My name is Donald Coe.
I'm the managing partner at Black Star Farms in Suttons Bay, Michigan.
I retired from corporate life in
1998
and came up to Suttons Bay, Michigan and wanted to start a winery
and we founded Black Star Farms in 1999.
I'm a lot different than many other
farmers that have worked with Extension
that I came to farming in the latter
part of my life
whereas a lot of people start working with
Extension very early on with their
farming experiences.
We've in business now for 15 years and
in every aspect of our business
I've been able to call upon MSU
Extension to help us
with the various businesses that we have
at the farm, whether it's been in the
winery
or our fruit brandy distillery or with
our inn or
our farm products, our hoop house,
our stables operation, somewhere along
the line in every aspect of our business
there's been somebody from MSU Extension that's been able to work with me
and really live up to the Extension mission of educating me
to do my business better in this area.
Of course our
direct relationship with MSU
Extension is with
the growing of our grapes and with the
hort. station here in Leelanau County,
but we work with MSU Extension and
their people all the time. Just this week
I had a question about neutering goats
that we brought onto the farm. I don't
know anything about goats,
contacted our local veterinarian who
is a graduate of Michigan State,
she called down to Michigan State because she wasn't an expert on
goats and I received the information.
Fortunately, those goats won't be neutered for a little while.
I appreciate the work that MSU has
done for us,
and I've tried to return to
MSU Extension by serving on regional
Extension Council, serving on the State
Council, lobbying with the state
legislature when it's necessary to
support
MSU Extension and the research stations,
and generally being a supporter in
every
aspect that I can of the MSU mission.
MSU Extension has proved its worth
in the last 100 years
in helping us in the local
farm community.
That mission will obviously have to be
carried forward because farming is going
to become much more complex.
we're facing many challenges in farming, both to the land and
to the crops that we are growing, and
I expect that MSU Extension will be
there for us in the next 100 years as
they have been in the past.
