Country Folks
Posted on April 22, 2026
On March 28 and 29, Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School FFA Chapter celebrated a longstanding tradition with Oneida County’s official maple weekend ceremony. It also celebrated the first crop of the year to be harvested – maple syrup. The VVS FFA students served approximately 2,000 pancake breakfasts...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
Posted on April 22, 2026
As a matter of economy, Francisco Leal Yepes, DVM, Ph.D., and assistant professor of ambulatory and production medicine in Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, believes more farmers need to raise their own replacements and pay more attention to their herd’s health. “Heifer supplies are at their...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
Posted on April 22, 2026
Any time between giving birth through weaning or dry-off is the ideal time for ewes or does to develop mastitis. The cost of mastitis is significant due to veterinary costs, milk replacer for lambs or kids that aren’t getting enough milk, culling of relatively young females, increased lamb or kid mo...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
Posted on April 22, 2026
What can we learn about high-yield wheat from the UK? Plenty, according to panelists at the recent Soybean & Small Grains Congress hosted by New York Corn & Soybean Growers Association. The panelists were Dwight Bartle from Brown City, MI; Allan Thompson from Caledon, ON, Canada; and Brandon Blain f...
Country Folks
by Andy Haman 
Posted on April 22, 2026
“We embrace our diversity; it makes us a stronger organization at every level.” This message anchored a Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Summit session this year, led by three different people in different facets of the industry. Presenter Kate Turcotte is an artisan cheesemaker of more than 20 y...
Country Folks
by Hannah Majewski 
Posted on April 22, 2026
Hannah Wieboldt of Orange County is doing her part to support Empire State dairy farmers as the 2026-27 NYS Dairy Ambassador. As an ambassador, Wieboldt will have the opportunity to be an “agvocate” for her local farmers and share their stories with the rest of the world. Wieboldt’s passion for dair...
Country Folks
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant 
Posted on April 22, 2026
Using robots for milking focuses on reducing labor costs; however, it can also increase precision in herd management, according to Trevor DeVries, University of Guelph. He presented “Harnessing Individual Cow Traits & Responses in Automated Milking Systems” at the recent Herd Health & Nutrition Conf...
Country Folks
Crop
Posted on April 22, 2026
The dynamics of fertilizer economics is not boring. Four years ago, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine seriously impacted the world’s natural gas (methane) playing field. Russia controls most of Europe’s natural gas resources. In 2022, Russia shut off Ukraine’s natural gas supply, trying to fre...
Country Folks
by Sonja Heyck-Merlin 
Posted on April 15, 2026
"There are horror stories from people about leases going bad. Often, when you dig deeper, it was a verbal agreement or it was a lease agreement that wasn’t written very clearly or didn’t have a lot of protections built into it,” said Jae Silverman. Silverman is the Massachusetts field agent for Land...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby 
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, ...
Country Folks
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...
Country Folks
by Sally Colby soft-eyed, long eared equine that that 
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...
Country Folks, Events
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...