Upcoming Online Business Seminars through the National Good Food Network
Feeling like you want to brush up your farm-business skills? A few online educational opportunities are coming up from the Wallace Center’s National Good Food Network – check them out! May 31, 2012 at...
View ArticleApply Now to be a 2013 Bootstrap Blogger
The Bootstrap Blog – featuring viewpoints of farmers in their beginning years of running a farm – is entering its third year with a landslide of enthusiasm. With special thanks to the six...
View ArticleDairy Applications Rolling in for the 2013 Bootstrap Blog – Apply Now!
Dairy farmers! Apply now to be a 2013 Bootstrap blog writer with NYFC. 2013 will be the year of dairy, and farmers will be compensated for sharing their expertise and reflections. There are only...
View ArticleIntroducing Goat Song Farm of Sheridan, OR
Goat Song Farm is an integrated livestock farm that sits on only slightly more than 1 acre of land, but the centerpiece to everything is the dairy. I run a raw milk herdshare program with both dairy...
View ArticleBootstrap @ Corse Family Farm – Welcome to our season!
Hi! I’m Abbie, mama to Eli, wife to Dave (who is NOT a farmer, but a wildly talented builder), and daughter to Leon and Linda. Along with my parents I farm here in the rolling hills of southern VT....
View ArticleBootstrap @ Blue Sage Farm – Why I’m a Dairy Farmer
I guess you could say I just fell into to dairying. I grew up on a cattle ranch but our distance from town meant that we couldn’t just run to the store every time we ran out of milk. My brother’s...
View ArticleBootstrap @ North Country Creamery – the motley crew
“Quite the motley crew you’ve got there,” comments my neighbor as we lean against his stock hauling trailer, peering across the field at my herd. “Well thanks,” I respond hesitantly, unsure of how he...
View ArticleBootstrap @ Blue Sage Farm – Animals and Breeds
Since my main interest is sheep, I’m going to concentrate most of this blog post to them but I will mention in passing that I have Alpine dairy goats and have started getting some Nubians for their...
View ArticleBootstrap @ Chaseholm Farm – On Breeds and Choices
I was raised amidst admiration teetering on veneration for the Holstein cow. Each heifer represented the full potential of her genetics, her dam, grand-dam and those of her sire and sometimes that...
View ArticleBootstrap @ The Golden Yoke – on Breeds and Species
Montana is considered a fluid milk state, which means that one of the primary goals for dairy farmers is to breed cows that produce a lot of milk without much regard for components. Across the state,...
View ArticleBootstrap @ Blue Sage Farm – On Capital and Equipment
One of the most difficult things I had to do to get the dairy up and running was finding capital. “You want to milk what??!!” was the standard response from bankers. Even with a full business plan...
View ArticleBootstrap @ North Country Creamery – Equipment to Get the Dairy Started
Much to my surprise, my first investment when landing on this farm in the spring was stainless steel. Since I highly valued keeping the milk from my herd on the farm, I threw down for the high-dollar...
View ArticleBootstrap @ Chaseholm Farm – Reflecting on Equipment and Capital
I stepped into a nearly complete farm infrastructure on my first day of farming. Around here that is how most people start. It seems only recently have I noticed micro-dairies doing innovative parlor...
View ArticleBootstrap @ Corse Family Farm – Equipment & Capital
It takes a lot of equipment to farm here. And therefore, a decent amount of incoming capital. Enter here yet another of the reasons why we are a organic dairy and even further, with Organic Valley,...
View ArticleBootstrap @ The Golden Yoke – Looking Ahead at Capital and Equipment
This past month has been a big decision-making month for The Golden Yoke. Unlike the other Bootstrap farmers, we are not currently milking any cows, do not have any facilities, and do not have any real...
View ArticleBootstrap @ Blue Sage Farm – Training
Nothing beats hands on learning especially in a job like farming. That’s not to say that some “book learning” isn’t important but you can only learn so much from a book then you’ve got to get your...
View ArticleBootstrap @ Chaseholm Farm – Training
Happy Summer! I’m writing after our recent (and very productive) dry and hot spell from the comfort of cool weather. The cows are loving it. This post is about the training that I have received, am...
View ArticleBootstrap @ North Country Creamery – Training
When I first landed on the east coast almost a decade ago, my initiation into dairy farming was watching the herdswoman, Judith, at Hawthorne Valley Farm tend the sixty Brown Swiss beasts. “I can never...
View ArticleBootstrap @ The Golden Yoke – Training and Experience
I remember hearing a statistic once, that to be an expert at something you had to do that activity for 10,000 hours. Connie and I tried to calculate all of the hours we have stood behind or next to a...
View ArticleBootstrap @ Corse Family Farm – Thoughts on Training
Other than growing up here, I have pretty much not a scrap of training to be doing the work that I do. I failed the mechanical portion of the ASVABS in high school. I hated cows and therefore paid...
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