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State Ag Commissioner Ball,

Future Entrepreneurs Confer

State Agriculture & Markets Commissioner Richard Ball confers with prospective entrepreneur Dillon Wachter after addressing Prof. Scott Schwartz Entrepreneurship Class at Hartwick College this morning. Ball traced the challenges face when, working as a farm manager, he decided in 1993 to join the "special club" of entrepreneurs, buying a carrot farm in Schoharie County.
State Agriculture & Markets Commissioner Richard Ball confers with prospective entrepreneur Dillon Wachter, Westchester County, after addressing the Entrepreneurship Class of Prof. Scott Schwartz  (in the background) at Hartwick College this morning. Ball detailed the challenges he faced when, working as a farm manager, he decided in 1993 to join the “special club” of entrepreneurs, buying a carrot farm in Schoharie County.  Since, it’s expanded to 50 vegetables, and developed the Carrot Barn, an agri-tourism magnet featuring vegetables, dairy products and local meats, and an associated restaurant.  Asked by Governor Cuomo two years ago to become ag commissioners, he was particularly interested at developing New York City as a market for Upstate farm goods.  Schwartz, who recently moved from San Diego to Otsego County with his wife, a Bassett physician, met Ball while visiting the Carrot Barn during Schoharie Family Farm Days in August.  Impressed by the 50-page business plan Ball developed before buying his farm – he updates it annually with six new goals, he told the students – Schwartz invited the commissioner, who was packing product in the warehouse, to today’s class.  (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)

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