Do you grow corn silage? Join us at Hillcrest Homestead LLC for a Corn Silage Pre-Harvest meeting! Topics covered in this discussion based meeting include particle size, packing density, inoculant use, agronomics, and much more. This event is free, so bring your corn silage questions!

The Good Farmers Guild of WNY invites you to a two-part event, Social Media Basics & Tomato Tasting. At 4:30 pm, Aurora Schul Schunk will teach farmers social media basics, and the tomato tasting will start at 5:30. Come to one or both parts of this two-part event!

Everyone interested in learning more about marketing livestock is invited to attend. 

Our guest speaker will be Heidi Nicholas, new owner of the 6 Empire Livestock sale barns and co-owner with her husband Gene of Nicholas Meats, an 800 head/day slaughterhouse near Loganton, Pa. Heidi and Gene also have over 20,000 head on feed at various lots from NY through the west. Heidi will join us to talk about her vision and plan for Empire Livestock, including the ramping up of beef marketing sales, renovation of barns, bringing in out of state buyers, board sales and more. 

At this free event, we will learn how the Tillotsons' multigenerational Cottonwood Farms manages their organic grazing system in conjunction with their automated milking system.  We will also hear about their soil health and conservation practices. Tillotson will also be able to speak about his experience embracing other technologies to help manage the farm and implement sustainable practices.

Learn the ins and outs of setting up your processing equipment, processing chickens, adding value through cuts, and pricing your chicken to make a profit!

Grazing sheep beneath utility-scale solar arrays can build wealth of present and future sheep farmers as vegetation management service providers and access to additional pasture. The Cornell Cooperative Enterprise Program (CEP) conducted a survey earlier this year completed by over 600 farmers. Farmers identified barriers to grazing sheep under solar arrays and weighed in on need for a producer-led organization to negotiate contracts on their behalf, coordinate logistics of multiple flocks, provide transport of sheep to and from the site, care for sheep while on-site, and provide supplemental mowing. Additional questions focused on processing and marketing needs.

Join us for this free webinar!  Brought to you by the dairy specialists of CCE NWNY and SWNY Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Programs.

What Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong!

Good ole' Murphy's Law is probably the best description of what it's like to be a farmer that there is! Join Cornell Cooperative Extension Farm Business Management Specialist, Katelyn Walley-Stoll, to learn more about the 5 areas of risk on farms and how to develop strategies to manage those risks. Participants will have the opportunity to identify areas of risk on their own farms and brainstorm ways to (try to) prevent the inevitable! 
Registration is REQUIRED by visiting https://tinyurl.com/CCERisk or call Kelly at 585-268-7644. 

Are you interested in grazing, an experienced grazier, or just fascinated by new technology? Join CCE and DGA for a webinar to discover the PaddockTrac technology! This technology is still under testing but is a promising tool for future data-driven pasture management. 

Join us for an interactive pasture walk focused on tools to assist you in calculating forage availability to match livestock needs and paddock size.

Internal parasites are one of the biggest health problems affecting small ruminants in the Northeast. Dewormer resistance is becoming commonplace. As a result, producers need to know how best to manage parasites. In this workshop, producers will learn the basics of parasite control as well as how to develop integrated parasite management programs for their farms.

An AI training is being planned in Chautauqua County for October 9-11, 2023 for beef and dairy cattle producers and farm employees interested in learning how to breed cows. 

The cost will be $200 per person, which will include the classroom session, hands-on Artificial Training at a farm and materials. 

Participants will need to bring their own lunch.

Registration deadline 9/22 

Register by contacting Lisa Kempisty  |   716.664.9502 ext. 203   |   ljk4@cornell.edu

Electronic Point-of-Sale (POS) systems, such as the commonly used Square app, present farmers market vendors with an opportunity to gather data and learn from customer shopping habits. In turn, this data can be analyzed to reveal growth opportunities. POS provides a quick and easy means for farms to assess their marketing performance, make changes, and test for results. Matt LeRoux and Todd Schmit at Cornell's Agricultural Marketing Research Program are working with NY's farms to collect data using POS in direct-to-consumer channels and continue to recruit more farms for the project.  

Internal parasites are one of the biggest health problems affecting small ruminants in the Northeast. Dewormer resistance is becoming commonplace. As a result, producers need to know how best to manage parasites. In this workshop, producers will learn the basics of parasite control as well as how to develop integrated parasite management programs for their farms.

Join members of Cornell's New York Soil Health Team, Cayuga and Tompkins Soil and Water Districts, and King's AgriSeeds/Cayuga Ag Enterprises to view and discuss summer and fall planted cover crops. 

The Farm Disaster Preparation program will help farm owners plan for and manage possible disasters. This program focuses on practical pre-disaster education and preparedness regarding farm equipment safety on the road, fire or structure collapse, storm and wind damage, criminal activity, farm chemical risks, and biosecurity. Farms that complete the training will receive a certificate to provide to their insurer and may be eligible for a credit or discount toward the farm's annual insurance premium. The value of the credit or discount will vary according to individual policies and policyholder circumstances but can be up to a 10 percent discount.

Farms participating in this jam-packed workshop will hear from experts on topics covering evaluating livestock for optimal harvest timing, working with your processor (including navigating difficult situations), determining if value-added products are worth it, advertising and selling meats, an introduction to MeatSuite.com, and creating consumer-friendly bulk meat sales.

Bringing together CCE and Cornell University Educators & Specialists to Cultivate Discussions on Key Agricultural Labor Topics

Each year the Cornell Dept. of Animal Science puts on the Cornell Sheep & Goat Symposium. Co-sponsors for 2023 include Cashmere Goat Association, Empire Sheep Producers Assoc. and NYS Dairy Goat Breeders Assoc.

The 2023 Cornell Sheep & Goat Symposium is scheduled for Oct 27th through 29th on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, NY. Goat and sheep raisers and industry stakeholders are welcome to register for the whole event or individual days. Friday Oct 27th is devoted to advance sign-up workshops on: 1) learning to process sheep and goat for meat - Jess Waltemyer, 2) Learning to do a field necropsy - Dr. Mary Smith DVM, 3) Demos and hands-on practicals for new goat and sheep raisers - Betsy Hodge and Dr. tatiana Stanton, and later in the evening, 4) Intro to artificial insemination - Dr. Megan Bernard, DVM. 

Without a plan, how will you know where you're going?

Business plans for farms are often viewed as yet another chore to do and usually result in dusty binders taking up space on the office shelf. This discussion based workshop will walk you through the mental exercise of planning your future agricultural adventures. Participants will leave with a better understanding of the use of a business plan, the essential components, and a "to-do" list of things to think about to inform future planning efforts. Additional opportunities for one-on-one follow up will also be offered. FSA Borrower credits may be made available for your attendance. 
Registration is REQUIRED by visiting https://tinyurl.com/FarmBizCCE or call Kelly at 585-268-7644. 

Join us for Level 1 and 2 BQA training, following the NYBPA Region 1 farm tour and potluck at Phillips Farm Inc.. All beef producers are welcome to attend the tour, potluck, and training. This class will also serve as continuing education to maintain BQA certification.

Join us for a workshop on farm asset protection to help you preserve long-standing agricultural legacies. In these uncertain times, safeguarding valuable farm assets has become paramount to ensure our farming communities' continued success and sustainability. Each participant will receive written materials and a flash drive containing various resources. Morning refreshments and lunch are included.