NNY Corn Yield Potential Research Strengthening Future Crop Production

Northern, N.Y.; October 9, 2017.  As Northern New York corn growers harvest their crops this fall, those using yield monitors are contributing data to a project prompted by regional farmers wanting to know how advances in corn breeding and production practices are impacting crop yields and if the associated nitrogen application guidelines need updating.

With funding from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, Cornell University researchers are compiling actual yield data obtained in the NNY cornfields to evaluate the yield potential database that farmers and crop advisers use to determine the nitrogen needed via fertilizer or manure application to achieve an optimal corn crop under most conditions in the region.

The Re-Evaluating Yield Potentials of Corn Grain and Silage in Northern New York research report covering 2013 through 2016 is posted on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org.

‘The farmers and farm advisers in Northern New York were frontrunners in the database re-evaluation that started in 2013,’ said research leader Dr. Quirine M. Ketterings of the Cornell Nutrient Management Spear Program, Ithaca, N.Y. ‘With more yield monitors in use, we now have a great opportunity to more quickly and more widely obtain real-field data.’

While Northern New York Agricultural Development Program-funded on-farm trials from 2013 through 2015 showed substantial agreement between yield potentials and actual yields when averaged across fields, there were notable exceptions between actual harvest and yield potential expectations in some fields.

‘Over the three-year study, one-third of fields tested yielded less than 90 percent of the yield potential, while 26 percent of the fields evaluated yielded more than 110 percent of the Cornell yield potential,’ Ketterings noted.

Increasing reliability of yield monitor equipment and data, greater yield monitor use, and development by the Cornell research team of a more reliable approach for handling yield datasets in recent months allows for much quicker evaluations of yield across a larger number of soil types.

Yield map data from corn harvesting in Northern New York will be added to the statewide yield potential database and used to refine nitrogen application recommendations for future corn planting.

Jefferson and Lewis farmers who wish to contribute to the corn yield database project may contact Cornell Cooperative Extension NNY Regional Field Crops Specialist Mike Hunter at 315-788-8540; farmers in Clinton, Essex, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties may contact Cornell Cooperative Extension NNY Regional Field Crops and Soils Specialist Kitty O’Neil at 315-854-1218. Mike Contessa of Champlain Valley Agronomics is also a key collaborator to the project.

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program provides research and technical assistance to farmers in the six northernmost counties of New York State. 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.

MORE INFORMATION:
The statewide corn silage and grain yields from 1919 through 2015 show that yields have steadily increased since the second World War in New York State and in Northern New York. The data show, however, large year-to-year variation and very limited advances over the past 10 years.

Each of the more than 600 soil types found in New York State has an estimated yield potential in the Cornell University soil database.

Weather-related conditions from drought to excessive rainfall impact year-to-year differences in crop yield, thus, multiple years of data need to be collected for each soil type of agricultural importance.

Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) Co-Chair Jon Greenwood and St. Lawrence County farmer Kevin Acres comment on the revival of corn silage testing in New York State in an article posted by American Agriculturist magazine in the fall of 2017.

The hybrid evaluation trials were restored with a 2016-2017 funding from the New York Farm Viability Institute with additional funding from the NNYADP for regional testing. The silage testing project leaders with Cornell University are PRO-Dairy Director Tom Overton, Dairy Forage Systems Specialist Joe Lawrence, Dairy Research Specialist Allison Lawton, and Plant Breeding and Genetics Professor and corn researcher Margaret Smith; assisted in Northern NY by CCE Crops Specialists Kitty O’Neil and Mike Hunter.

October 2, 2017.  The 2017 corn harvest in Northern New York is providing data to researchers with a grant from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program to compare forage quality and yield between 2 distinct types of corn.

“We are interested to see if yields for the 2017 crop will continue to show no consistent difference between the BMR and non-BMR hybrids grown for silage,” said project leader Eric O. Young, research agronomist at the William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute, Chazy, N.Y.

“In our regional trials to date, the BMR hybrids have had a distinct advantage in fiber digestibility and, therefore, milk production potential,” Young added.

Brown MidRib, or BMR, corn has a naturally-occurring genetic variation that producers higher fiber digestibility that, in turn, increases the milk production potential of dairy cows. However, farmers are concerned that BMR corn may not yield as well as non-BMR corn hybrids.

“Until this project funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program there has been relatively little research evaluating performance among brown midrib hybrids and non-BMR hybrids with respect to yield and forage quality,” Young notes.

The research in Northern NY includes two commercially-available BMR hybrids currently on the market.

Data from the 2017 harvest will be compared with trial results with 5 corn hybrids grown at 2 farm sites in 2015 and 2016.

Crop samples are evaluated for yield, digestibility, percent dry matter, acidity, starch and other components, silage fermentation and quality after harvest.

Young notes, “The differences in yield, starch, and fiber digestibility all have important implications for dairy ration formulation and farm economics. Our early results in the Northern New York trials have shown clear difference sin fiber digestibility related to corn hybrid genetics.”

This research provides a data foundation for analyzing the potential milk production impact of using BMR and non-BMR hybrids in the dairy cow total mixed ration.

The 2015 and 2016 NNY BMR evaluation reports are posted on this Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website.

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program funds agricultural research and technical assistance in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. 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.

BMR-Non BMR Year 2 Report, Table 7: uNDF
BMR-Non BMR Year 1 Report

NNYADP Apple Pest Research Equipping Growers for Quality Harvest

Northern NY; September 5, 2017.  Technical assistance and outreach funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is informing commercial apple growers in the northeastern region of New York State to effectively manage key orchard pests.

Cornell Cooperative Extension educators with the Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program received funding to help apple growers identify apple pests and learn their life cycles.

The educators also provided assistance with pest scouting and trapping and education on integrated pest management (IPM) that uses computerized modeling to guide orchard treatments when pest pressure reaches economic damage thresholds.

When pest counts are low, growers save time, labor and money by eliminating orchard treatments.

Applying IPM practices also pays off at harvest. The apples grown under the IPM practices in Northern New York orchards in 2016 were harvested at 96.6 percent Extra Fancy grade quality.

The Identification and Grower Education of Key Pests in NNY Apple Orchards project report posted on this website indicates that apple growers are making good use of IPM practices to specifically target such orchard pests as apple maggot and codling moth.

“The application of IPM in small orchard blocks in 2015 was so successful that growers applied the practices to entire orchard blocks in 2016, and they are continuing to do so in 2017,” said Michael Basedow, a tree fruit specialist with the Cornell Cooperative Extension Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program.

Pest activity varies from orchard to orchard and year to year. Compared to other areas of the state, the cooler climate of Northern New York generally delays pest emergence by 7 to 14 days making real-time monitoring a critical activity for apple growers.

“Diligence in scouting and trapping helps growers quickly identify and respond to specific pests in their orchards,” Basedow explained.

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program provided funding to continue educational outreach and technical assistance for regional apple growers in 2017.

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program provides research and technical assistance to the six northernmost counties of New York State: Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence. 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.

Identification & Grower Education of Key Pests in NNY Apple Orchards: Report
Appendix

 

David Fisher, NY Farm Bureau President and a member of the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program farmer committee, will be honored with Lou Ann King of Mapleview Dairy, Madrid, NY, with a PRO-DAIRY Agriservice Award. The award will be presented to Fisher and King by NYS Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball and PRO-DAIRY Director Thomas Overton at the Great NYS Fair tomorrow (Thursday, August 31). The awards recognize outstanding contributions to NYS agriculture through support of the PRO-DAIRY program.

An announcement from PRO-DAIRY notes: “The Mapleview Dairy partners have been exceptionally involved in dairy industry leadership at the local, regional and statewide levels in New York. They are a role model for leadership in the industry and pro-active approaches to business management, environmental and herd management practices, and issues including employee health and safety.”