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Farmer to Farmer: Profitable Pastures
July 13, 2017 @ 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm
This workshop is SOLD OUT!
Join Amy Klippenstein and Paul Lacinski of Sidehill Farm, Eric Sheffer of Sheffer’s Grassland Dairy, and Morgan Hartman of Black Queen Angus Farm as they share insight from years of managing pastures. Topics will include land stewardship, forage growth, soil fertility, and animal health and genetics. We will discuss the ways all of these things and more affect the cost of production and improve your bottom line. Jump at the chance to learn from these Northeast farmers as well as each other. We will begin with a pasture walk of Sidehill Farm. Snacks provided.
About the presenters:
Amy Klippenstein & Paul Lacinski, Sidehill Farm: Operating on 225 acres of certified organic pastures and hayfields, woodlands, and big sky, with a herd of 80 grass-fed Normande and Jersey cows, Sidehill Farm produces nearly 1500 gallons of yogurt per week. They have been in operation as a farm since the early 2000’s, taking over a farm previously growing hay and potatoes in 2012. Sidehill Farm was a New England Green Pastures Outstanding Dairy Farm award winner for 2015.
Eric Sheffer, Sheffer Grassland Dairy: Sheffer’s Grassland Dairy is a seasonal grazing farm owned and operated by Wally Sheffer and his son Eric Sheffer. They began milking cows in the spring of 2008 after Eric graduated from Cornell University. Before this time the family farm functioned as a crop growing and heifer raising facility. The Sheffers have grown to 240 cows. They manage 250 acres of intensive grass and run an additional 350 acres of crop ground, which is primarily made into baleage.
Morgan Hartman, Black Queen Angus Farm: Morgan is the managing partner of Black Angus Queen Farm in Berlin, NY. The farm focuses on the development of a world class registered breeding stock herd under a commercially oriented, Holistically Managed, least-cost production paradigm. Morgan is a founding member of the annual Winter Green-Up Grazing Conference in Albany. He will present on planned and adaptive grazing with emphasis on production per unit of land area vs. production per animal. A component of this comes down to genetic selection under a given farmer’s production paradigm on THEIR farm and the inherent conditions there of; soils, aspect, slope, existing vegetation, AND above all, Holistic Context.