On Wednesday, July 9 from 2pm to 4:30pm, the Cornell Willsboro Research Farm at Willsboro, NY, will hold an open house and tour of the facilities and diverse agricultural research plots. A number of research projects at the farm have been funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program.

Research topics featured at the 2014 open house event include:

• Reduced tillage strategies for commercial pumpkin and sweet corn production
• Alley cover crops for plasticulture vegetable systems
• Developing Amelanchier – juneberry – as a commercial fruit crop
• High tunnel growing strategies for common and uncommon vegetables
• Forage grass and alfalfa variety trials
• Alternative annual forages
• Adaptive nitrogen management for corn
• Heritage and ancient wheat trials in an organic rotation
• Cold hardy wine grape trials.

In 1982 Willsboro farmer and entrepreneur E. Vreeland Baker donated his 352-acre farm to Cornell University for agricultural research and demonstration. The farm is managed by the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station.

The July 9 event is free and open to the public. Info

 

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) and Miner Institute have released the results of the first comprehensive analysis of products that can substitute for corn in dairy cow rations.

Corn is an expensive (about $200/ton), starchy commodity often mixed into dairy cow feed rations. A Cornell University field survey showing that high-production dairies in the northeastern U.S. and upper Midwest were successful feeding lower starch diets prompted interest by farmers in Northern New York to evaluate economically-feasible replacements for corn grain in dairy rations.

With NNYADP funding, the William H. Miner Agricultural Institute conducted a comprehensive inventory and analysis of accessible and appropriate dairy diet substitute products that are easily accessible in the Northern New York region.

Project leader Rick Grant, president of Miner Institute, says, “The Northern New York region is well-situated to take advantage of regional opportunities for purchasing good buys on such products as soybean hulls, distillers’ grains, malt sprouts, and gluten feed as well as citrus pulp and whole cottonseed stored in facilities along the St. Lawrence River.”

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NNYADP Project Results: Economical Substitutes in NNY for Corn Grain in Dairy Cow Diets

Northern New York – Common, emerging and re-emerging crop diseases are a threat to two of the economically-important crops in Northern New York, so a team of Cornell University faculty and Cornell Cooperative Extension educators with Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) funding are now in the second year of a survey of corn and soybean fields in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.

This proactive disease assessment will help protect the health and profitability of corn and soybean production in Northern New York. The two crops combined are estimated to have a more than $106 million economic impact in the region.

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2013 / Year 1 NNYADP-funded NNY Corn & Soybean Disease Survey Report

 

The new test now available to farmers from the Cornell University Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic/CU-PDDC to detect the soil-borne plant pathogen Phoma sclerotioides, commonly known as brown root rot/BRR, has northern New York roots.

BRR was first detected in the eastern United States in Clinton County in northern NY in 2004. The pathogen causes root and crown rotting in alfalfa, other perennial legumes, and overwintering grasses, causing yield loss and stand decline of alfalfa.

Dr. Michael Wunsch of North Dakota State University developed the improved molecular test for BRR in collaboration with the Bergstrom Lab and CU-PDDC at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. With funding from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program/NNYADP, Wunsch conducted his graduate study research of brown root rot on northern New York farms under the tutelage of Cornell plant pathologist Dr. Gary C. Bergstrom.

‘This new test indicates a positive result if plant tissues are infected with any of the seven varieties/biotypes of the fungus found in North America, including the five biotypes documented in New York,’ says Bergstrom.

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BRR Suspect Sample Submission Guidelines with pricing

More info on BRR research in NNY

 

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) has released early recommendations from a Cornell University team evaluating a parasite control strategy for barber pole worm, a major cause of death in sheep and goats.

Haemonchus contortus – the stomach parasite commonly known as barber pole worm – is a major cause of death in small livestock and has become increasingly resistant to traditional anthelmintic – deworming – treatments.

“Many North Country sheep and goat farmers already report barber pole parasite resistance to multiple conventional deworming medications,” says Betsy Hodge, livestock educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County.

With funding from the farmer-driven NNYADP, Drs. Michael L. Thonney and tatiana Stanton with the Cornell Sheep and Goat Program and Dr. Dwight Bowman and Janice Liotta of the Cornell School of Medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology worked with North Country livestock producers and Hodge to test the use of copper oxide wire particles, or COWP, as a deworming method for sheep and goats.

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