetativebuffers along streams. Through CREP,farmers establish three zones, trees nextto the stream, then shrubs and finallygrasses.

Signup for CREP is continuous and thereis no competitive process to obtain thefunding. Participants who are eligible

receive financial incentives to voluntarilyenroll environmentally sensitive croplandor pastureland in contracts for a period of10 to 15 years. Financial incentives forCREP participants include an annualrental payment as well as partial reim-bursement for the establishment ofstreamside vegetation and the cost oflivestock exclusion when needed.

If you farm in New York and would like toschedule a free, confidential AEM RiskAssessment for your farm, including theStream and Floodplain Management

Worksheet, contact your County Soil andWater Conservation District. To learnmore about AEM, view the Worksheets(including the Stream and FloodplainManagement Worksheet), or to locateyour Conservation District office, visit:www.nys-soilandwater.org.

Check the next issue for more informationon how AEM is helping over 11,000 farmfamilies statewide farm cleaner andgreener, and how you can put AEM towork on your farm.

Barbara Silvestri is the Information &Education Program Coordinator with theNYS Soil & Water ConservationCommittee in Albany, NY. She can bereached at 518-457-3738 or [email protected].

Agricultural EnvironmentalManagementFarming in harmony withstream health

STEWARDSHIP & NATURE

Periodic flooding is a healthy stream function.Photo courtesy of NY CREP Program

Cattle drink from an alternate water supply. Fencing keeps cows out of a stream,which eliminates manure deposition and enhances streamside vegetation.Alternate water supplies can also improve herd health and farm bio-security.

Photo by Barbara Silvestri

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By Martha Goodsell

Thanks to a mini-grant from the Cornell SmallFarms Program, New York State now has astatewide Livestock Processing Issues (LPI)Work Team. The LPI Work Team includes farm-ers, Cornell Extension faculty, NGO andagency representatives.

The goals and activities of this Work Team aregeared to helping livestock farmers and smallprocessors deal with livestock processingissues. The LPI work team will focus on severalobjectives: 1) to improve communication andunderstanding among livestock farmers, smallscale processors, and regulatory agencies; 2)to publicize current livestock processingresources available and assemble resourcesas needed; and 3) to identify current chal-lenges in livestock processing, address possi-ble solutions and opportunities for NYS farmersand processors, and create a statewide workplan for action.

The Work Team with input from stakeholderswill examine issues, come to a consensus onthe major regulatory barriers facing small scalelivestock and dairy farmers and create a planof action to improve processing infrastructuresand regulations for NY livestock farmers.

"Across the state we have seen various startsand stutters when attemptingto address the processingchallenges that small scalelivestock and dairy farmersface," says Work Team mem-ber Dr. Tatiana Stanton ofCornell's Animal ScienceDepartment. "The developmentof a single state-wide planshould create efficiency andincrease strength in addressingthe challenges."

The Work Team will collaboratewith the United StatesDepartment of AgricultureFood Safety and InspectionSystem (USDA FSIS), NewYork State Department ofAgriculture and Markets (NYS-DAM), the NY LegislativeCommittee on Agriculture,chaired by William Magee, theNYS Senate Committee onAgriculture, chaired byCatherine Young, and others.

"Working with legislators and rule makers toaddress regulatory concerns from a small farmperspective has the potential to improve theeffectiveness of small NY farmers and proces-sors and reduce some of the regulatory andinfrastructure barriers we face in livestock pro-cessing," says Stanton.

As a first step in meeting its objectives, teammembers have created an email list serve,LivestockProcessing-L, for communicationamong interested livestock farmers, small scaleprocessors, extension staff, and agency repre-sentatives in New York and bordering states.(See Resource Spotlight.)

LivestockProcessing-L will serve as a forumfor: 1) sharing processing resources, 2) dis-cussing barriers to effective processing andpotential solutions, 3) publicizing regionalefforts to improve or expand slaughter and pro-cessing facilities, and 4) sharing news andAction Alerts pertaining to livestock slaughterand small scale processing of animal products.

The list is open to members of bordering statesin part to find out how they deal with similarissues and situations within their respectivestates. If you are interested in keeping abreastof slaughter and processing issues and want achance to share your own views, we urge youto join LivestockProcessing-L.

To join this list, contact the list moderators,Tatiana Stanton at [email protected] orMartha Goodsell at [email protected],asking to be put on the list and indicating theemail address you want to send and receivelist messages from.

Another option is to send an email [email protected] the subject line blank. The body of the

message should be a single word: JOIN. Sendthis message in plain text - no formatting - andremember to send it from the e-mail addresswhere you want to receive and send messagesposted to the e-list.

Martha Goodsell is a deer farmer in Candor,NY and a member of the new statewideLivestock Processing Issues Work Team.

New Statewide Work Team Tackles LivestockProcessing IssuesEmail listserve provides open forum for discussion amongfarmers, regulators, researchers, and educators

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