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Agriculture

Tour Twin Springs Fruit Farm during evening field walk

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa — Specialty crop producers can join fellow growers in a no-cost, evening field walk to explore practical strategies for fruit, vegetable and leafy greens production at an upcoming Penn State Extension event. “Greenhouse and Berry Crops Field Walk” will be Oct. 9 from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at Twin Springs Fruit Farm, 936 Orchard Rd., Orrtanna. Attendees are asked to enter Rodney Lee Drive via the Orchard Road entrance only. Twin Springs Fruit Farm is a diversified operation known for its tree fruits, berries, field crops and greenhouse production. Attendees will ...

Penn State offers Beef Cattle Short Course

UNIVERSITY PARK — The Beef Cattle Short Course will take place Oct. 7-8 at Penn State and offer cattle producers two days of learning opportunities The course, presented by Penn State Extension with support from the Pennsylvania Beef Producers Working Group, begins with a live cattle evaluation, which allows participants the chance to assess live cattle and on day two of the course participants get to see how their evaluations translate to outcomes on the rail. The first afternoon features guest speaker Pedro Carvalho, assistant professor and feedlot specialist, Colorado State ...

Proactive surveillance ongoing for New World screwworm

WASHINGTON — U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently identified an instance of a traveler-associated human case of New World screwworm (NWS) in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reaffirmed its robust surveillance and trapping strategy, confirming there have been no detections of NWS in U.S. livestock. Under President Trump’s leadership, USDA, HHS, CDC, FDA and our other federal partners have led a robust government wide response to combat the New World Screwworm (NWS) in ...

McVeytown’s Ava Neff captures NBHA crown

McVEYTOWN — Barrel racing is a simple but demanding sport: three barrels, one cloverleaf pattern, a single shot at perfection. The rest is arithmetic — a stopwatch, a list of names, a field of 137 riders at the Diamond 7 Arena, National Barrel Horse Association Pennsylvania State Finals, each chasing that fractional edge between triumph and the penalty that sends you home early. On a September morning in Dillsburg, York County, Ava Neff found the formula. What makes a champion in barrel racing isn’t raw speed or brute strength. It’s the calculus of control — how tightly ...

Milk rescued following shutdown of New York dairy plant

MIDDLEBURY CENTER, Pa. – Pennsylvania recently led a multi-state response to redirect millions of pounds of milk that were at risk of spoilage as a result of a temporary pause in processing at the Great Lakes Cheese plant in Franklinville, New York. PennDOT coordinated closely with the New York State Department of Transportation, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, and the dairy industry to authorize the issuance of single trip permits to haul milk on specific routes to milk processing plants in Pennsylvania in less than 24 hours. Rather than dispose of raw milk ...

Small-group gatherings planned for sheep and goat producers

UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State Extension will host small-group gatherings at two locations in September and October for sheep and goat producers to network and discuss industry needs. These informal, educational meetings will focus on local small-ruminant production and future programming. One meeting will be Sept. 24 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the York County 4-H Center, 771 Stoverstown Rd., York. The second meeting will take place Oct. 8 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Bedford County office of Penn State Extension, 120 W. John St., Bedford. Both sessions are open to producers at all ...