From the left are St. Lawrence County Legislator John Burke, Sen. Dan Stec, county legislators Margaret Haggard, Larry Denesha, William Sheridan, Joseph Lightfoot, and chair David Forsythe; Robert Andrews, chair of the county Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board and Soil and Water Conservation District, David Fisher, New York State Farm Bureau president; Dan Huntley, county Farm Bureau president; and Robert Ahleld from the St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency. Submitted Photo.
BY PAUL MITCHELL
North Country This Week
LISBON – Forty-four participants including elected officials, farmers and business representatives took part in a collaborative agricultural tour at three Lisbon locations on Aug. 18.
“The purpose of the tour was to inform agriculture stakeholders about major issues facing county farmers; to learn about the county’s agriculture supply chain; the emergence of renewable energy systems on farms; and to help identify solutions to achieve industry-wide success,” noted Dan Huntley, president of the St. Lawrence County Farm Bureau.
The tour’s first stop was Never Tire Farm, a wholesale horticulture greenhouse operation owned and managed by Megan and Ray Bowdish. Both Megan and Ray spoke about the business’ history; its products and markets; their current growing practices; labor challenges and business succession. The farm’s nine greenhouses produce 500,000 to 800,000 seed starts annually that are distributed to retail outlets throughout the region.
The tour’s second stop was Robert Zufall’s organic dairy farm and community solar project. Bob and his wife Linda are first-generation farmers who run an 85-cow organic dairy farm with their three sons. The milk from Zufall’s grass-fed cows is processed by Maple Hill Organic, a company based in Little Falls New York whose products are sold nationally. In addition to having their cows graze on nearby pasture, the Zufalls host a new 3.4 megawatt DC (2.5 MW AC) community…
Read the full article here