Steve Hadcock

Extension Educator

Steve has expertise in the area of dairy cattle management and farm business management.

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Business Planning Links
Dairy Related Links
Farm Management Links
Milk Marketing Links

Contacting by Email:

Business Planning Links:

For a listing of forms and publications that are helpful for starting or operating a farm business, click here.

The Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) website is one place to obtain information on sustainable agriculture. ATTRA is the national sustainable farming information center that links people involved in full- or part-time farming to information and resources on sustainable agriculture. ATTRA provides technical assistance through (1) publications, and (2) customized resource packets. The typical ATTRA publication contains a 5 to 20 page summary of the topic, and is usually accompanied by references and resource listings (i.e., expert contacts, key literature, sources of products), and occasionally, literature enclosures. The website address for ATTRA is www.attra.org.

The Cornell Small Farms website offers a variety of information on farming. At this website, one may obtain information about the production of a particular crop, business management information and marketing. Of particular interest at this website is a list of resources for people interested in starting a farm. The address of this website is www.smallfarms.cornell.edu and click on the small farms button.

For those interested in the green industries, the Horticulture Business Management and Marketing website provides useful information and links to industry information.

For information on business planning, visit the Cornell Agricultural Risk Managment Website. Materials from this winters workshop series on business planning are available there. Also available at the website are useful links to other agricultural risk management websites.

A website at Purdue University entitled "Farm Business Management in the 21st Century" has several bulletins and worksheets available to assist in improving your farm business management skills.

Dairy Related Links:

Biosecurity for Livestock Farms

The New York State Cattle Health Assurance Program (NYSCHAP) is designed to help livestock producers reduce the risk of spreading contagious diseased on their farm. This website is a wonderful resource on a variety of diseases and for udder health information.

Univ. of Wisconsin Forage website is a good resource for forage production. It has some good spreadsheet templates to help estimate economic impact of changes in forage quality. Some other computer programs help with sizing horizontal silos.

William H. Miner Institute is an agricultural research center located near Plattsburgh, NY. The present day 8,600 acre institute is composed of 500 acres of cropland, and several thousands acres of Jack Pine forest. This is an ideal setting for a demonstration dairy farm ; equine and farm research; and undergraduate educational programs in agriculture and Applied Environmental Science. The Miner Institute maintains a 130-cow Holstein and Jersey herd in an automated free stall barn, along with 15 Morgan Horses. The institute publishes a very good monthly newsletter, and is available at the website.

National Dairy Library is a relatively new site containing a wealth of information about dairy cattle production. It provides links to other sites as well. It will link you to commercial businesses and to other dairy farmer web sites.

For information on growing, harvesting and storing forages, a good website is at the University of Wisconsin. A variety of literature on forage harvesting is available at this site. There is a spreadsheet available to help in sizing bunker silos as well.

Michigan State University publishes a WWW version of their dairy newsletter. Many of the articles use Michigan examples, but still have ideas that we can use here in NYS.

Here is a link to Cornell's Dairy website. It lists a variety of publications that you can download and read.

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Farm Management Links:

For information about New York State's STAR program, visit the NYS Office of Real Property web site. They have answers to frequently asked questions and the forms needed to participate in the STAR program.

NYS Dept. of Taxation and Finance link will help you locate the new publication for the Farmer's School Tax Credit.

If you are interested in information on Quicken. Oklahoma State University has a site just for farmers.

Farm Labor Links:

Unless noted otherwise, all of the files available for downloading are in PDF format. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the files.

For a copy of the NYS Dept. of Labor Agriculture Wage Poster, click here.

For a copy of the NYS Dept. of Labor Agriculture Wage Order, click here.

For a list of prohibited farm jobs for youth,click here.

Sample Farm Work Agreement (English) Sample Farm Work Agreement (Spanish)

Download US Dept. of Justice Form I-9 "Employment Eligibility Form"

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Milk Marketing Links:

If you would like some general milk marketing information, the Cornell Program on Dairy Markets and Policy is one source of NYS milk marketing information.

Ken Baily is the author of Dairy Outlook Website at The Pennsylvania State University has a good website on milk marketing. Ken offers weekly an audio update on what is happening with milk marketing. He has other milk marketing related resources there as well.

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