Upcoming Events

About Grazing in New York

Grazing is a common practice used by livestock producers in the Northeast to provide forage, reduce supplemental feed needs, reduce farm energy costs, and improve soil and livestock health. Lands set aside for perennial plants for grazing can also help reduce nutrient losses and provide open space habitat for wildlife. In 2017, of the 6,866,171 acres of NY farmland, 16% or 429,136 acres was used for pasture. Over 30 million acres of idle land in New York State could also be grazed by livestock in the future. In New York, environmental conditions favor grazing cool-season grasses and legumes. Well-managed grazing systems with cool- and warm- season grasses and legumes can help farms be resilient to climate change.

Sources

News

Recent Blog Posts
grazing, pasture
Introduction to Rotational Grazing
grazing, pasture
Read More →
grazing, pasture
pasture, beginner, getting started, goats, health, lamb, parasites, sheep
Grazing Small Ruminants to Avoid High Spring Parasite Loads
pasture, beginner, getting started, goats, health, lamb, parasites, sheep

Getting our sheep and goats out on pasture is something that we all look forward to this time of year. Having the animals outside makes it easier to get the barns cleaned and helps decrease our feed bills. Plus, there's nothing more serene than watching our charges walking in the lush green grass, heads down, thoroughly enjoying the buffet after a winter of stored forage.

Read More →
pasture, beginner, getting started, goats, health, lamb, parasites, sheep
pasture
The Pros and Cons of Seeding Pasture with Big Box Store Mixes
pasture

As we work in our barns or sit in our houses, looking upon our fields encased in snow, we're reflecting on the year and making decisions as to which pastures we're going to renovate or improve. Once those well thought out decisions have been made, we go to order seed, only to find that prices have skyrocketed. There is also very little seed available. Both are a result of last year's drought in Oregon, where much of our pasture seed comes from. This wasn't in the plan! What do we do now?

Read More →
pasture
Archived Webinars
How to Value Your Business, Planning for the Future: Session 4
Apr 28
How to Value Your Business, Planning for the Future: Session 4

A team of Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators and guest presenters will provide tools to assess your existing meat, fiber or other value-added processing business, and assistance in understanding options for business expansion or transfer.

How to Value Your Business, Planning for the Future: Session 3
Apr 21
How to Value Your Business, Planning for the Future: Session 3

A team of Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators and guest presenters will provide tools to assess your existing meat, fiber or other value-added processing business, and assistance in understanding options for business expansion or transfer.

How to Value Your Business, Planning for the Future: Session 2
Apr 14
How to Value Your Business, Planning for the Future: Session 2

A team of Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators and guest presenters will provide tools to assess your existing meat, fiber or other value-added processing business, and assistance in understanding options for business expansion or transfer.

How to Value Your Business, Planning for the Future: Session 1
Apr 7
How to Value Your Business, Planning for the Future: Session 1

A team of Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators and guest presenters will provide tools to assess your existing meat, fiber or other value-added processing business, and assistance in understanding options for business expansion or transfer.

Composting Livestock Mortality & Butcher Waste

Learning to properly manage carcasses and slaughter waste is a critical skill for livestock producers and meat processors alike. In this webinar, CCE Educator Lynn Bliven covers the essentials to avoid environmental contamination and human safety hazards.

How to Better Communicate with Your Meat Processor
Feb 11
How to Better Communicate with Your Meat Processor

This webinar covers how to effectively work with your local meat processor, communicate cut instructions, and understand the difference between USDA and custom cutting.

Starting a Red Meat Slaughterhouse
Feb 11
Starting a Red Meat Slaughterhouse

Learn the primary considerations for opening a red meat slaughter and processing facility in NYS, from infrastructure to regulations and from labor to financing.

Creative Slaughterhouse Workarounds
Feb 11
Creative Slaughterhouse Workarounds

In this interactive discussion, we aim to help you regain some sense of control over how, when and where you get your livestock processed, and how you sell meat to customers.