August 5, 2019. Going to Empire Farm Days this week Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday? Be sure to pick up a show program at one of the Info Booths. NNYADP-funded dairy research is highlighted on page 58 as a Resource Tip! titled 27=15 Minutes and More Comfortable Cows.

Click here to read the NNYADP research report on how adjusting the automatic cluster remover setting on your milking unit can save you time, reduces the risk of mastitis, and enhances dairy animal well being. Dr. Paul Virkler, Quality Milk Production Services, Canton, NY, led the research.

September 7, 2019, 9-11 am, Croghan, NY
Maple Tubing Workshop with NNYADP Maple Research Update
Hosted at Pierce’s Sugar Spigot, 11601 State Route 812, Croghan. NNY Maple Specialist Adam Wild present information on the 2019-20 NNYADP-funded research into the timing of tapping to quantify the benefits of re-tapping maple trees within a season. NYS Maple Specialist Stephen Childs will walk you through the latest information, technology and research on maple tubing systems and the best way to install in your your woods. Cost $5/farm. Register by September 4 with CCE Lewis County, 315-376-5270, lewis@cornell.edu. Questions? 315-376-5270.

July 31, 2019.  To help Northern New York farmers be alert to newly emerging field crop diseases and trends, the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) funds an annual field crop diagnosis and assessment project. The data produced by the survey is critical to farmers locally and statewide. The annual evaluations, revived in 2013, provide farmers with real-time alerts in the current growing season, and add to multi-year data tracking that identifies trends and indicates emerging and re-emerging challenges.

“Northern New York farmers are increasingly faced with important management decisions that require real-time knowledge of plant diseases. The regional survey provides data to help them select crop varieties with disease-resistance and plan management practices to most cost-effectively and efficiently respond to the current-day threats and year-to-year variability,” says project leader Michael E. Hunter, a Cornell University Cooperative Extension Regional Field Crops Specialist.

Hunter and Cornell University Cooperative Extension Regional Field Crops and Soils Specialist Kitty O’Neil collaborate with Cornell University Plant Pathologist Gary Bergstrom, Ph.D. to respectively detect potential issues and collect crop samples in the fields, and analyze them at the Bergstrom Lab at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

Thirty-two farms located across the six-county Northern New York region that includes Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties participated in the most recently completed survey.

The NNYADP-funded survey also includes 19 sentinel cornfields and 18 sentinel fields of soybean, chosen to maximize the diversity of environments and cropping practices that can impact disease potential. In 2018, across the NNY survey area, seven corn diseases and six soybean diseases in total were identified and diagnosed.

“We are seeing an increasing number of growers using an integrated approach to managing field crop diseases on their farms. There are growers that are now paying closer attention to disease-resistant crop varieties, crop rotations, tillage practices, soil fertility management and fungicide selection based on the crop diseases identified in this regional survey,” Hunter notes.

The results of the 2019 field crops disease diagnosis and assessment survey will be posted on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org and disseminated to growers, crop consultants, agribusinesses and extension field crops educators at crop meetings and field days locally and statewide.

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.

August 1, (Rain Date: Aug 2), Watertown, NY
NNY Soybean Weed Control Field Day
Hosted by Freeman Farms, in soybean field on the corner of NY State Route 126 and Plank Road (County Route 163) in the town of Rutland. GPS Coordinates are Latitiude: 43.95038 Longitude: -75.7576. Free and open to the public. 1.25 NYS DEC pesticide applicator credits (Categories 1A, 10, 21) and CCA CEUs available.

Join Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Regional Field Crop Specialist Mike Hunter to discuss soybean weed control programs and take a guided walking tour through the soybean herbicide plots in the field. Over 25 pre, post, and two pass herbicide programs to view. This field day provides a chance to compare the various herbicide programs, learn about herbicide sites of action, and herbicide resistance management strategies.

This on-farm research project was made possible through funding from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program

Info or in case of inclement weather on August 1: contact Mike Hunter at 315-778-8602 or meh27@cornell) to confirm if field day will be moved to the following day

July 11, 2019.  As a testament to the success of the solution developed after many years of research that Cornell University entomologist Dr. Elson Shields and Research Support Specialist Tony Testa began at Peck Homestead Farm in Great Bend, NY, young farmer John D. Peck shares photos of his most recent alfalfa mix crop and notes, “The alfalfa that continues to grow well is a testament to the research done here after the devastation alfalfa snout beetle had caused.”

The Peck Homestead Farm family hosted alfalfa snout beetle on-farm research trials, funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, for more than two decades in support of the long-term commitment required to develop a science-based, field-proven response to the devastating crop pest. The crop loss at the farm was significantly impacting milk production loss.

The development of the protocol for using native NY nematodes as a biocontrol for alfalfa snout beetle by Shields and Testa included an investigation into the pest’s history in Europe, creating a greenhouse protocol for rearing the biocontrol nematodes, and field trials. They pioneered and proved the protocol, showing that the nematodes will persist and spread (as they have at the Peck farm: see photo at left), making it possible for a single application to inexpensively provide relief from the pest that left unattended can destroy an entire field of alfalfa in a single season.

Following the many years of testing and proving the protocol on northern NY farms, Shields and Testa were able to attract additional funding from such groups as the New York Farm Viability Institute, Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, and entities in Texas, New Mexico and other states to extend the biocontrol testing and use across New York State and well beyond not only to protect the alfalfa crops so valuable to the dairy and livestock industries, but other crops as well.

This groundbreaking science and research prompted a contingent of Russian agriculturalists to visit Northern New York and to specifically meet with Dr. Shields. On that visit, they also heard from John D.’s father, John E. Peck, about the early research efforts on their farm.

Shields and Cornell Cooperative Extension NNY Field Crops Specialist Mike Hunter have received New York State Integrated Pest Management Awards for their work on alfalfa snout beetle management (July 11, 2019): https://nnyagdev.org/index.php/2019/07/11/congratulations-ipm-award-winners/

Click here for the research history of NNYADP-supported ASB biocontrol nematode research.