Search Results for: extension

Northern New York; February 20, 2017. Two soybean diseases not previously confirmed in Northern New York crops were identified in 2016 by the annual corn and soybean disease survey and assessment funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. The proactive disease assessment program helps protect the security and profitability of corn and soybean, two major agricultural crops for the Northern New York region.

Survey project leader and Cornell University plant pathologist Dr. Gary C. Bergstrom, Ithaca, NY, notes, “The unusually dry conditions of the 2016 growing season resulted in very low disease pressure for corn and soybeans in general across Northern New York, but provided a unique environment which favored the development of some soybean soil-borne diseases never before confirmed in the region.”

The soil-borne charcoal rot and Phythophthora root rot were confirmed in soybean in Northern New York for the first time in 2016. Fusarium root rot was first diagnosed in soybean in the region in 2015 and was present again in 2016. Northern stem canker was first identified in soybeans in Northern New York in 2014 and in 2015 and 2016.

Northern corn leaf blight was observed at relatively low levels in NNY cornfields in 2016. Bergstrom suggests regional growers plant corn hybrids with moderate resistance to the disease in 2017. Northern corn leaf blight has been identified as the most prevalent disease affecting corn production every year since this survey effort began in 2013. It occurred at its lowest levels, however, in 2016.

Prior to 2013 no systematic assessment of corn and soybean diseases had been made in the region for decades. Bergstrom is urging Northern New York growers to be alert to a potential resurgence of corn head smut which has not been a major concern in the region since the 1980s but was identified in crops in the western part of the area in 2014 and 2015.

Fifty-six farms located across the six-county Northern New York region participated in the 2016 survey. Cornell University Cooperative Extension Field Crop Specialists Mike Hunter and Kitty O’Neil noted disease symptoms and collected samples for analysis by the Bergstrom Lab at Cornell University and as needed by Wang Lab of the USDA at Cornell University.

The results of the regional work are being added to Cornell’s statewide mapping of the distribution of corn and soybean diseases to help growers make well-informed seed selection and crop management decisions.

The Northern New York corn and soybean disease survey work will continue in 2017 with new funding from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, a research and technical assistance program serving 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 through the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Click here to go to the 2016 NNY Corn and Soybean Disease Survey Results Report

Chazy, Canton, NY; January 23, 2017. The 2017 North Country Crop Congresses will feature updates on research projects funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. The Program provides small grants for on-farm research and technical assistance projects in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.

The Crop Congresses on February 1 in Chazy and on February 2 in Canton include presentations on Northern New York Agricultural Development Program-funded research evaluating ways to manage the crop pests corn rootworm, alfalfa snout beetle, and western bean cutworm; and on field trials with forage sorghum.

The February 1 Crop Congress at the Burke Education and Research Center at Miner Institute in Chazy will also include an update on Northern New York Agricultural Development Program-funded tile drainage research, and other Miner Institute research updates. This event is free to attend. Pre-registration is encouraged; call 518-846-7121 x117.

The February 2 Crop Congress at the Best Western University Inn, 90 East Main Street, Canton, will also include a presentation on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program-funded field trial of late summer-planted oats as a forage option. Weed control management, neonicotinoid seed treatment restrictions, and crop insurance presentations are also on the agenda. There is a fee to attend this event; call 315-788-8450 or 315-854-1218.

More than 100 regional farmers serve on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program committee that identifies and prioritizes research and technical assistance projects for attention in the six northernmost counties of New York State.

Project leaders receiving funding from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program in 2016 included Cornell University and State University of New York faculty, and personnel with Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Cornell Willsboro Research Farm, Willsboro, NY; W. H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute, Chazy, NY; Quality Milk Production Services, Canton, NY; and Uihlein Maple Research Forest, Lake Placid, NY.

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. Project results are posted online at www.nnyagdev.org.

Northern New York; November 10, 2016.  Restaurants and caterers are interested in purchasing local food products from growers in Northern New York, but they require a high quality, consistent supply; timely delivery; and below-retail price points, according to a survey of food buyers in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties.

With funding from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension personnel interviewed food buyers purchasing locally-sourced foods. The survey was a sampling of the more than 1,800 restaurants, grocers, convenience store operators, and food service and institutional buyers in the six-county Northern New York region.

Major food marketing areas were identified as Canton, Lake Placid, Lowville, Malone, Plattsburgh, and Watertown.

The investigation into food hub development opportunities for Northern New York also included input from 125 farmers and 254 consumers. Nearly 60 percent of the consumers surveyed indicated they purchase local products at least once a month. They define local as food produced in Northern New York or in their home county.

The Opportunities for Food Hub Development in Northern New York Executive Summary identifies cautions, considerations and potential in the areas of food hub aggregation, infrastructure development, marketing, distribution, and food safety education, and organization. The summary is posted in the Local Foods section of this farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website.

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is a farmer-driven research and technical assistance program serving 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 through the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

This survey project also received a USDA Specialty Crops Block Grant administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and funding from the New York Farm Viability Institute.

What is a Food Hub?
The USDA identifies a regional food hub as “a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution and marketing of source-identified food products primarily from local and regional producers to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail, and institutional demand.”

Northern New York; October 14, 2016.  As the 2016 apple harvest nears completion, researchers with funding from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program are eager to see if growers have been able to reap a second year of benefits from application of a precision management protocol to reduce the impact and cost of orchard insect pests.

The IPM protocol provided excellent control of economically-significant apple pests, with an average of 96% clean fruit at harvest plus time and money saved by reducing the pest control applications required in 2015.

“Changes in the landscape of northern New York apple orchards over the past decade have influenced which insects have become the key economically-significant pests of the apple industry in the region that includes Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties,” says Anna Wallis of the Cornell Cooperative Extension Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program. Wallis served as project co-leader with Cornell University Entomologist Arthur Agnello.

The changes impacting orchard management in the region include the predominant choice of apple rootstocks planted, implementation of new training systems, restrictions on what spray applications are available for pest management, changes in climatic conditions, and the introduction of new pests through global trade.

Five NNY apple growers participating in the project following the protocol that uses trapping and scouting to identify which insect pests are present in an orchard block and at what level. The scouting effort was especially alert to codling moth, oriental fruit moth, obliquebanded leafroller, apple maggot, mites, aphids and scales.

When pests reach an economic damage threshold level, a specific insecticide application is precisely timed based on insect activity and computer models.

This comprehensive integrated pest management, or IPM, protocol was developed by Agnello and Cornell colleague Harvey Reissig in the 1990s. Due to changes over time, growers moved away from the protocol, but Wallis says, are now making good use of it once again, integrating a variety of management strategies, including chemical, cultural, biological and mechanical.

The protocol was applied to orchard blocks, including blocks of the two most popular cultivars in Northern New York: Honeycrisp and McIntosh.

“The early work of this project demonstrated how well the IPM protocol can work and prompted growers to request field workshops so they could implement it more broadly in 2016. With each additional year of use, we are evaluating the opportunity for IPM use to be consistent under a variety of growing climate conditions as a long-term management option for apple growers in this region,” says Wallis.

The first-year report for the Identification and Grower Education of Key Pests in Apple Orchards in Northern New York project is on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org. The report identifies key early, summer, and late season pests. For example, San Jose scale, not previously identified in the participating orchards in NNY, is increasingly becoming a problem.

The report also measures fruit damage by the various pests, and the number and effectiveness of the IPM applications.

The protocol provided excellent control of economically-significant apple pests, with an average of 96 percent clean fruit at harvest plus time and money saved by reducing the pest control applications required in 2015.

The early results of this farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program project were requested for grower meetings in Vermont and Virginia.

The 2016 results of this research will be available in the spring of 2017 on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org.

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program provides grants for on-farm research and technical assistance projects 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 through the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Click here to see the Time Warner Cable/Spectrum News story on this project