BF 122: Berry Production

Getting Started with Growing and Marketing Berries

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Getting Started with Berry Production

If you’re exploring the idea of adding berries and bramble fruits to your farm, this course will help you consider all the aspects of this decision, from varieties and site selection all the way through profit potential and marketing.

Target Audience

Beginners - This course will be especially useful if you are exploring the possibilities of growing berries for income. The material presented will assume little past knowledge of farming, but a background in gardening or farming will be very helpful. This course is focused on growing in New York State and the information presented generally applies to the Northeastern United States.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will know:

  • Primary considerations when choosing a site for successful berry farming
  • Basic cultural demands of the 3 major berry crops (strawberry, blueberry and brambles)
  • Cultural requirements of an array of lesser known berry crops
  • Pest complexes of the major berry crops
  • Post-harvest requirements of berries
  • Considerations for successful marketing of berry crops
  • How to analyze costs and income and be able to incorporate them into a business plan

Webinars

The bulk of the course happens on your own time with discussions, readings and review quizzes (not graded!) posted in Teachable, our virtual classroom. To add to the experience, live webinars will be woven into the online interface of the course to allow you to meet on a weekly basis to learn from outside presenters and ask questions to address your farm issues in real time. If you miss a webinar, they are always recorded and posted for later viewing.

Webinar Schedule

Live instruction for 2024 has concluded. You are welcome to enroll now to complete this course on a self-paced schedule and join our next live session in Fall 2025. All webinars are recorded and posted in your online classroom to watch anytime. Once enrolled in this course, you will retain access to all materials indefinitely and may return to participate in future live offerings of the course as well. Please join us!


Your Instructor


Jim O'Connell + Anya Stansell
Jim O'Connell + Anya Stansell

Jim O’Connell is a former Resource Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Ulster County, NY, with responsibilities in berries and grapes. His interest in agriculture started at the Univ. of NH, where he worked as a research assis­tant in both veg­etable and fruit crops. From there Jim’s love and knowl­edge of agri­cul­ture grew, even­tu­ally tak­ing him to Mass­a­chu­setts where he worked as a research tech­ni­cian with cran­ber­ries for nine years. Jim made the move to New York and worked for Cor­nell Coop­er­a­tive Exten­sion from June 2012 until August 2022.

Anya Stansell is the Western New York Small Fruits Extension Specialist. She works with berry growers and researchers in New York State, working with questions about berry variety selection and cultural management. Before she began working with Cornell Cooperative Extension, Anya studied strawberry growing systems for her Masters degree at Cornell University.





Student Testimonials

"I appreciated the instructors taking so much time to comment and respond to forum questions. The extensive experience of the speakers was insightful."

“The expertise and resources presented and available in this course are awesome and arm me with the information needed to make better decisions regarding whether to move forward with a particular berry crop or reconsider.”

"Thank you again for the information that you have provided over these past several weeks. It has been digestible, concise, and clearly well researched. This is another step towards preparing to move forward with trying to manage Blueberries within an Organic system."

"Thank you both for a really wonderful course. You did a lovely job of team teaching and presenting the information in a succinct and insightful manner."

Course Curriculum


  General Course Resources
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  Week 1: Site Assessment
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  Week 2: The Business of Berry Production: Looking at berries through the lens of financial viability
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Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start and finish?
The course officially starts and ends on the dates given above, when the instructors get involved and begin hosting live weekly webinars. If you are registering after the webinars have concluded for the year, you will have immediate access to all the course materials, and will be able to participate in the next year's webinars if you choose to.
How long do I have access to the course?
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.
What if I am unhappy with the course?
We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 7 days and we will give you a full refund.

Online Course Tiered Pricing

The Cornell Small Farms Program offers a tiered pricing model to provide greater access to our online courses. To determine your course enrollment cost, please consult the chart below, and honestly identify your current financial situation.


We realize that not everyone is able to afford the price of our courses, so we also offer a small number of scholarships each year to New York State residents. To apply, please read scholarship requirements and complete the application here.

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