Northern N.Y. The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has posted its annual report at www.nnyagdev.org. The four-page report notes how recent research is helping regional farmers respond to hot and cold climate extremes impacting dairy calves and cows, field crops, and wine grapes. Also highlighted are projects addressing:
. the first-ever Northern New York bee colony health survey
. recently emerging crop pests, such as Western bean cutworm
. season extension and new product opportunities for the NNY maple industry, and
. field trials demonstrating how tomato growers can save time.
Farmer comments in the report indicate how applying the results of the research funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program benefitted their business from reducing costs and making it easier to plant and harvest crops to identifying ways to develop extra income using existing resources.
Cornell University Nutrient Management Program Director Dr. Quirine M. Ketterings is cited in the report crediting the farmers and farm advisers in Northern New York as “the frontrunners” prompting re-evaluation of the Cornell corn production guidelines. The farmers who prioritize and select projects for Northern New York Agricultural Development Program funding requested research into how advances in corn breeding and production practices are impacting crop yield and whether it was time to update the associated nitrogen application guidelines for agronomic and economic efficiency.
The report notes that over a three-year study, completed in 2017, one-third of NNY fields tested in the project yielded less than 90 percent of their expected potential while 26 percent yielded more than 110 percent of their expected yield. This research enters Phase 2 in 2018.
A brief section in the report points to multi-state interest in the biocontrol crop pest solution built by the long-term commitment of the farmers of the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program to developing the science needed to manage the devastating alfalfa snout beetle.
A one-application treatment with native NY nematodes, combined with successively-bred, increasingly alfalfa snout beetle-resistant varieties of alfalfa, has restored production of the important dairy forage crop. This biocontrol has shown promise for controlling pests in other field crops and berries and is now being evaluated in field trials in elsewhere in New York State and in New Mexico, Texas, Ohio, and Michigan.
Posted with the annual report are summaries of maple, horticultural, and dairy and field crops-related projects funded by the NNYADP.
Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Senate and administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.