By Jason Karszes

On more and more dairy farms every year, employees play integral roles in day-to-day operations, decision making, and problem solving. In these roles, ideas for changes to operations and for capital investments are generated. While these ideas might be quite important to the middle manager for their area, across the farm other opportunities in support of the overall priorities and mission of the farm also need to be considered. 

Proposing change to the leadership of the farm, or as part of the leadership team, is typically an essential step to improve farm operations. Developing proposals in support of the change can help with identifying all the potential risks and returns and decision-making by the senior management team.  Several key areas to address in the proposal are laid out below. 

In case you aren't aware of this resource, PRO-DAIRY's Dairy Market Watch provides monthly information and analysis of Northeast dairy market trends. Just released are the July 2025 data.

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. 

You might think it's too early to talk about corn silage harvest, but this season's challenges have many re-evaluating plans. Preliminary estimates from John Hanchar, NWNYDLFC, put the corn silage price at approximately $63 per ton. These early estimates can support informed decision-making as cropping and forage strategies shift.

Changes to our pesticide labels are coming including mitigation strategies for spray drift and runoff/erosion. Check out this article to see how these updates will appear on our product labels.

Spring is one of the busiest times of the year on a farm. Even if things are busy, keep health and safety to the forefront of what you do.

Tax season is over, but you may be wondering if you may be audited by the IRS or incorrectly classified as a hobby farm. This article investigates the classification of farms as businesses vs hobbies, what the IRS is looking for in a business, and what records you need to keep to prove you're a legitimate business.

It takes a whole lot to produce a dozen eggs! Now's a great time to evaluate your costs so that you can charge a fair price that still enables you to make a profit.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is issuing up to $10 billion directly to agricultural producers through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) for the 2024 crop year. Eligible producers must report 2024 crop year planted and prevented planted acres to FSA on an FSA-578, Report of Acreage form. Contact your local FSA office for more information.

Farming comes with plenty of challenges, and property taxes is a pretty big one of them. In New York, the Agricultural Assessment Program helps lower property taxes for land used for farming. Every year, if you own or rent farmland, this program can save you money. Here's what you need to know to take advantage of this benefit AND connect with rented landowners to ensure they're receiving this benefit. 

The 2025 Operations Managers conference entitled "Empowering Managers: Embracing Diversity, Consistency, and Attitude for Success" was hosted by Cornell PRO-DAIRY and Northeast Dairy Producers Association at the end of January. Check out some of my favorite takeaways from the conference.