Ever wonder what plant is growing in your pasture? Are you the kind of farm manager who digs soil, microbes, looks at cow pies and pursues strategies to improve forage quality to your cows? Do you like days out in the field visiting with other farmers and eating grass-fed burgers and enjoying a scoop of ice-cream? Have we got a dual farm pasture walk for you!
Join us on May 4th from 10am to 3pm at the Jerry Schlabach and John Troyer Family pasture-based dairy farms on 5537 Nelson Road in the rolling hills of Fenner as we welcome the University of Vermont Extension Agronomator and Assistant Professor Daniel Hudson who will lead us on a journey into the exciting aspects of plant identification, building soil and pasture management.
Daniel Hudson has been involved in pasture/forage research and outreach since 2002. He came to Vermont in 2010 to work with UVM Extension as an Agronomy and Nutrient Management Specialist in the Northeast Kingdom and Connecticut River Watershed. He is the recipient of the 2010 Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence. He lives in Waterford, Vt., with his wife Julia, their six children, and an ever-changing assortment of livestock. Having spent most of his life in northern climates with long winters and marginal soils, Daniel has a special appreciation for the challenges that forage and livestock producers have as they try to make a living.
As an added bonus, NY Organic Dairy Initiative Coordinator, Fay Benson, will feature soil monitoring tools from the mobile National Grazing lands Coalition Soil Health Trailer. This rolling laboratory available to New York through a five-state Conservation Innovation Grant funded by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service is equipped to measure and demonstrate vital physical, chemical, and biological components of soil health in comparing pasture management plots from the 2 host farms.
The Schlabach family operates a 55 head pasture-based dairy on a 167-acre land base and utilizes purchased corn silage and grain year round, suppling Queensboro Farm Products in nearby Canastota with their milk. They also sell maple syrup and pastured eggs from the farm. The Troyer family operates a 60 head 100% grass-fed organic dairy shipping milk to Maple Hill Creamery in Stuyvesant. They also raise beef cattle, pigs, chickens and vegetables on the 282-acre land base along with operating Troyer’s Country Store.
A donation lunch featuring Troyer’s grass-fed beef and delectable homemade fare will be available.
To reserve your place for this unique early season grazing event please contact, Troy Bishopp at Madison Co. SWCD at (315) 824-9849 Ext. 110 or Troy-Bishopp@verizon.net
This planning workshop is sponsored by The Natural Resources Conservation Service, Morrisville State College’s School of Agriculture, Sustainability, Business and Entrepreneurship, Madison County SWCD Madison County Cornell Cooperative Extension, The NYS AEM Program, The Finger Lakes-Lake Ontario Watershed Protection Alliance and the Upper Susquehanna Coalition.