Ben Nottermann of Snug Valley Farm in East Hardwick, VT, raises and sells grass-fed beef, meat from Duroc pigs and lamb, supplying local restaurants, butcher shops, food co-ops and other farmers that need more meat to carry under their own farm’s label. They sell online as well. After decades of far...

If a liquid manure system eliminated agitation, saved fuel, increased manure value and created safer working conditions by eliminating deadly gases, would farmers be willing to try it? Farmers in Ireland tried it and liked it, and now farmers in the U.S. can benefit from a manure management system b...

Is your farm just surviving or thriving? Chris Wilson, business manager at Wilson Family Organic Farms , pondered that question when he began working on the farm in 2017; however, with some major changes, the family turned it around. Wilson presented “Practical Systems, Real Returns: Dairy-Cropping ...

Benjamin Clark, a former employee on a large Montana organic grain farm, now an organic farm inspector, provided perspective on organic grain certification at a Maine Grain Alliance meeting. Clark is a staff inspector for the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association (MOFGA) Certification Servic...

Keeping an eye on calves has gone high tech. More than just fancy tools, sensors for calf care can help farmers carefully monitor their animals for the earliest signs of poor health to help curtail more serious problems and possibly stall an outbreak of illness. Taika von Königslöw, DVM, assistant p...

Around mid-April, a reader from western New York asked me a question about prussic acid. Before I discuss our conversation, I’ll share some background information. For a long time prior to this phone call, I thought that term had a German origin. With some online sleuthing, I learned that the term o...

Calving is covered in classrooms but there’s nothing like real-life initiation. Veterinarian Lisa Freeze thinks of calving as more of an art than a science. “You can read about in a textbook but it’s something you don’t really figure out on your own until you’re in the middle of things and getting e...

Swine success is never simple. Every season serves a new set of stressors. Fall feels friendly with crisp air and steady gains. Summer, however, sizzles with setbacks. Heat is the headline hazard. For pigs post-weaning, the comfort corridor sits between 65º and 75º F. In that thermoneutral zone, met...

Part 2: Preventing cyberthreats The internet was first hailed as a tool for open information and operability. No one suspected the potential for nefarious activity. Now everything is accessible, which allows bad actors to infiltrate farms and other businesses. Too often, dairy farms are cybercrime t...