October 17, 9;30am-4pm, Keeseville
Silvopasture Field Day
Mace Chasm Farm, 810 Mace Chasm Rd., Keeseville NY. RSVP to SWCD@ 518-962-8225; cost $15. Must prepay by Oct. 15 in office or via paypal @https://pub.cce.cornell.edu/event_registration/main/events.cfm?dept=215, includes lunch

Rain or shine in silvopasture settings, so please dress for the weather. Graziers, foresters, agency personnel are especially encouraged to attend. 5.0 Category 1 CEU credits pending for Certified Foresters. 2 Crop Management CEU credits & 1 Soil & Water Management credit for CCA’s. Speakers: Peter Smallidge of CCE, Brett Chedzoy of CCE and Joe Orefice with Paul Smith’s College. Sponsored by: Essex County Soil & Water Conservation District, Lake Champlain Basin Program, New York Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI), and Greater Adirondack RC&D.

Agenda:
An Introduction to Silvopasturing and Goals for the Day (9:30)
Site Selection and Assessment (10:00)
• Evaluating site quality, terrain, access, water and timber resources
• Identifying potential hazards and limiting factors

Planning (11:00)
• Silvopasture Economics 101 and the importance of start-up plans
• Criteria for determining the cost/benefit ratio of a project
• Doing a reality-check and thinking things through

Lunch and Networking (12:00)

Implementation In the context of Silvopastures (1:00)
• Management of tree and shrubs
• Management of forages
• Management of livestock
• Putting it all together in a symbiotic and sustainable system

Wrap-up and Adjourn (4:00)

Over the past couple of weeks, Cornell Cooperative Extension NNY Regional Field Crops specialists Mike Hunter and Kitty O’Neil have discovered numerous soybean fields that are affected by white mold (or Sclerotinia Stem Rot) throughout Northern NY.

White mold is usually not a major problem in in the North Country, however, this year seems to be an exception.

White mold infections are favored by cool, cloudy, wet and humid weather conditions at soybean flowering. This disease is more likely to be found in fields that have thick stands with high populations planted in narrow rows. It typically does not appear in small plants at low populations. It is no surprise that we are seeing higher levels of white mold in soybeans this year.

Read more about coping with white mold, August 2014

Northern New York – On-farm research trials funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program shows some NNY farms have achieved notably high corn yields. These gains prompted farmers to want to know if the Cornell University nitrogen fertilizer and manure application recommendations derived from corn yield potential calculations need to be revised.

Twelve Northern New York farms teamed with Cornell University researchers, Cornell Cooperative Extension field crop specialists and regional crop consultants to investigate whether higher crop productivity means more nitrogen needs to be supplied to replace that taken up by the corn or are new corn varieties simply able to make better use of the nitrogen already in the soil?

Read more

Click here for research report

A Soil Health Workshop will be held on Friday, August 22nd, 1-5pm, at the Logue Farms, 8 Smith Road, Chateaugay, NY. Agenda will focus on cover crops and tillage with short educational sessions, a farmer discussion panel and tillage equipment demonstrations.

Attendance is free, but please register with Chastity Miller at 518-483-4061 x110, cmiller@fcswcd.org in advance.

The field day is sponsored by the Franklin County and NYS Soil and Water Conservation offices, Franklin and Clinton County NRCS offices, Franklin County Farm Services Agency, and Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Click here to read “Soil Health Explained” by CCE NNY Field Crops and Soils Specialist Kitty O’Neil.