Series: A Year on the Farm

(01/23/06) The North Country used to be a region of dairy farmers. Northern New York has lost hundreds of dairy farms since the 1980s. Still, dairy remains the biggest industry here and the cow remains a potent symbol. But fewer people know what dairy farming is all about. This year, David Sommerstein is going to try to demystify the dairy farm. Every month in 2006, we'll follow life in the barn, on the fields, and in the farmhouse through the changing seasons. In this first edition of A Year on the Farm, David takes us to the Andrews farm in the town of Fowler, outside Gouverneur, for the basic chores that go on year-round - milking, feeding, and bedding.

(02/23/06) It's the time of year when calf pens pop up across the North Country landscape. It's easy to forget that making milk is really about making baby cows. They don't call it "animal husbandry" for nothing. David Sommerstein's doing a year of stories on the ins and outs of life on a dairy farm. Today, dry and freshened cows, calving, and the reproductive business of a dairy farm.

(04/07/06) Spend time around a dairy farm, and you'll learn a lot about the farmer who owns it. Some barnyards are muddy and chaotic, others immaculate and organized. Some farmers get obsessed with grazing, or breeding perfect heifers, or using bugs to fight disease on their fields. Some love big tractors, others hate 'em. David Sommerstein's doing a year of stories on everyday dairy farming with Bob Andrews, who farms near Gouverneur. Bob's a manager.

(05/25/06) When you drive across the North Country at this time of year, you'll see some farm fields already green with shoots. Others are deep brown and ready for seeding. Some haven't changed since winter. Soils vary according to microregion. Some of the last fields to be tilled are near Gouverneur, where the clay soil is cool and wet. That's where farmer Bob Andrews lives. David Sommerstein hopped on his tractor for this month's edition of A Year on the Farm.

(08/14/06) Everywhere you look this time of year, you see miles and miles of hay. Hay in round bales, square bales, wrapped in white plastic, lined in long strips across fields, piled in a big wagon hitched to the back of a tractor. This year, David Sommerstein's spending time on Bob Andrews' dairy near Gouverneur to learn the ins and outs of farming. Today's episode of A Year on the Farm is all about hay.

(08/28/06) This year, David Sommerstein's spending time each month on one dairy farm to learn more about what farmers do every day. The series is called A Year on the Farm. Our willing farmer is Bob Andrews in the town of Fowler near Gouverneur. Last episode, David learned all about hay. The other big crop for dairy farmers is corn, and it's Bob Andrews' favorite. So today's edition of A Year on the Farm is an ode to corn.

(10/20/06) This year, David Sommerstein's been sending monthly audio postcards from Bob Andrews' 80-cow dairy farm near Gouverneur. At this time of year, farmers are in high gear to batten down the hatches for winter. They're stowing away machinery and trying to get that last cutting in from the fields to top off the silo. Here's another edition of A Year on the Farm.

(11/21/06) Farming is, really, the story of the life cycle. Planting and harvesting. Calving and slaughtering. Barns are raised. Some eventually fall back to the earth. David Sommerstein's nearing completion of a year-long cycle on Bob Andrews' farm near Gouverneur. Today, life and death...and life again...on the farm.

BREAKING NEWS: Yesterday at 11:51am, Bob and Diane Andrews' daughter, Jessie, gave birth to Margot Diane Pritting in Syracuse - 7 pounds, 5 ounces. Both mother and child are healthy and happy. Bob and Diane hope to get away to see their first grandchild when they can find someone to milk the cows. A big congrats to the Andrews!

(12/25/06) As the year comes to an end, so does our series A Year on the Farm. David Sommerstein's been sending regular postcards from Bob Andrews 80-cow dairy near Gouverneur in St. Lawrence County. We've learned about calving and plowing and harvesting, round bales and square bales. But what REALLY makes dairy different from any other kind of farming are the daily milkings. That's where the series started, and that's where it'll end.

(10/21/08) Two years ago, David Sommerstein spent a year reporting from Bob Andrews' dairy farm in St. Lawrence County. He wanted to learn what farmers did day-to-day, month-to-month. But about this time of the year, he missed the corn harvest. Well, it took awhile, but David made it to this year's harvest, a challenging one at that, for A Year on the Farm, revisited.