The USDA organic regulations recognize four categories of organic products: crops, defined as a plant that is grown to be harvested as food, livestock feed, fiber, or used to add nutrients to the field. Livestock defined as animals that can be used for food or in the production of food, fiber, or feed. Processed Products defined as items that have been handled and packaged (i.e. chopped carrots) or combined, processed, and packaged (i.e. soup). Wild Crops defined as plants from a growing site that is not cultivated. In the Northern New York Region there are 89 organic dairy farms. Please see the links below for more information on organic operations and certifications and should you have further questions, contact a member of the regional team.

Farm Financial Management Tuesdays Online Farm Business Education

CCE ag business educators are offering short, farm financial education
programs this winter. All programs are 12:30pm to 1:30pm. Each program is
only $5 and includes a link to the recorded webinar if you cannot join
the program live. This series is supported by ag business management
specialists from the following Cornell Cooperative Extension and Cornell
University programs: the Capital Area Agriculture and Horticulture Program,
the Central New York Dairy, Livestock & Field Crops Team, the Eastern NY

Managing Forages through Drought Webinars

Part 1: Managing Pastures in Drought may be viewed here: https://vod.video.cornell.edu/media/1_19bj2cuc

Part 2: Stored Forages: Winter Feed Supply Beyond the Drought may be viewed here: https://vod.video.cornell.edu/media/1_ql576klx

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) is spreading rapidly across the world.

Although cities have the most sick people, the disease has reached rural communities of New York as well. Everyone needs to take this very seriously. Agriculture is an essential business, so many of us will continue to go to work. However, we all need to take precautions to stay safe and help prevent further spread of the disease. The key things to do are limit contact with other people and keep everything very clean. We've prepared a new resource to help Spanish- and English-speaking farm employees access credible, multi-lingual information that they can use right away. Here are this links to a printable resource for farms to use:
English COVID 19 Procedures
Spanish COVID 19 Procedures

To see a full list of other relevant resources, click here.

How to Manage COVID-19 Risk on Dairy Farms

Update - Regional Ag Team Operations during COVID-19

Click here to get the updated information on our operations.