Educational Programs Being Held in the North Country in March

From Cooperative Extension:

Four educational programs are taking place in the North Country this week and next.

*** Up to 4 NYS DEC core pesticide credits are available at each of two programs held in Canton and Malone this week.  Links to registration pages are highlighted.

·         Feb 27, Best Western University Inn, Canton.  Morning session, 2 credits, begins at 9:30 am.  Afternoon session, 2 credits, begins at 12:30 pm.  $20 per session, $40 for both.  Lunch on your own. 

           Feb 28, Franklin County Courthouse, 1st floor cafeteria, Malone.  Morning session, 2 credits, begins at 9:30 am.  Afternoon session, 2 credits, begins at 12:30 pm.  $10 per session, $20 for both.  Lunch on your own.

*** North Country Hay & Pasture School will be offered at three locations beginning this week.  Speaker lineup is similar, but not identical, at all three locations and the program runs from 9:30 am to 3 pm.  Lunch is included.  Registration is $25.  

Details are as follows and https://web2.login.cornell.edu/?SID=1B09C8BB3385911B&WAK0Service=https/apps.cce.cornell.edu@CIT.CORNELL.EDU&WAK2Name=NetID%20or%20GuestID&WAK0Realms=NetID,GuestID&ReturnURL=https://apps.cce.cornell.edu/1B09C8BB3385911B/cuwal2.c0ntinue&VerP=3&VerC=2.3.0.238/idmbuild@fox07.serverfarm.cornell.edu/CentOS7-64bit-58/2.4.6&VerS=Apache%2020180226-1203&VerO=Linux%20xcu-cce-02.mediathree.net%203.10.0-693.2.2.el7.x86_64%20%231%20SMP%20Tue%20Sep%2012%2022:26:13%20UTC%202017%20x86_64%20x86_64%20x86_64%20GNU/Linux%20%5cS&Accept=K2&WANow=1519668774&WAK2Flags=1&DualAuth=all&WAreason=2 the registration link is here.

Agenda details are https://nydairyadmin.cce.cornell.edu/pdf/event/pdf682_pdf.pdf at this link.

·        March 2, Friday, Farm Credit East meeting room, Rt 12, Burrville. 

·        March 3, Saturday, Best Western University Inn, Canton.

·        March 9, Friday, BERC Auditorium at Miner Institute, Chazy.

Contact Tatum Langworthy (315-788-8450 or tlm92@cornell.edu) or your local CCE office for details or to register. Preregistration is required so those running the programs know to have enough materials and lunches on hand.

Organics On the Rise

By DEBRA J. GROOM
Empire Farm & Dairy
 
While organic farming is growing by leaps and bounds, there is one farm in the Southern Tier that was way ahead of the trend.
 

Organic potato harvest at the Engelbert Farm

Engelbert Farms in Nichols, Tioga County, began back in the 1860s when the first members of the family came to this country from Germany. The family has been on the same site in Nichols since the early 1900s.
 
But it was 1981 when current farm owners, Kevin and Lisa Engelbert, began to farm organically. They became certified organic in 1984.
 
“Before, the farm was very chemically intensive,” said Lisa Engelbert. “Our herd was not well. We came to see the correlation of the extensive chemical use on the land and what was happening with the cows. So in 1981, we went cold turkey. No more chemicals.”
 
This farm was dubbed the “the first certified organic dairy farm in the country” through a national poll done by ODairy, a message listserv operated by the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance.
 

Engelbert Farms organic veggies

In that poll, “Kevin responded that we were first certified in 1984 with NOFA-NY. He thinks the survey contacted certifiers, too,” said Lisa Engelbert in an email. “It was determined by that survey. We knew we were the first certified-organic dairy in NYS, but that survey actually showed that we were the first certified organic dairy in the U.S.”
 
Just what made the Engelberts so ahead of the game?
 
Lisa Engelbert said she and her husband believe a farm is only as good as its soil. The soil at the farm had been treated for so many years with various chemicals and was not in good shape, she said.
 
Cows were eating what was grown in this soil and they were having numerous medical problems. She said vet bills were averaging $1,000 a month on the 175-milker herd.
 
“It starts with the soil,” she said. “The chemicals kill all the microorganisms in the soil and the soil can’t take up any of the naturally occurring nutrients.”
 
It took about a year — to 1982 — before the Engelberts starting seeing benefits from not using chemicals on their more than 2,000 acres.
 
In addition to pastureland for the herd, they also grow vegetables and raise pigs, chickens and beef.
 
“Things started to heal,” Engelbert said.
 
Today, the Engelberts have 2,400 acres of certified-organic land that produces vegetables, pastures the cows and grows crops such as hay, corn, soybeans and wheat. The cows also are not treated with artificial hormones or antibiotics.
 
While the number of organic dairies continues to soar, it seems there are still a shortage of them to produce enough products to meet consumer demand.
 
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service organic survey, New York had 13 percent of the nation’s certified-organic dairy farms in 2011, producing 8 percent of the country’s organic milk.
 
But Americans spent more than $5 billion on organic dairy products in 2014, with double-digit annual growth during much of the past decade, according to the USDA. While this demand increases, the supply of organic milk from co-op farmers has stayed fairly flat for the last few years, Travis Forgues, Organic Valley vice president of farmer affairs, recently told a Minnesota newspaper.
 
“The demand is huge, especially regionally like in the Northeast,” said Liz Bawden, a St. Lawrence County organic dairy farmer. “The highest demand is for organic dairy products and there’s also good demand for organic fluid milk.”
 
Bawden, who has been milking about 50 cows with her husband in the town of Hammond for about 15 years, said most organic dairies are small operations since the cows have to be in the pasture most of the time.
 
“Places like us could get bigger, but they still have to fit the organic standards (pasturing all the cows) and be placed along a route where they can pick up the milk,” Bawden said. “We’re good where we are right now.”
 
Lisa Engelbert agreed. She said it would be difficuilt for an organic dairy to reach the size of some conventional farms, such as those with 1,000 or more cows. Engelbert, who also works for the New York certification agency NOFA-NY, said there are many (she didn’t have an exact number) organic dairy certifications in the pipeline. 
 
Becoming an organic dairy is not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of planning and paperwork that goes into it.
 
A certified organic farm is one that goes through the certification process with an organization such as NOFA-NY. An exempt organic farm is one that follows National Organic Standards, but is too small to go through the certification process.
 
At one time, most states had their own standards for what it means to be organic. It made things extremely confusing, especially when it came to farmers from one state trying to sell products in other states.
 
Then in 2002, the U.S. Department of Agriculture set up one uniform organic standard that everyone must follow. Different organizations do the actual certification of farms, but they all use the same USDA uniform organic standard.
 
Farms in New York are usually certified by NOFA-NY (Northeast Organic Farming Association-New York). The Engelbert farm was certified by NOFA Vermont because Lisa Engelbert works for NOFA-NY and had to stay away from a possible conflict of interest.
 
A certified farm can use the USDA Organic seal on its products. An exempt farm can use the term organic, but cannot use the USDA Organic seal.
 
To have their land certified, farmers must prove they’ve added no fertilizers or chemicals to it for three years. They also have to be sure there is a buffer between the organic land and neighbor’s farmland, so chemicals used there don’t end up on the organic land. And then every year, there is more paperwork to recertify the farm.
 
According to organic guidelines, an organic dairy herd must get 30 percent of its feed from the pasture. The rest must be organic grain or hay. Lisa Engelbert said her farm’s herd is in the pasture from the end of April to mid-November, depending on the weather.
 
“Grass and clover — a cow’s natural feed is grass,” she said. “We don’t press them for production. We don’t feed huge amounts. Our production average is 35 to 40 pounds of milk a day.”
 
They sell their milk to Organic Valley, one of the largest organic dairy product cooperatives in the U.S. with nearly 1,800 farms. You’ve probably seen Organic Valley milk, butter, yogurt, sour cream, cream cheese, eggs, cheese and cream in local grocery stores.
 
The Bawdens sell their milk to Horizon, a brand within WhiteWave Foods, the company behind Land O’ Lakes and International Delight creamers. They also grow organic hay for their own use and for sale to local farmers.
 
The Engelberts sell their meat products, cheese and produce at their farm stand and at some stores.
 
“Pigs are fed certified-organic grains, milk, hay and leftover vegetables from our organic gardens,” according to the Engelbert Farms website. “No animal byproducts are ever fed to our animals.”
 

Winter Green-Up Grazing Conference This Weekend in Latham

The 2016 Winter Green-Up Grazing Conference will be held on Friday and Saturday at The Century House in Latham. 

The conference is sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Albany County and Black Queen Angus Farm, LLC. 

Speakers include chef Brian Alberg and chef Jeremy Stanton, who will discuss their dedication to local food and local economies and the struggles they face in purchasing consistent high quality meats in the region. 

Cost is $225. If two people are coming from the same farm or business, the cost is $400. 

To register, visit reg.cce.cornell.edu/WGU2016_201. Contact Tove Ford at Cornell Cooperative Extension (518-765-3518 or tff24@cornell.edu). Registration ends Thursday, Feb. 11.

Cornell Plans Summer Pasturing Workshops

Go to http://www.farmingmagazine.com/blog-5245.aspx to find out more about the programs coming up July 31, Aug. 14 and Aug. 21 in Watkins Glen, Lansing and Homer.

Weather Causes Problems for Farmers Across NYS

The weather has been tricky for farmers in the last few weeks, with days and days of rain and not much sun.

Here's what the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Services reports for the week of June 10-16:

WEATHER:  The week was rather active across New York state, with various types of weather affecting the area.  High pressure controlled the weather across the region on Sunday and Monday. A low pressure system brought locally heavy rain to the region from Tuesday through early Wednesday, with rainfall accumulations reaching between a half inch and two inches.

Another low pressure system came into the region with later in the week with more locally heavy rain late Thursday into early Friday. Rainfall accumulation from Thursday into Friday totaled another half inch to 2 inches across the region. Temperatures for the week were generally below normal, with highs in the 70s to around 80 on dry days, and temperatures ranged from the upper 50s to the upper 60s on rainy days.

CROPS:  There were 2 days suitable for fieldwork.  Soil moisture was rated 30 percent adequate and 70 percent surplus. Condition of oats was 20 percent fair, 68 percent good, and 12 percent excellent.  Winter wheat was rated 1 percent poor, 15 percent fair, 65 percent good, and 19 percent excellent.  Hay crops were 7 percent poor, 25 percent fair, 54 percent good, and 14 percent excellent.

The first clover timothy cutting was 60 percent complete compared to 66 percent in 2012.  The first alfalfa cutting was 74 percent complete compared to 78 percent in 2012.  The first cutting of grass silage was 75 percent complete compared to 84 percent last year. Corn was 93 percent planted compared to 97 percent in 2012 and behind the 95 percent five year average. Potatoes were 90 percent planted compared to 96 percent in 2012 and was below the five year average of 97 percent. 

Soybeans were 68 percent planted compared to 92 percent in 2012 and behind the five year average of 87 percent.  

In Madison County, wet weather prevented field work, and many low, poorly drained areas were under water. Earlier planted corn looked good, while corn planted later did not. Some second cut grass stands in the northern part of Madison County were ready to be harvested.

In Cayuga County, fields were flooded and wet conditions delayed spraying. Field work came to a halt in Cortland County due to wet conditions.  The soil was too saturated to support equipment without damaging the field.  Plowing continued between periods of rain to turn over hay fields after first cutting.

Corn planting intentions in Jefferson County changed every day due to wet conditions. Many hoped to finish planting soybeans as soon as the weather cooperated. With well over 5 inches of rain for the month, farmers in St. Lawrence County had few opportunities to make first cut hay silage and little opportunity to make dry hay. No additional crops were planted in Seneca County due to an additional 2 inches of rain. The lack of dry weather created additional problems.


FRUIT:  Apple conditions for the week were 23 percent fair, 53 percent good, and 24 percent excellent.  Peaches were 17 percent fair, 80 percent good, and 3 percent excellent.  Pears were 14 percent fair, 79 percent good, and 7 percent excellent.

Sweet cherries were 6 percent poor, 22 percent fair, 68 percent good, and 4 percent excellent. Tart cherries were 8 percent poor, 39 percent fair, 52 percent good, and 1 percent excellent. Grapes were 6 percent fair, 86 percent good, and 8 percent excellent.

VEGETABLES:  Sweet corn was 73 percent planted, compared to 79 percent in 2012, and was below the 88 percent five year average. Sweet corn was 38 percent fair, 58 percent good, and 4 percent excellent.  Onions were 22 percent fair, 71 percent good and 7 percent excellent.

Snap beans were 38 percent planted, compared to 64 percent in 2012, and behind the 66 percent five year average. Cabbage was 83 percent planted, compared to 89 percent in 2012, and below the 86 percent five year average.

In Cayuga County, flooded fields prevented farmers from planting corn and beans.

LIVESTOCK:  Pasture was rated 3 percent poor, 18 percent fair, 60 percent good, and 19 percent excellent.