Geneva, N.Y. The New York Certified Organic (NYCO) dairy and field crops farmer-to-farmer meetings will finally return to the Jordan Hall auditorium on the Cornell AgriTech campus in Geneva. The meetings had been held in this location for many years, but COVID-19 forced the group to try alternate formats the past few years.

Meetings were typically the second Tuesday in January, February, and March, but the group is skipping January this year to focus on two meetings - February 14 will be focused on dairy and March 14 will be focused on field crops. Both meetings will run from 9am to 1pm and participants are encouraged to bring a dish to pass for lunch. The meetings are free to attend and all farmers are welcome.

Both meetings will include farmer-to-farmer discussions of any current challenges and potential solutions. The dairy meeting will also include presentations from Kirsten Workman, ProDairy, and Cheryl Cesario, a dairy farmer and NOFA board member, who will each discuss ways to deal with the rising costs of organic feed.

The field crop meeting will include a presentation by well-known farmer, Carmen Fernholz, on his crop production and marketing in Minnesota. Ken Wise, an educator with NYSIPM, will discuss ways IPM can be used in organic field crops. And a farmer panel moderated by Kristen Loria will discuss their efforts in trying to reduce tillage.

For more information, contact Bryan Brown (315-787-2432, bryan.brown@cornell.edu). The NYCO planning committee also includes Emily Reiss, Ph.D. Clarence, N.Y. and Luke Gianforte of Gianforte Farm, Cazenovia, N.Y.  

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NYCO winter meetings have grown from a gathering of six organic grain producers in the Martens Farms farmhouse kitchen in 1992 to filling the auditorium at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva. To send a message to the group, email it to bryan.brown@cornell.edu and he will send out yours and any other messages once a week. Please tell others to subscribe by emailing NYCO-group-L-request@cornell.edu with "join" as the subject and no text in the body of the email. Unsubscribe by emailing NYCO-group-L-request@cornell.edu with "leave" as the subject and no text in the body of the email.