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.

Read about more and more NNY farmers adopting the use of biocontrol nematodes to control alfalfa snout beetle. With NNYADP funding, Cornell Entomologist Elson Shields and Research Support Specialist Tony Testa now have trials on farms across the region.

Click here for the most recent update