Shawn Goodfellow, the CVFC Program Manager for the Young Dairy Farmers Program, provides ongoing support and guidance for this small group of young farmers, helping them with anything from funding research and grant writing to learning more about technology and equipment. He also gets to take them on field trips. These farm and industry tours are an opportunity to see how other farmers are putting their funding and equipment to use.
Recently, Shawn partnered with Chris Hill from Lely Center New England to take the young farmer group to visit two farms in neighboring New York: High Meadow Farm in Hoosick Falls and Ashland Farm in Eagle Bridge. There they were able to see Lely robotic milkers, robotic manure vacuums, and robotic feed pushers in action. Shawn hopes that this break from the routine to spend time with peers and see equipment in action will inspire these young farmers to think big!
