This is a year of change for me as well as the NWNY team. I have been promoted to the role of Small Farms Support Specialist, effective March 1. I will be doing many of the same things I did as Team Assistant, such as grazing plan development, and assisting with meetings. I am looking at grazing to be my focal point for beginning my new role expanding to cover pasture walks, informational meetings for new livestock operations, and possibly develop some discussion groups. I will be involved more closely with the Cornell livestock specialists providing research based information.

There are a number of definitions of small farms. Cornell University uses the USDA definition which encompasses farms with a gross income less than $250,000. With the significant change in commodity and milk prices over the past year, this has reduced the size constraints. I look at the definition loosely to be used as a base. Small farms will be my focus, but I look at my job as an educator to help in any way I can to promote New York agriculture, more specifically North West New York agriculture. I will now officially be based in the Penn Yan office, but continue to have duties to all nine counties.