Maple “sweet trees” were featured in an interview with Northern New York maple producer Lawrence Rudd on  WWNY TV over this past weekend. The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program funded the first evaluation of the opportunity to clone higher-sugar content “sweet trees” in Northern New York with the long-term goal to produce rooted clones that producers can plant to enhance their sugarmaking operations.

Click here to see the “Maple Producer Plans for Sweeter Future” feature by reporter Patrick Malowski with Lawrence Rudd of Rudd’s Family Maple. The feature noted cloning is being studied by the University of Vermont; following the success of the NNYADP-funded initial cloning trial with trees from the Uihlein Maple Research Forest at Lake Placid, NY, Cornell University is now carrying on that work in New York State.

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) has funded valuable research in support of Northern New York’s maple industry. In 2008 Michael Farrell, then-director of the Uihlein Sugar Maple Research Forest at Lake Placid, N.Y. and a recipient of several NNYADP funding, projected that the maple industry of the NNY had a $10 million annual potential. In a conversation earlier this year, Farrell noted that that mark has been reached and surpassed.

In a maple-theme Extension Out Loud podcast episode recorded at Cornell University, NNYADP Coordinator Michele Ledoux does a fabulous job of discussing the maple industry not only in Northern New York but statewide. She highlights the latest production techniques, and, just after a break about 17 minutes into the 27-minute program, she mentions the work of the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program.

Get out this weekend to enjoy maple tastings and tours at NNY sugarhouses on the second NYS Maple Weekend. Most sites are open 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday, March 30 and Sunday, March 31. Check listings at mapleweekend.com for sites and directions.

To read Mike Farrell’s report predicting NNY’s $10 million potential, click here.

To read more about NNYADP maple projects, including the innovations in maple sap collection and the cloning of NNY sweet trees, click here.

Canton, N.Y.; March 26, 2019.   Northern New York is a hotspot for Western bean cutworm (WBC) primarily a pest in field corn, but one that can also impact legume and dry bean crops. With a Northern New York Agricultural Development Program grant, the Cornell Cooperative Extension North Country Region Ag Team expanded the WBC Trapping Network farther into the Northern New York region. Traps were added at locations in Clinton and Essex counties in 2018.

Northern New York trapping sites reported 22 of the highest 25 WBC moth trap catches for the state in 2018.

A report on the expansion of the WBC Trapping Network in Northern New York is posted on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org.

Data from the traps alerts growers to begin scouting their fields for the risk of WBC and corn ear damage by WBC larvae. Monitoring this pest facilitates early treatment intervention at lower levels of WBC and can help limit crop damage.

The WBC Trapping Network is a program of the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program. Pheremone traps are deployed to capture WBC moths in July and August. The trap catches are identified and counted to help indicate peak flight and fields at risk for WBC damage.

“Because trap counts can vary greatly over just a few miles’ distance, it was determined that placing more traps in Clinton and Essex counties was warranted,” says project leader Kitty O’Neil, Ph.D., a Cornell Cooperative Extension field crops and soils specialist.

“We saw differences from 470 moths in one trap to nearly 2,500, the highest for anywhere in the state, in another trap just 11 miles away one year. Western bean cutworm populations continue to increase in Northern New York, requiring close monitoring and future management of this insect pest to prevent yield and quality losses,” adds Michael E. Hunter, a Cornell Cooperative Extension field crops specialist.

Traps were deployed in 2018 in areas of dense corn production across Northern New York near Beekmantown, Champlain, Chazy, Ellenburg, Ellisburg, Moira, Mooers, North Lawrence, Peru, West Bangor, Westport, and Willsboro.

The traps will be deployed again in 2019. Growers can receive weekly e-bulletins from Extension and the NYSIPM Program.

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Senate and administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

The Shields Lab at Cornell University has provided an overview of the “Biological Control of Alfalfa Snout Beetle (ASB): An Update after a Decade of Nematode Applications” plus info on the 2019 ASB and Corn Rootworm Biological Control Program: Nematode Cost and Rearing Opportunities.

Alfalfa snout beetle remains the key limiting factor to alfalfa standlife in the Northern NY region and frequently kills out entire stands or large portions of stands in a single year.

Since 2007, the Shields’ Lab has assisted NNY farmers in inoculating alfalfa fields using insect-attacking nematodes (bio-control nematodes) to suppress the spread of this insect with the long-term support of the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP)*.

Between 2007 and 2018, biocontrol nematodes have been applied to more than 20,000 acres on more than 120 farms. In 2018, a total of 2,800 acres were treated on 46 farms across Jefferson, Lewis, St Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton counties.

For 2019, the Shields’ Lab will continue to offer farmers the option to purchase bio-control nematodes or assist farmers interested in rearing their own nematodes on their own farm with their own labor. Click on the links above, for more information.

*Funding for the NNYADP is supported by the New York State Senate and administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.