News & Press Releases

August 17, 2020 By karalynn

NNYADP Super Fruits Update: PBS Mt. Lake Journal

Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael H. Davis, Ph.D., in the NNYADP-funded “super fruits” research nursery.

Click here to see the August 2020 report by Mountain Lake PBS Producer Thom Hallock with Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael H. Davis, Ph.D., talking about how well the NNYADP-funded “New Fruits for NNY” trials with aronia berry and honeyberry are progressing.

Click here to see the August 2018 report by Mountain Lake PBS Producer Thom Hallock on the NNYADP-funded “superfruits” research trials (click on the June 24, 2018 date in the story posting) at the Willsboro Research Farm. Hallock talks with NNYADP “New Fruits for NNY” project leaders Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael H. Davis, Ph.D., and botanist Michael B. Burgess, Ph.D., of SUNY Plattsburgh.

Below, Northern New York farmer Dani Baker of Cross Island Farms on Wellesley Island is one of several NNY growers participating with the NNYADP “super fruits” on-farm production trials.

*Northern NY farmer Dani Baker of Cross Island Farms on Wellesley Island is participating in NNYADP fruit research trials. She is seen here with a honeyberry planting. Photo: Michael H. Davis*

July 23, 2020 By karalynn

NNYADP: First Johne’s Disease Surveillance Completed in NNY Sheep Flocks

*NNYADP-funded research in 2019 conducted the first surveillance for Johne’s disease in regional sheep flocks. Photo: USDA*

Canton, N.Y.; July 23, 2020. The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has posted the results of the first surveillance for Johne’s disease in sheep on farms in northern New York at www.nnyagdev.org. The 2019 project report and a fact sheet prepared by Jessica Scillieri Smith, DVM, a New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets veterinarian, and Cornell Cooperative Extension Livestock Educator Betsy Hodge include tips for reducing the risk of this bacterial infection in sheep.

Johne’s disease impacts sheep, goats, and cows. It is a frequently misdiagnosed gastrointestinal disease in sheep; clinical signs of the disease can sometimes take years to appear. The disease can be asymptomatic, making it difficult to diagnose without widespread testing in sheep flocks. Testing can also result in false negative results.

“While there is significant research on Johne’s disease in dairy cattle, research into the prevalence and significance of this bacterial disease in smaller ruminants has been lacking. Funding from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has established a baseline survey of Johne’s disease in regional sheep flocks, and provided education to the participating farms,” said Dr. Scillieri Smith.

Thirty-eight farms representing a total of 2,421 sheep on farms in northern New York (NNY) participated in the baseline survey in 2019.

Three hundred and nineteen two-year-old or older ewes from 13 flocks across Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties and from eight flocks across Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties were selected for health surveillance sampling and Johne’s disease testing.

Testing results showed Johne’s disease present in some NNY sheep flocks, however, the level of infection appeared low. It was present in more than 50 percent of the 21 tested flocks.

Smith and Hodge suggest the following tips to help protect sheep flocks from Johne’s disease:

only buy sheep form flocks documented as known-negative for Johne’s disease,
test animals of unknown status before bringing them into your flock,
quarantine and test animals after purchase to address the risk of false negative test results,
limit exposure of lambs to any known-positive adults in your flock,
make sure food and water sources are difficult for animals to contaminate with manure which can carry Johne’s-causing bacteria, and
talk with your farm veterinarian to develop a “best practices” plan with support from the New York State Sheep and Goat Health Assurance Program.

Lambs raised on pasture with their mothers can be at risk of infection from the bacteria in manure in pastures. Johne’s disease impacts farm economics in terms of animal mortality, decreased live lamb births, decreased fertility, fiber loss, and increased veterinary costs and labor.

Farms surveyed in the six-county NNY region reported a total of 5,356 sheep in the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Sheep are raised for meat, fiber, dairy, and breeding stock.

The researchers have recently been funded to assess the status of Johne’s disease in goat populations that may have a higher risk of the disease.

For more information, contact Betsy Hodge, Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County, 315-379-9192, bmf9@cornell.edu.

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature and administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. Learn more at www.nnyagdev.org.

CLICK HERE to see the American Agriculturist story on this project

July 16, 2020 By karalynn

NNYADP N Use Efficiency Research: Farm Site Differences

*Collecting NNYADP N use efficiency samples in a NNY cornfield in 2019. Photo; Joe Lawrence*

July 16, 2020. Cornell University researchers with a grant from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) say individual farm growing conditions and field management may play a larger role than previously credited in maximizing corn production. The research team’s latest variety trials and nitrogen uptake efficiency report is posted on the NNYADP website.

“Our initial assessments show site-to-site differences are much greater than genetic differences between corn hybrid selections within a site,” said Joseph Lawrence, a dairy forage systems specialist with the Cornell University PRO-DAIRY program.

Lawrence leads the NNYADP-funded research conducted in collaboration with the Cornell Nutrient Management Spear Program (NMSP). The project is evaluating the use of nitrogen balance and efficiency indicators to enhance precision nitrogen management across sites and corn hybrids. This has the potential to simultaneously advance agricultural environmental stewardship and reduce the production cost of this key dairy crop.

Data from corn silage variety field trials at a northern New York dairy farm in St. Lawrence County and the Willsboro Research Farm in Essex County from 2016 through 2019 were analyzed to evaluate the impact of yield, crop quality, soil health, soil types (5), and weather factors on nitrogen balances, with a specific focus on how much nitrogen is needed for optimal production.

The project established six nitrogen (N) balance indicators, including a basic field N balance that reflects the difference between N applied with fertilizer and manure and N removed with corn silage harvest. Five additional measures of N use efficiency are also under evaluation.

“Understanding the variability in nitrogen use efficiency, field nitrogen balances, and yield grown under the same management conditions and on the same soil type is important to helping growers achieve efficiency in both crop production and resource stewardship,” Lawrence explained.

The multi-variety, multi-year, multi-site data suggest that the highest yielding crops tend to have the highest N use efficiency as well.

“We want to know if the corn yields were a result of correctly, under- or over-fertilizing the field sites. The goal is to reach optimal resource-use, production, and stewardship efficiency with nitrogen application farm-by-farm, field-by-field to produce the highest quality, highest yield crop,” Lawrence said.

With the 2019 field trials on the northern NY farms, the researchers have begun evaluating crop yield in relation to corn stalk nitrate test (CSNT) levels.

“The preliminary results of our corn stalk nitrate testing showed variability in CSNT across corn silage hybrids with a slight hint of a trend toward lower CSNT levels for higher-yielding hybrids. We are looking into the use of a yield-to-CSNT ratio to further explain if nitrogen management was on target. We will add more data this year to draw more substantive conclusions,” said Quirine M. Ketterings, Ph.D., director, Cornell NMSP, Ithaca, N.Y.

The data from this NNYADP project add to a statewide initiative to develop a corn silage yield potential database.

July 8, 2020 By Chris Bogenschutz

VIDEO: Spring in the Field on Northern New York Farms, May 2019

This short (5 minute) slide show/video by Joe Lawrence, Dairy Forage Systems Specialist with the Cornell University PRO-DAIRY Program, provides an overview of some of the activity that takes place on farms in northern New York in the springtime:
• Learn about how growing degree days (GDDs) affect the start of grass, alfalfa and corn crops.
• Learn when to measure alfalfa height to help identify an optimal date for a first cutting of an alfalfa-grass mixed crop in fields in the Towns of Martinsburg, Turin, and West Turin.
• See alfalfa snout beetle collection on a farm in the Town of Denmark to support the science pioneered with NNYADP-funded research to control this destructive crop pest known to impact at least 9 counties in New York State and areas of southeastern Ontario, Canada.
• Joe’s son Ben provides some narration and joins “Dad” and siblings Colin and Caroline to demonstrate how to check the performance of a corn planter in the Town of Croghan.

All COVID-19 restrictions were observed during the filming.