Last week I attended the National Young Farmers conference at the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture where I led a workshop about dairy processing. In the workshop I spoke about the various benefits and challenges about producing different value-added dairy products. I also led the participants in a cheese tasting and gave a Ricotta making demonstration.
The conference was a wonderful experience, there were so many farmers there, both new and experienced. I got to talk with farmers from all over the country and learn lots of great information that I can bring back to Cricket Creek Farm. I attended workshops on a variety of topics including marketing, financing, meat production, labor management, and necroscopy. Necroscopy is autopsy, but for animals as opposed to people. The presenter was a vet turned farmer who did a great job showing us how to examine a dead animal and identify different possible causes of death, a very useful skill. I feel that everything I learn at a conference like this goes into my toolbox of skills and experiences that I can bring to my life and work at Cricket Creek Farm.