Program Areas
• Dairy Youth
• Dairy Farm Business Management
• Dairy Production Systems Management
• Dairy Environmental Systems Mgt.

• Environmental Management Engineering
• Nutrient Mangement/CAFO
• On-farm Environmental Management
• Integrated Dairy Waste Management

• Dairy Facilities Engineering
• Dairy Profit Discussion Groups
• Dairy Profit Monitor

On-Farm Environmental Management Program

Lee Telega

E-mail: swt2@cornell.edu

The On-Farm Environmental Management Program has three components. They are:

1. Support the NYS Agricultural Environmental Management (AEM) Program: The Agricultural Environmental Management (AEM) Program administered by the Soil & Water Conservation Committee continues to help New York farmers meet the challenges of farming ‘cleaner and greener’. Keeping AEM relevant in helping it become well recognized as a practical and realistic approach to address farm environmental needs is becoming more and more critical to all of agriculture.
2. Issues and Policies in Managing Manure on New York Dairy Farms With growing interest in energy from biomass, anaerobic digestion of the manure wastestream in communities with high concentration of dairy animals offers economic and business development potential.
3. Improving Capacity for Farms to Address Neighbor/Community Concerns Many dairy producers, particularly those operating larger and expanding dairies, will need to develop stronger lines of communications and build trusting relations with their neighbors and communities. Distrust of factory-type farms and fear of the impact of these operations on a community’s quality of life, strategies to actively engage neighbors has become an important focus of managing a growing dairy farm business.

Current Projects

1. Developing educational material and policy briefings that analyses challenges and opportunities for broad adoption of anaerobic digestion of dairy manure as an viable energy source in rural communities;
2. Bringing CAFO Permit Requirements Under Management on Dairy Farms--A Six-Farm Demonstration Project—awaiting funding approval from NYFVI;
3. Reintroduction of Managing for Success (MFS) concepts and practices into local CCE dairy educational programs;
4. Developing Environmental assessments worksheets (AEM Tier II) for fruit and vegetable producers.

For more information contact Lee Telega at swt2@cornell.edu