Northern N.Y.: September 25, 2018.  Data from the 2018 corn harvest on Northern New York farms will contribute to yield-based zone management for corn growers and evaluation of yield potentials for New York soil types statewide.

Zone-based management and yield mapping present the opportunity to better allocate resources to save on expense, time, and labor, and to reduce environmental loss of nutrients not taken up by the crop or soil.

Dr. Quirine M. Ketterings, Director of the Nutrient Management Spear Program at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., leads crop production enhancement research funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. Using data from four farms in NNY and eight other farms statewide, Ketterings and her team of collaborators are evaluating nitrogen management for farm-specific, field-specific yield stability zones.

“Farmer participation is essential to identifying yield limitations and developing strategies that make best use of resources like manure and fertilizer. Our goal is to find ways to improve yield and nutrient use and reduce the risk of nutrient loss to the environment at the same time,”Ketterings said.

A minimum of three years of data from yield monitors on harvesting equipment is needed since stability zones are farm-specific and field-specific and are based on farm average and variability over a period of three or more years. Yield data from all fields in the same year are used to determine farm yield averages and variability in yield over the three-or-more-year timeframe.

Yield stability zone mapping is evaluated to identify in which zones farm resources can be best allocated for the biggest return on investment. Zone-based allocation applies to the use of manure and fertilizer, seed density, crop variety, and other factors.

“With yield data of three or more years for a field, a map can be created with four zones. This mapping allows us to evaluate where to invest limited resources,” said Ketterings.

She notes the current focus of the zone mapping is on nitrogen management, but this zone-management approach can be expanded to other nutrients, manure application method and tillage decisions, variety selection, population densities, foliar applications, and other production considerations.

“The goal is to identify when and where we could expect a yield response, and to identify what we can do to elevate yields in the areas not yielding as much or very variable in yield over time,” Ketterings added.

Ketterings’ work on the use of yield monitor data included the development of a protocol for obtaining and cleaning corn harvest data collected by the yield monitor systems that are increasingly used on regional farms. The data cleaning process is as important as field calibration of the yield monitors.

This regional research funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is part of a statewide effort.

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.

In addition to the coverage of the Juneberry “Superfruit” trials by Mountain Lakes PBS in Plattsburgh, NY, WCAX TV based in Burlington, VT, also reported on the research funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. Click here to see their coverage.

Find research updates on the trials under the Horticulture: Juneberries tab of this website.

 

 

Lowville, N.Y.; September 18, 2018.  The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) has posted its 2019 grant application, research ideas, and guidelines on the home page at www.nnyagdev.org. Applications must be submitted electronically to NNYADP Coordinator Michele Ledoux on or before October 29, 2018.

The farmer-driven program that serves Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties invites proposals for projects that focus on research, education and technical assistance to benefit the diverse agricultural production sectors in the six-county region.

The posted list of 138 potential research ideas was generated with input from regional farmers, growers, agribusiness professionals, and farm advisors. The list addresses challenges and opportunities associated with dairy, field crops, horticultural crops, livestock, local foods and maple production under the unique Northern New York micro-climates, soils, and growing conditions.

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 2018-2019 State Budget provides $600,000 for NNYADP projects in 2019.

Farmer-led review panels will submit prioritized projects to an Executive Committee for final selection for small grants. Project work is to be conducted on operating farms or agricultural research farm facilities in the Northern New York region from January 1 to December 31, 2019. For more information, contact Michele Ledoux at 315-376-5270, mel14@cornell.edu.

The results of completed NNYADP projects are posted on this website.

Northern N.Y.; September 17, 2018.  A handbook for improving soil health in both organic and conventional vegetable, row crop, and small grain systems is now available at no charge from Cornell Cooperative Extension and partners that made possible a popular field day event that served as the basis for the handbook development.

The Reduced Tillage Field Day Handbook is available free in the Horticulture: Vegetables section of this website.

“The field day was such a hit with the 70 people who attended and received the handbook that are making the information available on a broader basis to encourage interest in soil health practices that reduce tillage intensity and mechanical soil disturbance. Over time, this helps maintain or increase crop yields, while reducing production costs due to reduced labor, equipment wear, and fuel use,” said field day organizer Amy Ivy, a vegetable specialist with the CCE Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program.

Highlights and excerpts from the 107-handbook include:

• 2018-2019 New York Soil Health Priorities and Plans
• More than 60 percent of farmers who used reduced tillage or cover crops and responded to a New York Soil Health survey reported that flooding prevention, drought resilience, and less erosion resulted from those practices.
• Stacking tillage tools can save time for field preparation and reduce labor and fuel needs.
• Cultivation is typically most effective for improving weed management with small weeds in dry, loose soil.
• A project in Virginia is evaluating the potential for farmers to increase their use of cover crop rolling, which has been used successfully by individual farmers from Alabama to Pennsylvania but has yet to see widespread use in the U.S.
• High-residue conservation tillage systems involve using large amounts of cover crop residue to suppress weeds, reduce soil erosion and conserve soil moisture.

Although the event, held at the Willsboro Research Farm in Willsboro, N.Y., was targeted to meet organic growers’ expressed interest, the practices discussed in the handbook will also benefit conventional growers.

Materials are included from the field day presenters, including Bryan Brown of the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program on managing weeds in small-seeded crops; Ryan Maher of the Cornell Small Farms Program on zone tillage systems; and John Wallace, Cornell University Specialty Crop Systems, on weed seedbank management.

The resource materials in the handbook consider crimpers, rollers, the biology of soil compaction, understanding microbes and nutrient recycling, caring for soil as a living system, and the use of reduced tillage and cover crops for organic and conventional vegetable production. Other sections look at how to avoid roller crimper problems, winter-hardy cover cropping, using cover crops to convert to no-till and no-till management for organic systems.

The handbook includes information from a variety of sources including Iowa State University, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Ohio State University, Penn State Extension, Rodale Institute, Rutgers University, the Sustainable Agriculture and Research Education Program, and the Virginia Association for Biological Farming.

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, New York Soil Health, and Lake Champlain Basin Program sponsored the Reduced Tillage summer field day event. The Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program, CCE Essex County and the Cornell University Willsboro Research Farm coordinated the field day programming.

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. Learn more at www.nnyagdev.org.

Willsboro, N.Y.: September 12, 2018. Seeing is believing and regional vegetable growers attending the Thursday, October 11, 2018 Field Meeting at the Cornell Willsboro Research Farm in Willsboro, N.Y. will see a variety of cover crop options and discuss their use in vegetable crop rotations.

The Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program is sponsoring the 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. field meeting. There is no cost to attend, however, registration is requested online at https://enych.cce.cornell.edu/event.php?id=1002. For more information, contact Amy Ivy at adi2@cornell.edu, 518-570-5991.

Growers will tour the field trials with Cornell Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael Davis, and Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program Vegetable Specialists Chuck Bornt and Amy Ivy to learn how the use of cover crops following early season vegetable crops can help restore soil health that is depleted over years of annual crops on the same ground.

“Growers, particularly those with smaller acreage, can struggle to find space and the justification to take fields out of production just to plant cover crops, but the use of cover crops is well known as a way to address a variety of soil health and productivity issues. This field meeting will allow growers to see it to believe it,” Ivy noted.

 

The trials are part of the 2018 Advancing Vegetable Production in Northern New York project funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program.

The field demonstration plots also showcase new multiple species cover crop mixes that growers have been reluctant to invest in due to cost and, in some cases, establishment requirements.

“One of the benefits of these research trials is enabling growers to see first-hand how the newer cover crop mixes are working in a test field before they commit precious dollars to try them on their own land,” Ivy noted.

The presenters will address crop selection, establishment, and timing with the example of the same crops of millet, oats, hairy vetch and daikon radish alone and in combinations planted on two different soils on two different dates in August.

The 2018 Advancing Vegetable Production in Northern New York project also includes research on nitrogen uptake in winter-grown spinach and opportunities for early harvest of popular summer high tunnel-grown vegetable crops.

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.