Crop Comments
Posted on August 27, 2025
Three growing seasons ago, during the middle of summer, I took a few soil samples on a southern Herkimer County dairy farm. One of the fields sampled that I found particularly interesting had been planted to a mix of forage soybeans and brown midrib sorghum two weeks earlier. There appeared to be mo...
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jkarkwren 
Posted on August 20, 2025
Beyond cow comfort, it’s important to reduce the effects of heat stress in a dairy herd. Heat stress causes direct financial losses – and not just from reduced milk production. “It affects reproduction substantially,” said Jon Mills, herd manager at Morrisville State College Dairy Complex. “Their in...
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Sonja Heyck-Merlin 
Posted on August 20, 2025
“My dream is to have a cell phone-based device that I can take to the farm and tell you exactly which bacteria are making your animal sick, and exactly which antibiotic at which dose is going to make it get healthy fast. But we’re a long way away,” Erika Ganda said during a recent interview on the “...
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Sally Colby 
Posted on August 20, 2025
The official hurricane season for the Mid-Atlantic runs June 1 through the end of November. Some predictions say this tropical storm season might be bad, so there’s plenty of monitoring going on. The potential for dangerous flooding may increase if heavy rain falls on already soaked ground. Thankful...
Crop Comments
jkarkwren 
Posted on August 20, 2025
Turn back time a half century, to my Cooperative Extension career as a dairy and field crops agent. I tried to get farmers to mentally break down their businesses into three parts: cows, heifers and crops. Perhaps an oversimplification, but this approach helped them home in on possible “weak links” ...
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Laura Rodley 
Posted on August 13, 2025
The Littleville Fair, held in Chester, MA, on the first weekend in August was blessed with a trinity of three perfect days – a relief for fairgoers, exhibitors and livestock alike. A nonprofit organization, 2025 is Littleville Fair’s 103rd year. Moe Boisseau of Westfield, MA, fair president for four...
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Sally Colby 
Posted on August 13, 2025
“Manure management is becoming more of a challenge,” said Peter Wright. “The issues of sustainability are becoming more real. The societal impacts of manure constrain some farms, and there is an economic component.” An ag engineer at Cornell University, Wright said the big picture for manure storage...
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jkarkwren 
Posted on August 13, 2025
As the last of the harvest comes in and the fields begin to rest for winter, the energy shifts. The air feels heavier, the nights stretch longer. You can feel it – the turning of the year! Samhain (pronounced sOW-in) marks the end of the harvest season and the start of the darker half of the year. I...
Farmers First
jkarkwren 
Posted on August 13, 2025
Hello, farm family! Since you’re reading this, you already know that “farmer” is really a hyphenated word. It stands for farmer-carpenter, farmer-mechanic, farmer-veterinarian, farmer-sales manager, farmer-marketing director – you get the idea! Farmers take great pride in that hyphenated identity, a...
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Lee Newspapers 
October 19, 2012
This Month’s Features
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Lee Newspapers 
October 19, 2012
This weeks’ features.
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Lee Newspapers 
October 19, 2012
This month’s features