It’s past dinner time at the Sharon Springs home of Cynthia and Eric Shelley, but that’s not evident as the pair finishes their evening chores on the family farm with efficiency and concentration but also obvious enjoyment.

The Shelleys — who are brother and sister, UUP members and instructors in SUNY Cobleskill’s School of Agriculture and Natural Resources — were up at dawn on this clear spring day doing chores at the farm they co-own before heading to campus. But now, 15 hours later, as they milk the silky-furred Boer goats and collect eggs in the chicken coop, they are following the time-honored rule of successful small farms, where there is an especially narrow margin for error: Take care of the comfort and well being of your animals before you take care of yourself.

“This is my lab,” Cynthia said, looking around the goat barn and smiling at the antics of the vocal mother goats calling their kids. “This is where I learn what’s going on in the world.”

Standing out

Family members can be found on the academic and professional faculty at several SUNY campuses, but the Shelleys stand out for the way their work lives and farming lives connect and then extend to their community and to their students. They grew up on a small farm outside of Rochester and were active in farming organizations in high school. Now, Cynthia raises and sells goats under the name of Patina Dairy Goats, and Eric is the owner-operator of “Cowboy’s Custom Cutting,” a state-licensed mobile meat processing service in a trailer that he drives from farm to farm.

Eric is believed to be the first mobile meat processor to operate under licensing and inspection of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, and the state developed new regulations to cover mobile processing when Eric started doing it. Many of his customers sell their products locally at places such as the Troy Farmer’s Market.

“Small local production is becoming more popular. The 100-mile diet is becoming more popular too,” said Eric, referring to a movement in food consumption that favors small local farmers over the mass production techniques and heavy reliance on fossil fuels of large farms. “As for my business — there were so many local producers who were having a lot of frustration getting things processed. Now, I go to the farm.”

Both Shelleys graduated from Cobleskill with associates’ degrees in applied science. Cynthia, 37, went on to Cornell University for her Ph.D. in agricultural education. She’s an assistant professor of animal science at Cobleskill.

Eric, 33, was an instructor at Cobleskill for four years in the late ’90s before trying dairy farming. He returned to Cobleskill in February 2006 as the manager and instructor at the campus meat lab, where livestock from the college and local farmers is slaughtered. (The college sells both meat and live animals from its own herds.) The goal of livestock farming is a healthy, profitable supply of meat for the marketplace, Eric explained, and thorough instruction in the humane handling of the animals at this end stage, and the sanitary processing of their meat, is a sometimes difficult but always critical lesson for students.

Cooperative extended families

Cooperative extended families are a tradition in American farming, and the Shelleys are continuing that way of life. Eric and his wife, Melissa, a registered nurse, live in the circa-1800s house on the Shelleys’ farm along with Cynthia and her partner, Roger Barkman, a zoologist and animal scientist who works at an Albany computer firm. Eric and Melissa are expecting their first child.

Both couples share household chores. On this night, Roger was the chef, and Eric and Shelley sat down to the grilled chicken and vegetables he had prepared while they were completing the evening farm chores. Melissa was working a night shift at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany.

The Shelleys say that their separate focuses on livestock breeding and processing give them a unique perspective for their lectures. Each respects the work of the other; both understand the full span of a farm animal’s life. And just as their students learn from the Shelleys’ experiences, the Shelleys say they learn from each other.

“What we are constantly learning is that you never leave college knowing everything,” Cynthia said.

— Darryl McGrath