Country Folks
Posted on 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, 2025. The Hardy Farm has been a certified organic dairy farm since October 2003, shipping first to Horizon Organic and later to Organic Valley. Hoping ...
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...
News
by Sonja Heyck-Merlin Interactive 25 
August 1, 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...
News
by Enrico Villamaino Preventing 19 
August 1, 2026
Poinsettias may be the poster plant of the holiday season, but behind those brilliant bracts lies a production process packed with potential pitfalls....
News
Photo courtesy of Glenn Card
by Laura Rodley 
August 1, 2026
Location is everything. Greenwood Tree Farm is just 25 miles from Boston. Families return every year as a Christmas tradition to choose and cut their ...
News
by Enrico Villamaino 
August 1, 2026
At the most recent Great Lakes Expo , a team comprised of Hannah Cushman, Alex Engelsma, Alaina Cavin, Rebecca Grumet, Randolph Beaudry, Ning Jiang an...