American Agriculturist magazine has posted a story on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program early interseeding cover crops project. Click here to read more

Northern New York farmers are interested in properly and cost-effectively feeding their dairy cows. To help them evaluate economically-feasible replacements for corn grain in dairy rations, the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) has provided funding to the William H. Miner Agricultural Institute to conduct a comprehensive inventory and analysis of accessible and appropriate dairy diet substitute products.

High corn prices are driving farmer interest in favor of feeding more high quality forage in place of grain to their cows.

‘This research is timely in responding to the need for farmers to reduce the use of corn in feed rations. Corn prices have reached all-time highs in recent years and although they may trend downward due to high yields in 2013, prices are expected to remain higher than historical averages,’ said Miner Institute President Dr. Rick Grant.

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Northern New York – Data to help Northern New York farmers select the varieties of legume and grass crops that are likely to grow best under NNY climate and soil conditions has been posted by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) at www.nnyagdev.org under Field Crops Research.

The 14-page 2013 New York Forage Legume and Grass Variety Yield Trials Summary reports on the 2013 edition of forage yield trials that are conducted each year in Northern New York, at Cornell University in Ithaca, and at locations elsewhere in New York State.

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program provided the funding for the NNY portion of the trials.

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The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) has funded evaluation of the use of early interseeded crops to extend the value of corn and soybean fields on NNY farms.

Dr. Matthew Ryan, a Cornell University Assistant Professor of Sustainable Cropping Systems, worked with two farms in the Northern New York region to evaluate the use of interseeding equipment and crops that farmers have not traditionally used as cover crops.

“This Northern New York Agricultural Development Program-funded research took a different approach in that we seeded other species including legume cover crops earlier in the year (July) directly into the corn or soybean fields,” Ryan says.

This NNYADP-funded research is contributing to a larger project with 20 other trial sites located from Maryland to Vermont.

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Northern New York – The results of the 2013 comparative evaluations of two essential dairy industry crops grown on Northern New York farms are now available from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) which funds the annual on-farm evaluations.

New York State corn silage variety trial lead researcher Dr. William J. Cox of Cornell University notes, “While the 2013 growing season was a challenging year for corn production because of the excessive precipitation from late May through June, corn silage producers with well-drained soils had record yields, whereas producers on somewhat poorly to poorly drained soils had average to below-average yields.”

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