Animal behavior expert to speak at field day
WILLSBORO — A field day on the topic of grazing will be held Saturday, July 12, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Ben Wever Farm, 445 Mountain View Drive, Willsboro.
The Wevers own 250 acres, raise more than 70 beef cows, pigs, turkeys, meat birds and laying hens, vegetables, flowers and bees for honey. They sell products from their farmstand and directly to local businesses.
Visitors can spend the day learning how to teach cows to eat weeds. They’ll learn how many weed species are actually very nutritious, tour rotationally grazed pastures and see first hand reclaiming land with animals.
Kathy Voth from Livestock for Landscapes based in Colorado has sold out venues across the nation and her book, “Cows Eat Weeds,” and complimentary videos were published in 2010 with her articles appearing in BEEF magazine, Stockman Grass Farmer and Acres USA.
The cost is $10 with a farm-fresh local lunch provided.
RSVP to the Essex County Soil and Water Conservation District at 962-8225 or email Tiffany Pinheiro at tpinheiro30 p.m. Representatives will be showing how to sort, bundle and make bales from used farm plastics.
A Name That Baler contest will be held giving visitors the chance to name the new horizontal-style balers. A winner will be announced and prizes awarded on Aug. 9.
Baling used plastics can save farm and business owners landfill and dumpster fees of $70 or more per ton.
Leader Lois Levitan and Senior Field Coordinator Nate Leonard will display samples of new products made from recycled agricultural plastics, including Terrewalks, granite sidewalk pavers made from recycled black-and-white silage bags. The darker gray pavers are an addition to the product line of the company, which also makes a lighter gray paver from all-white bale wrap recycled from New York State farms.
“The evolution of products that can be made with recycled agricultural plastics continues to create incentives for farmers to recycle more and more of their farm plastics,” Levitan said.
The program also works with farm, nursery and greenhouse business operators to recycle rigid plastics such as agricultural medicine bottles, soap and liquids drums, pesticide containers and nursery pots and trays.
A new recycling ag plastics how-to training video will be playing in the Cornell Center building throughout the 300-acre show that attracts more than 600 exhibitors and 70,000 farmers from all over the U.S. and Canada.
For more details, contact Empire Farm Days Manager Melanie Wickham at 877-697-7837 or mwickham@empirefarmdays.com.
