New York Certified Organic has announced a new location for its 2020 meeting series.

Martin Auction Barn at 1036 NY Route 318 in Waterloo will be the site of the meetings while the auditorium at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva is renovated.

The 2020 meetings will be held Jan. 14, Feb. 11 and March 10. Anyone interested in organic production is welcome to attend. The meetings start at 10 a.m. 

The special guests for the Jan. 14 meeting will be organic grain growers and processors John and Halee Wepking of Meadowlark Organics Farm in Ridgeway, Wisc.; Margaret E. Smith of the Cornell University Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics; and a panel of dairy farmers — Kirk Arnold, Ryker Smith and Jeremy Mapstone — who will be discussing forage harvesting and storage under inconsistent weather.

Sharing their story

John and Halee Wepking’s story is unique in that they are new to farming, having met as chefs in New York City. They decided that they wanted to grow the food they worked with and eventually ended up in Wisconsin.

They were attracted to an advertisement by retiring dairy farmer Paul Bickford who wanted to transition his 950-acre farm into a diversified enterprise by reaching out to young farmers.

The Wepkings will talk about some of the challenges and benefits of getting started in this manner and how they added value to their grain crops by starting a flour mill. Bickford will join the discussion by phone to answer questions about his model of transitioning from a moderately sized commodity farm to a diversified enterprise.

For a preview, watch the video below.

Adapting organic crops

Cornell University plant breeder and researcher Margaret E. Smith will review her work, and that of others, on developing crop varieties whose physiologies are best adapted to organic management.

Her work includes growing foundation seed and providing farmers with tools to make wise seed choices.

Farmer panel

Kirk Arnold of Twin Oaks Dairy in Truxton; Ryker Smith of Tre-G Farms in Manlius; and Jeremy Mapstone of Pastureland Dairy in Manlius will review the plans they have developed to get consistently good forage harvested and stored during times when the weather is anything but consistent.

More speakers

Speakers currently scheduled for the Feb. 11 and March 10 meetings include:

Details on the February and March NYCO meetings will be posted online in the coming weeks.

For more information, contact NYCO meeting coordinator Fay Benson at [email protected] or 607-745-3807.

Source: Cornell Cooperative Extension, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.