The Schoharie County Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board will be offering scholarships for two local farmers to attend the Capital District’s Annual Winter Green-up Grass-fed Beef Conference.
The scholarships are being offered in memory of local grass-fed beef farmer David Huse, who was killed in June.
In addition, conference planners will be honoring Mr. Huse, an early adopter of the grass-fed beef system, during the first session of the annual conference.
The conference will be held on Friday, January 28 and Saturday, January 29 at the Century House on Route 9 in Latham.
This year’s conference topics include direct marketing, buyers groups, winter feeding research and techniques, silvopasturing, and improving soil health.
Speakers include Joel Slatin, a full-time farmer in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley; Brett Chedzoy, a forester with Cornell Cooperative Extension Schuyler County; Mike Baker, beef cattle Extension specialist with Cornell University; Ray Archuletta, a Conservation agronomist with USDA NRCS’s East National Technology Center in North Carolina; and Morgan Hartman, a grass farmer, grass-fed beef producer, and breeder of registered Angus breeding stock.
A recent report issued by the Cornell Small Farms Program entitled Green Grass, Green Jobs: Increasing Livestock Production on Underutilized Grasslands in NYS indicates there are more than three million acres of underutilized grasslands in New York State.
County Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board Chair Richard Bates said that “in addition to honoring David’s memory, the board recognized the potential opportunity for grass-fed livestock farmer to return Schoharie County’s underutilized grasslands to active agriculture production.”
“Returning these lands to active production will help maintain the working landscape that is valued so highly by Schoharie County residents,” he said.
Scholarship applicants must currently live in Schoharie County and must be actively farming in some capacity.
Although recipients of the scholarship need not be current grass-fed beef farmers, the applicants must demonstrate their desire to diversify to raising grass-fed beef.
The application deadline will be Friday, January 7, at 3pm.
Scholarship recipients will be chosen at random from the entire pool of qualified applicants and will be notified of their award on Monday, January 10.
For more information or to request a scholarship application, contact Schoharie County Ag Marketing Specialist Michelle Stobeck at 234-3751 or michelestrobeck@co.schoh-arie.ny.us.