Research Identifies Cold Weather Strategies for Dairy Calf Managers

Northern NY; November 15, 2017.  As winter approaches, research funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has identified cold weather strategies for attention by regional dairy calf managers.

“Winter weather poses a natural challenge to raising young animals. Respiratory illness in calves can negatively impact weight gain, age at their first calving, first lactation milk production, farm revenue and costs,” says project leader Kimberley Morrill, Ph.D., a regional Cornell Cooperative Extension dairy specialist, Canton, NY.

A USDA National Animal Health Monitoring Systems report that helped prompt the research in Northern New York indicated that 12.47 percent of pre-weaned dairy heifers in the United States are affected by respiratory illness with 93.4 percent of those calves requiring antibiotics.

Morrill evaluated 426 calves located across 27 farms in the northernmost counties of New York State from late November 2016 to early January 2017. In total those farms represented 2,408 pre-weaned calves, 32,269 heifers, and 33,557 lactating cows.

Among the factors Morrill measured and analyzed were temperature, humidity, dew point, wind chill, airflow, bedding, and calf age, weight, and health scoring.

Eight of the 27 participating farms had no calves with respiratory illness. On a per-farm basis, the prevalence of respiratory illness ranged from zero to 46 percent. Six farms had higher per-farm percentages of calves exhibiting signs of respiratory illness.

“Both environmental and management factors influenced the percentage of calves with respiratory illness per farm. Those factors included the type of housing system, bedding type and quality, and the number of calves per calf pen along with pen environmental quality, and weather factors,” Morrill says.

The project design included development of strategies to reduce the risk of respiratory illness in pre-weaned calves. Each farm participating in the project received an individualized report with recommendations for steps to improve their winter season calf management. Recommendations included:

• reducing the number of calves per group pen so each calf has a minimum of 35 square feet,
• increasing the calorie intake to meet daily requirements,
• adding bedding to allow for nesting,
• revising the feeding equipment cleaning protocol to reduce the risk of bacterial growth,
• revising or creating new written calf care management protocols, and
• implementing employee training in the areas of calf feeding and management.

Morrill notes that the majority of the farms participating in the project have adjusted their practices based on the recommendations received. The impact of the changes will be evaluated after the winter of 2017-18. Morrill will present an update on this research at the 2018 American Dairy Science Association meeting.

“Knowing the factors that have the greatest opportunity to enhance calf health through the winter helps farmers manage for seasonal challenges by taking the necessary steps to improve respiratory health,” Morrill added.

Earlier research funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program evaluated warm season factors influencing the respiratory health of pre-weaned dairy calves on regional farms.

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program provides research and technical assistance to farmers in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. 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.

Northern N.Y.; October 31, 2017.  Farmers in New Mexico, Texas, Ohio, and Michigan want to know more about a crop pest solution developed on farms in Northern New York and in the Shields Lab at Cornell University.

Initially developed to protect the alfalfa crops so critical to the Northern New York dairy industry, using biocontrol nematodes as a non-chemical management practice has shown promise for reducing not only damage by alfalfa snout beetle but by other field crop and fruit pests.

With a mandate backed by a 30-year commitment from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, Cornell University entomologist Dr. Elson Shields and Research Specialist Antonio Testa pioneered the science of using a combination of two NY-native nematodes to reduce the alfalfa snout beetle populations that were frequently destroying entire fields of alfalfa in one season.

Once they proved the biocontrol nematodes, in a single application, could significantly reduce the pest population by destroying alfalfa snout beetle larvae over multiple growing seasons, Shields and Testa tested and found success with the use of the biocontrol nematodes for managing pests in strawberry and blueberry crops.

Current funding from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is underwriting on-farm trials evaluating the impact of biocontrol nematodes on corn rootworm in corn grown in rotation on alfalfa acres.

In June 2017, New Mexico-based researchers established a biocontrol nematode test plot in an alfalfa field infested with white fringe beetle, an insect similar to alfalfa snout beetle and similarly not controlled by conventional pesticide treatment.

If soil samples analyzed this fall by the Shields Lab show establishment of the microscopic biocontrol nematodes in the trial plot in northeastern New Mexico, the research will be expanded to include the potential to control white fringe beetle and longer-term persistence studies.

In West Texas, near Dalhart, a biocontrol nematode trial was established in May 2017 in a cornfield with severe corn rootworm populations. Rootworm populations in the area are suspected of becoming resistant to the various Bt-rootworm toxins incorporated into corn varieties.

Shields notes, ‘We did not expect any positive results from the West Texas trial until 2018, but the biocontrol nematodes reduced the rootworm feeding damage by two-thirds compared to conventional corn planted without soil insecticide. The NY-native nematodes performed beyond expectations under the extremely heavy pressure.’

Recently analyzed samples from the West Texas trial showed the biocontrol nematode population there has dramatically increased.

Shields and colleagues in Ohio and Michigan are awaiting response to a USDA grant request to test the NY-native biocontrol nematodes against corn rootworm in those states and to continuing the promising field work in Texas.

Northern New York farmers on 100 farms have applied the biocontrol nematodes to more than 19,000 acres of alfalfa as of September 2017.

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program commitment to the science needed to develop a solution fostered a sound, science-based approach that has provided farmers with a biocontrol system utilizing naturally-occuring and persistent soil nematodes in tandem with progressively-bred alfalfa snout beetle-resistant alfalfa varieties developed by a separately-funded NNYADP project led by Dr. Donald Viands and Dr. Julie L. Hansen of the Cornell University Plant Breeding and Genetics Department.

The Northern New York biocontrol nematode research has also attracted international attention. In June 2015, a Russian delegation representing the largest milk producer in Russia and Europe traveled to Northern New York specifically to meet with Dr. Shields and tour regional farms seeing the results of applying the biocontrol nematodes.

In Europe, alfalfa snout beetle is also a pest of grapes and hops, newly emerging agricultural crops across New York State. The New York Farm Viability Institute, which funds projects statewide, is currently funding biocontrol nematode trials against pests in corn, sod, apples, strawberries and greenhouse crops in the Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley and other regions of New York State.

The history, results and widespread impact of alfalfa snout beetle research are chronicled on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org.

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program provides research and technical assistance to farmers in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. 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.

MORE INFO:
. Alfalfa snout beetle is an invasive pest introduced into the U.S. from Europe through the port of Oswego, NY, between 1845 and 1896, and spread to more than 500,000 acres of alfalfa with losses of more than $1,000 per acre.

.  Alfalfa snout beetle populations began dramatically increasing in New York State in the 1980s after the 1972 cessation of baiting due to environmental impact concerns.

. Alfalfa snout beetle research funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program prompted a new business enterprise in Franklin County, where Mary DeBeer established a biocontrol nematode rearing lab in conjunction with the custom crop spraying business she operates with her father Ronald DeBeer of Moira, NY. In 2017 they reared and applied biocontrol nematodes to approximately 1,700 acres in Franklin and Clinton counties.

. Farmers in Northern New York scout their fields, digging soil and root samples to check for the presence of alfalfa snout beetle larvae in the fall season.

. See the Field Crops: Alfalfa section of this website for research reports and more information.

 

Northern N.Y.; October 23, 2017.  Harvested cornfields may look barren, but in some a winter-hardy crop is already growing. The results of field trials funded by  the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program evaluating the opportunity to grow winter rye planted in Northern NY cornfields are posted on this website.

W.H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute, Chazy, N.Y. Is leading the double cropping research. A second of trials assessed the yield and quality of the two crops grown on the same acreage and the opportunity for conservation benefits.

 

‘Our field work in both years suggests that the presence of the rye cover crop reduced losses of nitrogen and phosphorus in field surface runoff,’ said project leader and Miner Institute Agronomist Eric O. Young.

‘Double cropping with rye and corn silage may be a good fit for farms in Northern New York looking to increase hay forage production while reducing nutrient losses,’ Young added.

Overwintering forage crops such as winter rye, also known as cereal rye, germinate at cooler temperatures and are hardy against Northern New York cold and snow.

‘Establishing a winter forage crop such as rye or triticale after corn silage harvest can reduce soil erosion and improve soil health, and can potentially supply a hay forage crop for spring harvest, but attention to management and the right growing conditions are needed,’ said Young.

The research team has developed insight into practices that could improve the opportunity for yield from both the corn silage crop and the winter rye crop.

The 2016 trials showed that planting corn for silage following a winter rye crop can decrease the corn yield significantly. The corn silage yields were approximately four tons per acre lower in the winter rye plots that year,’ Young said.

He suspects that rye actively growing when the corn was planted in the 2016 trial and no-till planting to establish the corn crop likely exacerbated a yield penalty associated with the rye.

In the 2017 trials, rye and control plots were disked prior to planting corn and there was no significant difference in corn yield.

Young suggests that the rye should be terminated two weeks prior to planting corn in combination with some level of tillage to increase the rye biomass decomposition and allow for easier planting and more consistent planting depth for the corn.

This project is taking advantage of small field plots equipped with tile and surface monitoring capability funded earlier by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. Those plots were used to evaluate the impact of tile drains on phosphorus loss and will assist the double cropping project by indicating how the winter rye impacts the loss of nitrogen and phosphorus in field runoff.

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program provides research and technical assistance to farmers in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Senate and administerd by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

NNY Corn Yield Potential Research Strengthening Future Crop Production

Northern, N.Y.; October 9, 2017.  As Northern New York corn growers harvest their crops this fall, those using yield monitors are contributing data to a project prompted by regional farmers wanting to know how advances in corn breeding and production practices are impacting crop yields and if the associated nitrogen application guidelines need updating.

With funding from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, Cornell University researchers are compiling actual yield data obtained in the NNY cornfields to evaluate the yield potential database that farmers and crop advisers use to determine the nitrogen needed via fertilizer or manure application to achieve an optimal corn crop under most conditions in the region.

The Re-Evaluating Yield Potentials of Corn Grain and Silage in Northern New York research report covering 2013 through 2016 is posted on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org.

‘The farmers and farm advisers in Northern New York were frontrunners in the database re-evaluation that started in 2013,’ said research leader Dr. Quirine M. Ketterings of the Cornell Nutrient Management Spear Program, Ithaca, N.Y. ‘With more yield monitors in use, we now have a great opportunity to more quickly and more widely obtain real-field data.’

While Northern New York Agricultural Development Program-funded on-farm trials from 2013 through 2015 showed substantial agreement between yield potentials and actual yields when averaged across fields, there were notable exceptions between actual harvest and yield potential expectations in some fields.

‘Over the three-year study, one-third of fields tested yielded less than 90 percent of the yield potential, while 26 percent of the fields evaluated yielded more than 110 percent of the Cornell yield potential,’ Ketterings noted.

Increasing reliability of yield monitor equipment and data, greater yield monitor use, and development by the Cornell research team of a more reliable approach for handling yield datasets in recent months allows for much quicker evaluations of yield across a larger number of soil types.

Yield map data from corn harvesting in Northern New York will be added to the statewide yield potential database and used to refine nitrogen application recommendations for future corn planting.

Jefferson and Lewis farmers who wish to contribute to the corn yield database project may contact Cornell Cooperative Extension NNY Regional Field Crops Specialist Mike Hunter at 315-788-8540; farmers in Clinton, Essex, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties may contact Cornell Cooperative Extension NNY Regional Field Crops and Soils Specialist Kitty O’Neil at 315-854-1218. Mike Contessa of Champlain Valley Agronomics is also a key collaborator to the project.

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program provides research and technical assistance to farmers in the six northernmost counties of New York State. 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.

MORE INFORMATION:
The statewide corn silage and grain yields from 1919 through 2015 show that yields have steadily increased since the second World War in New York State and in Northern New York. The data show, however, large year-to-year variation and very limited advances over the past 10 years.

Each of the more than 600 soil types found in New York State has an estimated yield potential in the Cornell University soil database.

Weather-related conditions from drought to excessive rainfall impact year-to-year differences in crop yield, thus, multiple years of data need to be collected for each soil type of agricultural importance.

Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) Co-Chair Jon Greenwood and St. Lawrence County farmer Kevin Acres comment on the revival of corn silage testing in New York State in an article posted by American Agriculturist magazine in the fall of 2017.

The hybrid evaluation trials were restored with a 2016-2017 funding from the New York Farm Viability Institute with additional funding from the NNYADP for regional testing. The silage testing project leaders with Cornell University are PRO-Dairy Director Tom Overton, Dairy Forage Systems Specialist Joe Lawrence, Dairy Research Specialist Allison Lawton, and Plant Breeding and Genetics Professor and corn researcher Margaret Smith; assisted in Northern NY by CCE Crops Specialists Kitty O’Neil and Mike Hunter.