How farmers in Central New York prepare and clean up after winter storm
Cortland — People in Cortland County saw over a foot of snow, and farmers in the area have to prepare and clean up so their business isn't impacted.
On the snowy hills of Cortland sits a fifth generation dairy farm.
Branden Brown runs Trinity Valley Dairy Farm with his family. They milk 100 cows and bottle their own milk.
Although the area had a lot of now, Branden was prepared and had his bucket tractors all ready to go.
"You always prepare for the worst and hope for the best, but it looks like we got quite a bit of snow, so we're just trying to balance ourselves out and be ready for the milk truck and another day of work," said Branden.
They have a lot of land that needs to be plowed, including the milk plant and the two barns across the street. The family needs to make sure everything is ready when the milk trucks comes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
"So we just kinda plow the driveways, plow the parking lots, and anywhere - doorways getting to barns, anything that gets snowed in," said Branden.
The family started some of the plowing at 3:30 this morning, but did the bulk of it throughout the day.
"There's no sense of plowing out everything for it to get snowed right back on again, so we kinda let the bulk pile up. Once we feel and look at the radar and see that most of the snow is done, we'll go through and clean everything up," said Branden.
Although Branden is used to the snow, the timing can be a small setback.
"The time that you're plowing, there are other thing that you could be doing - taking care of the animals and such, but we're accustomed to it and we have a pretty good routine," said Branden.
Branden says the biggest concern is when the bitter cold comes, especially for those cows they have to milk.
