In 2013, a Cornell University research team funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) is taking a proactive approach to brown root rot (BRR), a fungus that damages alfalfa crops. The disease was first discovered in the eastern U.S. in Northern New York in 2004 at Chazy.

Research leader Dr. Julie L. Hansen, with the Cornell University Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, says, “We have begun breeding BRR-resistant alfalfa to identify the most commercially-viable varieties under Northern New York field conditions.”

Hansen; Cornell plant breeder Dr. Donald Viands, and research support specialist Jamie Crawford are using cuttings of plants that survived significant 2011-2012 winter ice-sheeting and BRR at the Miner Institute in Chazy to breed a genetic capacity for BRR resistance into future generations of alfalfa.

“Based on data from western Canada where brown root rot has long been a problem for alfalfa producers, the breeding of BRR-resistant alfalfa varieties can help Northern New York growers stem stand losses and regain yield and profitability,” Hansen says.

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A low-cost, easy-to-implement on-farm solution for controlling a highly destructive alfalfa pest is now expected to pay off for New York strawberry growers.

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) has granted funds to Cornell University entomologist Elson Shields to evaluate the use of alfalfa snout beetle-controlling nematodes to manage two strawberry crop pests.

Strawberry root weevils and black vine weevils attack a wide array of plants from woody ornamentals in the urban landscape to commercial cane berry crops, including raspberries and blackberries; and strawberries.

“Strawberry root weevil and black vine weevil are very closely related to alfalfa snout beetle, and, like alfalfa snout beetle, these weevils are difficult to control with conventional pesticides, but they are very susceptible to attack by the biocontrol nematodes,” Shields says.

Shields developed a protocol for using native New York nematodes to control alfalfa snout beetle, which had become the single most limiting factor for alfalfa growers in nine New York counties. Similarly, the two weevils are causing economic havoc for strawberry growers.

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Northern New York — As the nation prepares to celebrate the first National Bioenergy Day on October 17, researchers funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program are continuing their study of willow and grass crops as alternative energy sources for agricultural producers in New York’s six northernmost counties.

Cornell University Crop and Soil Sciences Professor Dr. Jerry Cherney is evaluating the potential for a closed-loop, regional renewable energy system that makes marginal farmland productive, creates local jobs, lowers greenhouse gas emissions, and helps reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

In a separate project, Cornell Associate Professor of Horticulture Larry Smart is establishing a shrub willow trial at the Cornell Willsboro Research Farm in Willsboro, NY, to evaluate varieties and to test new methods for more sustainable site conversion and crop establishment in typical NNY fields.

Read more about both NNYADP-funded projects.

If you’ve been anywhere near a Northern New York cornfield this fall, you’ve probably seen them – the small, solid-green or yellow-striped corn rootworm beetles.

Northern Corn Rootworm beetles are green, while the Western Corn Rootworm beetle is yellow with distinct black stripes. Populations of both species appear to be quite high this fall with the western type the most abundant, and more troublesome, species.

These beetles pose no further risks to this year’s corn, but beetle numbers this season indicate potential risk to those fields targeted to be planted to corn again next year.

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With funding from the farmer-led Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP), Cornell University researchers are undertaking a comprehensive diagnosis and assessment of the diseases that impact corn and soybean crops in the NNY region.

“The systematic assessment of corn and soybean diseases in the Northern New York region is long overdue,” says Cornell University Plant Pathologist Gary C. Bergstrom. “The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is funding a proactive disease evaluation that will create a benchmarking database as a management tool to help growers maintain strong production and profitability.”

Corn and soybeans are high value crops as livestock feed and cash crops for Northern New York farms. Cornell University estimates the Northern New York corn grain industry alone to have an annual value of $50.6 million. From 2011 to 2012, the value of the regional soybean crop, grown on some 300,000 acres, increased $1.37 million to $5.39 million. NNY soybean exports have more than tripled since 2010.

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