Search Results for: extension

Certain types of pasture plants may help small livestock owners control deadly internal parasites. As part of a Northern New York Agricultural Development Program project, sheep and goats in Canton, Cape Vincent, and AuSable Forks are now grazing pastures planted a year ago with specific species of birdsfoot trefoil, a legume that may have an anti-worm effect on the livestock.

With 2015 funding from the farmer-driven NNYADP, project leaders Dr. Michael L. Thonney and Dr. tatiana Stanton of the Cornell University Sheep and Goat programs are looking to adapt the success that small livestock growers in the Southeastern U.S. have had grazing animals on forages with high tannin concentration.

‘The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is addressing a critical farmer-identified need with the opportunity to evaluate pasture species that may serve as biocontrol options for controlling internal parasites in sheep and goat flocks,’ Stanton said.

Small livestock grazing in the South have shown improved resistance to barber pole worm, or stomach worm, a major cause of death in pastured sheep and goats. The Northern New York region however, says Thonney, an Animal Science Professor at Cornell University, Ithaca, will require a slightly different approach.

Click here to learn more details about this NNYADP research and which NNY farms are hosting field trials

Click here to read the 2013-2014 report on this project
Click for the Feb. 2016 update

Click here to read Paul Post’s July 11 article on this NNYADP research in Lancaster Farming

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!

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has announced 27 farm research projects for 2015.

Click here to hear Time Warner Cable News and DairyLine interviews re: NNYADP-funded mastitis research in 2015.

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program received $600,000 in State funding for the projects that cover a wide range of agricultural interests from evaluating emerging mastitis pathogens in dairy herds and early warning crop scouting for perennial and emerging diseases to Juneberry ‘superfruit’ production, and potential new high value crops for Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.

Farmers are cooperating with researchers from Cornell University, Miner Institute, Quality Milk Production Services, and Cornell Cooperative Extension to evaluate opportunities to enhance dairy calf health; and advance the production of crops from alfalfa, legumes, corn and oats to beef, birch syrup, edamame, apples, cold-hardy grapes, and amelanchier, also known as Juneberry, and other berries.

‘Every year we hear more and more reports from farmers that they are substantially saving on costs, time and labor as a direct result of the insights, information, and innovations produced by Northern New York Agricultural Development Program projects,’ says Program Co-Chair Joe Giroux, a dairy owner in Plattsburgh, Clinton County.

‘Northern New York Agricultural Development Program research supports the needs of our unique regional growing conditions, soils, and microclimates. The agricultural and environmental insight and results developed here benefit the economy both locally and statewide,’ said Program Co-Chair Jon Greenwood, a St. Lawrence County dairy farmer.

‘The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program produces a tremendous amount of information for the well-diversified agricultural interests across the region, from fruit to dairy to crops production and all aspects of farming with benefits to farms of all sizes,’ says Program Co-Chair Jon Rulfs, a partner in dairy and orchard businesses in Clinton County.

More than 130 farmers participate as committee members with the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. The most recent Census data shows a total value of NNY farm products in excess of $752.8 million.

 

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by New York State Senate leadership and is administered through the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Click here and scroll down for a complete list of NNYADP 2015 projects

The farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has issued the results of a two-year project benchmarking common and newly-emerging diseases of corn and soybean crops in Northern New York.

Cornell University Plant Pathologist Gary C. Bergstrom led the research team that included Cornell Cooperative Extension field crop specialists Michael Hunter and Kitty O’Neil and 26 cooperating farmers scouting for diseases in NNY corn and soybean fields in 2013 and 2014.

The NNYADP Corn and Soybean Diseases Diagnosis and Assessment project found one disease of corn not seen in the region in more than 30 years: head smut, and one soybean disease new to New York state: northern stem canker.

Click here for the full press release on this project and its results.

NNYADP Corn and Soybean Diseases Diagnosis and Assessment project is posted here.