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Results from the latest Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) maple research projects will be presented at the Making the Most of Maple workshop on Saturday, December 3, 2022, in Lowville, New York. Northern New York Maple Specialist Adam Wild, director of the Uihlein Maple Research Forest at Lake Placid, will be joined by Cornell University’s Statewide Maple Specialist Aaron Wightman and Cornell Maple Program Product Development Food Scientist Catherine Belisle, Ph.D., as workshop presenters. The 9:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. workshop will be held at the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Lewis County Learning Center, 7395 East Road, Lowville. Contact CCE at 315-376-5270 to reserve your space by November 30.

During the workshop, Wild will preview the results of his 2022 NNYADP project investigation the feasibility of producing sap from American beech trees for syrup production. Sugarmakers want to know if tapping beech trees can be economically worthwhile, while land managers and biodiversity advocates are interested to learn if beech syrup production might give northern forest owners an incentive to keep the beech trees despite issues with beech bark disease and a root system that threatens to crowd out more marketable species.

Wild will also present follow-up results of NNYADP-funded trials of 1/4-inch sap collection tubing and fixtures. Data has shown that sap in 3/16s’ diameter tubing systems can drop off due to clogging as soon as the second year after installation.

NNYADP-prioritized maple research has supported the growth of the northern New York maple industry from a documented $3.25 million annual valuation in 2008 to now more than $20 millin per year with room yet to grow.

NNYADP maple research has included:
. 2008 study of the growth potential of the regional maple industry
. climate adaptation trials
. how to build producer-landowner collaborations
. a cost-benefit analysis of leasing trees for tapping versus lumber harvest
. the cloning of NNY sweet maple trees, and
. ways to increase sap yield and profitability for both gravity-fed and vacuum-pressure systems. Learn more under the Research: Maple, Birch and Honey tab on this website.

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

Canton, New York; July 27, 2022.  The results of a Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) research project in 2021 demonstrate how fluctuating grain costs may impact sheep enterprises differently from year to year. Research comparing the growth of barn-fed versus pasture-raised summer lambs was designed to answer sheep producers’ questions on whether they could gain any income advantage with a feeding program that would make lambs ready for market more quickly. An informal trial in 2020 that favored pasture feeding but highlighted many data variables prompted this second trial that produced data favoring barn-fed lambs, demonstrating the annual variability.

The results of the summer lambs feeding trial conducted at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Learning Farm in Canton, New York, are posted on the NNYADP website under the About: Projects tab at https://www.nnyagdev.org.

Forty-one lambs were split into two groups in the spring of 2021 with one group left on pasture with mother ewes and one group weaned at eight weeks into a barn environment and eased into a full-grain diet. The lambs in each group were periodically weighed, monitored for parasites, and treated when warranted.

At the end of the eight-week study period, the barn-fed lambs weighed 19.24 pounds more than the pasture-fed lambs. Based on this weight and the per-pound sale price for lambs in the fall of 2021 at the New Holland, Pennsylvania, sale barn, the weight difference in the barn-fed lambs represented a gross income potential for $52 more per lamb. This number less the extra cost for 161 pounds of grain fed per lamb represented a net income of $15.40 per lamb over the cost of grain in 2021.

The final project report also details other costs and management factors that need to be considered in planning a summer lamb feeding strategy. These considerations include the costs of mineral supplementation, for parasite prevention and treatment of lambs and ewes, and for lamb losses to predators, as well as fuel and labor costs associated with clipping pastures and moving fences to rotate grazing areas.

Over the eight-week study period, the average daily weight gain (ADG) of the barn-fed lambs ranged from 0.70 to 1.04 pounds per day; the ADG of the pastured lambs ranged from 0.13 to 0.83 pounds per day.

In a two-week extended trial period, the ADG for the barn-fed lambs was 0.58 pounds per day compared to 0.92 pounds per day for the pastured lambs that had been weaned and brought into the barn and fed approximately one pound per day of the barn-fed lambs’ grain diet and all the hay they could eat.

Cornell University graduate student Hannah Braun of Lisbon, New York, handled data collection and management of the barn-fed lambs as part of her honors thesis development.

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. NNYADP project results are publicly accessible at https://www.nnyagdev.org.

Philadelphia, New York; June 22, 2022.  Spring harvest may account for as much as half of the total forage crop yield fed to lactating dairy cows. The latest results of Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) research evaluating opportunities to increase the value of alfalfa-grass forage crops have been presented to farmers, crop consultants, dairy nutritionists, and extension educators in New York, Wisconsin, Utah, and Mid-Atlantic states. The final report for the 2021 project is posted at  https://nnyagdev.org/index.php/2021-nnyadp-projects/.

The northern New York regional climate has spurred farmers’ interest in growing winter-hardy perennial grasses in combination with alfalfa, traditionally the dairy industry’s go-to crop for highly-digestible, high protein forage to support milk production.

“Adding as little as five percent grass in an alfalfa-grass seeding will significantly increase the fiber digestibility of that forage mix compared to an all-alfalfa crop, and a one percent unit increase in fiber digestibility can bring from 0.5 to more than one pound of milk production per cow per day,” says NNYADP alfalfa-grass project leader Debbie J.R. Cherney, a Cornell University Animal Science professor.

More than two dozen farms in northern New York have participated with Cherney’s field trials. One of those farms is Michael Kiechle’s Garden of Eden Farm in Philadelphia, New York. After poor growing years in 2019 and 2020, Kiechle had used up all his reserve forage. So, he decided to add fescue, a perennial grass, to his alfalfa-timothy-red clover cropping plan and made room for the NNYADP research trial of nine meadow fescue and one tall fescue variety planted with alfalfa.

“This research perfectly dovetailed with changing my cropping plan to add fescue to see if that change would help,” Kiechle explains. It did. The four-cut harvest of the alfalfa-grasses mix in 2021 built his forage stockpile back to the point that in June of 2022 he still had bags remaining.

For 2022, Kiechle has planted an entirely alfalfa-fescue mix.

The 2021 NNYADP trial data showed that weather plays a crucial role for establishing grasses in a mix with alfalfa, with the potential to either produce no grass or a high percentage of grass in the mix.

“The grasses at Kiechle’s farm all established successfully with the alfalfa. The data collected have produced seeing guidelines to help growers avoid the too-much grass extreme,” Cherney notes.

“Since the consequence of too much grass in the mix is greater than the consequence of having a mostly pure alfalfa stand for harvest as lactating dairy feed, the meadow fescue grass seeding rate in an alfalfa-grass mix should not exceed 1 lb. per acre,” Cherney explains.

The seeding rate of 1 lb. of grass seed per acre in the 2021 trial produced 30-plus percent of grass in the mix. Cherney’s optimal percentage for an alfalfa-grass mixture is 20-30 percent of a high quality grass.

“If the grass percentage is less than 50 percent of the mix, the crude protein content of the mix is going to be sufficient for lactating dairy cows,” Cherney points out.

Data gathered over the course of the NNYADP alfalfa-grass research trials since 2013 has produced insight into the combined crop’s fertility requirements, fiber content, fiber digestibility, and lignin value.

This NNYADP research has also included the first trials in North America of one Wisconsin-bred and several European-bred meadow fescue perennial grass varieties.

Cherney’s research team included Cornell University Animal Science, Soil and Crop, and PRO-DAIRY colleagues and Cornell Cooperative Extension educators.

Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and is administered by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. NNYADP project results are publicly accessible at https://www.nnyagdev.org.

PHOTOS:
. Above, top: NNYADP alfalfa-grass trials at Garden of Eden Farm in Philadelphia, NY, included 9 varieties of meadow fescue and one tall fescue. Photo: Debbie J.R. Cherney

. Chart: This chart shows the grass percentage for 10 perennial grasses sown in the NNYADP alfalfa-grass mix trial at the Michael Kiechle Garden of Eden Farm in Philadelphia, New York, in 2021. Graphic: J.R. Cherney

June 3, 2022.  The results of Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP)-commissioned research in 2021 provide farm-based data on the importance of proper feeding management for dairy cows during the pre-calving to post-calving period. This NNYADP project was one of the first to apply the Metabolic Health Index adapted by the Overton Lab at Cornell University to identify cows that may be at higher risk of post-calving health issues. The 18-page “Evaluating Transition Cow Health on NNY Dairy Farms and Associations with Feeding Management Practices” report is posted under Research: Dairy at https://nnyagdev.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/NNYADP2021TransitionCowReport24FINAL.pdf .

“This research provided the opportunity to make a preliminary evaluation of the relationships among different metabolic health parameters of dairy cows through the pre-calving to post-calving transition period,” said project leader Casey Havekes, a Cornell Cooperative Extension North Country Ag Team dairy specialist, based in Canton, New York.

A broad range of data from 10 farms in 2021 revealed opportunities to improve pre-calving feeding management and, to a lesser extent, post-calving feeding programs.

“This first trial has identified areas to explore different feeding management strategies for the purpose of positively impacting transition cow health and post-calving performance and success,” said Havekes.

This research establishes a foundation to begin developing a statistically-accurate tool that dairy farmers and farm consultants can use to track the impact of transition cow feeding management programs and adjustments of those programs.

Specific areas identified for attention on the participating farms include particle size in the feed ration and properly mixing a ration specifically for cows in the transition period to encourage optimal nutrition during a time of increased nutrient demand to support the onset of calving and milk production.

Havekes is now analyzing reproduction and post-calving milk production data and working with the participating farms to develop farm-specific feeding programs to meet each farm’s  needs.

Cornell PRO-DAIRY Director Thomas Overton, Ph.D., who partnered with Havekes to develop the research plan, noted, “Prior to this Northern New York Agricultural Development Program project, there had been little to no research done at scale on the impact of feeding management in the dry cow diet on cow health through the transition period.”

Dr. Trevor DeVries, a University of Guelph professor and Canada Research Chair in Dairy Cattle Behavior and Welfare, Guelph, Ontario, Canada; and Dr. Allison Kerwin, dairy field research specialist, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, were project collaborators.

The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is a farmer-driven research program, established by the New York State Legislature for the six northernmost counties of New York State.  Funding for the Program is supported through the New York State Assembly and administrated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.