July 12, 2024.  American Agriculturist Editor Chris Torres recently featured the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP)-funded dairy climatic heat stress abatement research conducted by Miner Institute.  Chris spoke with Greg Palmer, Herdsman at Dimock Farms that hosted some of the research trials, and with Katie Ballard, Director of Research at Miner Institute, who has conducted a number of dairy animal climatic heat stress abatement research projects with NNYADP support.

Click here to read the American Agriculturist “Cows hot? Let the air flow” article that includes a graph from the NNYADP 2023 report showing the impact of cooling fans on average milk production from April through October.

Click here to read NNYADP heat stress abatement research reports: the latest report is at the top of the page; others are farther down on the page under a heading of Heat Stress Abatement on Dairy Farms

Preliminary Research Showed Atrazine May Not Be Necessary
NNYADP project responds to proposed EPA interest in reducing herbicide’s use; more on-farm trials underway

July 9, 2024.  Following upon Environmental Protection Agency interest in reducing the use of atrazine, an herbicide applied for early season weed control in field corn, the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) funded on-farm research in 2023 to address growers’ questions about the effectiveness of using reduced rates of atrazine or no atrazine.

“The results of this limited-scope, preliminary trial demonstrated that excellent corn weed control was achievable regardless of the atrazine rate used and without inclusion of atrazine in the herbicide treatment; however, additional trials are now underway to provide data from other locations and in different growing seasons before we draw any definite conclusions,” said New York State Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Field Crops IPM Coordinator Mike Hunter.

Hunter conducted the research on farms in Franklin and Jefferson counties in 2023. All herbicide treatments – with and without atrazine – provided greater than 93 percent control of common lambsquarter. The range of effectiveness was 93.75 to 100 percent control.

Hunter’s weed control effectiveness assessment primarily focused on common lambsquarter as a predominant weed at both farms in the study. Common lambsquarter grows in wide range of soil types, is a strong consumer of nutrients, and takes a growth advantage from nitrogen applications. The weed’s seeds are spread through the manure of grazing animals and movement of field equipment.

The weed control assessment was conducted 35 days after the application of 16 different pre-emergence herbicide treatments. The application rates were adjusted at each farm based on soil texture and organic matter. Both trial locations received sufficient rainfall to activate the soil-applied treatments.

The “Evaluation of Corn Herbicide Programs With and Without Atrazine” project results are publicly-accessible on the NNYADP website under the About: Projects by Year 2023 tab at nnyagdev.org.

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administrated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

NNYADP Dairy Heat Stress Abatement Research was featured on a late June 2024 episode of the Cornell Cow Convos podcast. To hear the episode click on the highlighted link below.

In the eleventh episode of the Cornell Cow Convos podcast, Lindsay Ferlito, Cornell PRO-DAIRY’s Dairy Animal Welfare Specialist, and Dr. Kaitlyn Lutz, Dairy Management Specialist with CCE Northwest NY Dairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Team, interview Katie Ballard, Research Director at the William H. Miner Institute (and project leader of several NNYADP-funded dairy animal heat stress research projects). They discuss the impacts of heat stress in dairy cows in NY, the takeaways from Katie’s research in this area, and heat abatement strategies to consider on our region’s dairy farms.

To see the results of NNYADP dairy heat stress research, click here.

Willsboro, NY; June 20, 2024. The latest results of “superfruits” research funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) will be featured during a July 10, 2024 field day at the Willsboro Research Farm. Data from the farm and participating growers with juneberry, honeyberry, aronia, and elderberry crops are posted at www.nnyagdev.org under the About: Projects by Year tab.  The 1:30-4:00 p.m. tour is free, open to the public, and will include multiple types of research projects.

Juneberry, honeyberry, aronia, and elderberry are referred to as “superfruits” for their high anti-oxidant, high phytonutrient value sought out by consumers, making them economically significant crops as well.

“Multiple growing seasons with a wide range of environmental conditions as well as pest and disease challenges provide a broad-based ‘laboratory’ for developing best practices to help growers adapt year-to-year,” said Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael H. Davis, Ph.D.

Dr. Davis and SUNY Plattsburgh Assistant Professor of Biology and botanist Michael B. Burgess, Ph.D., initiated the “superfruits for northern New York” research in 2013, collecting wild varieties to plant alongside commercially-available varieties of juneberry. With NNYADP grant funding, they established New York state’s only juneberry research nursery at Willsboro in 2014.

Today, the Willsboro superfruits research trials include 25 varieties of juneberry, 16 varieties of honeyberry, six varieties of aronia, and seven varieties of elderberry.

JUNEBERRY: Spongy moth damage of 2022 seen in 2023
Most of the commercial and wild-collected fruiting varieties of juneberry at the Willsboro farm did not produce any flowers in 2023 and those that did had very few flowers.

“The extensive spongy moth infestation that defoliated the trial in 2022 likely depleted the resources the fruiting variety plants needed for flower and fruit production in 2023,” said Dr. Davis.

The ornamental varieties of juneberry in the trial not defoliated by the moths in 2022 flowered profusely in 2023.

A grower in Essex County with 10 varieties of juneberry, unaffected by spongy moth caterpillar in 2022, saw significant flowering in early May 2023, just before a severe frost eliminated the opportunity for harvestable fruit yield.

HONEYBERRY: Flowered well, but fruit yield down
In 2023, eighteen of the twenty honeyberry varieties in the Willsboro trial flowered well and in an overlapping pattern necessary for cross-pollination and fruit set. Fruit yield; however, was lower compared to 2021 for all the varieties.

“Fruit yield drop for two years in a row, and shorter than expected bush growth, requires a closer look at nutrient and irrigation management. In 2024 we have aggressively pruned the honeyberry trial to open the canopies that had become dense over some of the varieties,” Dr. Davis explained.

ARONIA: Yield rebounded, but needs attention
Spongy moth damaged but did not defoliate the aronia trial in 2022; howver, the fruiting that year was unproductive. Fruit yield rebounded somewhat in 2023, but did not reach production levels of 2020 and 2021. Dr. Davis is evaluating aronia’s nutritional needs for any deficiencies that might impact the potential for fruit yield. A mid-May freeze damaged the aronia trial in 2023 after the plants were in full bloom.

ELDERBERRY: Deer browse a problem
Elderberry was added to the NNYADP superfruits research roster in 2021. In 2023, deer heavily damaged the trial of five American and two European varieties of elderberry. One plant not impacted by the deer browse reached a height of approximately seven feet and produced flower and fruit. Additional deer fencing has been installed to protect the plants year-round.

Commercial growers in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties have supported this research with data and observations from their own on-farm plantings since 2017. They are marketing fresh-picked and u-pick fruit and value-added products using their fruits.

NNYADP superfruits research results are publicly-accessible at nnyagdev.org.

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administrated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

June 18, 2024. The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) has published the first-year results of the hazelnut trials added to its “superfruits” research series in 2023.  The multi-stemmed wood perennial produces its “fruit” as nuts that are high in protein and oil with 81 percent as healthy mono-unsaturated oleic acid. The trial’s first-year results are now publicly-accessible at nnyagdev.org under About: Projects by Year 2023. The trial will be highlighted at the July 10, 2024 Field Day at the Willsboro Research Farm, 48 Sayward Lane, Willsboro, New York. The field day and tour are free and open to the public; 1:30-4 pm; more info: 518-963-7492.

“This research is evaluating the opportunity to add nut-producing perennial crops onto northern New York’s farms to diversify their income opportunities and biodiversity,” said NNYADP superfruits research leader and Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael H. Davis, Ph.D.

Hybrid hazelnuts are well-suited to northern New York growing conditions and can be integrated into a wide range of cropping systems, including orchard-style, agroforestry alley-cropping, and silvopasture, according to Dr. Davis.

Agronomist Myra Lawyer helped plant 116 seedlings representing eight varieties of American hazelnut at the Willsboro Research Farm in April and May of 2023. Lawyer provides agricultural assistance as an employee of the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC), working with the Lake Champlain Basin Program.

“As an agronomist and a conservationist, I am interested to begin seeing the trial data regarding expected positive environmental benefits from the hybrid hazelnut’s impact on soil health, biodiversity, and water quality,” Lawyer said.

Eight additional varieties of hybrid hazelnut were added to the trial in the spring of 2024. Deer fencing was installed to protect the planting, with an oat-pea fall cover crop seeding alongside one of the two rows of the trial.

Dr. Davis and SUNY Plattsburgh Assistant Professor of Biology and botanist Dr. Michael B. Burgess established the NNYADP-funded superfruits research, installing New York state’s first Juneberry nursery at the Willsboro Research Farm in 2013. The fruits there now include juneberry, honeyberry, aronia, and elderberry – all selected for their high antioxidant, high phytonutrient value.

With a new grant from the NNYADP, Dr. Davis has recently established a small planting of chestnut for evaluation as another high-value crop for northern New York growers.

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administrated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.