While not as fun as caring for baby animals, playing in the dirt, and growing food - record keeping is an important tool for farm success. Start the new year off right by setting your farm financial resolutions. In this two part seminar, you'll learn how to set up a record keeping system, identify your financial goals, and be ready to hit the ground running in 2023. Register to receive a fillable record keeping plan and a quarterly farm financial check list.

If you grow, feed, or sell hay, it's important to know how to manage the green - the money, that is - to make profitable decisions. Hay production, whether it's sold off the farm or fed to livestock, is a key part of many of our farms in SWNY. Producing your own hay can diversify and improve the profitability of your farm. But, hay production can decrease your farm's profitability over time.  Not tracking financial and production records can lead to poor decision-making. 

Some reminders about the ST-125, NYS Ag Value Assessment, Separate Checking Accounts, Revisiting Your Farm Business Plan, Updating Your Balance Sheet, and Supporting Your County's Cooperative Extension Association. 

When conversations about farm diversification come up, I always bring it back to our shared experiences…as dreamers, as doers, as innovators, as people who say "Well, that could have gone better". Specifically, to take this hot topic and break it down, here are my 8 considerations that (I think) are universal in conversations about farm diversification. 

When someone becomes helplessly engulfed in grain, rural firefighters are often the first and only line of defense. Unfortunately, many departments lack the specialized techniques and equipment necessary for a successful grain bin rescue. Nationwide Insurance once again is teaming up with the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS), Peosta, Iowa, to award emergency first responders with grain rescue tubes and hands-on rescue training to help save lives.

The contest begins on January 1, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. CT and extends through April 30, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. CT. Only entries submitted during this time will be considered for the contest. To enter, describe how your local fire department or emergency rescue team and community would benefit from grain entrapment training and a rescue tube, as well as how the tube and training could be shared with nearby departments. For more information click here or contact jim.carrabba@bassett.org or call (800)343-7527 ext. 2216. 

The beginning of the new year offers us a chance to reset, start with a blank slate, and have the best of intentions for the months ahead. While many of us might make New Year's Resolutions around our health, farm production, and others - I can bet that you've never set some for your farm's financial management!

Find contact information for service providers in SWNY including Veterinarians, Feed Mills, Lime/Fertilizer Suppliers, Sheep Shearers, Meat Processing Facilities, and Tax Preparers. 

CCE is working with officials to understand the extent of the December 2022 Blizzard. We are collecting information on damage to agricultural infrastructure, equipment, livestock, stored crops, and/or winter produce. You can either fill out the reporting survey, found at https://cornell.ca1.qualtrics.com/.../SV_9AytO5D9oYvRCXc or report the damage to one of our team's regional specialists. If you had damage from the November 2022 storm and haven't yet reported it, you can do that at this time.

When working with any type of livestock or equipment, it's key to consider safety to keep yourself, your farm family, employees, and animals safe.  On average from year to year, one in every four farm accidents involve animals. Below are some farm safety reminders for working with animals on the farm.

Removal of significant snow accumulations off of a barn roof is best performed in a systematic way to reduce the risk of injury or death to both barn occupants and those working on the roof. Removing roof snow without a proper approach may cause more damage than if left alone in some cases by creating an unbalanced and/or concentrated roof loads.

Cornell's MeatSuite.com has been upgraded with new features that make the program easier to use for both farmers and the public. Farmers are requested to update their profiles if they have one. If you're new to the program, you can create a free profile on www.meatsuite.com to share a little about your farm and to list the bulk order meats you have for sale.

CCE Harvest New York's Regional Farm-to-School Coordinator Program is looking for farms and food businesses to supply local foods to schools in our region, including meats and dairy products.