Country Folks
Posted on August 5, 2026
Employees gather for yet another safety talk, anticipating boredom. Safety talks can be sleeper events, but when there’s injury or death on the farm, safety suddenly becomes the main conversation – for a short time. Incidents can be prevented by familiarizing employees and family members with farm s...
Country Folks
Posted on August 5, 2026
Produced by Lee Trade Shows, the upcoming Small Scale Forestry Expo is specifically for the landowner that has woodlots and wants to utilize them in a way that’s beneficial to both the planet and their pockets. These are woodland owners who prefer cleaner, smaller-scale processing versus clear-cutti...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby soft-eyed, long eared equine that that 
Posted on August 5, 2026
A soft-eyed, long eared equine that that brays and whuffles instead of whinnying appeals to just about everyone. Dr. Carissa Wickens, equine Extension specialist and professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, University of Florida, explained that while donkeys are equines, they are not the same...
Country Folks, Events
Posted on August 5, 2026
Join other forward-thinking graziers at the National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) 2026 “Ultimate Northeast Grazing School,” hosted by John Burns’s Evermore Farms, 8475 Morgan Creek Rd., Lindley, NY, Sept. 8 and 9 from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. For the great value of only $50 for both days, the school feat...
Country Folks
by Sonja Heyck-Merlin 
Posted on August 5, 2026
Well-planned farm tours can be mutually beneficial for schoolchildren and the farms they visit. Students gain insight into where their food comes from, and the experience builds a foundational understanding of why farms matter to their communities. Farms are also a great place to reinforce STEM (sci...
Country Folks, Crop Comments
Crop
Posted on August 5, 2026
The Saharan air layer (SAL), often called Saharan dust, consists of sand, dirt and other dust lifted into the atmosphere from North Africa’s vast desert. This dust is carried in the African (atmospheric) waves, which push westward into the Atlantic Ocean. SAL is a well-mixed dry pocket of air usuall...
Country Folks
by Joseph Armstrong 
Posted on July 29, 2026
The U.S. bird population has been declining by the millions for several decades. Thankfully, there is a growing interest in managing sugarbushes as an ecological support for our diverse bird populations. Steve Hagenbuch, the lead on the national Audubon Bird-Friendly Maple program , shared ideas of ...
Country Folks
by Deborah J. Sergeant 
Posted on July 29, 2026
Your farm’s story can help promote agriculture. Considering that most Americans are at least two generations removed from agriculture, it’s more important than ever to help connect the public to your livelihood and way of life. Dr. Michelle Schack, dairy veterinarian and online educator known as @Da...
Country Folks
Posted on July 29, 2026
Penn State Extension program specialist in ag economics, sociology and education Paula Ledney urges farmers to familiarize themselves with Medicare and how it’s regulated to make wise purchase decisions and understand how premiums might increase. One aspect that sometimes catches farmers off guard i...
Country Folks, Crop Comments
Crop Comments
Crop Comments A13 
Posted on July 29, 2026
Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” This phrase linked the French term déjà vu, meaning “already seen,” to the English phrase “all over again,” creating a humorous repetition. Much of the Northeast has recently experienced a major wildfire smoke invasion, comp...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
Posted on July 22, 2026
Recruiting and hiring are the first steps to adding the right employees to a dairy farm, but training and retraining are essential to keeping them. However, Penn State Extension veterinarian Dr. Adrian Barragan said a significant percentage of dairy farms still don’t offer a solid training program. ...
Country Folks, Crop Comments
Crop Comments
Crop Comments A8 
Posted on July 22, 2026
The Brassica genus boasts in its membership many of our most well-known vegetables: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, rutabaga, turnips, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, collards, kale, mustard and more. My first contact with this genus as a source of soil fumigants occurred about 20 years ago. At the time...
Country Folks
by Courtney Llewellyn 
Posted on July 15, 2026
More farmers than ever are interested in and practicing regenerative agriculture these days. They are focused on putting more back into their land and their animals so that more (and better) may be produced. But what about the concept of regenerative agritourism? On the surface, tourism seems like a...
Country Folks
Sally Colby here?s evidence that pair or group feeding for 
Posted on July 15, 2026
There’s evidence that pair or group feeding for calves is better, but will farmers buy into it? Dr. Marina von Keyserlingk, professor and dairy welfare researcher at the University of British Columbia, has conducted extensive research on pair and group feeding of dairy calves. “There are lot of thin...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
Posted on July 15, 2026
Part 1: How Medicare works Some business practices in farming, including legally minimizing reported income, may benefit the business for a while. However, in some cases, cleverly managed tax returns and waiting too long to enroll in government financial and health security programs can backfire. Pa...
Country Folks
Edith Tucker 
July 29, 2026
The Hardy Farm, a 400-acre longtime organic family farm in Farmington, Maine, switched to selling its milk directly to Stonyfield Organic on Aug. 1, 2...
Country Folks, Dairy
by Sally Colby 
July 22, 2026
A dairy farm with proximity to urban and suburban areas is ideally situated to create a high-traffic location for marketing farm-fresh products. Klein...
Country Folks, Crop Comments
Crop Comments
Crop Comments 9 
July 15, 2026
Just as summer 2026 was getting started, I stumbled into three situations where cattlemen reported incidence of foot rot in their livestock. Two of th...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
July 8, 2026
Farmers have a love/hate relationship with phosphorus (P). It’s a dietary requirement for livestock but significant P is excreted in manure and urine....