Sundae on the Farm at Adventure Dairy

Submitted by Steve McDonald, Ag Team Leader

Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Franklin is sponsoring a farm tour in celebration of "June Dairy Month". Both wagon tours and walking tours will be given on Sunday, June 10th from 11:00am to 3:00pm at Adventure Dairy owned and operated by Gerry and Korin Oakes in the township of Bombay. This first generation family run operation features Holstein cows housed in a free stall facility with the existing tie stall barn converted to a double twelve swing milking parlor. Ice Cream sundaes will be served by the Franklin County Dairy Princess and ambassadors! Ice Cream is donated by Stewarts Shops in their continued support of NYS dairies.

All ages will enjoy seeing a bird's eye view of a functional, modern dairy farm in full operation. Families will be able to see firsthand all aspects of the dairy operation including feeding, calf and heifer rearing facilities, the milking parlor, and maternity housing.

This wonderful educational opportunity highlights one of the region's largest contributors to our local economy. Farmers in general, are notorious for putting revenue back into their surrounding communities with the purchase of new equipment, supplies, building materials, repairs, employment opportunities, and other business related activities.

New York State ranks third in dairy production behind California and Wisconsin. Locally, Franklin County has a diversity of dairy farms; from very large dairies with thousands of cows to small, grass-based organic dairies and everything in between. According to the 2012 Census of Agriculture there are a total of 688 farms in Franklin County. Of those, 155 are dairy operations with a total of 14,500 milk cows. These numbers have most likely dropped in recent years as an extended period of low milk prices have forced dairies to sell and new dairies are unable to secure milk markets. Data for the 2017 Census of Agriculture is currently being gathered by the USDA. In general, due to fluctuating milk prices, the trend has been an increase in herd size and milk production per cow with a decrease in the number of farms. This results in increased efficiency and allows producers the advantage of economies of scale. With the help of modern research from institutions such as Cornell University and Miner Institute, dairy farmers can maximize production, quality, and milk components with the implementation of "best practices". These include but are not limited to the following: cow comfort, improved genetics, harvesting top quality feed, and maintaining quality control measures that ensure a healthy environment and a high quality product.