Welcoming Kate, our Farm Business Management Specialist
Kate McDonald Polakiewicz, Farm Business Management
Southwest New York Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Program
Kate McDonald Polakiewicz has joined our team as Farm Business Management Specialist and will be offering programming in financial management, production economics, business planning, and market analysis.
Kate is a production and extension systems specialist with 15 years of experience working in federal government, private sector, academic, and international settings. She comes to CCE from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) where she managed the Farmer-to-Farmer program, a longstanding agricultural extension program that provided short-term technical assistance from US-based farmers to other farmer communities abroad. She also managed large-scale agricultural research awards in horticulture, agronomy, aquaculture, and in scaling new technologies for practical farm use. Before USAID, Kate worked on agriculture programs with farmers while living in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Her work in research and extension also brought her to lead education on soil fertility and plant pathology in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. Kate holds a master's degree from the University of California, Davis, and lives with her young family in Amherst, NY.
Kate is interested to apply her knowledge of agriculture to be of service to producers in Southwest New York production systems. She'll spend her first few months with CCE becoming familiar with local farm operations, meeting and learning from farmers, and building her network. Reach out to say hello at kem348@cornell.edu or 716-640-0522.
Field Crops
Dairy
Business
Livestock
Grains
Upcoming Events
Open Forum to Discuss Newly Approved DOL Trade, "Butcher"
October 2, 2025 : Open Forum to Discuss Newly Approved DOL Trade, "Butcher"
Partners from New York State Dept. of Labor, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Southern Tier West, and Workforce Development will be in the space to provide an overview of the new program, discuss the roles of hosts and apprentices, review the benefits of hosting an apprentice, and setting the vision for building a corps of highly skilled, modern trained Butchers and validating this career as a skilled trade with respectful earning potential.
Silvopasture on a Shoestring
October 7, 2025
Franklinville, NY
Join Joshua Greene, Director of Education at Trees For Graziers, Jonathan Bates, Statewide Agroforestry Educator, and Lynn Bliven, owner of Wild Geese Farm for a full day training event that will include classroom and hands-on sessions. The focus will be on DIY silvopasture projects on small grazing farms. We will address the practical considerations of tree establishment, protection, and maintenance while learning how silvopasture can help address your farm's resource concerns and enhance livestock grazing.
Optimizing the Economic Return of Pasture-Raised Slow-Growth and Conventional Broilers - Webinar
October 15, 2025 : Optimizing the Economic Return of Pasture-Raised Slow-Growth and Conventional Broilers - Webinar
Over the past three years, Cornell Cooperative Extension has worked with nearly 40 small farmers across NYS to gather information on the true costs of raising broilers (meat chickens) on pasture. This presentation is a summary of the findings of this research project.
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