SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Grass-fed beef production accounts for roughly half of the state’s beef farms and the product’s popularity has increased significantly with climate conscious consumers. The challenge? Not all pastures, or pasture management approaches, provide high quality forage, and it can be hard to understand how a farm’s fields measure up.
A recently funded New York Farm Viability Institute (NYFVI) project, led by Cornell Cooperative Extension Educator Ashley McFarland, will work with at least 10 participating farms across NY state and will show how improved pasture and stored forage quality positively affects average daily gains, reduces days-to-harvest, and feed cost per pound of gain.
The benchmarks created will help farms know what they need to do to alter their pasture management and/or forage production strategies to increase forage quality, improve daily gains and profitability. Results will be shared with participating farms, extension educators, and beef producers across the state.
The New York Farm Viability Institute runs a competitive grant program that seeks to create and share knowledge. This project is one of 17 that were funded in our most recent grant round. To learn more about the organization and other work it has supported, please visit www.nyfvi.org.
–New York Farm Viability Institute