Funding from the farmer-led Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has established one of the world’s largest Juneberry research nurseries at the Cornell Willsboro Research Farm in Willsboro, NY.

Research leaders Michael B. Burgess, an Amelanchier biologist with the Department of Biological Sciences at SUNY Plattsburgh, and Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael H. Davis started with and are continuing to build a living collection of Amelanchier that includes all commercially available cultivars, wild-collected novel fruit cultivars, and North American diploid Amelanchier species.

Seeds from 8 Amelanchier species: A. alnifolia, A. arborea, A. canadensis, A. gaspensis, A. humilis, A. laevis, A. sanguinea, and A. spicata, collected from across the Northeast, the Gaspe Peninsula and southern Quebec, were cold stratified for 2-3 months and successfully germinated in the SUNY Plattsburgh greenhouse. Seedlings were transplanted to the Willsboro Research Farm nursery. The first substantive crop of fruit is expected in 2017.

The Cornell Willsboro Research Farm will have the most taxonomically diverse living collection of North American Amelanchier species and fruit cultivars in the world. Replicated trials at the nursery will support development of a vibrant juneberry fruit industry.

To support grower entry into the Juneberry market, the Cornell Willsboro Research Farm Amelanchier nursery will provide evidence-based resources and best management practices for Juneberry production, including plant establishment techniques, fertility requirements, planting densities, organic production, and weed, insect, and disease control strategies.

Burgess and Davis have partnered with Jim Ochterski, a leading Juneberry proponent and educator in NY’s Finger Lakes region. They offer resources and workshops for growers and those interested in producing and marketing juneberries.

Ochterski will be the featured speaker at a June 12 Juneberry Production Workshop in Ovid, NY. The workshop is organized by Seneca County Cornell Cooperative Extension. Click here for details on this in-depth introduction to juneberry cultivation. The workshop also includes a field tour to Juneberry Farm, owned by Guy Lister, in Willard, NY.

Click here for the NNYADP Juneberry Nursery flier that Seneca County CCE is including in the workshop packets. Thank you, all!

Winter survival is important for a perennial crop like alfalfa. The harsh winters typical of Northern New York make winter hardiness an essential trait for alfalfa production. Loss of a high quality perennial crop to winterkill is an economic blow to producers with both time and money lost to crop rotation and reestablishment costs.

Some alfalfa varieties have better winter hardiness than others and are thus better suited to survive a truly harsh NNY winter. However, alfalfa decline due to poor drainage and waterlogged soils will not be remedied by superior winter hardy varieties.

So what should cold climate alfalfa growers do? Click here to read the 2014 season results of the Testing Alfalfa Varieties & Germplasm for Winter Survival in NNY project funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. The project leaders Julie L. Hansen, Donald Viands, and Jamie Crawford of the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University; collaborators are CCE NNY Field Crops and Soils Specialist Kitty O’Neil and Cornell Willsboro Research Farm Manager Michael Davis.

The NNYADP has posted the results of the  “Additional Innovations in Parasite Management in Northern NY Sheep and Goat Farms project conducted by Cornell Animal Science educators Michael L. Thonney and tatiana Stanton and NNY CCE Livestock Team Leader Betsy Hodge with assistance from NNY CCE Field Crops and Soils Specialist Kitty O’Neil. Learn more via the link that follows:

Additional Innovations in Parasite Management in Northern New York Sheep and Goat Farms, NNYADP, 2013-14 Report

Regional media cover NNYADP alfalfa snout beetle control research success. . . WWNY TV 7 Patrick Malowski has posted his feature story on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program-funded alfalfa snout beetle project success in using nematodes to control crop pest and the interest of 30 farmers in applying the insect-attacking worms to help protect their alfalfa crops, a valuable dairy industry feedstock.

The Mother’s Day edition of the Watertown Times features an article by reporter Elaine Avallone on a variety of alfalfa research funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. Cornell University Plant Breeder Julie L. Hansen is advancing the selection of ASB-resistant varieties of alfalfa. Her work led to the first commercial seed for ASB-resistant alfalfa. That seed was available for the 2nd year  in 2015. Julie is also evaluating ways to improve the winter hardiness of alfalfa for NNY growers and ways to combat brown root rot of alfalfa.

Read more 

Thanks go to farmer John E. Peck and the Peck Homestead Farm family who hosted the alfalfa snout beetle on-farm research trials for more than two decades in support of the long-term commitment required to develop a proper understanding of the pest, its life cycle and its predators. The protocol for using native NY nematodes as an inexpensive, effective biocontrol was developed by Cornell University Entomologist Elson Shields and Research Support Specialist Tony Testa. They devised a specific greenhouse process to support the research and field testing now shows that the nematodes will persist and spread, making it possible that a single application of the nematodes is enough to reduce pest populations to manageable levels.

The NNYADP dedicated funding, support of the NYS Legislature and the patient science-based research that has developed the use of nematodes combined with the selective breeding of ASB-resistant alfalfa varieties is writing a success story for Northern New York crop growers and the dairy industry.

 

Northern New York counties are hosting two events of interest to syrup producers in 2015:

June 12-14: 1st International Birch Sap and Syrup Conference, Paul Smiths College in Franklin County, for those currently producing birch syrup and those interested to start up. Find a registration form at  www.paulsmiths.edu/birch.

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has granted 2015 funds for a new project: Producing Syrup from Birch Trees in NNY: A Niche Marketing Opportunity for Sugarmakers.

June 28-30: 2015 New York State Maple Tour  in Franklin and St. Lawrence Counties. Sugarhouses on the tour aboard air-conditioned charter buses include Parker Family Maple Farm, West Chazy; Moon Valley Maple in the Titus Mountain Ski Area near Malone; William Greenwood Maple; Jon and Kyle Laurie Maple; Rand Hill Maple, the only NY sugarhouse to make the Maple Almanac 2014 US Top Ten by Tap Count; Bechard’s Sugar House, Casey’s Sugar House, Saranac Sugar Works, Brow’s Sugar House, and Amazing Grace Vineyard making maple wine with Homestead Maple.

For information on the tour, activities, banquet, lodging and more, contact NYS Maple Producers Association at http://www.nysmaple.com/ny-maple-producers/2015-NY-Maple-Tour/. Also see June 28-30 listing at http://www.ccenny.com/index.php/calendar/events-calendar/.