95th Annual Delaware County Farm Tour

DELAWARE COUNTY – Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County is holding its 95th annual Delaware County Farm Tour on Friday July 11th.   The first stop will be hosted by Harmonie Farms, the Mattson family, beginning at 11:00 AM.   This third generation 175 cow dairy farm has long been adopted cutting technology and practice, and recent installation of robotic milkers, Robotic feed pusher and upgrades to the freestall barn are the latest advancement on this farm.   The farm is a long-term successful adopter of no-till planting practices and has been steadily growing their equipment fleet for forage harvest.  The youngest generation on the farm, Andrew and Wendy Mattson recently honored as the 2025 Delaware County Outstanding Young Dairy Farmers, are proud to continue the family tradition working alongside father and uncle Mike and Mark Mattson, and a very dedicated crew of employees.  

The second stop will be hosted at Brookside Maple and Farm owned and operated by Matt, Micah and Caroline Scobie, beginning at 1:00 PM with lunch.  Bring your own lunch; milk and ice cream will be provided.  During lunch we will hear from Delaware County Dairy Ambassador Lillian Eklund on her team’s dairy promotions efforts.  Brookside Maple and Farm is a diversified operation that includes a 4,500-tap maple syrup production facility, 40 cow-calf pair beef operation, and sheep for fiber production with direct-to-consumer sales through on-line sales, farmers markets, and farm stand.  They also market to local stores. The maple operation is a New York Grown and Certified operation through the New York State Department of Ag and Markets, which will be discussed.   The farm recently constructed their own winter feeding and cattle management barn, and they have been participants in the Watershed Agricultural Program.    We will tour their beef barn and sap house/farm store and hear about their plans for growing the business.   This stop will also feature a demonstration of precision agriculture application of both liquid and semi-solid manure by Albano’s Precision Application, a custom manure services business serving farms of the region though the Conservation Innovation Grant Project.    The liquid manure application demo will feature direct injection into sod, and tour goers can look at the samples of as-applied manure application maps, the first in Delaware County.   Manure injection benefits include reduced manure odor, reduced risk of nutrient loss, and increased fertilizer manure fertilizer value for crop production.    

Updated details on the tour can be found at https://ccedelaware.org/ or by calling 607-865-6531.