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.

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 the 2021-2022 season has ended, and the next live session will be in late November 2022. While we encourage live attendance so you have the opportunity to engage with the presenters and ask questions, all webinars are recorded and posted in our online classroom for students to watch anytime. Once you have enrolled in this course, you will retain access to all materials indefinitely, and can return to participate in the live webinars in future offerings of the course if you wish.


Your Instructor


Amy Ivy and Jim O'Connell
Amy Ivy and Jim O'Connell

Amy Ivy recently retired from the Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program. She worked with gardeners and growers for Cornell Cooperative Extension for 31 years in northeastern New York State, on the east side of the Adirondack Mountains and the Champlain Valley. Her particular interests are season extension, protected culture including high tunnels, soil health and insects both good and bad.

Jim O’Connell is a 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 started work­ing for Cor­nell Coop­er­a­tive Exten­sion in June 2012.



Course Curriculum


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

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