Ever wanted to cook with maple or grow mushrooms, harvest honey or stock a root cellar, make your house more energy efficient, or raise sheep, pigs, goats, cows or turkeys? The 2013 Homesteading Fair at the Lewis County Fairgrounds on Friday, September 6 from 4pm to 8pm and Saturday, September 7 from 7am to 5pm in Lowville, NY, is the place to learn from those who know how.

Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) of Lewis County and the Mother Earth News are sponsoring the event with more than 40 educational workshops.

Admission on Friday is free to enjoy vendors, food booths, and musical entertainment..

On Saturday, 45-minute workshops throughout the day will focus on six major areas: sustainable energy, backyard poultry, livestock, maple and forestry entrepreneurship, growing your own food, and using live horsepower.

Presenters include veterinarians, a horse chiropractor, commercial scale on-farm food processors, a beekeeper, solar energy equipment provider, the Northern New York Regional Local Foods Specialist, and Jean O’Toole of the NY Beef Industry Council

Demonstrators include the Monday Morning Knitters and Safety Specialist Robert Coscomb with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Live animal exhibits include the award-winning draft horse hitch of Randy Nichols of Copenhagen, NY. Nichols will be presenting on draft horse driving.

The Homesteading Fair takes place rain or shine. Hours are Friday 4pm-8pm and Saturday 7am-5pm, workshops will start at 9am; breakfast will be available at the American Maple Museum booth 7am-9am.

Parking is free. Saturday admission is $10.00/person by advance sale, $15 at the gate, children under 17 are free when accompanied by paying adult. Tickets are available at CCE Lewis County and Lewis County Chamber of Commerce in Lowville. Purchase online at http://blogs.cornell.edu/ccelewis/ and by credit card through CCE Jefferson County, 315-788-8450.

The Pratt-Northam Foundation; Countryside Veterinary Clinic; Cazenovia Equipment; Cornell Cooperative Extensions Associations of the North Country; American Maple Museum; Lewis County Maple Producers Association; New York State Beef Industry Council; Lewis County Farm Bureau; and others are co-sponsoring the event. Cornell Cooperative Extension provides equal program and employment opportunities. #

 

 

High numbers of True Armyworm (aka Common Armyworm) were identified Monday, July 22, 2013 in a Northern New York St. Lawrence County mixed alfalfa/reed canarygrass second cutting hay field.

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Read this WBNG Action News 12 story about the federal Maple Tap Act and then visit the Maple information section of the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website to learn more about the groundbreaking research and survey work by NNY Maple extension specialist Michael Farrell that supports the purpose of this legislation.

The story calls the North Country region the epicenter of the New York maple industry, with the potential for 70 million new maple taps and an additional $19 million in annual maple revenue in the NNY region.

 

 

In 2013, the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) is funding research to evaluate the agricultural benefits and environmental impacts of using tile drainage on farms.

The use of tile drainage has been a critical best management practice on American farms since 1835. In the early 1900s, William H. Miner, for whom the agricultural research institute in Chazy, NY, is named, championed the use of patterned tile drainage to dramatically improve drainage efficiency and crop production potential on poorly-drained North Country soils.

The farmer-driven NNYADP has identified the need for research to better understand how the use of tile drainage interacts with the soil, crop production and the environment in the Lake Champlain Basin region of Northern New York, where agriculture is considered a major nonpoint source of phosphorus to the lake.

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Tall fescue in Northern New York will yield as much or more than other cool-season grass species. There continue to be new varieties, most endophyte-free, but a number of the new varieties also have a “Novel endophyte” version.

An endophytic fungus in the fescue gives the plant added vigor without the toxic side effects of typical endophyte-infected fescue.

The question for the NNYADP-funded research is are the “friendly-endophyte” varieties worth the extra seed cost.

Click here for the 2011-12 results of the NNY tall fescue variety trials evaluated by Cornell University Crop and Soil Sciences Professor Dr. Jerry Cherney and Cornell Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael Davis.