Beef farmers planning commingled cattle pool to do business with big buyers

Read this story by Ted Booker of the Watertown Daily Times on how Northern New York beef producers are developing a new strategy for attracting business.

Northern New York Agricultural Development Program Farmer Committeeman Don Holman, a beef producer in Adams, NY; Cornell Beef EXtension Specialist Dr. Mike Baker; and Northern New York Regional Livestock Team Leader Betsy Hodge with Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County offer their comments.

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The results of research conducted on three Northern New York farms to evaluate parasite control treatments for sheep and goats will be shared at programs organized by Cornell Cooperative Extension for December 3-5 in Watertown, Canton, Malone and Plattsburgh.

The research funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program and conducted on NNY farms evaluated alternative methods for controlling barber pole worm, a widespread internal parasite of sheep and goats.

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Seventy-three percent of 273 sheep and goat farmers responding to a Cornell survey indicated problems with barber pole worm, a major cause of death in small livestock.

To help small livestock producers, the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is funding research into alternative methods for controlling the widespread parasite of sheep and goats. Results of the research will be shared at a series of meetings across the region December 3-5.

The Cornell Sheep and Goat Program – Dr. Michael L. Thonney and Dr. tatiana Stanton, Cornell Veterinary Parasitology Lab – Dr. Dwight Bowman and Janice Liotta – are working in coordination with Northern New York Cornell Cooperative Extension Regional Livestock Team Leader Betsy Hodge and NNY small livestock producers to are evaluate promising alternative methods for controlling barber pole worm and other internal parasites in sheep and goats.

Haemonchus contortus is a stomach parasite commonly known as barber pole worm. The parasite has become increasingly resistant to traditional anthelmintic – anti-worming – treatments.

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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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