May 12, 2020.  With permission from Hay and Forage Grower, published by W. D. Hoard and Sons Company, Fort Atkinson, WI, here is a link to “Jousting with the Snout Beetle” by Editor Mike Rankin who visited the Bruce Dimock farm in Peru, N.Y. The article shows how one Northern New York farm has made good use of the alfalfa snout beetle research results made possible by long-term support from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program with funding from the New York State Legislature.

https://hayandforage.com/article-3002-Jousting-with-the-snout-beetle.html

PDF of “Jousting with the Snout Beetle” article

Canton, N.Y.; May 11, 2020.  With a grant from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, veterinarians Paul D. Virkler and Paula Ospina have begun developing e-learning modules to meet a need for dairy employee training. A report on phase one results is posted at www.nnyagdev.org.

“Initial hire and ongoing employee training is essential for dairy farm businesses. This project is developing a cloud-based way to improve dairy employee knowledge, skill-building, and consistency of performance, which, in turn, benefits cow health, productivity, and farm sustainability,” said Virkler, DVM, a veterinarian with Quality Milk Production Services in Canton, N.Y.

“This initial project with on-farm participants provided excellent input for building employee-friendly e-learning modules that will engage dairy employees and enhance their knowledge, skills, and competency,” said Ospina, DVM, PhD, and dairy consultant.

Virkler and Ospina worked with 10 cooperating dairy farms throughout Northern New York to pilot test module development with a focus on milker knowledge and skill, the efficient functioning of milking equipment, and cow health in terms of teat and udder hygiene.

A baseline survey identified areas of dairy parlor performance that could be enhanced to improve milk quality and reduce the risk of mastitis. Based on that survey, 100 percent of the participating farms identified and shared one or more of the top three priority areas that involved milker performance, reinforcing the need for more milker training and better training resources.

The baseline survey further identified the need to encourage farms to make time for evaluating milking equipment and ensuring that it is maintained in proper working order.

“Four farms had a major equipment issue to correct prior to our evaluating of milker performance. In one instance, the lack of a functional unit alignment device was limiting the milkers’ ability to perform their job well,” Virkler pointed out.

E-learning modules with videos, photos, and text in English and Spanish were developed to demonstrate the seven steps of a proper milking routine.

“We used a story line of a milker needing help so users could relate through their own parlor experience,” Ospina explained.

On-farm training sessions introduced employees to the training software format and each individual milker was asked three random questions about the milking procedure to assess pre-training knowledge level. Post-training evaluation showed a positive impact compared to the baseline assessment of teat end cleanliness after milking prep across the 10 farms.

“Post-training we saw a 20 percent improvement in the average cleanliness when milkers better understood why they need to wipe the teat ends. To continue this work regarding optimal cleanliness levels, we are evaluating how to enhance video or graphics in the next edition of the e-learning module and whether in-person training on the specific technique is required,” Virkler explained.

“For the next phase, we will be addressing literacy challenges, the lack of internet familiarity by employees, limited or farm-restricted internet and wireless access in rural communities, and how to encourage farm scheduling for employee training,” said Ospina.

As part of phase 2 of the NNYADP E-Learning Training Systems for Milk Quality and Parlor Performance project in 2020, Virkler and Ospina are developing an e-learning module focused on the basic functions of milking equipment and how that relates to teat end health, flow rates, and mastitis prevention.

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.

Click here to read the 2019 E-learning Training Systems for Milk Quality and Parlor Performance

May 7, 2020. Industrial hemp and alfalfa have been added to the annual crop health survey funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP). Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) regional fields crops specialists scouted fields on 30 regional farms in 2019 for early detection of disease in corn, soybean, alfalfa, and hemp crops.

The results of NNYADP-funded crop surveys from 2013 through 2019 are posted on this Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at  https://nnyagdev.org/index.php/field-crops/research.

“This regional survey is a proactive and systematic way to alert growers to respond quickly to limit emerging and re-emerging plant diseases, to document trends, and to develop strategies to reduce the threat to crop health, sustainability, and the profit margin that is so narrow for growers,” says project leader and CCE Regional Field Crops Specialist Michael E. Hunter.

This NNYADP-funded field crops survey, restarted in 2013, has traditionally focused on corn and soybean as foundational crops, grown as both livestock feed and cash crops, for the regional farming industry. Hunter says, “Alfalfa has been added to the survey as another essential dairy industry crop, and, with grower interest increasing in industrial hemp, we began scouting those plantings in 2019.”

Hunter and CCE Regional Fields Crops and Soils Specialist Kitty O’Neil scout fields and send samples of plant tissue for diagnosis at the Bergstrom Pathology Lab at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

In 2019, the NNYADP crop health survey identified 13 crop diseases: 2 in corn, 7 in soybean, 2 in alfalfa, and 2 in industrial hemp. Northern corn leaf blight at very low levels, and eyespot, a common fungal disease in corn, were identified in corn crops in the region in 2019.

Northern stem canker was identified in soybean but was not problematic in NNY in 2019. Hunter notes, “While there have been significant yield losses reported to this disease in Midwestern states, to date, no yield loss has yet been documented in New York State crops to northern stem canker.”

Warm, wet weather conditions during podfill in 2019 fostered development of Cercospora leaf blight, a non-yield limiting disease in soybean. Levels did not result in any rejection of loads shipped to market. Other soybean diseases identified in NNY in 2019 were downy mildew, white mold, frogeye leaf spot, anthracnose, and Septoria brown spot.

The cool, wet spring of 2019 favored growth of Leptosphaerulina leaf spot and Stemphylium leaf spot in alfalfa crops; however, incidences were not severe nor widespread, and neither disease negatively impacted forage quality or overall crop yield.

White mold and Botrytis gray mold, common molds that can cause serious damage to industrial hemp grown in the field and in greenhouses, were seen in plantings of industrial hemp, an emerging crop in Northern New York.

First-time confirmations of emerging diseases are added to state and national crop pathogen databases with field samples archived in the Cornell University Field Crop Pathogen Culture Collection. DNA sequences of any confirmed new pathogens are submitted to the National Institutes of Health GenBank genetic sequence database.

“This yearly scouting and diagnosis survey project adds data and trending to help growers adapt their strategies for maintaining crop health, preventing disease, and efficiently and cost-effectively treating issues locally, regionally, and statewide,” Hunter adds.

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.

 

 

  Lowville, N.Y.; April 22, 2020.  Texas A&M Agri-Life Extension has posted a video highlighting how the science of biocontrol nematode use developed in Northern New York is now helping corn growers in Texas and New Mexico. The video is posted at https://nnyagdev.org/index.php/nny-farm-videos.

The 20-minute video includes Elson Shields, Ph.D., the Cornell University entomologist who applied long-term support from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program to pioneer the science for using a combination of naturally-occurring NY-adapted nematodes as a biocontrol for crop pest management.

The video begins by acknowledging that biocontrol nematodes have been successfully applied to protect more than 25,000 crop acres in New York. That application has been made to manage alfalfa snout beetle, the first crop pest impacted by the biocontrol nematode protocol developed, refined and proven by Shields and Cornell research technician Antonio Testa. Their subsequent success at similarly reducing corn rootworm populations in NY field trials caught the attention of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension entomologists Patrick Porter, Ph.D. and Ed Bynum, Ph.D.

With Shields’ help, biocontrol nematodes were applied to corn fields on Gary Frost’s working farm in Dalhart, TX, in 2017-2019 with excellent establishment and significantly improved corn plant root protection.

The Texas A&M “Results of Entomopathogenic Nematode Studies for Control of Corn Rootworm 2017-2019” video, produced by Porter, Bynum, Shields, and Katelyn Kesheimer of Auburn University, Alabama, can be viewed at https://nnyagdev.org/index.php/nny-farm-videos.

Based on the success in Texas, private consultants in New Mexico requested a trial there. In May and June of 2019, biocontrol nematodes were applied to 900 long-term corn acres impacted by major rootworm problems on a dairy farm near Roswell, NM. That trial also tested the effectiveness of using a center pivot system for applying the biocontrol nematodes. Six hundred core samples taken in November 2019 showed excellent biocontrol nematode establishment.

Meanwhile, back in New York State in 2018-2019, Cornell Cooperative Extension Field Crops Specialist Michael E. Hunter worked with Shields to evaluate application of the U/V-sensitive biocontrol nematodes via liquid manure application. The success of that research is reported on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at https://nnyagdev.org/index.php/2019-nnyadp-projects/.

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.

Northern New York; April 15, 2020. Farmers now have a new way to apply biocontrol nematodes to protect crops critical to dairy and livestock agriculture, thanks to research funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program.

“Dairy farmers and crop growers have been interested in biocontrol nematodes since we proved their effectiveness at reducing populations of the alfalfa snout beetle, the most destructive pest of alfalfa, and now see potential to do likewise with corn rootworm, a significant threat to field corn production,” said Elson Shields, Ph.D., Cornell University.

Shields pioneered the use of a combination of two native NY-adapted nematodes for pest management in field crops, berries and other crops. The application of biocontrol nematodes is now being tested in multiple crops across the U.S.

In 2018 and 2019, Cornell Cooperative Extension Field Crops Specialist Michael E. Hunter developed a project to test application of the biocontrol nematodes via liquid manure. The current protocol applies the biocontrol nematodes in a water solution in the evening hours due to the nematodes’ sensitivity to U/V rays.

Hunter conducted field trials on six farms in Northern New York. He explained the hypothesis behind his trials.

“If biocontrol nematodes could be successfully established through liquid manure application that would accomplish significant benefits: combining two field operations into one to save time and labor, protecting the nematodes from damaging U/V light so application can be made at any time of day versus only evening hours, protecting crops using a biological means, and providing farmers with an additional method for application to encourage use of this biocontrol,” Hunter explained.

Soil sampling in 2018 confirmed establishment of the biocontrol nematodes applied in liquid manure in all trial fields on the six participating farms. In 2019, Hunter achieved successful establishment at a lower rate of nematodes per acre.

“The 2019 field data shows the lower rate of application is just as effective for establishing the biocontrol nematodes and lowers the cost to encourage farmers to adopt the use of this biocontrol,” Hunter said.

The complete “Evaluation of Alternative Application Methods of Biocontrol Nematodes in Alfalfa and Corn” report is posted at www.nnyagdev.org.

 

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.

Click here for more on the NNYADP biocontrol nematode research success story