Most Recent Press Release
Posted 5/9/08
Announcing Organic Dairy and Field Crops Summer Field Days!
July 29 (Tuesday): Organic Crops and Dairy Field Day, Bawden Family Farm, Hammond, NY (St. Lawrence Co.) 10am-1pm. Mark your calendar for this North Country field day about small grain production for an organic dairy farm. Brian and Elizabeth Bawden will share their experiences from years of grain production in less than ideal conditions. They will discuss combinations of grains and planting dates. They grow and process oats, peas, beans, spring wheat, Japanese millet, triticale and more for on-farm grain supply. Bring the family and enjoy the St. Lawrence River area after the field day! This workshop is co-sponsored by the NOFA-NY Organic Dairy Transitions Project. $5 NOFA Members, $10 non-members.
August 21 (Thursday): Organic Crops and Dairy Field Day, Sto-Ridge Farm, Cazenovia, NY (Madison Co.) 10am-1pm. Join us as pioneer organic farmers Hank and John Stoker share their farm and crop experiences with very special guest, Jerry Brunetti. The Stokers produce grain crops for their dairy, while developing a whole farm system incorporating composting, alternative fuel, and intensive grazing. This rare opportunity to learn from Jerry Brunetti will be a highlight of the summer and not to be missed! This workshop is co-sponsored by the NOFA-NY Organic Dairy Transitions Project. $5 NOFA Members, $10 non-members.
August 22 (Friday): Organic Dairy Field Day, Swendsen Family Farm, Akron, NY (Genesee Co.) 9am-3pm (lunch provided). Both transitional and certified organic dairies are welcome to this field day with Jerry Brunetti and other guest speakers. In the morning Jerry will discuss soil health and quality forages. In the afternoon you will explore topics such as pasture management, herd health, soil, and quality milk in small groups for in-depth discussions. This workshop is co-sponsored by Organic Valley/CROPP Cooperative, GLCI, and the NOFA-NY Organic Dairy Transitions Project. Free.
September 2 (Tuesday): Organic Dairy and Field Corn Trial, Twin Oaks Dairy, LLC, Truxton, NY (Cortland Co.) 11am-3pm. Together, Rick and Kathie Arnold and Bob Arnold run Twin Oaks Dairy, LLC and have been certified organic since 1998. Their high level of management allows them to achieve an average of 20,000 lbs of milk/yr with 130 cows. They grow 100% of their forage and about 50% of their grain needs on their combination of river bottom and side hill land. You will learn about their successful organic system as well as a SARE research project the Arnolds are working on with CCE to reduce the cultivation needs of organic field corn by using narrow rows and planting cover crops between the rows. This workshop is co-sponsored by the NOFA-NY Organic Dairy Transitions Project. $5 NOFA Members, $10 non-members.
September 9 (Tuesday): Organic Dairy Field Day, Willow Creek Farm, Belmont, NY (Allegany Co.) 10am-1pm. Looking for answers about your pasture and forage-based dairy production challenges? Join Chuck Deichmann at his organic dairy farm to discuss high quality forage production, forage testing, determining rations, and pasture on a progressive grasslands farm. An additional treat will be a discussion of the robotic milking system used on Chucks rotational grazing dairy and how it has eased farm time and labor resources. This workshop is co-sponsored by the NOFA-NY Organic Dairy Transitions Project. $5 NOFA Members, $10 non-members
Posted 1/29/08
Organic Dairy Updates
A. Fay Benson, Cornell Small Farms Program
Organic Milk Market: Growing Again?
In April of 2007 I wrote about the Organic Milk Market in NY being temporally full. The rapid saturation of a market that had been undersupplied since it began in 1994 was the result of 100 new dairies entering the market last spring. This was a 60% increase in dairies, bringing the number of certified dairies in NY from about 160 to 260 dairies. The increase was a response to the new 100% organic feed requirement that went in to effect on June 8th, 2005. Farmers in New York and regions across the country rushed to begin the transition process while they could still take advantage of the less stringent regulations allowing for some conventional feed in the first year.
Most opinions were that the organic market would not accept new dairies until the fall of 2008. The lack of an organic market was offset by the record prices of the conventional market, which allowed conventional dairies to have one of their best years ever. However, this past summer processors did add some new dairies to fill out existing organic routes. The pattern continued this winter, when three processors took action to start looking for new organic dairies wherever they could locate them. It would seem that the organic market has swallowed up the increase in production and is growing again. A field person for one of the organic processors reported that his company was trucking fluid milk in form western states again to satisfy the market here in the east.
There are two other reasons for the lack of milk here in the east. First, organic milk production follows seasonal patterns and is usually higher in the spring due to lush pastures. Second, the high price and reduced availability of organic grain is making it less accessible to organic dairies. What ever the reasons, it is evident that the organic milk market, which the USDA has measured to be increasing by 20% per year, is continuing to grow and need new farms. I recommend any farm considering the transition first address two questions. When can you get on the nearest organic truck route? Where will you purchase the grain you will need?
Organic Grain Shortage
This winter the NY Organic Dairy Initiative is sponsoring a number of meetings around the state to help both existing organic farms and those thinking of transitioning to organic production. Organic grain production is the most common topic because there is significant opportunity to be a part of this new market. Last year, while the number of organic dairy farms that entered the market increased by 60% the number of organic crop acres increased by only 8%. Prices that organic dairy farms are paying now are in the range of $450-$500/ ton of corn and $750-$800/ton of soybean meal. At these prices, farmers who are interested in transitioning to organic crop production can find a ready market. If you are looking for guidance on whether growing field crops organically is right for your farm, contact Fay Benson at (607) 753-5213 or afb3@cornell.edu. Fay can help arrange a meeting with a farm business specialist who will work with you to enter your farm data in to a spreadsheet developed by the NY Organic Dairy Initiative. This spread sheet will estimate the impact of the transition years and the profit potential once the farm receives certification.
Posted 1/14/08
Organic Dairy and Field Crop meetings
A series of three Organic Dairy and Field Crop meetings will be offered this winter in Dryden, NY. Whether organic or conventional, all farmers will benefit from these presentation/discussions by farmers, agency representatives and researchers. Each meeting will include a round table discussion on selected topics. To register and get directions for any of the meetings, contact Sharon VanDeuson at 607-753-5213 or shv7@cornell.edu. There will be a $5 charge for lunch.
Reducing the Grain Bill on Your Farm, Dryden, NY – January 30th
Funded by the NY Farm Viability Institute and Cortland County CCE
This meeting will help livestock farmers better use their forages to help replace the need for grains in their rations.
Debbie Cherney, Cornell Animal Science. Debbie will talk about how the grass plant stores energy and how farmers and their cows can harvest more of it. She will also talk about the new high energy grasses on the market.
John Stoltzfus, Organic Dairy Farmer, Whitesville NY. John will talk about the brassica and forage oat trials he did on his farm this past year.
We will have a representative from Dairy One explaining the different tests and what to do with the results once they are returned.
Cropping Concerns, Dryden, NY – February 27th
Quirine Kettering, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University. Quirine will speak about the nitrogen cycle with an emphasis on the nitrogen release from tillage. She will also describe a new soil test for organic nitrogen.
Meagan Schipanski, PhD Candidate Department of Horticulture. Meagan will discuss managing legume nitrogen fixation and how soil fertility affects nitrogen fixation rates of red clover, field pea, and soybean.
Farmer Panel. A group of farmers will talk about how they orchestrate their crop rotations.
Organic Valley Family of Farms - CROPP Cooperative Meeting in conjunction with Organic Dairy and Field Crop Meetings - March 7th
Dryden Fire Hall, Dryden, NY.
Dr. Guy Jodarski, DVM, Organic Dairy Herd Health Session
Dr. Linda Tikofsky, DVM, From Cornell's Quality Milk Production Services
Keith Waldron, Organic Milk Quality Management Strategies Session
From NYS-IPM Program - CCE Fly Control Management Strategies for Dairy Herds Session.
Posted 11/20/07
What's New in Organic Dairy and Field Crop Research
Demand for organic products is on the rise. Researchers from institutions across New York are taking organic field studies to new levels. Join researchers from Cornell University and Alfred State College on December 13th, 10:30am – 2:30pm, to hear the latest reports from a video conference location in your area. This meeting is a collaboration of the NY Farm Viability Institute, NY Certified Organic and Cornell’s Organic Program Work Team
The organic research reports will be held in conjunction with the NY Certified Organic (NYCO) meeting taking place at Jordan Hall on the Cornell University campus that day. NYCO is a group of organic farmers who have been holding organic crop meetings in Geneva once a month over the winter for the past 10 years. For the past 4 years they have opened up the topics to include organic dairy production.
Topics include:
Organic Dairy market: Fay Benson will give an update on recent developments in the organic dairy market including efforts by the Organic Dairy Initiative to strengthen New York’s position in the organic market.
Nitrogen and Field Corn: Quirine Kettering will give a summary of her work on availability of Nitrogen from natural sources for field corn, which includes a new organic N test for corn.
Corn Variety Testing: Margaret Smith will give an overview of the results of 4 years of corn variety testing on organic farms.
IPM Report: Don Rutz from the New York State IPM Program will report on work they have been doing on fly management including: Fly traps, Beauveria fungal pathogen, parasitoid releases, and dung beetles . We will also have the new soybean pest ID pamphlet developed by IPM
Alfred State Research Grants: Matt Harbur of Alfred State will talk about research grants that Alfred is working on.
Small Grains: Janice Degni will go over results from small grain comparison plots done on an organic farm this summer.
Udder Health: Linda Tikofsky from Cornell's Quality Milk Production Services will give an update on her study of udder health as farms transition to organic production.
Cropping Systems: Chuck Mohler and Brian Caldwell will discuss the results from an organic cropping systems study they have been working on for the past three years. They have seen a dramatic rise in soil health measurements, particularly Soil Aggregate Stability. They will ask for input from the group on soil health measurements and what farmers are seeing as they observe their soils under organic management.
Lunch will be provided at all locations. After lunch the audience will have the opportunity to generate questions for a panel discussion. To find and register for the site closest to you, see the list below. For more information, contact Fay Benson at 607-753 5213 or afb3@cornell.edu.
These meetings are sponsored by the NY Organic Dairy Initiative which receives funding exclusively from the NY Farm Viability Institute and is supported by the Small Farms Program at Cornell.
INTERACTIVE VIDEO CONNECTION SITES
Room 109 Rice Hall on Cornell Campus: 607-753-5078
Jordan Hall, Geneva Experiment Station: No reservation needed (dish to pass)
Allegany County CCE offices in Belmont: 888-256-2762, Ext 10.
Oneida County CCE, Oriskany: 315-736-3394 x129.
Livingston County CCE in Mt Morris: 585-394-3977
Jefferson County CCE,Watertown: 315-788-8450 Ext. 241
VIEW ONLY SITES
Tompkins County CCE, Ithaca: 607-753-5078
Franklin County CCE, N. Country Comm. College, Malone either: 518-483-7403
or 518-561-7450
Posted October 11, 2007
Call for reports for first Organic Dairy and Field Crop PWT Meeting
December 13th 2007 10:30 AM till 2:30 PM. The meeting will be video connected to various sites around the State. At present we have commitments at: Rm 109 Rice Hall on Cornell Campus CCE offices in Belmont, Allegany Co Jordan Hall, Geneva Experimental Station Other possible sites, Oneida Co, and Jefferson Co. This PWT will be held in conjunction with the NY Certified Organic (NYCO) meeting taking place at Jordan Hall that day. NYCO is a group of organic farmers that has been holding organic crop meetings once a month over the winter for the past 10 years in Geneva. For the past 4 years they have opened up the topics to include organic dairy production. Their passion for the topics is only surpassed by the dish to pass lunches they have at each meeting. A regular fixture at the meetings is the "roundtable problem solving" session that usually is held after lunch. We are looking for researchers and educators that have done studies related to organic field crops or dairy production who would be willing to give a short report to the group. Contact Fay Benson, Cornell Cooperative Extension - Cortland County, (607) 753-5213, afb3@cornell.edu
June 26, 2007
Organic Dairy Barriers and Opportunities
Compiled by Fay Benson, Organic Dairy Initiative Project Manager
On April 25th 2006, the first meeting of the NY Organic Dairy Task Force was held in Syracuse NY. One of the tasks accomplished was the creation of a list of barriers and opportunities for NY's organic dairy industry. The areas covered were:
- Challenges
- Opportunities
- Production Management Changes
- Business Management Changes
There were a total of 54 topics suggested across these areas. The topics were prioritized at the meeting by the 17 attendees, which included: 8 organic farmers, 4 educators, 3 organic dairy processors, and 2 observers. The topics were then sent out to 40 organic dairy farmers from across the state. We asked the farmers to prioritize the topics again. From these we received 21 responses. The final list uses the prioritization of these 21 farmers.
The Task Force Leadership committee was charged with creating subgroups of the Task Force to brainstorm actions to address the topics. They decided that some of the entries were similar in nature; to make the work of the subgroups more efficient, they grouped the entities into broad categories. These are the Breakout Catagories and the list of affiliated topics. The area (Chal, Opp, Prod Mgt, Business Mgt) and the priority ranking are in ( )s: the higher the number the higher the priority.
Download a PDF of the Report
April 23, 2007
Organic market temporarily full
By Fay Benson Cortland Co. CCE, Small Farms Educator
Due to a large increase of milk this spring, the three main processors put a moratorium to taking new milk until fall of '08. This is expected to be a short term situation to allow the processors to make new routes and to let new markets develop. The situation was caused by a large influx of dairies who were trying to get into the market before major changes were made on how they completed their transition.
The old rule required 80% organic feed the first 9 months of the transition for the cows, and 20% could be non organic this was usually the grain portion of the ration. The final 3 months, 100% of the animals feed had to be organic. After June 8th of last year, this rule was changed to 100% of the ration for the entire year needed to be certified organic. This change makes transition much more costly for dairies. The June 8th deadline caused more dairies to begin their transition before that date. Due to the low conventional milk price even more farmers started their transition last year. Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA)-NY stated that on past years they receive roughly 20 new applications for dairy. Last year they received approximately 100 applications.
This is the information I have concerning the moratorium: 3-4 months ago Organic Valley realized that they had signed up enough milk for what they were sure they could market. They were telling farmers they weren't taking any new milk till fall of '08. On Friday April 13th I was holding a meeting in Watertown NY on organic farm management and the extension agent in that area received a call from a field rep from DMS saying that Horizon and Hood had contacted DMS saying they too were not taking any more milk till fall of '08. Some of the farmers at the meeting were very surprised at this since just this winter at the Horizon meetings in Northern NY Horizon was telling them that they were still looking for new milk. I contacted Upstate to see what their situation was, and they said they would take on a few more farms as their sales picked up but would choose farms along existing routes.
As to which farmers will be affected; OV, Horizon, and Hood said they would honor any letters of commitment they had issued. Any farmer who hasn't committed to a processor will not be able to sell their milk through them. I would say any farmer who has been receiving transition money from a processor are protected.
The processors that I have talked to all say they will take on new milk sooner as new markets open up. Some knew there were opportunities but needed time to make the connections. Up till now the organic market had only enough to supply the fluid market. This will be an opportunity to establish some hard dairy products that can help ease the spring flush.
Some have wondered if processors will use the current saturation of the market to weed out farms. I want to believe that size will not be a reason for harassment. In 2000 when I switched from Natural By Nature to Horizon. Horizon said they would never let any producer go because they were too small. At the time Horizon was investing in community milkhouses for the Amish so I believed them then and I hope that this is still their position.
Quality is another issue. At the 4 meetings I recently put on in Northren NY there were three producers who had been given notice about correcting their quality issues or risk a suspension from the truck picking up their milk. When I was shipping there were times when I struggled with quality, usually Pre Incubation (PI). Once I was taken off the truck for a week and it was good motivation for me to change some bad practices that I had. Yes it's too bad that processors use this during flushes but it is a necessary practice to keep quality up. I have heard the flip side of this also. I was having a conversation with three organic dairy producers who I knew quite well, and they were swapping stories about how they had received some bad quality reports for their milk. They had called the quality person with their processors and asked that the numbers be deleted or changed, and the quality person obliged them. I found this conversation particularly disturbing.
If a producer believes they are being treated unfairly about quality there are some avenues for them to respond. One would be contacting QMPS here in NY at:
Central Laboratory - Ithaca, NY
22 Thornwood Drive
Parkview Technology Center I
Ithaca, New York 14850-1263
(607)255-8202
QMPS has four labs throughout NY to work with producers to improve their quality or to double check their processor's findings.
New York only produces about 100 Million lbs of organic milk/year which is 1/3 of what is sold here.
April 10, 2007
Organic Grain Supply Tightens in 2007
by A. Fay Benson
As most organic livestock producers forecasted, this next year will see the organic grain market become even tighter on supply than ever before. The situation started last year with Dairy farmers trying to start their transition before June 5th when the 80/20 rule was changed by the NOP. This isn't the only reason but definitely contributed to the situation.
Mary-Howell Martens of Lakeview Organic Grain of Penn Yan reported at the Organic Dairy Task Force meeting March 13th that since March 1st they have been getting calls from dairy producers who have entered the final 90 days of their transition and are now looking for their organic grain supplies. She worried that there may not be enough grain to supply the market until harvest time. The Task Force, which is made up of Organic Dairy Producers, Grain Producers, Certifiers, Organic Processors, and extension educators, put forth a number of proposals to help the industry through this crisis.
 Get the word out to producers so they can have time to react to the shortage either by growing more grain, balancing rations to reduce the use of grain, harvesting forages to maximize their nutrients, or what ever method fits their operation.
Compile a list of dairy nutritionists who are familiar with pasture and the high forage diets utilized by organic farmers. This list will be sent to organic grain mills, processors, and is now posted in the Organic Dairy FAQ's section of the Organic Dairy Website.
Publicize fact sheets on growing and feeding organic grain crops, found on the New Farm Website and also NOFA NY's Website.
One situation we all want to avoid with the shortage of certified organic grain is the possibility of unscrupulous people who will sell non-certified grain to organic livestock producers. Everyone needs to verify their grain sources to avoid the risk of losing their certification because they weren't vigilant. For additional information on growing organic grain, visit the Organic Field Crops page. |
