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Feature ArticlesBedded Pack Barn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 4

Women in Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 9

Grow Mushrooms! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 15

New Markets for Meats . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 19

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

Supplement to Country Folks

SUMMER 2007

Photo by Half-Pint Fam

3July 9, 2007 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY Page 3

WELCOME NEW SFQ EDITORSWe're very pleased to announce five new mem-bers of the Small Farm Quarterly Editorial Team.As of this issue, Betsy Lamb has taken charge ofhorticulture-related articles. She is theOrnamentals IPM Coordinator with the NYSIntegrated Pest Management Program. SusanNeal of Wiccaway Farm in Beaver Dams, NY, isediting our new Women in Agriculture department.

Starting with the fall issue, we will be joined bythree additional editors: Sarah Johnston is theNYS Department of Agriculture & Markets' newOrganic Agriculture Specialist, and our newOrganic Farming editor. Gerard Monnat is areporter and sales rep with Empire State Farmer,as well as a farmer himself, and will serve as theCommunity/World editor. Laura Wollin-Wood is anAgricultural Economic Development Specialist withCCE of Broome County and will serve as our NewFarmer editor. Welcome aboard!

WELCOME VIOLET STONEWe are also very pleased to welcome Violet Stoneas a new Program Assistant with the Small FarmsProgram here in Ithaca. Violet is originally fromSusquehanna County, PA, where she grew up ona wildlife preserve. Her most recent work withsmall farms was on California's central coastwhere she facilitated weekly produce sales forMariquita Farm, a 30 acre organic produce farmspecializing in Italian heirloom varieties, to over 40restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area. She'salso worked as a farmers' market manager, local

foods educator and farm direct-marketing consult-ant in the Hudson Valley, New York. She has acertificate in Ecological Horticulture from theUCSC Farm and Garden and a degree inEnvironmental Studies from Oberlin College.Welcome Violet!

ORGANIC DAIRY MANAGEMENTWORKBOOK NOW AVAILABLEThis past winter we held workshops on "OrganicDairy Managing for Success" in Malone,Watertown, and Dryden, NY. The workshopsbrought together managers and family membersfrom 25 farms. Participants had the opportunity towrite their Holistic Goals and share some of thedifferences in time management between conven-tional and organic farm management. The work-shops will be held in 4-5 other sites next winter.The workbook is now available online. To downloadit go to: www.smallfarms.cornell.edu, then click onthe Organic Dairy quick link and scroll down to"Organic Dairy Managing for Success Workbook."

SMALL FARMS SUMMIT REPORT& RECOMMENDATIONSIn June we published a report entitled KeyOpportunities & Strategic Investments to EnhanceSmall Farm Viability in New York State. It outlinessix major opportunities identified by participants inthe 2006 Small Farms Summit, and makes recom-mendations for investments in research, farmereducation, public education, and agriculture devel-opment collaborations, as well as state policy ini-tiatives. The key opportunities identified are:

1. Marketing Innovations to connect consumerswith local and regional producers

2. Renewable energy technologies, energy cropsand energy conservation

3. Enhanced utilization of grasslands resources

4. Integrated farming systems using appropriatetechnologies.

5. Improved processing regulations, infrastructureand technologies for small farm meat and dairyproducts

6. Beginning farmer support

We will be working with members of the SmallFarms Task Group to move forward on many of therecommendations made in this report. The fullreport can now be downloaded from the homepage of our website atwww.smallfarms.cornell.edu.

NEW AGVENTURES PROJECT Our Beginning Farmer project has been reborn asthe New AgVenturesproject, a name that more accurately conveys ourintended audience: notjust beginning farmers, but also those who arediversifying into newenterprises.

We have just released the Guide to Farming in NY:What Every Ag Entrepreneur Needs to Know, byMonika Roth and many others. This bookletis designed as a series of fact sheets about every-thing from agricultural assessments to zoning. Thepublication is available online for free downloadfrom the Small Farms website atwww.smallfarms.cornell.edu.Click on "Resource Spotlight" or on "What's New"on the home page.

Cornell Small Farms Program Update

by David Kline

When opportunities drift my way for cloudwatching, I usually acquiesce. Sometimes Iwonder whether I farm to make a living, orwhether it is all a front, just an excuse to beout in the fields looking at clouds.

Thoreau thought a cloudless sky is like ameadow without flowers and a sea withoutsails. I'd have to agree. This week I had sev-eral days of great sky and cloud watching. Wehad six acres to plow for corn, and the weatherwas ideal: Warm enough that rest was neededfor the horses and breezy enough that thecumulous clouds crossed the sky like fat sheeptrotting across a meadow. When I'd get acrook in my neck from watching I'd plow anoth-er round or read Gretel Ehrlich's The Solace ofOpen Spaces, which I carried in my pocket.

We're getting to the time of year when cloudwatching becomes serious, a necessity, almostan obsession - hay making time. When, as aneighbor once put it, we constantly keep oneeye on the western horizon.

The first clouds to appear after a high pressuresystem has cleansed and cleared the sky arethe high altitude cirrus clouds. True cirrusclouds may be as high as fifty thousand feetand have a thin, wind-swept, wispy appear-ance. Because they look like the flowing tailsof running horses, the lovely pure white cloudsare also called mare's tails. When mare's tailscome swishing across a late-spring sky, wehay makers begin to have doubts about mow-ing the new crop. Rain may be as close asforty-eight hours away.

If the mare's tails are accurate in their forecast,and rain is on the way, the next clouds to formare the cirrocumulus. These clouds are thickerand are made of small convection cells thatgive them the appearance of fish scales - themackerel sky of weather proverbs. A sky filledwith mackerel scales is one of the prettiest ofall, particularly early in the morning when theclouds are bathed in the red glow of the risingsun.

Last Sunday morning gave us one of thegrandest displays of mackerel scales I've seenin a long time. Actually the scales were morelike the delicate silvery scales of a shiner min-now, small and evenly spread across a wide

portion of the sky. In a few places the scalesgradually increased in size toward the outeredges until they could justifiably be calledmackerel scales.

Following the mackerel scales by a day or twoare the heavier wine-dark clouds bearing rain.At this point cloud watching loses its zest.

For me the most enjoyable clouds to watch arethe puffy, low level, cumulus clouds of warmseventy-five degree afternoons. Sailing likeclipper ships through the otherwise clear sky, acumulus cloud the size of a football field maycontain only enough water to fill a bathtub.Even as the clouds race east with the currentsof brisk wind, there is a constant roiling withinas parts move into the wind, then turn and bil-low back into the rest of the cloud.

Cumulus clouds are also an indication of fairweather, those halcyon hay days when heatwaves shimmer above the tilled ground anddust devils rise and dance across the fields.The field I was plowing is for some unex-plained reason prone to king-sized dust devils.Twice already in years past we had hay rakedand were ready to start baling when dust dev-ils appeared and scattered the windrows tosmithereens. Clumps of hay were flying ashigh as three hundred feet; I at first mistookthem for soaring vultures, and then, to our cha-grin, the hay was dumped into a cornfield.Another day a dust devil swirled down the field

and tried to steel my shirt. Whenever I get thechance I try to run into an approaching dustdevil: for a few seconds its whirling wind tearsat your clothing and I get a brief cooling offfrom the summer heat. (Natural air-condition-ing.)

Cloud watching can be a tricky business, and Idon't see how my tractor farming friends cando it and not appear indolent to their industri-ous neighbors. But with animal traction it's asnatural as resting the horses. We often jokethat where tractors can plow a six acre field intwo hours, I figure two days - but my timeincludes listening to vesper sparrows andmeadow larks and watching the clouds scudacross the sky.

Recently I was told that great egrets, thoselanky white heron like birds that wade aroundin murky swamps watching for fish and frogs,are the departed spirits of birders and cloudwatchers - which explains the permanent crookin their neck.

David Kline watches clouds, farms, and writesin Fredericksburg, Ohio. He is the author oftwo books, Great Possessions and Scratchingthe Woodchuck. This article is reprinted, withpermission, from Scratching the Woodchuck.

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 - Fall 2007 copies need to be ordered by September 7.

To find out more, contact:Tracy Crouse

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

1-888-596-5329 email: subscriptions@leepub.com

STEWARDSHIP AND NATURE

Clouds

April morning at the Albano Farm, Grand Gorge, NY Photo by John Thurgood

4Page 4 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY July 9, 2007

by John Thurgood

So, where do the past and the future of agri-culture meet? In some respects it is in thearea of farm environmental management. Itseems that many of the practices associatedwith modern agriculture and the "green revolu-tion" have led to widespread environmentaldegradation in the form of nutrient runoff andsoil erosion. To resolve some of these issuesmany farmers are reinventing "old-time" sys-tems such as grass-based farming and com-posting.

Here in the Catskills, dairy farmer JakeFairbairn has been working with staff of theWatershed Agricultural Program to resolvesome environmental challenges at his farm,Lazy Crazy Acres. The solution Jake hasdeveloped is surprisingly old fashioned.

PROBLEM: NUTRIENT RUNOFFThe problems were primarily caused by hous-ing and feeding dairy cows outdoors as well asfarm fields that are inaccessible for wintermanure spreading. As Jake's farm has nopractical filter area for treating barnyard efflu-ent, the "modern" alternative would be a cov-ered barnyard. The "modern" solution formanure storage would be an above groundstorage tank.

The problem with this approach was a lack ofspace on the farmstead for these systems andJake's aversion to liquid manure. The nutrientsin liquid manure are relatively soluble and areprone to leaching through the soil profile.Odors would also likely aggravate Jake'sneighbors and seasonal visitors to theCatskills.

SOLUTION: BEDDED PACKAfter extensive exploration (described in theJuly 10, 2006 Small Farm Quarterly, "BeddedPack Barn at Lazy Crazy Acres") Jake decidedto implement an "old time" bedded-pack sys-tem that would house cows during six monthsof the year, serve as the winter feeding area,and store manure in the form of a pack. Theproject is funded by a USDA ConservationInnovation Grant and the WatershedAgricultural Council.

In the Summer 2006 issue of the SFQ, wepromised to give you an update on the sys-tem's performance during the first winter. Firstlet's review the basics of the project. The sys-tem consists of a 50' x 100' fabric-coveredhoop structure with 8"x 8" locust posts and 3"x 12" rough-cut tamarack sidewalls that are 10'high. There are six 2' x 6' windows per side.Surface drainage takes water around and awayfrom the building. The floor consists of onefoot of 2" minus crushed gravel over geotextilefabric, then 6 inches of wood chips covered bystraw bedding.

The bedded-pack system at Lazy Crazy Acreswas not intended to be a composting barn withtwice daily stirring like the barns you may haveread about in the mid-west. Jake did not wantthe extra chore of stirring and realized thatmeant that he would have to use more bed-ding. The system has a rotated feeding areausing large round bales to avoid having a con-crete feed alley which would require liquidmanure storage.

EVALUATION: THUMBS UPSo how did it all work out? This past winterJake had his Jersey and mixed-breed cattle onthe bedded pack: 35 cows, 20 bred and openheifers, 11 yearlings and 2 calves (Jake likeshis cows to freshen on pasture). Jake and hisfiancée Karen Caskey are really positive aboutthe covered, bedded-pack system.

Jake said, "My cows are in better conditionand my yearlings have done better than ever ...they really look great. The cows were happierand so was I." Jake's parents, John a veteri-narian, and Sally, help out on the farm and arealso very happy with the system.

Jake relates that the only drawback of the newsystem was that since the cows spent the win-ter on a soft, bedded pack, their hooves had tobe trimmed this spring. The excellent udderhealth and milk quality experienced with theprevious system has continued. The somaticcell count before and after the bedded packbarn has averaged 150,000.

The cows were supposed to enter the facilityon December 15, 2006. That date wasdelayed while the contractor completed con-struction. Next year, Jake will likely have thecows in the barns as the weather breaks towinter, probably in November or earlyDecember.

MANAGING THE SYSTEMJake adds bedding to the barn every other daywhich takes 45 minutes to an hour. The alter-

nate day he adds one or two round bales ofhay or haylage. They have found that thepolypropylene pipe-type, round bale feedersstand up to the cattle better than the lightergauge steel feeders they used before. Jakemilks his 35 cows in a 5 unit swing parlor andis usually done with milking in about an hour.

Adjusting the height of the barn waterers asthe pack built up was accomplished by placingthe waterers on 6" x 6" wood cribbing. Thechallenge was the need for the pack to holdthe waterers in place, which led Jake to dig-ging the waterers out with a pitch fork as thepack built up. We will welcome time-testedideas on the construction of adjustable heightwaterers. Remember, they must remain insu-lated underneath to prevent freezing.

Jake will install hinged panels to cover abouthalf of the windows, especially where calvesare housed. Jake closed the overhead doorson each side of the barn nearly every night thiswinter, reopening them during the day exceptwhen there was wind, rain, or sub-zero tem-peratures. With the doors closed, ventilationconsisted of air moving through the shadecloth end walls and windows. Jake relatesthat, "Ventilation was excellent, nearly as goodas outdoors." Some farms have experienced abuild-up of ice on the end wall shade cloth, soJake will monitor this, although it was not aproblem last winter.

Since Jake's herd has not reached the barn'sdesign capacity of fifty cows, he used one-thirdof the barn to house heifers and youngstock.Jake used metal panels to create pens for theheifers; a line of electric fence separated thecow and heifer areas. As the pack built up,animals could reach to the open windows, soJake ran electric fence in front of them. The

cows had about two-thirds of the barn's areathis winter. In the future, the heifers will behoused in his parents' barn.

COSTS AND BENEFITSThe litmus test of bedded-pack system viabilityseems to revolve around one issue....beddingcost. Jake used 66 tons of processed strawfrom Canada at $150/ton for bedding this win-

ter. That calculates to nearly $10,000 orroughly $185 per animal unit for about 6months. Looking at these bedding cost, Jakeplans to house the bred and open heiferssomewhere else next winter.

So that's the cost. What about the benefits?Keep in mind that the bedded-pack housing intandem with a milking parlor is a system thatsignificantly reduces labor. There are also theanticipated benefits of enhanced animalhealth, the benefit of the carbon and othernutrients in the pack (part will be composted)to cropland and pasture, odor management,and happy cows and farm family. A detailedanalysis is in process and will be published aspart of a Conservation Innovation Grant.

AN OPTION TO CONSIDERJake recommends that small farmers needingto implement water quality practices aroundthe farmstead strongly consider the bedded-pack system versus the traditional practices ofliquid manure storage, concrete barnyard and

feeding area. "Your cows will do better and themanure coming out of the pack is in a muchmore stable form than liquid manure," he says.

If designed properly, the bedded pack systemcan meet NRCS standards and specificationsfor barnyard water management and manurestorage. Similar systems in Vermont havereceived cost share assistance through theUSDA EQUIP program.

The cows were let out to pasture for full daysaround May 15, once the pastures greened upenough to receive them. In advance of takingthe heifers up the road to graze on Jake's par-ents' pasture, they were given full reign of thebarn, creating quite a stir. "The heifers wererunning around like a bunch of teenagers, kick-ing up their heels and yelling yooo-hoo!" Karenrelated. They took a video of the whole event.Now, there's a video to post to You Tube!!!

For more information on bedded-pack barnsyou can contact me, John Thurgood at 607-865-7090, jmt20@cornell.edu or Jake Fairbairnat 845-586-1255, oliver19554wd@aol.com.

John Thurgood is a Senior Whole FarmPlanner for Cornell Cooperative Extension inDelaware County as part of the NYCWatershed Agricultural Program. The WAP(www.nycwatershed.org) works with farmers inthe Catskills to develop and implement wholefarm plans to protect the water supply for thenine million residents in and around New YorkCity while enhancing farm viability.

COWS & CROPS

The Bedded Pack BarnAn old idea with brand new importance.

Jake Fairbairn and Karen Caskey enjoy time away from the farm at "Down Off the Farm Day," anevent sponsored by the Watershed Agricultural Program in appreciation of participating farm-ers.

Photo by John Thurgood

Jake Fairbairn moving processed straw bale tobedded pack barn.

Photo by John Thurgood

The cows are comfortable and clean in the 50' x 100' bedded pack barn.Photo by Paula Christman

Construction of the walls, 8"x 8" locustposts and 3" x 12" rough-cut tamarack side-walls that are 10' high.

Photograph by Paula Christman

Resource SpotlightUSDA-NRCS EnvironmentalQuality Incentives Program(EQIP) and ConservationInnovation Grants

The Environmental Quality IncentivesProgram (EQIP) is a voluntary conserva-tion program from the USDA NaturalResources Conservation Service. Allsign-ups are conducted at USDA ServiceCenters at the local level. The programsupports production agriculture and envi-ronmental quality as compatible goals.Through EQIP, farmers may receivefinancial and technical help with structur-al and management conservation prac-tices on agricultural land.

The Conservation Innovation Grants(CIG) program is a voluntary programintended to stimulate the developmentand adoption of innovative conservationapproaches and technologies. UnderCIG, EQIP funds are used to award com-petitive grants to non-Federal govern-mental or non-governmental organiza-tions, Tribes, or individuals. CIG will ben-efit agricultural producers by providingmore options for environmental enhance-ment and compliance with Federal, State,and local regulations.

For more information on these fundingprograms call your local USDA-NRCSoffice. For EQIP information visit:www.ny.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/eqip/eqip2007/eqip2007.html. For CIG informa-tion visit: www.ny.nrcs.usda.gov/pro-grams/programs/cig.html.

5July 9, 2007 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY Page 5

by Sandy Buxton

Amid the rolling hills and rushing creeks ofWashington County, New York, there is aRenaissance happening. Cheesemakers areonce again plying their trade and tickling thetaste buds of their appreciative clients.

Years ago, each town had at least one cheese-maker whose skills helped to preserve freshmilk in a form that was desirable and saleable.Now Washington County boasts a number ofcheesemakers who are working with severaldifferent kinds of milk to turn out a delectableand diverse array of fresh and aged cheeses.

Calling themselves the Upper HudsonFarmstead & Artisanal Cheesemakers, five ofthese sheep, goat and cow's milk dairies are allcompeting for space at the farmers' marketsand on the shelves of the local gourmet shops.Each with a different story, they all have a com-mon mission - to produce a delicious productthat will help them to receive a sustainableincome for the farm.

ONE COUNTY -- FIVE UNIQUE CHEESE-MAKERS3-Corner Field Farm is a unique dairy that hasbeen milking more than 200 sheep for years.While building the herd from a lawn mowingproject gone wild, Karen Weinberg sold frozenmilk to another sheep dairy that was manufac-turing product. But as she perfected her sys-tem and gained skills in manufacturing andmarketing she and her family have begun pro-ducing yogurt and cheeses that are marketedvia the internet, Union Square Green Market inNew York City and locally. Some milk is evensold to a neighbor to be processed into adelightfully soft, scented soap.

Goat dairies are more common to see, but thecheese that each produce is unique to their

location, animals and manufacturing methods.Consider Bardwell Farm, which straddles theborder of Vermont and New York in the hillySlate Valley town of West Pawlet. The cheesesthat Angela Miller, Russell Glover and theircheesemakers Peggy Galloup and Peter Dixonproduce are tangy, sharp and bright much liketheir inquisitive goats.

Revitalizing a historic cheesemaking farm, theirOberhasli goats produce milk for tasty freshchevre and feta-style cheese as well as agedtomme and a bloomy-rind cheese. Using cows'milk from Jersey cows in Chester, VT on a part-ner farm, Peggy and Peter also produce a rawmilk, washed rind cheese and an Italian Alpinecheese that is aged 4 months.

Longview Farm has been milking goats tomake their creamy feta, both fresh and agedand a Parmesan-type cheese. Marketing theircheese locally through several farmers' marketsas well as restaurants, Liza and Dave Porterhave a client base that makes a beeline tothem at the farmers' market to get that special

ingredient that makes their recipes impress. Inaddition to their goat cheeses, Liza is also buy-ing milk from local Jersey and Brown Swissherds to make some wonderful cows' milkcheeses. Her products include fresh quark,feta, and fromage blanc as well as agedcheeses.

Having started by purchasing milk to makecheese, the Porters wanted to have control ofthe milk and what goes into their cheese eachweek. They are in the process of trying to cre-ate a sustainable dairy that produces forage forthe animals as well as markets their cheeses.Liza reminds people that all of this work takesmilk with a wholesale value of about $16/cwt.and ends with products that have now madethe milk worth $200/cwt.

Jeff Bowers at Sweet Spring Farm is movingfresh chevre into a whole new arena. He pro-duces some mild yet tangy chevre which mayinclude coatings of herbs or spices. He is alsoproducing some mold ripened cheeses, one isaged for 2 weeks to produce a creamy, tangyproduct with a consistency of a Brie orCamembert.

The Argyle Cheese Factory, LLC is a new ven-ture by Dave and Marge Randles. Dave is apartner on a Holstein dairy which was lookingfor a new opportunity to be able to continuewith long term sustainability. Marge has beenexploring several ideas and has decided topursue cheesemaking. While the farm is not incheese production yet, they have spent monthsdoing their homework - they have been toclasses, made cheese once a week for months,worked with consultants, tweaked recipes andcrunched numbers.

All of these cheesemakers feel that creating aproduct that is desirable for consumers andsold directly to the customer gives a farm a

tremendous opportunity in achieving somefinancial independence. It is difficult to producea commodity on a small scale and be profitablewhen you have little or no control over the priceyou receive or the expenses you pay.

CHEESEMAKING CHALLENGESMarge Randles believes that her researchshows cheesemaking is a viable opportunity forproducers. However there are some hurdlesthat prevent most farmers from viewing this asan option:

Time - farmers are already stretched trying toproduce forage, harvest milk and accomplishregular tasks, and there isn't much extra time toput into the research needed for a new venture,and this is a whole new venture!

Knowledge and skills - the technical knowledgeand skills needed to make cheese, develop adesirable product and then market it success-fully are skills that most commodity farmersdon't already have - they must be learned.

Resources - to be a successful dairy value-added farm, you must have a consistent, supe-rior quality product to work with. Milk does notimprove at all after it is harvested, so it isimportant to start with the best so you can endwith an outstanding product.

Finances - even the most simple of productionsystems require investment as well as the abili-ty to weather the first months of low production,low name recognition and constant promotionto customers. Most farms do not have the extraavailable cash to be prepared to fund a slowgrowing venture even if the potential is enor-mous.

Marketing - commodity farmers normally pro-duce milk and sell it directly to a company.

Once it is on the truck they nolonger worry about getting paidbecause they know a check willcome. When you direct market aproduct, it is completely different.You have to develop a marketingplan, be prepared to makechanges and adapt and youaren't sure that you will get anymoney until it is actually in yourhand!

SEE FOR YOURSELFOn September 15 and 16, 2007,

these five members of the Upper HudsonFarmstead & Artisanal Cheesemakers will opentheir operations to the public. Come watch thecheesemaking process, meet thecheesemakers and some of the animals thatmake the raw resource needed for cheese,milk.

This is a self-drive tour, you can stop at everycheese makers, or pick one or two that you areinterested. For more information contact SandyBuxton, Cornell Cooperative Extension,Washington County at: 1-800-548-0881 or visit:http://cheesetour.blogspot.com.

Sandy Buxton is with Cornell CooperativeExtension of Washington County.

MARKETING

A Cheesemaking RennaissanceUpper Hudson Farmstead & Artisanal Cheesemakers worktogether to promote this up and coming culinary craft

Liza Porter of Longview Farm in Argyle, NY walks some of her goats out to browse. Healthy, wellcared-for animals are a key ingredient in good cheese! Photo by Rob Barendse

A succulent wheel of cheese has been cut into wedges in preparation for sale at the farmers'markets. Photo by Rob Barendse

The environment and production system of the milk can have a tremendous impact on the fla-vor and characteristics of the cheese produced. Photo by M. Randles

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6Page 6 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY July 9, 2007

By Molly Ames

Editor’s note: This article is part of a seriesfocusing on risk management funded by theNew York Crop Insurance Education Programunder the Risk Management Agency (USDA)and the NYS Department of Agriculture &Markets.

Managing risk is especially important if you’restarting a new venture on your farm, investingin changes so that your children can farm, ortaking the plunge and starting a new farm ofyour own from scratch.

I’ve been fortunate to work with many farmerswho have successfully started new ventures –some from the ground up. We can learn a lotfrom folks who have survived those first fewtough years. In Part 1 (see the Spring 2007issue of Small Farm Quarterly), we heardsome sound advice from those who have beenthere and lived to tell about it. Here’s more:

PERSEVEREThe actual farming is the easy part. You alsohave to be ready to persevere on the manyother barriers that might stand in your way.When Liz and Brian Bawden moved their dairyfrom Canada to northern New York 10 yearsago, the logistics of transporting family, belong-ings, cows and machinery were only part ofthe challenge.

Even though Liz is an America citizen and theirmove was pre-9/11, the visa process wasdaunting, and just one example of legal-risksand paperwork challenges that you need toconsider during start-up. Explore what lawsand regulations you’ll need to comply with, andwhat licenses or certification you may need tosecure before you start your business.

“Too many couples are not willing to put theirheads down and persevere through adversity,”says Liz. “There will be train wrecks. They can’tall be avoided. When they happen, you dealwith them.”

INVOLVE THE FAMILYOften, the motivation to start a new farm enter-prise is catalyzed by the next generation –either to generate the cash flow needed tosupport an additional family on the farm or tomatch a new enterprise with the skills and tal-ents of the future farmers.

Take the Weber Family, who’ve farmed inMexico, N.Y. for 50 years. Their children havebeen driving the search for new ideas. “Ourson is not interested in milking cows,” saysNancy Weber. “If he stays on the farm it will bedoing other things.”

Stephanie, Nancy’s daughter, has been explor-ing non-commodity and organic agriculture.She works on a neighboring organic farm andfor Northeast Organic Farming Association ofNew York (NOFA-NY), in addition to working onthe home farm. Nancy got interested in meatgoats, seeing them as a good way to usesome of the farm’s existing pasture. So motherand daughter joined together to develop ameat goat enterprise and explore other alter-natives that will help pass the farm on to thenext generation.

Nancy got involved in a mentoring programthat helped her explore another form of animalagriculture that would work with her existingtalents. But new enterprises have demandedthe development of new skill sets. “We need tokeep better records, I think. I suppose all farm-ers do,” says Nancy. ”But with the new venture,we need to keep track of how much hay thegoats are eating. We finally gave up the shoe-box and got it into the computer.”

GROW YOUR MARKETEvery new venture is a learning process withnew and different production issues. “Withgoats, the health issues are different,” Nancy

points out. “The first kidding is traumatic. Youdon’t know what will happen. Twinning is com-mon and you don’t know how the kids willpresent themselves.”

But you can’t focus just on production. Youneed to devote as much energy – if not more –to figuring out how to sell your products as youdo to producing them.

At first, the Webers marketed their meat goatsentirely by word of mouth. “It has been our solemeans of marketing as it seems there is aninsatiable demand,” says Nancy. “I became the‘goat lady.’ I talked about them wherever Iwent. But word of mouth will only go so far.”

As demand has grown, the Webers havejoined area goat owners to market cooperative-ly. Greek, Jamaican, and Italian communitiesall provide markets. “But it is an interestingmarketplace,” says Nancy. “Depending on themarket, they are very specific about theirrequirements. It is a very fussy market.”

ADD VALUEDon’t limit your thinking to totally new enter-prises. You may be able to develop a newbusiness by adding value to commodities youalready produce.

With some new skills and confidence from herexperience with goats, Nancy is now exploringon-farm cheese-making, using milk from theircows. She will dip a toe in the water first byseeing if she can make a good-tasting product.Then she will test the market by making somecheese in sufficient quantity to take to local tostores to see how it sells.

“We will feel our way and see what it tasteslike,” she says. “We hear our water in Mexico isfamous. Our cows are pastured, our localgrasses are unique. We will start out simple.”

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVELListening to the stories of start-ups over theyears, I hear another common theme: Thereoften comes a point where the rubber hits theroad – where you hit a point when you have totake it up a notch or get out.

For the Webers’ goats, the pinch-point camewhen it was time to invest in facilities. Winterhousing often becomes the critical juncture.“That was a large financial investment for aventure that we did not know whether it wouldpan out,” recalls Nancy. “But we looked at thebarn and pens we were building and decidedwe could always use them as calf pens for thedairy herd.”

PAY ATTENTION TO PEOPLEOne often overlooked category of risk is peo-ple. Family members, employees, customers,literally all human interaction in the course ofbusiness is chock full of opportunity – as wellas challenge. If you get those relationshipsright, your business can thrive. But if youignore problems, you risk scuttling the best-laidplans.

Whether you go it alone or collaborate in yourstart-up, each has its pros and cons. “Pickyour people!” says Pat Kilcoyne, who raisesBlack Angus and runs Kilcoyne Farms from a200-acre farmstead near Brasher Falls, N.Y.“For me, I pick partners who are driven people,people who don’t procrastinate or are too care-ful. I don’t want people who are afraid of losinga little money.”

But not everyone wants to partner at all. Somepeople want to keep the controls in their handsalone. It is very much an individual preference.

DO IT RIGHT!There are two sides to the risk managementcoin. The positive side is what can happenwhen things go well. We realize the positiveresults we strive for – our goals and objectivesincluding profit, personal, family, and lifestyleaccomplishments.

The negative side is a harshreality. The reality is, things dogo wrong. Bad things happen.At the very least, things do notalways go the way we anticipat-ed they would. Murphy’s Lawapplies to new ventures. If itcan go wrong it will, and usuallywithin the first three years of anew venture.

That does not mean that allnew ventures fail. It does notmean there are not real oppor-tunities for farm- and rural-based businesses. It just meansyou should do it right – seek toidentify potential risk, quantify itand plan for it as best you can.

After all, if someone didn’t takemeasured risks and jump in, wewouldn’t have any farm- orrural-based businesses at all.

Molly Ames is an ExtensionResource Educator for CornellCooperative Extension ofJefferson County, and Co-Director, New Strategies:Enhancing Profitability on NorthCountry Farms, a project ofNew York Farm ViabilityInstitute.

NEW FARMERS

Make New Ventures Less RiskyWhether starting from scratch or just starting a new enterprise,it pays to reduce your risks.

5 TYPES OF RISK YOUNEED TO PLAN FOR:

Production risk includes weather,pests, equipment breakdowns andanything that affects the quantity andquality of what you produce.

Marketing risk results from theuncertainties in your markets, includ-ing the price you receive, how muchyou can sell, and changes or loss ofa market you were expecting to sellto.

Financial risk is how other areas ofrisk can affect your finances andyour ability to cover your obligations,including debt, expenses or familyliving.

Legal risk refers to the possibility ofbeing sued, fined or otherwise penal-ized for violating a law or a regulato-ry standard, including suits from cus-tomers or visitors concerning acci-dents or product liability.

People risk covers risks associatedwith employees, family members andothers. The four D’s – death, divorce,disability and disagreements canwreak havoc on a farm business.

Stephanie Weber and her daughter Nancy got started with meat goats as a way to help passthe farm on to the next generation. Photo by Molly Ames

Pat Kilcoyne raises Black Angus near Brasher Falls, NY, and advises that you “pick your people”carefully to reduce the risks of a key relationship going sour.

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Bill Henning's model for sustainable farming(SFQ, Spring 2007) revolves around a 12-pointcharacterization of a typical dairy farm from 50years ago. I will take a different approach,breaking sustainable farming into four core com-ponents. This model is one of the organizingaspects of the Finger Lakes Sustainable FarmingCenter, an Extension-based information centershared by 3 counties - Ontario, Yates, andSeneca.

Before coordinating our educational support forsustainable farming, we wanted to have a clearersense of what "sustainable" means. Here is themost straightforward answer I could develop:

"Sustainable farming is a regional-orientedprocess in which farms promote their own futureby incrementally maximizing internal farmresources, minimizing inputs, diversifying rev-enue channels, and contributing assets back tothe community."

Coming in at less than 30 words, this may beone of the shortest descriptions of sustainablefarming available. Perhaps it will help to spreadthe concept out to a few paragraphs, then look atone way to market sustainability to customers.

SUSTAINABLE FARMING MAXIMIZESINTERNAL FARM RESOURCESThe idea of maximizing internal farm resourcesmay look familiar to you if you follow the RodaleInstitute's concept of regenerative farming.Farms have lots of internal physical resources,like soil ecosystems, minerals, stores of surfaceand ground water, solar gain, equipment, stor-age, and tools. Farms also have internal human

resources that monitor crop development, assessmarkets, make decisions, and provide labor.Money, sometimes an external input, is also partof the internal resources when it passes throughthe farmgate to the farm.

Maximizing the internal resources of a farmincreases self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency is afundamental part of sustainability, though not thewhole thing; our farms will always require someexternal inputs.

The example of nitrogen cycling might help illus-trate this point. Nitrogen can be purchased inthe form of fertilizer, but it can also be harnessedfrom the atmosphere through cover crops. Hairyvetch, seeded in September, is an over winteringlegume that can capture almost 100 pounds ofnitrogen per acre. By recycling the nitrogenalready available using this and other covercrops, a farm can move toward sustainability.

SUSTAINABLE FARMING MINIMIZES INPUTSSo many external farm inputs have a negativeconnotation in sustainable farming: debt, fossilfuels, hired labor, purchased water, synthetic fer-tilizers, chemical pesticides, and governmentsubsidies. Yuck! This model looks upon suchinputs as necessary in many situations, but cer-tainly warranting minimal use. To the extent thata farm can reduce the flow of external inputs to adrink, then a sip, rather than a greedy chug, itwill be more sustainable.

SUSTAINABLE FARMING DIVERSIFIESREVENUE CHANNELSThis part of sustainable farming looks at the roleof income diversity. On a farm's accountingledger, there are often dozens of expense entriesfor each income entry. In fact, the Cornell Farm

Account Book contains nearly 80pages to register expenses, andonly about 8 pages to registerreceipts. Likewise, farm expensecategories are numerous, andincome categories are few.

In the process of sustainablefarming, the farm will attempt tomaximize the categories ofincome, spreading out revenueopportunities. The more diversi-fied your production and servic-es, the more markets you canaccess. A farm usually providesa marketable product (the cropor animal), but it can also provideservices to enhance farm rev-

enue and boost product sales. Historically, farm-ers were also farriers, or blacksmiths, or teach-ers, or researchers, or real estate brokers, orlumberjacks, depending on their off-farm skills.Rare indeed is the farmer who gains all theirincome from product sales alone. Sustainablefarms in the current day diversify revenuethrough off-farm services and/or on-farm activi-ties, like teaching fees, tourism, tastings, showfees, activity fees, and farm building rentals.

SUSTAINABLE FARMING CONTRIBUTESASSETS BACK TO THE COMMUNITYWere it not for the community surrounding it, asustainable farm could not exist. Fortunately,many farms are positioned to return importantassets to the community. Sustainable farms ben-efit public health by maximizing access to locally-produced food. Community environmentalassets - open landscape, erosion control, mini-mal chemical inputs, plus many others - flowfrom a sustainable farm to the lands around it.Sustainable farms are at the core of many social

networks. Farm operations almost alwaysremain part of a community longer than non-farmlandowners, and the owners typically spend theirdays working within the community, rather thandriving off to a distant job.

COMMUNICATING SUSTAINABILITYWITH CUSTOMERS AND THE PUBLICI am seeing more situations where members ofthe general public are asking the question "Is yourfarm sustainable?" This is a tough question toanswer, because the response naturally tends tobe unorganized and incoherent, once you start toexplain things beyond "Yes."

This model can help organize your response tothe sustainabili-ty question.Think of someconcrete exam-ples from yourfarm that reflectthe notion thatyou maximizeinternalresources, mini-mize inputs,diversify rev-enue and, con-tribute back tothe community.

For example, you are selling retail frozen cuts ofpork at your roadside market, when a new cus-tomer asks, "Do you practice sustainable agricul-ture? I know several families who want to sup-port sustainable farming, rather than thosemega-farms, but I wasn't sure if your product isreally different."

Here is an organized coherent response: "Yes,my farm is sustainable, because I rely on myfamily for most farm decisions. We use pesti-cides only when they are absolutely necessary,and we consume energy very efficiently. In addi-tion, we help the community by bringing our porkbarbeque to fundraisers and community events,so if you know of a group we could help, we willlook at our schedule." This kind of answerreflects all four components of sustainable farm-ing, stated with specific examples that any non-farmer can understand.

Sustainable farming is a process of small, butimportant changes. It is not an endpoint,

because there will always be one more internalresource to maximize, one more input to mini-mize, one more revenue channel to explore orone more asset to contribute back to your com-munity.

THE FINGER LAKES SUSTAINABLEFARMING CENTER The Finger Lakes Sustainable Farming Center isa newly developing entity featuring a farmerknowledge base, an online library of information,communications to residents and visitors, con-ferences, support for progressive farmlandpreservation, and geographic information sys-tem (GIS) applications around soil resources.Anyone with an interest can contact CornellCooperative Extension of Ontario County at(585) 394-3977, Cornell Cooperative Extensionof Yates County at (315) 536 5123, or CornellCooperative Extension of Seneca County at(315) 539 2784.

Jim Ochterski is an Agriculture EconomicDevelopment Specialist with CooperativeExtension of Ontario County in Canandaigua,NY. He can be reached at 585-394-3977 x402 orjao14@cornell.edu.

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8Page 8 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY July 9, 2007

by Anita Deming

One of the goals of risk management andinsurance is to protect your assets from claimsand lawsuits that may result from injury to peo-ple or damage to property when an accident orevent occurs on your premises.

In today's society, liability claims and lawsuitsare frequent occurrences. Effective risk man-agement depends on the combined efforts andclose communication between you and yourinsurance company.

Many farmers are hiring employees, invitingcustomers onto their property, offering valueadded products, selling directly to consumers,keeping large livestock, or finding "attractivenuisances" on their farm. Each of theserequires attention to mitigate the potential forand impact of an accident.

According to Dave Ferris of The Wood Office,P W Wood & Son, Inc., "Experience is some-thing you get right after you need it." Yourinsurance company has the benefit of studyingaccidents for a living. They know the risks andshould have recommendations for reducingyour exposure. Talk to them, listen and imple-ment their recommendations.

Look for an agent you are comfortable with,that you can talk to, who is well known andrespected in your community, who understandsagriculture and businesses, and who will workwith you to reduce your potential for risk.

What are your risks? How much can you affordto lose? How much can you afford to pay? Anyrisk can be covered if you are willing to pay forit -- just call Lloyds of London! However, as abusiness you also need to balance your riskswith the cost for protection. You can "shop" forcoverage to compare policies. However, besure you are comparing apples to apples forcoverage.

WHAT INSURANCE DO YOU NEED?When considering your risks, be sure to reviewthe list below and describe your risks com-pletely to your agent.

General Liability Insurance covers injuries topeople while they are on your property. It pro-

tects you from losses due to lawsuits. This maybe part of your "Farmowners" package policy.

Home Owners Insurance typically covers: fire,theft, personal property, lightning, riot, air-craft, explosion, vandalism, smoke, theft,windstorm or hail, falling objects, volcaniceruption, snow, sleet, and weight of ice.Usually flood and earthquake insuranceneeds to be purchased separately. It will alsoinclude liability protection for you and yourfamily

Farm Owner's Insurance - For a farm ownerwe recommend that you have a "FarmOwners" insurance policy instead of aHomeowner policy. It will also cover barns,rental housing, equipment, animals, and otherfarm property.

Product Liability Insurance for damages thatmay arise from the handling, use of or condi-tion of products manufactured, sold handled,or distributed by your business. This may bepart of your "Farm Owners" insurance.

Automobile Insurance covers damage to yourvehicle and liability and "no fault" insurancerequired by state law. Do other people driveyour vehicles? How big are your vehicles?

Contract Liability Insurance covers theassumption of the liability of another partlythrough a contract or facility use agreement.For instance: If you are selling at a grocerystore you will likely need $1 million in productliability and additionally insured insurance.This coverage should be discussed with yourinsurance agent.

Crop Insurance for weather, market, fire,pests, and other disasters. A variety of insur-ance products is available including MultiplePeril Crop Insurance (50% yield loss),Adjusted Gross Revenue (50% income loss),or Non-insured Crop Disaster Assistance

Health insurance for yourself and family incase you are hurt and need medical care.Life Insurance to help your family in casesomething happens to the bread winner.

Workers' Compensation Insurance is requiredif you have employees. Health insurance maybe provided for employees as well.

Unemployment Insurance is required forfarms thathave 10 ormore agricul-tural employ-ees on the

farm in any day, or that have $20,000 in quar-terly payroll. It is also required for all otheremployees if the payroll is over $1500 in anycalendar quarter.

Disability Insurance will provide living expens-es if you are hurt or sick and cannot work.

Vendor's Insurance will cover your liabilities ifyou are selling at a farmers' market or tradeshow.

Environmental Pollution Insurance coversclean up of manure, or pesticide spills.

Be sure to describe your operation fully toyour agent, so that they can find a packagethat will help you protect your assets. Youshould also implement standards of practicefor your type of operation. Remember yourliability extends to: What would a "prudent"person do? By demonstrating that you havetaken precautions and implemented bestmanagement practices, you will do a lot toreduce your risks.

WAYS TO REDUCE YOUR LIABILITYThere are basically three strategies for reduc-ing your liability. Use them as you can to meetyour goals.* Risk avoidance - Don't do it!Example: Don't ride horses* Risk reduction - Modify.Example: Use helmets.* Risk protection - Buy insur-ance to cover risk and protectyour assets.

Negligence is when you don'tdo what a "prudent" personwould do, or you do some-thing you should not do.Spend some time thinkingabout risk and ways to reduceit in your operation. Read upabout the best managementpractices in your industry soyou what is considered "pru-dent."

Remember you have a higherduty of care to children andinvitees. Keep your property ingood repair. Watch for thosethings that are so likely to hurtsomeone that you will likelylose a lawsuit, such as: rawfood products, blasting, dan-gerous animals - a dog that

has bitten even once before, stallions or bulls,or a horse that has ever bucked. If possible,remove these dangerous risks from youroperation.

Making false statements or publishing incor-rect information that may damage a person'sreputation can result in liable suits. Be carefulof advertising claims or comparing your oper-ation to others in a negative way.

Manage your production techniques accord-ing to recommended best management prac-tices. This will increase the likelihood of suc-cess and decrease risk. Bio-security is rec-ommended. Provide booties and hand wipesfor visitors that enter barn areas.

Remember, this article is for general informa-tion only and should not be considered a sub-stitute for consultation with a qualified insur-ance agent. Always read your policies careful-ly and discuss your actual coverage with youragent.

Anita Deming is the Agriculture Educator andExecutive Director of Cornell CooperativeExtension of Essex County. She can bereached at 518-962-4810 ext. 409 orald6@cornell.edu.

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9July 9, 2007 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY Page 9

by Susan Neal

When you consider the plight of endangeredanimals, chances are that cows and pigs don'treadily come to mind. Yet many rare livestockbreeds are just as seriously threatened withextinction as their more exotic cousins.

Luckily, a unique group has stepped forward tohelp protect threatened livestock from certainand irretrievable loss. These self-appointedguardians protect, nourish, and watch overthese animals-literally mothering them backfrom the brink of extinction.

Who are these dedicated protectors? They arefarmers, breeders, and conservators. Amongthis group, women farmers are having a con-siderable impact on the conservation of endan-gered breeds.

ABOUT HERITAGE BREEDSKnown by a number of different terms -"endangered," "rare," "traditional," "minor," andthe preferred moniker "heritage," the membersof these livestock breeds may be few in num-ber, but they are anything but insignificant. Infact, heritage breeds were once the predomi-nant breeds in America, supplying our nationwith all of its meat, fiber, draft power, and dairyproducts for generations.

Heritage breeds are defined as being repre-sentative of one of the six traditional speciesthat were common in North America prior tothe 1940's-namely cattle, sheep, goats, horses,asses, and pigs-and whose genetically distinctpopulations have declined to drastically lownumbers.

For the most part these breeds fell out of favora mere fifty years ago, when highly specializedbreeds became the darlings of the industrial-ized agriculture movement. But the same traitsthat made these breeds key players inAmerica's agricultural past are still very muchalive and accessible today.

Their genetic vigor and variation make themimportant in a biologically uncertain world.Their superior foraging and pasture conversionabilities frequently yield greater efficiency ratesand lower production costs than their moderncontemporaries.

Heritage breeds are often know for their hardi-ness and disease resistance, developed aftercenturies of fending for themselves to a muchgreater extent than modern breeds are accus-tomed to. And their renowned fertility andlongevity mean that many of them remain pro-ductive well into their teens and twenties.

WOMEN IN BREED CONSERVATIONWhile both men and women have been quietlyworking behind the scenes for decades to savethese unique animals, women conservatorsare becoming a serious force in the field ofheritage livestock conservation.

Don Schrider is Communications Director forthe American Livestock Breeds Conservancy,the premier heritage breed organization inAmerica, dedicated to conserving and promot-ing heritage breeds, and to setting the criteriaby which rare breeds are classified. Whenasked about the gender statistics of his organi-zation's membership, Don reported that morethan 50% of members are women. "I wouldestimate that that figure is closer to 60 per-cent," he said.

While mainstream livestock production may stillbe considered the domain of men, womenhave clearly become a dominant force in theconservation of heritage breeds.

"Conserving rare breeds is a nurturing type ofactivity," Schrider admits. Perhaps evolutionhas perfectly tailored women to "mother" rarebreeds during their most desperate hour. Whenwomen farmers, breeders and preservationistselect to save a heritage breed, they are notmerely "collecting antiques.". Women who ded-icate their lives to preserving heritage breedsdo so to honor our nation's agricultural pastand to ensure its agricultural future.

ADDING VALUE TO CONSERVATIONAnd in the process they are building success-ful, viable breeding populations and cottageindustries. Artisan cheese making and handspinning and weaving are just a few of thehandicrafts that women conservators are reviv-ing along with their heritage livestock.

Shannon Nichols is a rare breed conservatorand member of the ALBC. She raises Kerryand Ayrshire Cattle and Arapawa Island Goatson her Madison, New York farm. Nichols cre-ates specialty cheeses with milk from her her-itage livestock, and claims that she wouldnever return to using modern breeds. For her,heritage breeds are the perfect fit for her farm-ing and business ventures.

Nichols also sees a growing trend in womenbecoming involved with rare breeds. "As moreheritage breeds are seen as economicallyviable on sustainable farms," she notes, "wewill see more women using them, especiallyfor value added projects." While Nichols findsmany of her male counterparts interested inthe history and traditions of various heritagebreeds, she finds women to be the most pas-sionate about their work.

A PERSONAL PASSIONNowhere is this passion more evident than inthe area of rare equine preservation. AndVictoria Tollman knows first hand how impor-tant women are to the survival of endangeredhorse breeds. She is the Executive Director ofthe Equus Survival Trust, a non-profit organiza-tion dedicated to the preservation and promo-tion of rare and endangered breeds of horses.

Tollman reports that a solid 80% of her organi-zation's members are women. "Their impactand concern about the endangered breeds iscrucial," she notes, "as well as incredible.

Women conservators are a dedicated, savvy,and determined group. They understand alltoo well that once a breed becomes extinct, itcan never return to what it was."

She looks to women like Mimi Rehor, who leftthe lucrative corporate world in order to dedi-cate her life to the preservation of Abaco Barbhorses. And to Louis Firouz, an Americanwoman who rediscovered the nearly extinctCaspian horse in Iran in the 1960's. This dar-ing woman was instrumental in not only savingthe breed from certain extinction, but in con-vincing the Iranian government to establish astate-run stud and to designating the Caspianas a national treasure.

Her work, understandably, has not been easy,and her efforts have been fraught with peril.Many times her herd has been confiscated bythe government and she has been imprisoned.Yet this brave, now elderly, American womanremains in Iran to continue her preservationefforts to save the animals she reveres.

Many in the heritage breed community reportthat this depth of dedication is routinely wit-nessed in the women who work to save rarelivestock. The energy they put into education,promotion, and preservation today will ensurethat these genetic treasures are available tofuture generations. For as Victoria Tollman canattest, without the dedicated mothering ofwomen conservators, many endangered live-stock breeds would simply cease to exist.

Susan Neal raises heritage chickens andturkeys (Buff Orpingtons and Bourbon Reds) atWiccaway Farm in Beaver Dams, NY. She canbe reached at (607) 535-2135 or wiccaway-farm@aol.com.

WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE

Mothers of ConservationThese self-appointed guardians are protecting, nourishing, andmonitoring endangered livestock breeds

Louise Firouze and Caspian in IranPhoto by Kristull Ranch, KY

Colonial Spanish Wilbur-Cruce Foals andPresident Robin Collins, Heritage DiscoveryCenter, CA

Photo by Heritage Discovery Center

American Mammoth Jackstock Jenny andEquus Survival Trust Executive Director,Victoria Tollman

Photo by Olde Towne Farm, VA

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

Resource SpotlightHeritage Breeds ConservationFor more information about heritagebreeds, contact the following resources:

Heritage Breeds Conservancy, Inc.PO Box 187Great Barrington, MA 01230(413) 528-2817www.nehbc.org/index.html

American Livestock Breeds ConservancyPO Box 477Pittsboro, NC 27312(919) 542-5704www.albc-usa.org

Equus Survival Trust7273 West Pine St.Low Gap, NC 27024www.Equus-Survival-Trust.org

Degrees of Endangerment

The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy was founded in 1977 by a group of agri-cultural historians, who were joined by farmers, scientists, and other interested individu-als concerned about the preservation of America's genetically important heritagebreeds. Today the organization actively works to preserve and promote more than 150different breeds of rare livestock and poultry. The ALBC's livestock classificationsinclude:* Critical: Fewer than 200 animals of a particular breed are registered annually in theU.S. and less than 2000 specimens exist in the global population.* Threatened: Fewer than 1000 individuals are registered each year in this country, andless than 5000 exist globally.* Watch: Fewer than 2500 animals of a particular breed are registered in the U.S., andless than 10,000 individuals can be found globally.* Recovering: Refers to breeds that were once listed in another category but whose reg-istrations numbers have increased to exceed their "Watch" status; they are still in needof careful monitoring, support, and protection.* Study: Breeds of genetic interest that currently lack definition or genetic/historical doc-umentation.

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Estimating the rate at which you apply manuregives you one more piece of information to usein management decisions. (If you don't knowhow much you've got, it's harder to make deci-sions about what to do with it!) For example,you may want to apply more or less manure todifferent fields, depending on their fertility.Calibration gives you more control, so thatfields will not be underfertilized nor overfertil-ized. Here are three different ways to calibrateyour manure spreader.

THREE METHODSThe first we'll call the "recordkeeping" method.Every time you spread a load on a field, checkit off on a piece of paper. When you have fin-ished covering the field uniformly, divide thetotal number of loads you spread by the num-ber of acres in the field. That will give you thenumber of loads spread per acre.

Multiply this by the capacity of your spreader intons per load. The result will be your spreadingrate in tons per acre. You can estimate yourspreader's capacity based on its dimensionsusing formulas in a table in the Penn StateAgronomy Guide. The table can be found onthe Internet athttp://agguide.agronomy.psu.edu/cm/pdf/table1-2-17.pdf . If you don't have access to a com-puter, call me and I can send you the table.

The second method we'll call the "plasticsheet" method. Cut a sheet of thick plastic to aknown size, such as 5 ft. x 5 ft. (25 squarefeet). Fold the sheet up and wrap a piece ofrope around it that you can use to hang it froma milk scale to get the tare weight.

Then lay the plastic down in the field and driveover it while you're spreading manure. Fold

the plastic up carefully with the manure in it,and weigh it again. Subtract the first, emptyweight from the second, full weight. That givesyou the pounds of manure spread on 25square feet. Multiplying that number by .87gives you your spreading rate in tons per acre.

The last method we'll call "truck scales". Weighthe entire manure spreader when it is full bydriving it up onto a pair of portable truckscales. Spread the load, then weigh thespreader again empty. Use a walking wheel tomeasure the area spread and determine howmany square feet were covered. The poundsspread per square foot can then be convertedto tons spread per acre.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGESThe advantages of the recordkeeping methodare that it requires no extra equipment, and itis the most accurate. The disadvantage is thatyou won't know what your spreading rate isuntil you have finished covering the field.

The advantages of the plastic sheet methodare that it gives you an immediate answer, andit is inexpensive. The disadvantage is that it isless accurate, because the estimate may varygreatly depending on if you hit the plastic atthe beginning, middle, or end of the spread.

This disadvantage can be overcome to somedegree by measuring several loads and takingthe average. Making repeated measurementswill show you how much variation there is inyour spreading, but of course it will take longer.Lastly, the plastic sheet method is limited tosolid manure, since liquid forms would run offof the sheet.

The advantages of the portable truck scalesare that they are faster, and they give you abetter average. The average is better becauseyou are measuring the distribution of the entireload, as opposed to just the area covered byone plastic sheet. Truck scales are fasterbecause their greater accuracy means fewertrials are required.

Truck scales also provide a better measure-ment of your spreader's capacity than you willget from the manufacturer's literature. They canbe used for both solid and liquid manurespreaders. The disadvantage of truck scales isthat they are expensive.

You don't have to pick one "best" method tocalibrate. You can try two or more methods andcompare the results as a crosscheck.Recalibrating once a year is another good wayto check that you are getting reliable numbers.If you change equipment or the type of manureyou spread, you should also recalibrate. (Mysoil physics professor always used to say, "Itnever hurts to calibrate.")

For more information you can download "FactSheet 18: Calibrating Manure Spreaders" from

the Cornell Nutrient Management website athttp://nmsp.css.cornell.edu/publications/fact-sheets/factsheet18.pdf. Or call me for a copy.

Remember, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it!

Brian Aldrich is AgricultureResource Extension Educatorwith Cornell Cooperative

Extension of Cayuga County in Auburn, NY. Hecan be reached at 315-255-1183 orbsa9@cornell.edu.

COWS AND CROPS

Estimating Manure ApplicationRatesProtect water quality and avoid over- or under-fertilizing yourfields

10

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Page 10 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY July 9, 2007

In the "plastic sheet" method, you simplyplace a sheet of plastic in the path of spread-er, spread manure right on top of it, and thenweigh the sheet full of manure.

All photos by Brian Aldrich

Another method is to weigh the manurespreader before and after loading, usingportable truck scales.

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11

Small Farm ExpoComing to

Ulster County,NY

October 13-14Are you a small-farm owner looking to explore newoptions? Or have you always just wondered what itwould be like to live on a farm? The seventh annualNortheast Small Farm and Rural Living Exposition andTrade Show promises to be a great educational experi-ence and networking opportunity for small farm ownersand anyone else interested in living in the country.

The Expo will be held October 13-14, Saturday andSunday, at the Ulster County Fairgrounds in New Paltz,NY. Educational workshops, demonstrations and lec-tures include:* Making money from your land* Organic and traditional small farm workshops* Fencing construction and small farm equipmentdemonstrations * Growing flowers, trees, shrubs, fruit and vegetables* Forest stewardship & natural resource conservationseminars * Equine exhibits & demonstrations* Raising Livestock Workshops* Pasture Management workshops

The Expo also features a small farm/rural living tradeshow and exhibits. Admission is only $5 per adult perday. Children 5-14 are $2. Under 5 free!! The UlsterCounty Fair Grounds is on Libertyville Road in NewPaltz, NY, just 3 miles west of Exit 18 off the NYSThruway.

These photos are from previous Small Farm & RuralLiving Expos hosted in New York, Pennsylvania and NewJersey. Come join us this year! For more informationvisit www.smallfarmexpo.org.

July 9, 2007 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY Page 11

12Page 12 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY July 9, 2007

by Celeste Carmichaelg

More than one out of five youth in New YorkState are considered obese. Yikes. This statisticfrightens me...and I hope it frightens all of us.

I think that we can all relate to why this is hap-pening...more sedentary lifestyles, sedentaryplay (video games and high tech components),living in areas where we can't always safely walkor ride a bike, demands of busy schedules,chores that are (sometimes) less physical thanthey used to be, larger meal portions,...and eat-ing out more.

Here is a personal example. Last night -- after Iscooped up the kids at school, brought my dogto the veterinarian and my middle daughter tothe orthodontist but before softball practice -- westopped at an all-you-can-eat Chinese restau-rant. Hmmm... did someone say -- busy sched-ule? Eating out? Large meal portions?

This hectic lifestyle is often the norm for today'sfamilies and the root of weightier issues.However, there is good research about ways toovercome the statistics. My fortune, by the way -- no kidding -- read, "Take care of your body, andyou will have many years of rewards".

Obesity prevention is a hot topic everywhere anda major programmatic initiative for CornellCooperative Extension. And, while diet con-tributes to childhood obesity, activity seems to bethe key for a child to grow with a healthy weight.

Through my work with the State 4-H YouthDevelopment Office we are seeking fun and

meaningful opportunities to address this throughsome of our larger events. For example - everyyear the top complaint for our statewide youthconference (held on Cornell's campus) is thatthere is too much walking ("can't you send us abus?"). Going from the dorms to the programs isquite a walk. But just how much is too muchwalking?

10,000 STEPS TO HEALTHAs conference coordinator, last year I decided towear a pedometer, or step counter, to see justhow much we are expecting of our participants.The result was that I walked about 12,000 stepseach day...about 2,000 steps more than the rec-ommended 10,000 steps a day...and the rightamount of steps for growing youth.

This year we intend to give all 500 participantspedometers to track their steps...building in a funcompetition. Walking is, after all, healthy. Theproblem is that we, as a society, are not used toan active lifestyle. So what feels like walking toomuch, turns out to be just about the rightamount.

Walking more, it turns out, is one of the bestthings that we can do for our health. Althoughnumbers as low as 6000 steps a day have beenshown to be correlated with a lower death rate inmen in a Harvard Study, research by Dr. CatrineTudor-Locke,

Arizona State University, has confirmed that10,000 steps per day translates into long-termhealth and reduced risk of chronic disease, suchas diabetes or heart disease. And while someconsider 10,000 steps a day too hard to achieve,many consider this too little activity for youth.

How many steps does a child need? Studiesshow that 6-12 year old girls need 12,000steps/day and boys need 15,000 steps/day tomaintain a healthy Body Mass Index or BMI.

GET YOUR FAMILY MOVING!Even if your after-school routine involves choresaround the barn, or house, or outside play...you

and your family may not be getting enoughhealthy exercise. I wore a pedometer aroundwork/home/barn for a few weeks and found thateven with a 10 minute walk from parking lot tooffice, chores at the barn, and chasing a 2 yearold, my activity level was pretty stable at 8,000steps a day. This was a wake up call, helpingme to realize that although I consider myselfactive, I'm not getting enough activity for longterm health benefits..

Counting steps can be a family activity. Buy apedometer for each member of your family andhave a healthy competition. You can get a simplesingle-function pedometer for under $10. The firstweek, simply track your average steps. The sec-ond week, reward each person who increasestheir daily steps by 2000. Continue the next weekrewarding those who increase them another2000 until they reach the goal of 10,000 foradults, 12,000 for girls and 15,000 for boys. Havea big celebration when anyone reaches thosemajor goals.

Another option is to keep track of the distancesyou and your family members walk each day byestimating. On average it takes 2,000 steps toequal a mile. There are free websites out thereto help you track your steps. Webwalking.com isjust one. So pick a place you'd like to walk to --my family would pick Disney -- and start on youway.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF MOVEMENT.For those of you with kids excited by computeractivities and games, I've recently learned aboutsome interactive games that can encouragemultiple players to move and have fun together.

The game that started this craze, Dance DanceRevolution, has been adopted by many schoolsand youth programs to work fitness, fun andtechnology together. If you don't know whatthis game is, I would encourage you to googleit...there are lots of resources about it and othergames similar in goals.

Celeste Carmichael is Program Specialist withthe NYS 4-H Youth Development Program. Sheis also the Youth Pages Editor for Small FarmQuarterly.

HOME AND FAMILY

On Raising Rural KidsGet moving for a healthier family

Walk, play, golf, swim...whatever works for you- get moving with your family, for fun and foryour health. Photos by Celeste Carmichael

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Resource SpotlightNew Cookbook -- The Farmerand the Grill

by Shannon Hayes

Have a little fun with your flame this summer!

Shannon Hayes, author of The GrassfedGourmet Cookbook, has released her secondbook in time for the summer cookout season.The Farmer and the Grill is Shannon's guide togrilling, barbecuing and spit-roasting grass-fedmeats (and saving the planet one bite at atime).

Written after studying classic asado techniquesin Argentina, the book contains guidelines forsustainable, earth-friendly outdoor cooking; tipson working with pasture-based farmers; recipesand techniques for working with all cuts ofgrass-fed beef, lamb, pork and poultry; as wellas instructions for authentic Argentine-styleasado cooking.

Like The Grassfed Gourmet, The Farmer andthe Grill comes packed with engaging essaysand sidebars about farming and feasting, mak-ing it a cookbook that is as fun to read as it isto cook from. The book retails for $17.95 and isfor sale on the web atwww.grassfedcooking.com, or by callingShannon at (518) 827-7595. Bulk discountsare available for farms, retail stores and organi-zations interesting in making it available forresale.

14Page 14 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY July 9, 2007

by Margaret Tuttle McGrath

Mr. Yung Whan Yi and his wife Bock Hee Yiemigrated from South Korea to the UnitedStates in 1985. Mr. and Mrs. Yi now growvegetables commercially at Cosmos Farm,Inc., located in Manorville, Long Island, NY.They grow approximately 35+ acres ofKorean vegetables which are marketed inNew York City and the Northeast.

Mr. Yi makes the day to day farm manage-ment decisions and Mrs. Yi works on thefarm and operates the household in the tra-

ditional Korean life style. The Yi's have twosons, Michael and Charles.

The major crops grown on the farm areKorean vegetables, such as cucumbers, let-tuce, watercress and sesame leaves.Sesame leaves are a staple green vegetableof the Korean diet, and according to Mr. Yi, itis one of the best foods for your heart andblood vessels.

In 2000, the Farm Service Agency complet-ed its first farm loan with Cosmos Farm inorder to refinance the farm debt and providefunds for the upcoming crop year. Mr. andMrs. Yi worked with the Farm ServiceAgency (FSA) and the Credit Team to dis-cuss their finances, goals and objectives forthe farm.

With the assistance of FSA loan funds theYi's were able to cut expenses, improve effi-ciencies and show a profit. They continue tomake improvements to their property,upgrade equipment and now have expandedto marketing flowers.

Mr. Yi is proud to announce the grand open-ing of his latest enterprise, BellmoreNursery, Inc. located in Bellmore, NY. Thiswholesale/retail operation will market flow-ers, hanging baskets, flats and assortedflowering plants.

Cosmos Farm, Inc. also participates in theNon-Insured Assistance Program offeredthrough the Farm Service Agency. This pro-gram provides financial assistance to pro-ducers of non-insurable crops such as veg-etables when low yields, or loss of inventoryor prevented planting occurs due to naturaldisasters.

The Yi's feel that the Farm Service Agencywas the helping hand they needed and withit they were able to improve their agriculturaloperation.

For further information on USDA FarmLoans or other FSA programs contact yourlocal USDA Farm Service Agency or USDAService Center. For the office nearest you,check out your phone directory under U.S.Department of Agriculture, Farm ServiceAgency.

Susan Pierzchanowski is theCounty Executive Director ofthe USDA Farm ServiceAgency in Riverhead, NY.

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Mr. Yi at the Grand Opening of Bellmore Nursery, Inc. Photo by Susan Pierzchanowski

Spring Plants at Bellmore Nursery, Inc. Photo by Susan Pierzchanowski

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15July 9, 2007 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY Page 15

by Erica Frenay

For Nick Laskovski, what began as an opportu-nity for a free ticket to a fantastic summermusic festival led unexpectedly to the birth ofChautauqua Shiitakes, a log-grown mushroombusiness.

Nick met Steve and Julie Rockcastle throughSteve's son Logan, a friend and fellow Cornellstudent of Nick's. Julie and Steve live on about300 acres in Sherman, NY, in ChautauquaCounty. Their property hosts the Great BlueHeron Music Festival, an event Julie organizesthat draws 6-7,000 people annually and is nowin its 16th year.

Nick wanted to attend the festival but wasshort on cash. So he offered to educate Steveand Julie about mushroom production in tradefor a festival ticket. His timing was perfect:Steve and Julie were just beginning work onrecommended actions from their ForestManagement Plan. These included makingstand improvements by thinning a large vol-ume of red maple. They had intended to sellthe thinnings as firewood, but Nick's visit con-vinced them otherwise. Not only did Nick gethis free festival ticket, but he was invited tocome back and help Steve and Julie start up amushroom business.

MUSHROOM CULTIVATION PRIMERMushroom cultivation usually begins with thecutting of trees in early spring, generallyMarch-April. Mushroom spawn can be pur-chased in various forms, all of which consist ofthe mushroom "mycelium" (a dense whitematrix akin to plant roots) growing on somesubstrate, like grain, sawdust, or wooden dow-els.

The grower then inoculates the cut logs bydrilling holes, packing in the purchased spawn,and usually waxing over the holes to reducemoisture loss. To reduce risk of contaminationby other fungal species and to maximize theamount of moisture in the wood, trees areinoculated within a few weeks of cutting, anddiseased or dying wood is not used.

Inoculated logs are then stacked in particularformations in a "laying yard," where they lie inrepose for 9-15 months until the new fungushas fully colonized its host and is ready to fruit.A good laying yard must offer the logs year-

round shade. A nice flat spot under a hemlockor other evergreen tree, preferably with a watersource nearby, is ideal. In the long waitbetween inoculation and harvest, serious grow-ers will periodically irrigate the logs, as theyrequire about an inch of rain per week toremain viable.

Though logs will begin to fruit on their own,production will be spotty and unpredictable.Backyard and commercial producers typicallyforce a fruiting of mushrooms by submerginglogs in cold water to "shock" them. This willproduce a flush of harvestable mushroomswithin a few days. Logs may be shocked in thismanner every 6-8 weeks during the growingseason. Depending on density of the wood, alog will produce reliably in this manner for 2-5years.

CHAUTAUQUA SHIITAKESJulie and Steve were prime candidates for amushroom enterprise. Steve ran RockcastleFlorist and Grower for 25 years before leavingthe business. He still owns a lot of underuti-lized equipment: tractors, chainsaws, a woodchipper, drills, and a backhoe. As Steve, Julie,Logan and Nick walked the property, they real-ized they had abundant hardwoods, a beautifullaying yard by a creek, and all the equipmentthey would need to get started. All they lackedwas the mushroom spawn.They quickly agreed that this would be an ideal

use of their resources and ini-tially dubbed the enterpriseChautauqua Shiitakes. Nick iscurrently working on the busi-ness plan, researching poten-tial markets, planning out thefinancial and labor require-ments, and estimating profitpotential. With relatively lowstart-up costs, Steve and Julieare able to finance it withoutborrowing money, and theyhave a year to secure theirmarkets before the logs startproducing. The current plan isto sell to restaurants foraround $5/lb, and at localfarmers markets where freshshiitakes may fetch up to$15/lb, but these figures varywith market potential.

The start-up budget was$5,000 for 1000 logs. Thisincluded $450 in spawn,$2,000 for laying yard improve-ments, and $1400 in labor(100 hrs. each for two people -Julie and Steve did not factortheir own labor into the budg-et). If all goes well, they willinoculate another 400-500 logseach year as replacements forthose that reach the end oftheir productivity. Steve andJulie are aiming for a 1000-

1500 log operation that generates about$10,000 revenue/year with only part-time labor.

This year, Julie, Steve, Nick and Logan willinoculate 850 logs over a period of four springweekends with some help from volunteers.

Logs are 3-4 feet long and 4"-10" in diameter.Nick chose multiple strains (or varieties) of shi-itake mushrooms in order to have logs fruitingat different times of the year and to see whichstrain will produce best in their environment.They will make wood chip beds with the left-over branches from initial logging and inoculatethese with the delectable Winecap Stropharia,another popular gourmet mushroom.

MUSHROOMS AS A BYPRODUCT OFGOOD FOREST MANAGEMENTMushrooms offer a great opportunity for farm-ers to diversify their enterprises: the mostlabor-intensive season generally occurs in theearly spring months before the intensive grow-ing season chores begin.

Although some tree species offer more produc-tive substrates for mushrooms than others-forexample, shiitakes grow best on oaks--nearlyany hardwood you are cutting out as part of aforest management plan can be used. Studiesvary in their economic assessment of mush-room production, but it is generally considereda much higher value crop than making cord-wood from the same volume of logs.

Ken Mudge, a Cornell Professor in the Dept. ofHorticulture, is studying mushroom productionon various hardwood species. The results ofhis research will help growers understand pro-duction capacity for each type of wood, so thatthey can take advantage of whatever speciesthey have in abundance in their woods.

If you'd like to see a mushroom operation inperson and learn more about the techniques,look for Nick at this summer's Great BlueHeron Music Festival (greatblueheron.com).He'll be offering inoculation demonstrationsand tours of the laying yard.

Erica Frenay works with Cornell's Small FarmsProgram as coordinator of the NY BeginningFarmer Project. She can be reached at 607-255-9911 or ejf5@cornell.edu.

FOREST AND WOODLOT

Grow Mushrooms!Forest thinnings can yield more than just timber.

Resource SpotlightForest Stewardship

You'll find a clearinghouse of forest man-agement resources atwww.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/forestconnect

Organizations offering free or low-costconsultations and assistance developing forest management plans:* NY: Master Forest Owners, 607-255-2115, dlt5@cornell.edu,www.CornellMFO.info.* VT Division of Forestry, see website forcounty-specific contacts:www.vtfpr.org/resource/for_forres_stew-ard.cfm * PA Forest Stewards, 800-235-WISE,//paforeststewards.cas.psu.edu * ME WoodsWISE Program, (207) 287-2791 or online atwww.maine.gov/doc/mfs/fpm/wwi/wwi.htm * CT Forest Stewardship Program, 888-30WOODS, or online atwww.canr.uconn.edu/ces/forest/stew-ard.htm

Resource SpotlightMushroom Production andMarketing

Cornell University mushroom productionand marketing presentations, papers,and marketing information: www.hort.cor-nell.edu/mng/mushroomresources

Resources from the National SustainableAg Information Service://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/mushroom.html

Marketing Special Forest Products inNYS by Jim Ochterski. Includes a chap-ter on mushrooms. Available to downloadfor free from //scnyat.cce.cornell.edu/sfp-marketing.

Steve and Logan Rockcastle use a special tool to insert shiitake sawdust spawn into drilledholes in logs. Photo by Julie Rockcastle

Logs that have been inoculated and waxed are stacked in the dappled shade of the laying yard,while the crew keeps on working. Photo by Julie Rockcastle

NEW! from Dr. NaylorHoof 'n Heel

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Always read and follow all label directions.

Hoof 'n Heel is available from your favorite animalhealth supplier or H.W. Naylor Company, Inc.,Morris, NY 13808-0190 (607) 263-5145.

16by Bill Henning

Most good equipment operators soon identifyan engine speed where the engine is veryresilient. At that speed the engine runs easy.It can handle extra load without significantlaboring and when engine speed does drop itrebounds nicely. Truck drivers often refer tothis as an engine's 'sweet spot'.

Farms are far more complex than engines, butevery farm also has a sweet spot. It is thatpoint where all of the pieces of the puzzle fitnicely into place, where things tend to runsmoothly, and when difficulties are encoun-tered, it's not terribly difficult to make the nec-essary adjustments. The sweet spot is alsovery close to the point of optimum return.Whether farmers know it or not, they are forev-er searching for their own elusive sweet spot.

I received a phone call this last week from awell-respected farmer who was definitelybeyond the scope of a small farm but on thesmall side of big farms. At one time this per-son was pushing a 30,000 pound herd aver-age. He was implementing every recommend-ed technology prescribed to increase produc-

tion and profitability. He was extremely unhap-py and going broke.

Today he grazes, his herd average is a littleabove half what it once was, and he cash flowsmost of his major capital expenses. Even athis current level of profitability he asked thequestion, "Where is that point where netreturns are maximized?" Obviously, I didn'thave the answer.

At this year's Family Farming Conference inGeneva, NY, it appeared there were farmerswho had come very close to finding their sweetspot. Of the five dairy farmer presenters allmilked about 35 to 50 cows. All had herd aver-ages in the 12,000 to 13,000 pound range. Allgrazed. Three were organic. Two, the oldestand the newest, were not. The oldest never

milked more than 35 cows; has grazed formore than twenty years and still sees no rea-son to milk more than 35 cows. The youngestis having no problems starting a new opera-tion, supporting a family, and making all hispayments.

One of the organic farmers, feeding no supple-mental grain, was able to spend $14,000 oncapital improvements, $10,000 on his daugh-ter's wedding and $45,000 on principal pay-ments from farm income during the last year.This individual will also have about twentybred, certified organic heifers for sale this year.Another organic farmer just made his last farmpayment after just ten years of farming. Everyone of these farmers reported that they thor-oughly enjoyed farming and had time for rest,relaxation, and fun.

Your sweet spot is not in the same place asyour neighbors - the sweet spot on every farmis unique to that farm. With changes in prices,weather, workers, management... the locationof that sweet spot tends to move. The searchis an ongoing challenge that never allows farm-ing to become boring. But the question begsasking; do we make it harder than need be?

How often do we do something on our farmsbecause the neighbor did it, or because thesalesman said it should be done? How oftenhave we adopted new technologies becausethey were the hottest new things out ofresearch? Would Cooperatives Working

Together (CWT) have been necessary ifBovine Somatotropin (BST) had never beenput on the market?

The point is: Your search for your own sweetspot, which is peculiar to your own farm, willbe greatly streamlined if you concentrate onthose technologies that are best suited to yourown particular circumstances. If you want toimitate the neighbor, listen to the salesman, oreven jump on the latest out of the universities;first consider the contribution, and the cost, inyour particular environment. This may soundobvious, but it's amazing how often it's ignored.How many modern farming practices areimplemented just because 'that's the way it'sgot to be done'?

With so much of the dairy industry beyond thepoint of diminishing returns, it is no wonder somany struggle and so many fail. Why wouldanyone go looking for profit where so many arelosing money? How many small farms havegone out of business trying to imitate bigfarms? Have you ever considered that thesweet spot on your farm might not be whereyou're looking?

Bill Henning and his wife Kathleen operate agrass-based beef and sheep farm in the FingerLakes region of New York. He is also theSmall Farms Specialist with PRO-DAIRY/CCE-NWNY Dairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Team.

COWS AND CROPS

Have You Found Your Farm'sSweet Spot?

Every farm has a sweet spot. It isthat point where all ofr the piecesof the puzzle fit nicely into place,

where things tend to run smoothly.

“

”

by Bill Henning

Since the invention of the threshing machinegrain has grown in importance for the finalstages of beef feeding - often called the finishingprogram. If ever there was a time for abandon-ing this tradition, we might well be there. Eatinghealthy, eating local, knowing about the farm,high fuel costs, high labor costs, environmentalconcerns, and disenchantment with industrialagriculture have all contributed to the increasedinterest in grass finished beef.

But even with all these factors contributing to itspopularity, if the consumer doesn't have a con-sistently enjoyable eating experience, grass fin-ished beef will go the way of the threshingmachine.

With that eating experience in mind Jim Gerrishof American Grazing Lands Services, LLC pre-sented his suggestions for finishing beef ongrass at the 2007 National Grass Fed BeefConference. What follows is a summary of hispresentation.

TWO POUNDS PER DAY OF GAINThe target, by today's grading standards, is tofinish cattle to a grade of USDA High Select orbetter. To obtain this degree of finish 2 lbs/day ofgain is necessary as the animal approachesmaturity. This gain is needed for at least the last60 to 90 days prior to harvest.

In order to achieve that 2 lbs. /day of gain thecattle need at least 65% TDN (total digestiblenutrients) and 12 % protein. This is more thanthe National Research Council's nutritionalrequirements but allows a cushion for the realworld environment. Producing that level of pro-tein on pasture is seldom a challenge.Producing that level of energy on pasture ismore of a challenge.

Keeping in mind, it's what the animals actuallyeat from the pasture that counts, our manage-ment must focus on managing a high energysword. Cool season annuals offer the highestenergy, followed by cool season perennials.While warm season annuals can be higher inenergy than cool season perennials during cer-tain times in the growing season, their energylevel declines significantly as they approachmaturity.

Legumes often provide more energy and proteinthan grasses. However, a sword containing toohigh a proportion of legumes can provide toomuch non-protein nitrogen and hinder animalperformance. Pastures with more than 50%legumes are not ideal for finishing. The 'grassyflavor' that is sometimes reported in grass fin-ished beef is actually attributable to legumes, notgrass.

However, nitrogen from legumes does more forthe long term sustainability of pastures thannitrogen from synthetic fertilizers. Therefore, thetarget for percent legumes in the sward shouldrange between 30 and 50%.

Perennial rye grass is often considered to havethe highest energy of all the cool season peren-nials. The drawback with perennial rye grass isits inability to cope well with summer heat anddrought. During these times lower energy grass-es with legumes must meet the needs.

KEEPING FORAGE ENERGY LEVELS HIGHAs energy levels in grasses tend to decrease, fora number of reasons, pasture management mustmake the system work. Dry matter intakebecomes much more important. This is depend-ent upon the time spent grazing, how many bitesthe cows take, and what is in those bites. Higherquality forage from dense swords reduces rumi-nation time, increases forage intake, and increas-es the energy efficiency of eating.

Bite size, or the amount of forage consumed inevery bite, plays a key role in forage intake.Work at the University of Missouri found that23% of the variation in dry matter intake wasexplained by pre-grazing pasture mass. 82% ofthe variation in intake was explained by postgrazing residual. In other words, knowing whento take cattle out of a paddock was actually waymore important than knowing when to turn themin.

A paddock residency period of longer than oneday increases the likelihood of mismanagementwith reduced pasture and cattle performance.Longer periods of grazing allow cattle to creamoff the pasture first and then are left with inferior

feed for finishing. This produces a roller coasternutritional effect and reduces animal perform-ance.

A forage sward consists of layers of plant materi-al with differing nutrient density. Higher in thecanopy we find higher energy material - finishingforage. Lower in the canopy we find plant mate-rial that will support a brood cow but will depressgain in a fattening steer. Thus we must keep fin-ishing cattle eating only in that higher canopy.

In summary, for better quality grass-finishedbeef: 1) Grow the highest energy forages thatwork on your farm; 2) Management of the for-ages you can grow is more important than tryingfor the highest energy forage; 3) Maintain highforage intake; and 4) Monitor post feeding resid-ual closely to keep cattle grazing high in thecanopy.

Bill Henning and his wife Kathleen operate agrass-based beef and sheep farm in the FingerLakes region of New York. He is also the SmallFarms Specialist with PRO-DAIRY/CCE-NWNYDairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Team.

GRAZING

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To produce high quality grass-finished beef,the grazing sward has to be managed verycarefully. Photo by Bill Henning

Page 16 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY July 9, 2007

17

by Bernadette Logozar

Local food is getting to be a hot topic ofdiscussion in homes and offices around theregion. Proponents say that local food con-sumption can improve our health well-being, strengthen local economies, andmay be ecologically more sustainable.Interest in eating more locally seems to berising along with the recent scares aboutfood contamination and illnesses that wehave observed over the past year.

LOCAL: THE NEXT BIG THINGThis increased interest in local works verywell for small farmers growing and raising avariety of products. This is definitely YOURtime to shine. Consumers want to knowwhere their food is coming from, how it isbeing raised, grown and processed. Theywant to meet the people who are responsi-ble for working the land and raising thefood they are putting on their table for theirfamilies.

This growing demand for local is not onlyon the part of individual consumers. Thesesame folks are also driving a growingdemand on the part of schools, institutions,restaurants, stores and other businesses.

And this growing demand is something thatis rippling around the world. The "100-mileDiet," which was started in 2005 by a cou-ple in Vancouver, B.C. Canada, is nowencouraging local eating for global change.The Weston A. Price Foundation is workingactively to encouraging people to return tonutrient-dense, more local diets.

On the political front the Farm-to-Fork initia-tive, which is strongly supported by SenatorClinton, is dedicated to strengthening the

linkages between New York State farmersand their markets. In each of these casespeople are asked to look closer to home forthe food they are purchasing to feed them-selves and their families.

Critics of the local food movement say thatlocal food tends to be more expensive tothe consumer, and that it can never providethe variety currently available. However,proponents argue that buying local does

not mean giving up variety. It simply meanspeople should favor local foods when theseare available in season, and use the foodsfrom distant regions on a limited basis toaugment local products.

WHAT IS LOCAL?But what exactly is "local?" There is noeasy answer, as the definition of local orregional is both flexible and heavily debat-ed. For some, local means a very discreetand small area, for example a city and itssurroundings. Others stretch "local" to theboundaries of their province, state ornation.

Wikipedia tells us "the concept of 'local' isalso used in terms of ecology, where foodproduction is considered from the basicecological unit it comes from as defined byclimate, soil, watershed, species and localagrisystems. This is referred to the 'ecore-gion'."

FOOD MILESOne angle is to focus on reducing "foodmiles" -- the distance that food travels toget from the farm to your table. The foodmile may be useful as an indicator of thepotential environmental impacts of foodchoices.

Recent findings suggest that it is not onlythe distance that food travels which isimportant, but also how it has traveled.Critics of the food mile concept note thattransportation is only one part of the totalenvironmental impact of food production

and consumption. To be able to provide acompletely accurate snapshot of the envi-ronmental impact one would have to takeinto account how the food is produced andwhat energy is used in the production.

Researchers in New Zealand dispute theclaim that food miles are a good indicatorof environmental impacts. They comparedthe total energy used in food productionand transport in Europe and New Zealand.

They found New Zealand agriculture to bemore energy efficient than UK agriculture,even taking into account the energy it takesto ship the food from New Zealand toEurope. This, they say, is because NewZealand farmers use less fertilizers, cangraze year-round and are not dependent onimported feed commodities, Additionally,they consider the significant level of subsi-dies used to support UK agriculture anotherindicator of inefficient resource use of farm-ing in Europe.

CARBON FOOTPRINTThe assessment of overall energy use withrespect to food miles and local food pro-duction leads to the concept of "carbonfootprint". The carbon footprint is a meas-ure of the amount of carbon dioxide emittedthrough the combustion of fossil fuels, in

the case of an organization, business orenterprise, as part of their daily operations;in the case of individuals or households, aspart of their daily lives; and in the case of aproduct or commodity in reaching the mar-ket.

The carbon footprint can be directly linkedto the amount of natural resources beingconsumed, and used as a measure of envi-ronmental impact. When we are exploringthe opportunities and the sustainability ofagriculture through local food connections,it only makes sense to take into considera-tion the broader potential impact local foodconnections can make.

By understanding local food miles and thesize of the carbon footprint of regional agri-food systems we can work to make bettermanagement decisions on the farm. So thedebate on food miles brings us back to thefarm, and the best management practicesthat are effectively implemented and usedon the farm.

CHANGING OUR EATING HABITSAn important part of the local foods move-ment is educating the public about the sea-

sonality of local foods, and how to createan enjoyable and varied diet using as muchlocal food as possible. If you are sitting inthe Northern Adirondacks you cannotexpect to be able to purchase fresh black-berries or raspberries from your localfarmer in December-May. But you mightwell be able to purchase frozen berries.

The biggest challenge for people new tobuying local, is realizing that everything isNOT available year round. And that shouldbe OK. Because that means you get tohave the adventure of eating differentthings during different times of the year.

As a consumer of local food you can feelconfident that the money you are spendingis going directly back into your community.And by choosing to buy local you can alsoaffect the size of the carbon footprint youand your family are leaving on this planet.

Bernadette Logozar is a Rural & AgEconomic Development Specialist withCornell Cooperative Extension in FranklinCounty. She can be reached at: 518-483-7403 ext. 312 or bel7@cornell.edu.

MARKETING

Making Local FoodConnectionsSupporting local agriculture is hot topic for consumers,food businesses, policy makers.

"Making Local Food Connections" was the title of a March 28th event featuring a huge varietyof local products. The event was sponsored by Adirondack Harvest, Paul Smiths College andSodexho. All Photos by Michele Ledoux

July 9, 2007 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY Page 17

18Page 18 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY July 9, 2007

by Margaret Tuttle McGrath

Rotating land out of susceptible crops can bean effective and relatively inexpensive meansfor managing some diseases. Generally, itentails growing non-host plants until thepathogen in the soil dies or its population isreduced to a level that will result in negligiblecrop damage.

However, the protocol varies among dis-eases, in particular the length of time need-ed. And it isn't appropriate for all diseases.Achieving success with this practice requiresunderstanding the life cycle of the disease-causing organism (pathogen).

To manage a disease successfully with rota-tion, you need to answer several importantquestions.

HOW LONG CAN THE PATHOGEN SUR-VIVE IN SOIL?For rotation to be effective, the targetpathogen must be capable of surviving in thesoil or on crop debris for no more than a fewyears. Those fungal and bacterial pathogensthat can survive only in crop debris in soil arethe most suitable pathogens to target formanagement with crop rotation because theycannot survive once the debris has decom-posed.

Pathogens in this group vary in the length oftime they can survive, and thus the length ofrotation needed. Survival time partly reflectsthe type of plant host tissue infected.

For example, managing the bacterial cankerdisease affecting tomatoes requires a longerrotation than is needed to manage bacterialspeck and bacterial spot. This is because thecanker-causing bacteria actually get insidetomato stems, whereas speck and spot arerestricted to the more rapidly decomposingleaves and fruit.

Some pathogens, including the fungiPythium, Rhizoctonia, and Fusarium and thebacteria Erwinia, Rhizomonas, andStreptomyces, cannot be managed easily

with rotation because they are true soilinhabitants.

WHICH ADDITIONAL PLANT SPECIESCAN THE PATHOGEN INFECT OR SUR-VIVE ON?The target pathogen should have a narrowrange of host plants, including weeds andcover crops, for rotation to be successful.This is often the case for pathogens thatexist as a 'formae speciales' (abbreviated asf. sp.).

For example, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. mel-onis causes Fusarium wilt only in cantaloupeand muskmelon. There are other formaespeciales of this pathogen causing Fusariumwilt in other specific crops, including cucum-ber, watermelon, tomato, and alfalfa. In con-trast, the fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum,which causes white mold, can infect morethan 360 plant species.

Many pathogens infect plants in the samefamily or genus, so it is important to knowwhich crop species are related and evenwhich weed species are related to thosecrops. Your rotation plan must take into con-sideration these relationships and weedsmust be managed carefully for rotation to besuccessful in controlling diseases.

However, it is important to recognize thatthere are pathogens able to attack unrelatedplants, such as the pathogen that causesPhytophthora blight in cucurbits, peppers,eggplant, lima bean and snap bean.

WHAT OTHER WAYS CAN THE PATHOGENSURVIVE BETWEEN SUSCEPTIBLECROPS?In addition to host plants, some pathogenscan survive in and/or on seed.Other pathogens can survive on roots of non-host plants (symptomless carriers). Forexample, symptomless carriers forColletotrichum coccodes, which causesanthracnose in tomato and black dot in pota-to, include chrysanthemum, white mustard,cress, cabbage, and lettuce. These weedsneed to be managed and the crops treatedlike related species during the rotation.

HOW CAN THE PATHOGEN BE SPREADOR RE-INTRODUCED INTO A FIELD?Rotation can only be effective when othersources of the pathogen can be adequatelymanaged and its re-introduction into a fieldprevented. Pathogens can be spread ininfested seed or contaminated soil, by insectvectors, and by wind or water dispersedspores.

Some spores can be dispersed long dis-tances by wind, as is the case with powderyand downy mildews. Pathogens producingrelatively large spores incapable of beingmoved far by wind, like Alternaria, are moresuitable for managing by rotation.

Most conventional seed is tested forpathogens that can be carried inside theseed and may be treated for those that can

exist on the exterior. Most organic seed doesnot have seed treatments applied to the out-side of the seed. It is also important tochoose seed from healthy plants and fruit ifyou are saving your own seed.Hot-water-seed treatment is a good way tocontrol pathogens that can be in seed.Procedures are described in http://veg-etablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/NewsArticles/PepperLeafSpot.htm.Moving disease organisms from field to fieldon equipment can undo all the time and plan-ning you put into creating your rotationscheme. Rotation is more likely to be effec-tive if the entire field is rotated out of suscep-tible crops rather than just the section previ-ously planted to the crop.

For smaller farms, where this is not feasible,power washing equipment between fields orsections with different disease problems, whiletime consuming, can help restrict pathogenmovement.

Margaret Tuttle McGrath is with theDepartment of Plant Pathology at CornellUniversity. She is stationed at the Long IslandHorticultural Research and Extension Centerat Riverhead, NY. She can be reached at(631)727-3595 or mtm3@cornell.edu.

HORTICULTURE

Managing Plant Diseases withCrop Rotation

Resource SpotlightRotation planning,pathogens and diseases

Managing plant diseases using rota-tion requires planning and informa-tion on both crops and diseases.Here are some sources of informa-tion to help find what you need toplan a successful rotation scheme.

Plant Disease Management forOrganic Cropshttp://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/InOrder/Shop/ItemDetails.asp?ItemNo=7252(free download)

The New Organic Grower, 1995, byEliot Coleman.Published by Chelsea GreenPublishing Company, Vermont.

Soil Resiliency and Health: CropRotation and Cover Cropping on theOrganic Farm, 2005, by Seth Kroek.Published by NOFA (NortheastOrganic Farming Association),www.nofa.org

Sustainable Vegetable Productionfrom Start-Up to Market, 1999, byVernon Grubinger. Published byNRAES (NRAES-104).www.nraes.org

NRAES will be publishing a RotationPlanning Manual in 2008. This manu-al will contain an extensive table withrotation information for 203 diseasesaffecting 20 vegetable crops andcrop groups and 55 diseases affect-ing 4 field crops, plus another tableon crop diseases that also affectweeds. The manual will also havechapters on managing weeds andinsects with rotation, soil aspects,rotation planning procedures, andexample rotations. Stay tuned!

Cornell's Vegetable MD On-line:http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cor-nell.edu

Penn State Vegetable Disease On-line www.ppath.cas.psu.edu/EXTEN-SION/VEGDIS/Identification.html

American Phytopathological SocietyCompendia on Diseases Pathogen and disease information ona wide variety of vegetable, fruit andornamental crops www.shopaps-press.org/disease-diagnostic-series.html

And remember that your CountyCooperative Extension office canhelp you get an accurate diagnosisof your vegetable diseases!

Vegetable crop Disease Years out ofsusceptible crops

Beans Anthracnose 3Beet Cercospora leaf spot 3Corn, sweet Northern corn leaf blight 1, 2 with no-tillCrucifers (cabbage, broccoli,cauliflower, Brussels sprouts) Alternaria leaf spot 3Crucifers Black rot 3Crucifers Clubroot 7Crucifers Fusarium yellows 7Cucurbits (cucumber, melon,pumpkin, squash, watermelon) Angular leaf spot 2Cucurbits Bacterial leaf spot 3Cucurbits Black rot (aka gummy stem blight) 2Cucurbits Fusarium wilt 5 to 7Eggplant Verticillium wilt 4 to 5Lettuce Bottom rot 3Lettuce Downy mildew 2 to 3Lettuce Drop 3Onion Botrytis leaf blight 3 to 4Onion Botrytis net rot 2 to 3Potato Black dot root rot 2Potato Common scab 3 to 4Potato Early blight 2Spinach Downy mildew (aka Blue mold) 2Spinach White rust 3Tomato Anthracnose 3Tomato Bacterial canker 3Tomato Bacterial speck 2Tomato Bacterial spot 2Tomato Buckeye fruit rot at least 3Tomato Fusarium wilt 5 to 7Beans, Carrot, Crucifers,Cucurbits, Pea, Potato, Tomato White mold 5Numerous Root-knot nematodes long; grow small grains

Save seed only from fruit with no visiblesymptoms of disease, unlike this tomatoinfected with bacterial canker.

Photo by Meg McGrath

Resistant structures, like this sclerotiumformed in a tomato stem infected by white mold, can survive in the soil for a fewyears after the stem has decomposed.

Photo by Meg McGrath

Rotation periods for some soil-borne diseases of vegetable crops

Adapted with permission from Crop Rotation on Organic Farms: A Planning Manual, NRAES-177,(forthcoming). Natural Resource, Agriculture, and Engineering Service, www.nraes.org.

by Kara Lynn Dunn

David Reino may become a full-time farmer soon-er than he expected. Two new brands of naturally-produced meats have opened marketing opportu-nities that are accelerating the growth of hisgrass-fed beef enterprise in Farmersville, NY,approximately 45 miles south of Buffalo.

Reino has raised beef cattle on pasture since1993. He owns 500 acres and rents 250 acres.He works to steadily improve his herd throughgenetics, grazing management, high quality pas-ture, and winter forage.

In 2005, he switched to grass finishing. That yearhe sold 50 backgrounded calves at auction andseven steers by private freezer trade. This yearhe anticipates selling more than five times thenumber of steers, a leap he credits to transition-ing away from direct marketing in favor of sellingthrough a specialty retailer.

A CLUSTER OF COOPERATING ENTERPRISESReino learned about some new marketing optionsin June 2006, from Joan Petzen, a farm businessmanagement specialist withCornell Cooperative Extension inAllegany and CattaraugusCounties. She told him about agroup of meat producers in NewYork who had leveraged grantfunding from the New York FarmViability Institute to create fourcooperatively-linked enterprises:* Pure Farm Goodness LivestockCooperative, whose farmer-mem-bers produce naturally-raisedbeef, goat and lamb under boththe "Twin Rivers NortheastArtisan Meats" and "HalalPremium Meats" labels* The Friendly Butcher, a privatelyowned, USDA-inspected process-ing facility in Randolph, New York;* Halal Premium Foods, a man-agement and holding company;and* Halal Premium Meats, a single-owner subsidiary for sourcing andmarketing cleric-certified "HalalTayyib," or lawful and wholesome,meats to Muslim markets.

Through their New York FarmViability Institute grant, the pro-ducers had gotten help fromBrian Henehan and Judith Barryof Cornell University's AppliedEconomics and ManagementDepartment to figure out theplans and business structures forthe four linked enterprises. TheInstitute is a farmer-led nonprofitorganization that provides direc-tion and grant funding to farm-

based efforts to increase farm profits, reduce bar-riers to success and encourage innovation. TheInstitute collaborates with the state department ofAgriculture and Markets, agricultural colleges,Cooperative Extension, agribusiness, nonprofitgroups and others.

TWO BRANDS FOR TWO MARKETSReino was among the first producers to sign a for-ward contract for his Angus beef to be processedand sold under the Twin Rivers brand. TwinRivers-branded meats are distributed to healthfood stores, food co-ops, specialty retailers and"green" chefs. Twin Rivers products are also certi-fied Halal Tayyib through Halal Premium Meatsand can be marketed under the Halal PremiumMeats label to targeted Islamic markets.Halal Premium Meats CEO and Marketing DirectorJohn Umlauf says, "our production protocols attract'green mainstream' and 'true natural' customers,including retailers and fine dining restaurants look-ing for naturally-raised, regionally-produced meatsfrom small farms."

"The only change I made to fit the required proto-cols was to work with my feed dealer to make suremy supplement concentrate does not contain antibi-

otics or animal by-products. Under the new contract,I will truck my cattle one hour to The FriendlyButcher in Randolph, New York," Reino says.

TARGETED MARKETING = PREMIUM PRICESReino will collect a premium price when his cattlereach the processor. He recommends the retail loca-tion at the Friendly Butcher to his former freezertrade customers so they can still find the naturally-raised beef they desire. He says structuring hisenterprise to the markets has been a key to success.This new contract represents the differencebetween selling seven steers last year and 50 in2007. Capturing direct market price without doingthe marketing myself will absolutely have a posi-tive impact on my time and my bottom line," hesays.

Reino's goal of raising 100 steers for slaughtereach year is now within reach on a much shortertimetable.

"I would never have been able to maximize myreturn on investment for the land I have throughtraditional marketing channels. The Pure FarmGoodness Livestock Co-operative and the newbranding have dramatically changed the nature ofthe opportunity for the viability of my farm busi-ness," he says.

"My gross receipts will nearly triple this year, andwhen I reach 100 head in annual sales, I will nolonger have to work full-time off the farm." Reinosays he is happy to be among those who meetthe Pure Farm Goodness standards for con-sumers and for his farm business.

A second grant from the New York Farm ViabilityInstitute is helping the Pure Farm GoodnessLivestock Cooperative develop a program torecruit more producers to supply the anticipateddemand for naturally-raised meats. Petzen saysmore than 150 producers of sheep, goat and beefmeat have expressed interest in the cooperative.

For more information on the Pure FarmGoodness Livestock Cooperative contact Mr.Kelly Rhinehart, President, at kelhart@wind-stream.net or call (716) 474-2581.

Kara Lynn Dunn is a freelance writer and consult-ant for the New York Farm Viability Institute. Shewrites from her farm in Mannsville, NY.

by Fay Benson

One of the tests for a grazier is being able toslow down their grazing speed when transitioningfrom spring to summer sward growth.

In the spring graziers are struggling to keepahead of the grass re-growth, so they move thecows through their systems quickly. The trick is toanticipate when you need to put the brakes on orslow down the rotation, and add more pasturearea in order to allow the grass more time for re-growth.

When soil moisture is low sward management isespecially critical. If cows are put on pasturesthat are not fully re-grown, the cows will eat itlower than the recommended 3 inches. If grassesare 2 inches tall that means their roots are onlyabout 2 inches long. The shorter the stems, theshorter the roots, and this will impact the plantsability to re-grow.

After grazing, the plant will prune off roots thatare not needed for the smaller grazed plant.When there is less vegetation; besides the small-er root mass, there will be less shade to protectthe soil from drying out even faster, which willcompound the problem of the plant being able toobtain the required amount of moisture.

I remember one dry year when I allowed thecows to overgraze a pasture, and was amazed athow long the grass just sat there with no growth.I now see it was because not only did I over-graze the tops of the plants, it also caused theroots to shorten, and inhibited their ability toreach moisture and nutrients.

With the moisture we had last year you couldgraze down a pasture and it would re-growbecause there was plenty of moisture. But in adry year pasture re-growth isn't so forgiving. Youmay want to stop grazing at 4" to retain enoughroots to get at the elusive moisture.

You may also want to add additional paddocks toyour pasture system sooner than you would in a

wet year. This will keep the pressure off yourspring pastures.Economically, it's best if you can continue gettingthe benefits of grazing by adding additional pad-docks to your system, rather than taking animalsoff of pasture and feeding them supplementalfeeds. Jim Grace, Farm Management Specialistwith Steuben Co. CCE, analyzed some informa-tion from the Dairy Farm Business SummaryGrazing Report for 1999, a drought year. Hefound that graziers who added additional acresto their system, which gave their grasses longerto re-grow, had much higher Net Farm Income --$476 per cow -- than farmers that pulled theiranimals off pasture and supplement fed them -who netted only $78 per cow.

The key point is that you should not over grazepastures so that they are stressed by the inabilityto reach moisture. If there are no fields within ahalf mile or so, it would be better to sacrifice onepasture and feed supplement in it till the otherpastures are rested. I have heard that somefarmers are concerned that their cows are both-ered by the change of daily activity, if they areused to going out every day to the pasture, it's achange to their routine if they remain at the barnand fed supplemental forage.

Fay Benson is a Small Farm Educator withCornell Cooperative Extension of CortlandCounty and the Cornell Small Farms Program.

GRAZING

Get Ready to Put the Brakes onYour Grazing

19July 9, 2007 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY Page 19

Call the Office or Your Local Rep Today!Office 888-442-8850

Western NYLee Welty

607-225-4439 • Cell 607-661-8087

Eastern NYClark Smith

518-284-2439 • Cell 202-903-5573

Cows head out to find greener pastures atBensvue Farms in Lansing, NY.

Photo by Fay Benson

After grazing, plants will prune their own rootsystems. Overgrazing results in a small rootsystem that is very vulnerable to drying out.

NON-DAIRY LIVESTOCK

New Markets for MeatsThis beef producer's business is growing faster than expectedto meet growing demand for natural and Halal-certified Meats

One of David Reino's Angus cattle to be mar-keted through the new Pure Farm GoodnessLivestock Cooperative.

20Page 20 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY July 9, 2007

Small Farm Quarterly

Youth Pages

BByy EEvvyy CCrruummbb,, MMaaddiissoonn CCoouunnttyy 44--HH aanndd HHaammiillttoonn cchhaapp--tteerr ooff FFFFAA

It's springtime and my goat Freedom has just had her kidLiberty. I am wondering if we want to show Liberty. Thereare five categories that a judge looks at; they include gen-eral appearance, breed characteristics, dairy character,body capacity, and mammary system. I think that she willdo well, so I have decided to show her. Now I need to trainher so that she likes and trusts me and also behaves forpeople.

There are many steps to getting her to a show goat level.In order to get her to like people, instead of having hernurse off her mother Freedom, I bottle feed her. I use aclean soda bottle and milk Freedom into it, then put arubber nipple on it then feed it to her. She knows thatthey can get milk out of it after she's had it for a while,but until then I open up her mouth by sticking my thumband my index finger in the back of her mouth and put therubber nipple in her mouth.

If I continue feeding her then she'll think that I'm her mom.After she has learned to like me I need to teach her to letme lead her. That way I can take her around the showring without her dragging me or me dragging her or herbucking all around the show ring. If she does that thejudge has a harder time evaluating her conformation. Ihave to teach her to let me handle her. I do that byscratching her back while I handle her legs or I do thatwhile I am feeding her.

After a while, she is very friendly and it's almost showtime. I need to get her perfectly groomed. If I take timeto prepare her in advance, the final grooming for the showwill be easy. The first step to grooming her is clipping hercoat. Clipping makes it easier for the judge to feel herribs and it helps the judge evaluate her conformation. Iuse electric clippers to cut her coat. I cut it so it'sabout 1/4 of an inch long, by using the same clippers you

use on dogs' or cows' hair. I need make sure that when Iclip her I hold the blades parallel to her body so I don't cuther.

The day before or the morning of the show, I wash herwhole body to improve her overall appearance. A reallyclean goat (especially a really white Alpine goat) makesthe showman and the farm look even better. I also need totrim her hooves monthly so she doesn't get lame on herhooves due to hoof rot, and it helps her walk correctly.

There, it's the day of the show and I need to make surethat all my goats are ready to go. Since some of mygoats make milk; I do not milk them the morning of theshow, so they have a full udder by the time of the show.

There Liberty is, all ready for the show and it's almosttime to show her. She is in one of the first classesbecause she's an alpine junior kid and alpines are the firstbreeds, and kids and dry yearlings go first.

In the show ring I need to keep Liberty between me and thejudge at all times, I am showing her off, not showingmyself. If I'm petting her in the show ring the judge can'tsee her as well, and they might pin her down because of it.If I set her up correctly and hold her head up high herfront legs should be right below her withers, her back legsshould be right below her pin bones and the top of herback legs should form almost a C shape. If I do that and"tickle" her right before her hipbones she will look like aworld champion goat.

All the work from birth to show has paid off. Liberty hasdone very well, she got first place. She is following in thesteps of her mother, who received first place or juniorchampion in every ring that she has stepped in.

For more information on the 4-H Goat Program, Go to:www.ansci.cornell.edu/4H/dairygoats/index.html

Buck-N-Bill Cap's Broghan, wearing her stylish T-shirt to stayclean at the 2006 NYS Fair.

The Youth Pages are written by and foryoung people. Many thanks to 4-H teensparticipating in state and national 4-Hhorse activities for supplying most of thematerial in this issue’s Youth Page.

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 • cjc17@cornell.edu

Alpine Goats: From Birth to Show

Buck-N-Bill Cap's Broghan ready for the show.

by Altfrid Krusenbaum

It is difficult for young people to find an entry intodairy farming. Potential entrants from farming back-grounds may be bound by tradition, lack capital orsimply do not a have a positive outlook for thefuture. Candidates from non-farm backgrounds -which are increasing in numbers dramatically - havedifficulty finding ways to acquire the necessary skillsand equity.

GRAZING AND ITS OPPORTUNITIES FORTRAINING NEW FARMERSGrazing addresses many of the concerns whichyoung people bring to farming. It can improve prof-itability, sometimes dramatically, and provide a com-fortable living and fast equity growth. At the sametime, many young people enjoy an improved qualityof work by walking pastures and having cows ongrass. Seasonal calving allows bundling manage-ment tasks and possibly taking time off from milking.Managed grazing requires a lot less capital to getstarted.

Wisconsin evidence (anecdotal) indicates that 60%of new dairy farm entrants employ managed graz-ing. On the other hand, more mature grazing farmscan make huge equity gains, primarily through lowerculling rates. This equity gain can be used forsharemilking (see below).

My wife Sue and I operate a 120 cow certifiedorganic dairy in Southeast Wisconsin. Of the 320acres, 220 are in managed pasture. 30 steers ayear are marketed annually directly to the end con-sumer. For twenty years we have trained interns andapprentices on their farm and are now engaging in"sharemilking," a pathway to farm ownership com-monly seen in New Zealand, but almost unknown inthe US.

MENTORING INTERNSInterning is a great way to learn basic and advancedlabor and management skills. The intern should behighly motivated and the mentor well qualified inteaching these skills. At the same time the mentorshould respect that although the intern provideslabor in exchange for being taught, that relationshipshould not be abused.

In our situation this would be a live-in intern. Livingwith the mentor family provides many advantagesfor the intern, since a more intimate look into thedecision making processes of the farm family ispossible. Also many discussions about farming relat-ed issues usually take place around the dinnertable.

For this arrangement to work, the mentor has to feelresponsible for all aspects of the intern's life andconsequently gives up some of the family's privacy.For example, often interns might come from faraway or a different country and could be sociallyisolated if not taken in by the mentor family. We rec-ommend a two-week trial period, before a commit-ment is made.

The intern works side by side with the mentor, par-ticularly in the first weeks and months of the intern-ship. This is a crucial stage since everything is newfor the intern, especially if the intern is totally new tofarming. An "information overload" should be avoid-ed and the intern should be given just small tasksand mainly watch and learn the routines of the day.

The mentor should not expect that all activities anddetails will be remembered immediately.

Slowly the curriculum can become more formalized.In a seasonal grazing system it can be focused onthe key management task of the season: calving,calf care and raising, breeding, herd health, springgrass management, financial management etc.Again it is important to distribute the main subjectsthroughout the year. This avoids an overload and atthe same time allows for more in depth coverage ofany given subject.

Field trips to other farms, pasture walks, confer-ences etc. show the intern the diversity of farmingoperations and management styles. Also a couplingof the practical experience with more formal class-room studies, for example the "Wisconsin School forBeginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers" at theUniversity of Wisconsin is a great way to enhanceand broaden the experience of the intern.Increasingly more responsibility should be shifted tothe intern to encourage independent thinking andfoster self-confidence.

The length of the internship should be a full year toexperience all seasons on one operation.

SHAREMILKINGSharemilking is a well-used pathway to farming inNew Zealand, but is almost unknown in the US. Weobserved that many of our alumni interns did notmake the jump into starting their own operationsand the ones who did were often struggling due tohigh debt loads. At the same time we felt that ouroperation had reached a maturity that would allowus to share some of our equity gains with a newgeneration.

A young couple, which had interned with us for twoyears, entered into a formal sharemilking agreementwith us in March for three years. They receive a per-centage of the milk (they get their own check) and apercentage of the female calves which they areallowed to raise on our farm. After three years thesharemilkers move on and take their cattle withthem. They share in many (but not all) of theexpenses and are responsible for all chores andmanagement associated with the livestock. At thesame time the dairy owner is still mentoring thesharemilker.

FORGING A DAIRY CAREER PATHI envision a dairy career path that could be replicat-ed throughout the industry and could provide a clearway for prospective entrants to embark on.Depending on previous knowledge they wouldintern on one orbetter two farmsfor a total of twoyears. After thatthey enter into asharemilkingarrangement,which allows forbuilding equity.In five years thiswould give themdeep knowledgeof dairy farming,a managementtrack record andequity withouttoo much risk.

They would be eligible for loansand be well poised to enter intotheir own business.

For dairy farmers looking to exit itcould be a way of slowing down,sharing their wealth of expertiseand still receiving income withouthaving to sell all their assets.

We as an industry have to take onresponsibility for training the nextgeneration. Grazing farms areespecially well positioned to pro-vide this opportunity to young peo-ple: Lower culling rates provide forfast equity growth, they are oftenvery profitable and provide a highquality of life. _

Altfrid Krusenbaum is a dairyfarmer and mentor at KrusenGrass Farms, LLC, of Elkhorn,Wisconsin. He spoke at a meetingon "Dairy Farmer Mentoring" inDryden, NY, in March, 2007.NY.

NEW FARMERS

Mentoring Young Dairy Farmersin Managed GrazingA Wisconsin grazier explains how he uses mentoring and"sharemilking" to help others get started in dairy

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Grazing dairies have an opportunity to nurture the next generation of farmers. Photo courtesy of Jim and Anne Philips, Dryden, NY

22Page 22 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY July 9, 2007

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23July 9, 2007 SMALL FARM QUARTERLY Page 23

By Barbara Silvestri

This season in our continuing series onNew York State's AgriculturalEnvironmental Management (AEM) pro-gram, we focus on the AEM ManureManagement Worksheet and the ways anassessment of your nutrient managementpractices can benefit your farm.

Not only do AEM practices reduce pollu-tion risks and minimize odor issues, somecan even help your bottom line.Reducing commercial fertilizer inputssaves money, while creating conservationbuffers might qualify your farm for finan-cial incentives. And protecting the waterthat your family drinks? Priceless!

Manure can be an excellent crop nutrientsource and soil conditioner. If manure isnot used in an ecologically sensitive way,however, its pathogens, nutrients, andorganic material can contribute to the pol-lution of surface and groundwater, possi-bly including your own farm water supply.In addition, land application of manure isthe most frequent source of odor com-plaints from neighbors and the public.

With the help of County Soil and WaterConservation Districts, New York Statefarmers have a voluntary and confidentialway to assess their manure applicationpractices. An essential component is theAEM Risk Assessment, which consists ofworksheets selected specifically for yourfarm's needs. The assessment providesa comprehensive look at your farm'simpact on natural resources and criticalinformation for long-term business plan-ning.

The assessment can help you documentyour environmental stewardship, prioritizeareas presenting risk, identify opportuni-ties to save money, and locate technicaland financial resources to address poten-tial concerns.

THE AEM MANURE MANAGEMENTWORKSHEETSome of the factors assessed by theAEM Manure Management Worksheetare listed below, along with suggestedpractices to minimize risk:* Know the nutrient needs of your crops -Soil test at least every three years todetermine appropriate manure applicationrates to meet crop needs based on realis-tic yield goals.* Monitor the nutrient content of yourmanure - Manure samples should be test-ed at least every other year. Ideally, ahistory of manure testing should bedeveloped that characterizes the variabili-ty of the manure throughout the year.

* Calibrate manure application equipment- All manure (and fertilizer) applicationequipment should be calibrated regularlyto determine the amount applied peracre.

* Keep records of manure applications tofields - Records should be kept indicatingthe number of loads of manure applied,the dates of application, weather condi-tions the day of application, crop yields,crop rotations, and any fertilizer applica-tion for each field.

* Determine the rate of manure applica-tion - Manure should be applied based on

crop needs and realistic yield goals.Commercial fertilizer applications arereduced or eliminated in order to accountfor nutrients in manure.

* Consider field runoff potential in sched-uling manure applications - The greatestpotential for loss of manure from a fieldoccurs when soils are fully saturated andareas of concentrated flow develop.Utilize the Phosphorous Index to prioritizefields based on runoff potential. Avoidspreading on high risk fields that are sat-urated, frozen, or prone to flooding andapply manure to high risk fields duringthe growing season.

* Avoid wellheads and springs - Manureshould not be spread within 100 feet of awellhead or spring. Some well drainedsoils and soils shallow to bedrock mayrequire additional setbacks and conserva-tion measures such as, cover crops,immediate incorporation and split applica-tions of nutrients to reduce the risk of wellcontamination.

* Maintain vegetated buffers along water-courses in fields receiving manure - Avegetated buffer or filter strip meetingUSDA Natural Resources ConservationService (NRCS) Standards helps protectwaterbodies from nutrient runoff. TheConservation Reserve Program (CRP)and Conservation Reserve EnhancementProgram (CREP) can cost-share theestablishment of buffers and providerental payments on land utilized asbuffers and filters.

* Utilize storage - Even daily spread oper-ations should identify safe temporarymanure pile areas to store manure whileweather conditions are not conducive toresponsible spreading.

* Consider the timing of manure applica-tions - In fields where neighbors are aconcern, spread on weekdays in the earlymorning and avoid holidays and localspecial events. Be aware of the weatherforecast for extreme weather events suchas heavy rain, snow melt and prevailingwinds.

* Incorporate when feasible - Incorporatemanure at application or shortly afterapplication, when feasible, in accordancewith soil erosion control plan. This prac-tice reduces runoff and diminishes odor.Note that early fall incorporation may cre-ate nitrogen leaching problems.

Did you notice some practices on the listthat you are already using or get ideasfrom others that you might want to try? Afree, confidential AEM Risk Assessmentwill help you to learn more. A resourceprofessional from your local Soil & WaterConservation District, NRCS or CornellCooperative Extension can assist you incompleting the assessment and reviewalternatives to reduce risk.

Development of a Conservation Plan isoften the next step towards addressing

any potential concerns or opportunitiesidentified, which may also help you savemoney and gain access to funding foradditional planning or conservation prac-tice implementation that may be neces-sary to protect water quality.

Join the over 10,000 farmers that haveassessed their farming practices throughAEM! If you would like to schedule afree, confidential AEM Risk Assessmentfor your farm, call your County Soil andWater Conservation District. For contactinformation visit www.nys-soilandwater.org and click on 'Contacts.'To learn more about AEM or to view the

worksheets, including the ManureManagement Worksheet, click on 'AEM',then 'Technical Tools.'

Watch for future articles on additionalworksheets of particular interest to smallfarms and other ways AEM can supportyour efforts to farm cleaner and greener!

Barbara Silvestri is the Information andEducation Program Coordinator with theNYS Soil and Water ConservationCommittee. She can be reached at 518-457-3738 orbarb.silvestri@agmkt.state.ny.us.

Agricultural EnvironmentalManagementMaking the Most of Manure

Resource SpotlightNCAT Announces One-Stop Shopping for Farm EnergyResources

Responding to an explosion of interest in biofuels and other energy opportuni-ties for agriculture, the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) hascreated a handy "one-stop shopping" search tool for farms and ranches inter-ested in funding and building renewable energy projects, reducing energycosts, and becoming more energy self-sufficient.

The tool is at: http://attra.ncat.org/farm_energy/farm_energy_main.php. NCATcreated this tool with the practical needs of agricultural producers in mind.Partnering with about a dozen leading renewable energy trade organizationsand agencies, NCAT has gathered in one location up-to-date listings in allmajor energy-related topic areas.

Using clickable maps and a few simple drop-down menus, growers can quicklyfind technical assistance, financial assistance, and sources of equipment intheir own state for making energy saving improvements and building anaerobicdigesters, biodiesel, ethanol, wind, and solar energy projects.

Energy-related businesses, agencies, and non-profit organizations servingagriculture are encouraged to submit their own listings, using the simple self-listing form available at the site.

There is no cost to use the search tool or to list a business or resource.Funding is provided by the USDA Risk Management Agency, through a projectcalled "Building Farm Energy Self-Sufficiency."

This is the latest energy-related tool available from NCAT's ATTRA NationalSustainable Agriculture Information Service. To explore an extensive collectionof tools, publications, and links, visit www.attra.ncat.org and click on "FarmEnergy."

NCAT is a national non-profit organization with headquarters in Montana andoffices in Arkansas, California, Iowa, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania. For moreinformation about NCAT, visit www.ncat.org.

STEWARDSHIP & NATURE

Saving and Creating Energy on the FarmGrazing cows on Fuess Meadows Farm save energy by harvesting their own feed,saving fuel and other inputs costs, while nearby windmills on the Madison WindFarm create energy. The Fuess family dairy milks 40 Holsteins and has 117 acres ofpasture and hayland. Working with the Madison County SWCD, AEM has helpedthem to identify and address environmental concerns and realize how pasture con-serves the topsoil on their prime farmland for their children.

Photo by Troy Bishopp