Funding For Dairy Profit Teams Available in Jefferson County

By Karen Baase

(Watertown, NY) The Jefferson County Agricultural Development Corporation (JCADC) still has funding available for the formation of dairy profit teams for farms in Jefferson and Madison counties. Thanks to the New York Farm Viability Institute, the Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency, and the Development Authority of the North Country, farms may apply to JCADC to participate. Interested farms in Jefferson County may contact Jay Matteson at JCADC by calling (315) 782-1806 or Ron Kuck at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County at (315) 788-8450. In Madison County, farms should contact Karen Baase with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County at (315) 684-3001 x 105.

Participating farms are eligible to receive cost share funds of up to $2,000 to help with startup of dairy profit teams and initiate benchmarking and short and long term goal setting. Funds will be awarded on a reimbursable basis. Cost sharing will be awarded on a 75% grant funds to 25% farm funds ratio. Farms will need to apply to participate in this program; a small subcommittee will be formed to select successful applications if necessary. The application for farms is available online http://www.comefarmwithus.com/DairyProfitTeamInitiative/FarmApplication.htm.

You may also request an application be sent in the mail. Successful farms selected for the program will be required to utilize a trained facilitator. The farm will select a team and submit the names of the people on the team to JCADC. The farm will be required to submit a minimum of 3 short term goals with benchmarking to serve as a starting point assessment. In order to receive reimbursement, the farm will be required to submit a written report documenting their progress towards achieving their goals and any success stories they can report.

Phase one of the Jefferson and Madison Counties Dairy Profit Team project saw ten farms participate. Most of the farms achieved significant results increasing farm efficiencies and profitability on the farm. Overall, farms invested over $1 million in their operations as a result of the project. For more information on dairy profit teams go to www.comefarmwithus.com/DairyProfitTeamInitiative

Funding For Dairy Profit Teams Available in Jefferson County

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