BAV Project Addresses Region's Dairy Farming Challenges

12:01PM / Friday, June 14, 2024Print Story | Email Story

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Berkshire Agricultural Ventures (BAV) announced the launch of the Berkshire-Taconic Dairy Cohort, a two-year project to support and sustain dairy farming in the region.

With the aim of addressing specific challenges facing dairy farmers and improving the health of the regional dairy economy, this project will bring together a core group of dairy farmers to increase participants' technical skills, business planning, and grant readiness, as well as strengthen farmer-to-farmer dairy networks. The initiative is made possible by funding from the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center (NE-DBIC).

Partnering with dairy farming consultants and experts, BAV will establish a cohort of five to eight dairy farmers from the nonprofit's service area within Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut to gain and share knowledge, information, and networking opportunities. Through participation in cohort sessions and one-on-one consultations, dairy farmers will be better positioned for grant applications, will develop solid business planning skills, and will gain a stronger foundation for financial sustainability.

BAV will work with leading agricultural business planner Rose Wilson, who has been offering business planning services to the farm and food community since 2004. Wilson focuses on improving the agricultural economy through a combination of market research, business consulting, grant writing, and other services.

"Dairy farming is a critical yet vulnerable component of our regional food system," said BAV Executive Director Rebecca Busansky. "We know that dairy farms in the Northeast are under tremendous strain due to many factors. We at BAV believe that the region's historical loss of dairy farms can be stopped and reversed—helping to ensure that dairy production continues to feed our region's residents and contribute to regional self-reliance."

All dairy farmers in BAV's service area (Berkshire County, MA; Columbia and Dutchess Counties, NY; and Litchfield County, CT) are welcome to apply. Participating farmers will collaborate with other dairy farmers on issues faced within the dairy industry and gain knowledge of the business opportunities available for overcoming these challenges.

For details and to apply, please visit https://bit.ly/BerkshireDairy. The deadline for applying is July 17, 2024. For questions, please contact Dan Carr at 413-258-1039 or dan@berkshireagventures.org.

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South County Celebrates 250th Anniversary of the Knox Trail

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
06:18PM / Sunday, January 11, 2026

State Sen. Paul Mark carries the ceremonial linstock, a device used to light artillery. With him are New York state Sen. Michelle Hinchey and state Sen. Nick Collins of Suffolk County.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. —The 250th celebration of American independence began in the tiny town of Alford on Saturday morning.

Later that afternoon, a small contingent of re-enactors, community members and officials marched from the Great Barrington Historical Society to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center to recognize the Berkshire towns that were part of that significant event in the nation's history.

State Sen. Paul Mark, as the highest ranking Massachusetts governmental official at the Alford crossing, was presented a ceremonial linstock flying the ribbons representing every New York State county that Henry Knox and his team passed through on their 300-mile journey from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston in the winter of 1775-76.

"The New York contingent came to the border. We had a speaking program, and they officially handed over the linstock, transferring control of the train to Massachusetts," said Mark, co-chair of Massachusetts' special commission for the semiquincentennial. "It was a great melding of both states, a kind of coming together."

State Rep. Leigh Davis called Knox "an unlikely hero, he was someone that rose up to the occasion. ... this is really honoring someone that stepped into a role because he was called to serve, and that is something that resonates."

Gen. George Washington charged 25-year-old bookseller Knox with bringing artillery from the recently captured fort on Lake Champlain to the beleaugured and occupied by Boston. It took 80 teams of horses and oxen to carry the nearly 60 tons of cannon through snow and over mountains.

Knox wrote to Washington that "the difficulties were inconceivable yet surmountable" and left the fort in December. He crossed the Hudson River in early January near Albany, crossing into Massachusetts on what is now Route 71 on Jan. 10, 1776. By late January, he was in Framingham and in the weeks to follow the artillery was positioned on Dorchester Heights.

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