Northern N.Y.; March 26, 2018. Late winter and early spring are the primary times when brown root rot, also known as snow mold, may be damaging Northern New York alfalfa, a highly valued forage crop for dairy cows and other livestock. With funding from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, Cornell University researchers are evaluating opportunities to develop alfalfa that is both adapted to the colder Northern New York climate and able to resist brown root rot (BRR).

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has recently posted the results of a three-year study by Cornell University researchers developing alfalfa populations after exposure to the brown root rot fungus and ice sheeting at www.nnyagdev.org.

The parasitic fungal plant pathogen Phoma sclerotioides is the causal agent of brown root rot that damages the roots and crowns of alfalfa plants, other perennial legumes, and overwintering grasses.

“The plants that survive the winter of 2017-18 in a field with high brown root rot pressure in Northern New York will be excellent candidates for new cultivar development through successive plant breeding,” said project leader Julie L. Hansen, a plant breeding and genetics specialist at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Northern New York field trials funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program have shown that brown root rot-resistant alfalfa varieties grown in Saskatchewan and Wyoming perform poorly under the Northern New York climate and growing conditions.

Brown root rot was first detected on alfalfa in the eastern United States in 2003 in Northern New York in Clinton County. It has also been found in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Ontario, Canada, with reports of alfalfa yield loss, winterkill, slow spring emergence from dormancy, and stand decline over time.

The work to identify cultivars that have the best opportunity to grow under Northern New York regional conditions has new funding from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program for research in 2018.

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. Project results and a fact sheet are posted are this website under Crops: Crop Disease: Brown Root Rot.

NNY Corn Grain Evaluation Helps Farmers Select Seed, Feed Cows, Sell to Ethanol Producers

Northern N.Y. The evaluation of 103 commercial corn hybrids in trials funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is now posted at www.nnyagdev.org. The trials under localized growing conditions help farmers select the corn hybrids best suited to their soils, agronomic practices, and needs, including use of the corn in a dairy cow diet and for production for sale to ethanol producers.

“Over the past 20 years, corn acres harvested as grain in the six-county Northern New York region have doubled, reflecting availability of hybrids with good yield and adaptation in this shorter-season area. Highly productive grain hybrids that perform in Northern New York allow farmers there to take advantage of corn grain and ethanol markets,” said project leader Dr. Margaret E. Smith, a plant breeding and genetics professor at Cornell University Smith.

Project collaborator Joe Lawrence, a dairy forage specialist with the Cornell University PRO-DAIRY program, “A focus by the seed industry on silage-specific corns has increased the need for independent evaluation of the corns’ traits, particularly to determine their merit in a dairy feeding program.”

Cornell PRO-DAIRY Director Thomas Overton notes, “We use the data from the Northern New York corn hybrid trials, and those conducted elsewhere in New York State, to evaluate how those hybrids will interact in a lactating cow feed ration and how that ration may influence expected cow performance and milk production.”

The 2017 hybrid evaluation trials, planted at the Cornell Willsboro Research Farm in Essex County, W. H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute in Clinton County, and Greenwood Farm in St. Lawrence County, evaluated 103 hybrids ranging from 80-day to 110-day maturity corns.

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program project report notes that data on yield-to-moisture ratio comprises one of the best guides for selecting hybrids with excellent grain yield and appropriate maturity for Northern New York growing conditions. Grain yield is an important contributor to silage yield and quality and a consideration for farmers interested in selling their corn grain for feed or ethanol production

For silage, collaboration by hybrid evaluation projects across the Northeast, including the trials in Northern New York, continue to focus on key quality parameters’ related to fiber and starch digestibility.

Smith cautions that farmers should select hybrids based on multi-year and multi-location data whenever possible.

“Any hybrid can have a banner year or banner environment, but not necessarily hold up over different locations and growing seasons. Selections are best judged with several years of data under the regionalized growing conditions and the knowledge of one’s own soils, climate, and farm environment,” says Smith.

Multi-year corn hybrid evaluation data are available in the Cornell Guide for Integrated Field Crop Management. For assistance, contact Cornell Cooperative Extension NNY Field Crops Specialists Mike Hunter, 315-788-8602, or Kitty O’Neil, 315-854-1218.

Farmers in Northern New York have harvested an average of 145,000 acres of corn annually for grain and silage over the past four years.

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.

Links to 2017 Corn Hybrids report and tables

Links to multiple years of NNY Corn Grain and Corn Silage trials data

Ithaca, NY; February 27, 2018.  Northern New York farmers interested in protecting their alfalfa crops from the devastating alfalfa snout beetle can take advantage of discounts from the Cornell University laboratory raising the biocontrol nematodes that have been proven to reduce not only populations of snout beetle, but other crop pests as well.

Research funded long-term by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program developed the science needed to pioneer the use of native nematodes, tiny insect-attack worms, as a biocontrol to suppress the spread of the destructive insect.

Recent field trials funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program indicate that the biocontrol nematodes are also having an impact on corn rootworm after a field treated with the nematodes is rotated from alfalfa into corn.

Research elsewhere in the state has shown the biocontrol nematodes can reduce white grub and wireworm populations.

It requires three to five years to totally inoculate a farm with nematodes to reduce the snout beetle populations to a manageable level.

Cornell entomologist Dr. Elson Shields and Research Support Specialist Antonio Testa who developed the protocol for the use and rearing of the biocontrol nematodes recommend application on alfalfa fields in their seeding year or first production year for best results. Based on recent research trials, application can also be made to cornfields.

The Shields Lab at Cornell University that has reared the biocontrol nematodes as part of its research mandate is offering a discount for orders placed for delivery by June 15 for application within the following 3 to 5 days. This advance order deadline is April 28 and an additional ten percent applies for payment in advance or on delivery.

After the April 28 deadline, a ten percent discount applies to any order paid upon delivery. Farmers must contact the lab at no later than 45 days prior to a planned application based on their 2018 alfalfa cutting schedule.

Biocontrol nematode application must be made before September 15.

The cost is $28 per acre before discount.

The Shields’ Lab will only be providing the nematodes through 2021, opening an opportunity for business development to continue to supply the biocontrol nematodes to area farmers. While one nematode rearing business has been developed as a result of this research, others are needed. The Shields’ Lab will assist individuals seriously interested in rearing the biocontrol nematodes as a business.

Farmers who wish to rear their own biocontrol nematodes may also contact the Shields’ Lab for assistance.

For more information, contact Antonio Testa of the Shields’ Lab at 607-591-1493, at28@cornell.edu, or call Cornell Cooperative Extension NNY Field Crops Specialists Mike Hunter, 315-788-8602, or Kitty O’Neil, 315-853-1218.

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.

Alfalfa snout beetle is known to exist across the six northernmost counties of New York State, in Oswego, Cayuga, and Wayne counties in NY, and in southeastern Ontario, Canada. The beetle can destroy entire fields of alfalfa in one growing season. The use of the nematode biocontrol developed in Northern New York is now being trialed in several U.S. states.

The February 9, 2018 edition of Bovine Veterinarian highlights the Northern New York Agricultural Development  Program-funded Winter Calf Respiratory Health project led by NNY Regional Dairy Specialist Dr. Kimberley Morrill. Click here to see that story.

Click here to see the December 12, 2017 Spectrum News report by Katelynn Ulrich who visited Five Mile Farm in St. Lawrence County to talk with Kim and farmer Ryan Akins.

Click here to read the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program-funded project report on ways to enhance calf health through the cold winter months in Northern NY.

Cloning High Sugar Maple Trees the Focus of Northern NY Research Project

Northern N.Y.; February 2018.  The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has posted the first results of a project evaluating the opportunity to clone high sugar maple trees. The long-term goal is to produce rooted “sweet tree” clones that maple producers can plant to enhance their sugarmaking operations. The report is available at www.nnyagdev.org.

Cornell University plant pathologist Keith L. Perry conducted the research in collaboration with Joe Orefice, director of the Cornell Uilhein Maple Research Forest in Lake Placid, NY.

“If producers can plant and harvest from trees with naturally higher sugar sap concentrations, productivity would increase and costs would decrease. If we can clonally propagate what are known as ‘sweet trees,’ there would be an opportunity to establish a nursery crop industry as well,” says Perry.

The concentration of sugar in the sap of maple trees varies year-to-year, by environment, planting site, and the genetics of individual trees. Research by the U.S. Forest Service and Cornell University has identified high sugar-producing trees in New York and Pennsylvania; the University of Guelph has done likewise in Ontario, Canada.

In 2016, Perry visited the University of Guelph laboratory that successfully established buds from a high sugar-producing mother tree in vitro in sterile media. This is the first step toward clonally propagating maple trees with any desired trait, including high sugar concentration.

In April 2017, Perry and Orefice measured late season sugar concentrations in maple trees tapped at the Uihlein Maple Research Station and took cuttings from the higher sugar trees. A total of 433 buds were removed from the cuttings, surface-sterilized, and put onto sterile tissue culture media in the laboratory at the Cornell Uihlein Foundation Seed Potato Farm, directed by Perry.

As of December 31, 2017, three buds, representing three separate clonal lines, were alive and growing well. The researchers divided them into a total of seven plants.

The lessons learned so far about how to improve bud collection to enhance survivability have been identified for use in 2018 to establish additional plant lines from other high sugar trees.

“As an outcome of the investment of the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program in this innovative research, support to continue the work in 2018 is being made available through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University,” Perry noted.

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. Project results are posted online at www.nnyagdev.org.