Moira, NY; December 13, 2016. As she promised one year ago, Mary DeBeer established her own biocontrol nematode rearing lab in Moira, NY, in 2016. The young agricultural entrepreneur is on the leading edge of business development prompted by the success of pest management research funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program.

“This new agri-business development by a young entrepreneur is an added benefit to our regional economy and we are pleased it was sparked by the science developed with Northern New York Agricultural Development Program funding,” said Jon Greenwood, co-Chair of the farmer-driven research and technical assistance program serving Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.

“With the development of her own biocontrol nematode rearing facility, Mary is leading the way for new business opportunities as a result of the long-term commitment the farmers of Northern New York made to finding a science-based solution for alfalfa snout beetle,” says Dr. Elson Shields, the Cornell University entomologist who pioneered the use of native NY nematodes as a biocontrol for managing the destructive crop pest.

DeBeer, who earned an agronomy degree at SUNY Morrisville and a dairy degree at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, learned how to rear and apply the biocontrol nematodes with Cornell University Research Support Specialist Tony Testa who developed the nematode rearing protocol at the Shields Lab at Cornell.

In the new facility at her family’s farm, DeBeer raises the nematodes and helps schedule their custom application by her father Ronald DeBeer of DeBeer Seeds and Spraying. In 2016 they tripled the number of farm acres protected by the microscopic worms proven to reduce alfalfa snout beetle populations and showing promise for managing corn rootworm in Northern New York Agricultural Development Program-funded research trials that Shields currently has underway on regional farms.

The number of acres treated by the DeBeers has grown from 125 acres in Franklin County in 2014 to 435 acres across six farms in the county in 2015 to 1200 acres on farms in Franklin and St. Lawrence counties in 2016.

DeBeer gained three new customers in 2016 after the farmers discovered alfalfa snout beetle in their fields. The insect can destroy entire fields of alfalfa, a high value dairy and livestock feed crop, in just one growing season.

“My goal is to grow my nematode rearing capacity to supply other custom applicators and farmers who apply the nematodes on their own to protect their crops,” DeBeer says.

Farmers interested in applying biocontrol nematodes on alfalfa crops will find a how-to manual on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org.

“Scouting vigilance and proactive application of the biocontrol nematodes are key to limiting the spread and impact of alfalfa snout beetle,” Shields notes.”

Funding for the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Senate and administered through the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

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The Cornell University PRO-DAIRY Program has posted the results of corn silage variety testing done in 2016. That testing included trials in Northern New York on a Madrid, NY, dairy farm.

Click here for the full report that includes a data table for the 29 hybrids tested at Madrid, NY.

Northern New York; November 10, 2016.  Restaurants and caterers are interested in purchasing local food products from growers in Northern New York, but they require a high quality, consistent supply; timely delivery; and below-retail price points, according to a survey of food buyers in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties.

With funding from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension personnel interviewed food buyers purchasing locally-sourced foods. The survey was a sampling of the more than 1,800 restaurants, grocers, convenience store operators, and food service and institutional buyers in the six-county Northern New York region.

Major food marketing areas were identified as Canton, Lake Placid, Lowville, Malone, Plattsburgh, and Watertown.

The investigation into food hub development opportunities for Northern New York also included input from 125 farmers and 254 consumers. Nearly 60 percent of the consumers surveyed indicated they purchase local products at least once a month. They define local as food produced in Northern New York or in their home county.

The Opportunities for Food Hub Development in Northern New York Executive Summary identifies cautions, considerations and potential in the areas of food hub aggregation, infrastructure development, marketing, distribution, and food safety education, and organization. The summary is posted in the Local Foods section of this farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website.

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is a farmer-driven research and technical assistance program serving 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 through the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

This survey project also received a USDA Specialty Crops Block Grant administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and funding from the New York Farm Viability Institute.

What is a Food Hub?
The USDA identifies a regional food hub as “a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution and marketing of source-identified food products primarily from local and regional producers to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail, and institutional demand.”

Farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program research and technical assistance projects focused on livestock production and marketing help regional farmers capitalize on increasing consumer interest in local foods. A 2014 survey documented that success, indicating 96% of responding NNY cow-calf, stocker & cattle feeder farmers would expand (60%) or maintain (36%) current operations.

Pasture Management: Rising Plate Meter Increases Grazing Efficiency
A Northern New York Agricultural Development Program grant has made two Rising Plate Meters (RPM) available to regional livestock and dairy farmers for measuring pasture growth and regrowth during grazing seasons to assist paddock sizing and pasture use for optimum feed value.

One beef stocker adjusted his pasture plan when the RPM showed less dry matter value than “eyeballed;” 3 cow-calf farms used the RPM to develop grazing wedges to reduce overgrazing and improve paddock sequencing.

Long-Term Project Value for North Country Communities
The Livestock Marketing Toolkit, developed with funding from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program in 2006, continues to help North Country beef, sheep and goat producers price, promote and profit from their products. The updated edition online has
links to articles and resources.

 

 

Enhancing Sheep and Goat Health
Sheep numbers in Northern New York grew by nearly 36% per 2007-2012 U.S. Census of Agriculture data, while goat numbers remained fairly stable. To assist the sustainability and growth of the regional small livestock industry, farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program funding has focused on a variety of methods to increase parasite control for enhanced goat and sheep health.

Recent field trials hosted by Northern New York farms tested the use of birdsfoot trefoil pasturing for anthelmintic (deworming) effect. Technical assistance helped farmers properly establish plots of the perennial legume and measure its biomass dry matter value. Researchers, encouraged by preliminary results, continue to evaluate the impact of the pasturing strategy on wormload and the health of the pastured sheep and goats.

Research participant and farm owner Beth Downing of Downing Acres in Burke, NY, notes the role of the regionalized research in her farm business management strategy:  “Sheep farming is our livelihood and parasites can take a heavy toll on breeding ewes and on weight gain in lambs. We use a combination of strategies to keep our sheep healthy and control parasites, including . . . participating in research to learn new ways.”

 To receive notices of the real-world project results from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, text 315-408-2841 or send email with Subject Line: NNYADP Results to karalynn@gisco.net and add to your approved senders.

Northern New York; October 14, 2016.  As the 2016 apple harvest nears completion, researchers with funding from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program are eager to see if growers have been able to reap a second year of benefits from application of a precision management protocol to reduce the impact and cost of orchard insect pests.

The IPM protocol provided excellent control of economically-significant apple pests, with an average of 96% clean fruit at harvest plus time and money saved by reducing the pest control applications required in 2015.

“Changes in the landscape of northern New York apple orchards over the past decade have influenced which insects have become the key economically-significant pests of the apple industry in the region that includes Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties,” says Anna Wallis of the Cornell Cooperative Extension Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program. Wallis served as project co-leader with Cornell University Entomologist Arthur Agnello.

The changes impacting orchard management in the region include the predominant choice of apple rootstocks planted, implementation of new training systems, restrictions on what spray applications are available for pest management, changes in climatic conditions, and the introduction of new pests through global trade.

Five NNY apple growers participating in the project following the protocol that uses trapping and scouting to identify which insect pests are present in an orchard block and at what level. The scouting effort was especially alert to codling moth, oriental fruit moth, obliquebanded leafroller, apple maggot, mites, aphids and scales.

When pests reach an economic damage threshold level, a specific insecticide application is precisely timed based on insect activity and computer models.

This comprehensive integrated pest management, or IPM, protocol was developed by Agnello and Cornell colleague Harvey Reissig in the 1990s. Due to changes over time, growers moved away from the protocol, but Wallis says, are now making good use of it once again, integrating a variety of management strategies, including chemical, cultural, biological and mechanical.

The protocol was applied to orchard blocks, including blocks of the two most popular cultivars in Northern New York: Honeycrisp and McIntosh.

“The early work of this project demonstrated how well the IPM protocol can work and prompted growers to request field workshops so they could implement it more broadly in 2016. With each additional year of use, we are evaluating the opportunity for IPM use to be consistent under a variety of growing climate conditions as a long-term management option for apple growers in this region,” says Wallis.

The first-year report for the Identification and Grower Education of Key Pests in Apple Orchards in Northern New York project is on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org. The report identifies key early, summer, and late season pests. For example, San Jose scale, not previously identified in the participating orchards in NNY, is increasingly becoming a problem.

The report also measures fruit damage by the various pests, and the number and effectiveness of the IPM applications.

The protocol provided excellent control of economically-significant apple pests, with an average of 96 percent clean fruit at harvest plus time and money saved by reducing the pest control applications required in 2015.

The early results of this farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program project were requested for grower meetings in Vermont and Virginia.

The 2016 results of this research will be available in the spring of 2017 on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org.

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program provides grants for on-farm research and technical assistance projects 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 through the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Click here to see the Time Warner Cable/Spectrum News story on this project