August 26, 2025.  The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has announced a call for 2026 research project proposals. The NNYADP was established by the New York State Legislature to grow the farm and foods economy across the state’s northernmost region of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties. Application forms and guidelines are posted at nnyagdev.org under the About: Projects by Year tab. The deadline to apply is October 31, 2025.

The farmer-driven small grants program supports projects that help the diverse agricultural sectors of northern New York to adapt to changing market conditions and weather extremes, overcome emerging crop pests, and enhance farm sustainability and environmental stewardship. NNYADP project results have benefited farms statewide and nationally, and have provided foundational research data needed for larger funders to continue the research on a broader scale.

More than 80 members on the NNYADP Farmer Committee, representing the dairy, crops, local foods, maple and forest sectors, review and priority-rank research proposals for small grant awards. The results of recent NNYADP-funded projects are publicly accessible under the About: Projects by Year header on this website (nnyagdev.org).

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administrated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Northern New York; July 2, 2025. The latest results of local foods research funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) provide growers with data and insight into the production and economic factors that influence the opportunity to profitably produce cantaloupe in a high tunnel environment.

Increasing consumer interest in local foods availability and the proliferation of high tunnels – heated and unheated – across northern New York combine to generate local produce sales earlier in the year and extend income opportunities through year-end.

In 2023-2024, Cornell University Regional Vegetable Specialist Elisabeth Hodgdon, Ph.D., and Regional Agriculture Business Specialist Lindsey Pashow conducted production trials of three different growing systems with two different varieties of cantaloupe melons. They additionally developed economic budgets for each variety, each system, and each year. The complete project report is posted at nnyagdev.org.

“In both years, each melon production system in the trials: untrellised, vertical mesh, and double leader resulted in a net profit; however, growers need to carefully consider factors such as the labor and expenses of each type of growing system,” said Hodgdon.

Enterprise budgets were extrapolated for full production load in a 30x 96-foot high tunnel. Net income by variety in the 2024 trials ranged from $1,451.78 for the mesh-grown Tasty Bites (200 plants per tunnel) to $3,473.78 for the mesh grown Sugar Cube (200 plants per tunnel).

The two-year average net income ranged from $1,690.11 for the mesh-grown Tasty Bites (200 plants per tunnel) to $2,624.67 for the untrellised Sugar Cube (160 plants per tunnel).

“We often compare the net income opportunities of the crops we trial for high tunnel production with that for consumer-popular and profitable high tunnel-grown tomatoes. A skilled high tunnel tomato grower with strong markets and pricing may prefer to continue with that crop; however, if a grower has multiple tunnels, an interest in diversifying crop offerings, and local marketing potential for melons, melons may be a profitable option,” Pashow commented.

The enterprise budget calculations include fixed costs for land and equipment and 30 variable costs that include labor, crop preparation, fertilizer, beneficial insects, materials and other factors.

In 2024 the highest yielding system was the untrellised “Sugar Cube” variety producing 13.3 lbs. of marketable fruit per plant versus 9.63 lbs. per plant for untrellised “Tasty Bites” as the highest yielding system in 2023.

The total number of marketable melons per plant ranged from 4 to 6, with the mesh-trellised and untrellised treatments of the “Sugar Cube” variety producing six melons on average per plant.

NNYADP high tunnel production research to help market growers overcome the challenges of northern New York’s short growing season and weather extremes has evaluated more than a dozen crops, including tomatoes, miniature cabbages, sprouting broccoli, winter season greens, summer lettuce, fall-bearing berry crops, cut flowers, and crops not traditionally grown in high tunnels at the time, including seedless cucumbers, fresh ginger, turmeric, basil, zucchini, and green beans.

NNYADP year-to-year research results are posted under the Horticulture/Local Foods tab at nnyagdev.org.

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administrated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

June 24, 2025  The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) has thirteen on-farm research projects now underway at sites across the six northernmost counties of New York State, i.e., in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. An 80-plus volunteer member NNYADP Farmer Committee prioritized the research in support of northern New York’s dairy, maple, local foods, agricultural environmental conservation, farm sustainability, and regional farm-based economy. The projects are made possible by funding from the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly. The program most recently received $300,000 in the 2025-2026 New York State Budget.

New York State Assemblymen Billy Jones and Ken Blankenbush serve on the NYS Assembly Agriculture Committee chaired by Assemblymember Donna Lupardo.

“The leadership of Assemblyman Billy Jones, New York State Assembly Agriculture Chair Donna Lupardo, Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush and their Ag Committee colleagues provide the funding that drives our shared mission to continue to grow northern New York’s unique resources as a farm-based economic powerhouse for New York State,” said NNYADP Co-Chair Joseph Giroux, Plattsburgh, New York.

“Having grown up on my family’s dairy farm, I understand the challenges our farms face on a daily basis,” said Assemblyman Billy Jones. “This is why I’m proud to stand up for farmers and secure funding in the budget every year to help continue the great work being done through the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. Agriculture is a big part of the fabric that makes up the North Country, and these NNYADP grants will help bring the industry in our region to the next level.”

“The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is a model for strategic investment in cutting-edge research, focusing on farm sustainability, local foods, and more. I’d like to thank my colleagues Assemblymen Billy Jones and Ken Blankenbush for their continued advocacy for the NNYADP’s funding request. The North Country is a vitally important part of the state’s agricultural economy and certainly merits this type of investment,” said Assembly Agriculture Committee Chair Donna Lupardo.

“As a proud representative of the North Country and a member of the Assembly Agricultural Committee, I understand just how vital programs like the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program are to the success of our local farm economy. From research that improves herd health and crop resilience to innovations that protect our natural resources and expand market opportunities, this funding delivers real value to the farmers who feed our communities and fuel our economy. I will continue to advocate for strong investment in agricultural research that helps preserve our way of life, supports, farm families, and strengthens the long-term sustainability of agriculture in northern New York,” said Assemblyman Ken Blankenbush.

NNYADP projects have a proven record of providing data and insight that help farmers adapt to the challenges of northern New York’s weather extremes and emerging pests as well as to the agricultural industry’s environmental stewardship and farm income goals. NNYADP project results are posted at nnyagdev.org.

Jon Greenwood of Canton and Jon Rulfs of Peru, New York, serve as Co-Chairs of the NNYADP with Joe Giroux. Funding for the NNYADP is administrated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Northern New York: (Lewis County and Willsboro, NY); May 27, 2025.  The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) has published results of field trials demonstrating how farm-specific environments affect the value of forage crops as vital feed ingredients in dairy cow diets and milk production.

This proof-of-concept project has initiated a framework for developing a more efficient and cost-effective way to help dairy farms measure field crop performance to benefit milk production and farm economics. Data from the on-farm trials show the concept created by Cornell PRO-DAIRY Dairy Forage Systems Management Specialist Joe Lawrence to be viable. The complete Field Crop Performance Network project report is posted under About: Projects by Year 2024 at www.nnyagdev.org.

“This pilot project has begun the process of developing a system that will dairy farmers more efficiently utilize farm-grown forages by providing data that reflects growing environment impact on both plant performance and forage quality factors. The ultimate purpose is helping dairies understand the impact of the growing season on forage nutritional value and effectively balance their individual farms’ dairy cow diets for optimal milk production and farm sustainability,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence’s concept for a field crop performance network system suggests that collecting crop performance data from a small number of varieties of a crop at multiple locations could be as good or better and less costly in terms of time, labor, and expense than field trials of a larger number of varieties of that crop at fewer locations.

For this pilot project, field trials of two varieties each of corn, soybean, and alfalfa were established at two farms in Lewis County on the west side of New York’s six northernmost counties and in Willsboro on the east side.

Data collection included environmental measures of precipitation, growing degree days, pest and disease pressure, measures of crop performance, and economic impact predictions.

Corn silage and alfalfa silage forage samples were quality tested on a per-site basis. The Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System was used to develop balanced diets for lactating cows with the forages grown at each individual location.

Analysis Evaluates Forage Impact on Dairy Diet and Costs
Evaluating the impact of the forages from each trial location on the resulting dairy cow diets and milk production offered insight into how the growing environment affects the use of and value of the crops as feed ingredients in the dairy diet. The diets were 64.6 percent and 52.8 percent forage content for the western NNY and eastern NNY field sites, respectively.

A base diet established for a 1,600-pound Holstein cow with a goal of 97 pounds of milk production with a 4.25 percent fat and 3.2 percent protein content was compared to a diet formulated using the individual farms’ forage. Analysis for predicted milk production over the base diet showed an increase with the western NNY forage-based diet and a decrease with the diet formulated on the east side.

Milk production in pounds per dry matter was 97 pounds per cow for the western NNY location compared to 88.4 pounds per cow for the eastern side.

Lower nutritional value of the forages grown at the eastern NNY location influenced a higher total feed cost with lower milk production, in contrast to the western NNY site that achieved higher milk production at a lower total feed cost.

Income Over Feed Cost (IOFC) combines feed cost and milk production into one value and is an important metric to measure farm performance. The diet modeled for the western NNY location results in an additional $1.06 in income over total feed cost compared to the eastern NNY location. Lawrence notes, “This is a substantial difference highlighting that even the same crop genetics and best practices for growing the crop, the growing environment has a significant impact on the feed value of the crop.”

This project’s analysis of multiple parameters indicated opportunities to assess plant performance in tandem with forage quality measures. For example, Lawrence says, “One measured value of fiber or fiber digestibility only explains in part how a forage will perform in the dairy cow diet; evaluating multiple measurements, as well as environmental factors such as unusually high precipitation, allow for more precise understanding of how feed may be utilized by the cow.”

Lawrence now has an initial framework for developing a new way to enhance farmers’ ability to use farm-grown forage efficiently and to better understand when forage crop value to the dairy cow diet is constrained by the farm’s growing environment and conditions or by forage management practices.

The development of this field crop performance network continues with renewed funding from the NNYADP for trials in northern New York and New York Corn and Soybean Growers Association funding to expand the trials statewide. The University of Vermont is a project adjunct collaborator.

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administrated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.  # # #

May 9, 2025.  The New York State Budget has been approved and includes $300,000 in funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP).

We thank NYS Assemblyman Billy Jones and NYS Assembly Agriculture Committee Chair Donna Lupardo for their leadership in securing this funding for the NNYADP. The funding will provide for critical on-farm research in support of the agricultural industry that is a major contributor to NNY’s economy and quality of life.