Heat damage and spontaneous combustion risks should always be at the forefront of hay moisture considerations, however, over drying can diminish forage quality. Focusing on baling at optimal moisture levels might be one way forage producers can improve their forage quality.

Officials have made the decision to lift the bans on fowl shows, swaps, meets, auctions, and sales. White poultry shows and commerce are getting back to normal, we still need to take precautions to keep our birds safe from Avian Flu.

With the current volatile dairy market, rising input costs, and continued challenges in commercial dairy production, dairy farm owners are looking for new ways to improve their profitability. If you're a dairy farmer interested in diversifying or vertically integrating your business, one option could be on-farm processing of raw milk into value-added goods and bottled fluid milk for sale. While this might seem like a fun, lucrative, and sustainable new venture at first glance, it's important to consider how you'll need to adjust and address your farm's business plan to accommodate for this change. 

From our friends at Cornell CALS 

As part of Cornell Cooperative Extension's role in strengthening New York State agriculture, we are helping to spread word of the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets' plans to launch a statewide online Farm Directory. 

Pre-conditioning through castration, vaccinations, weaning, and deworming can all add value to a calf, while providing a robust animal to buyers for their finishing stages of production.

The SWNY Dairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Program is currently seeking participant farmers in Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, and Steuben counties to take part in a study that will evaluate the true costs of production in pastured broiler enterprises. Farmers will be compensated for their time on the project. If you're interested in learning more, reach out to Amy Barkley at amb544@cornell.edu or 716-640-0844.

This article written by Ken McMillin and Frank Pinkerton gives insight into goat production trends in the United States for this year and years previous. While broad in scope, it will help readers understand goat markets from a whole system prospective.

Presentation recording from April 21st, 2022 and supporting resources. 

Profit. It seems that the term "profit" stirs different types of emotion into farmers' hearts whenever I try to casually bring it up in kitchen table conversations. For some, profit has always been a goal - will always be a goal - and is tracked from year-to-year, or even month-to-month. For others, profit is a lofty idea that, in theory, the farm strives for - as long as they don't have to pay in any income taxes at the end of the year. Yet, for some, profit is a "bad word" and definitely not the right reason to be in the business of farming.

For some, selling carbon credits can be a helpful and efficient way to boost/diversify farm income. Especially since most of the practices that are used to sequester carbon also provide added soil health and additional benefits to the farmstead. Now, here are some key considerations and questions that you should consider before jumping right in. 

The Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grant (MPIRG) program assists currently operational meat and poultry slaughter and processing facilities in obtaining a Federal Grant of Inspection under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) or the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA); or to operate as a State-inspected facility that is compliant with FMIA or PPIA under a respective Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) program. Applications are due May 24, 2022.