by Tamara Scully
Good news out of Vermont: “Big Bertha,” the anaerobic digester at Vermont Technical College, is fully operational. The digester is utilizing cow manure and food waste to create electricity. It receives a diet of brewery waste, from two of Vermont’s local breweries, along with food waste and cow manure from Vermont farms, glycerol by-product from biodiesel production, leaves, and paper waste. It then sends power to the electric grid. [Read more…]
by Laura Rodley
There’s a new buzz word in the health food market and that is MapleMama. MapleMama Craft Maple Spritzers are easy to hold in your hand, are only 70 calories, and contain their signature bite that stimulates the wow factor.
“I like it best when people make ‘the face’; their eyes open wide and they say ‘wow’. I love that,” said founder Joe Laur of Wendell, MA. [Read more…]
by Katie Navarra
Each year Cucurbit Downy Mildew (CDM) causes severe yield loss in northeast pumpkin, squash, melon and cucumber crops. Understanding the origin of the pathogen and the conditions that encourage its spread can help farmers better prepare for and contain the spread of CDM in their fields.
The webinar, Managing Cucurbit Downy Mildew in Organic Systems in the Northeast, featured Christine Smart from Cornell University’s School of Integrative Plant Science. During the hour-long webinar, Smart offers methods for controlling CDM. [Read more…]
by Sally Colby
Whether or not the Farmer’s Almanac is accurate, we can count on at least several stretches of extreme cold on the east coast this winter. Those who work outside are usually prepared for cold, but it’s easy to go outside for what seems to be a simple chore and become caught in severe weather for an extended period of time. [Read more…]
by Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
LIVERPOOL, NY — Patrick Hooker, NY deputy of agriculture, received an Excellence in IPM award at the 185th Annual Meeting & Agricultural Forum of the New York State Agricultural Society recently. The honor is significant, considering Hooker didn’t grow up on a farm, like the many of the 500 attendees who represented multi-generational farms at the two-day event. [Read more…]
Part 2: compliance, combination drugs, pulse dosing and specific cases
by Sally Colby
The final rule for the veterinary feed directive (VFD) became effective on Jan. 1, 2017, and many producers are still unsure of how it works, which drugs are affected and how to obtain drugs that now fall under the directive. [Read more…]
by Steve Wagner
Judy Chambers made it clear at the outset that when she references local governments she is talking about boroughs and townships rather than counties. Chambers, degreed from Northwestern University and Penn State, is now with the Penn State Extension, and was one of the breakout speakers at the PA Farm Bureau’s 66th annual meeting. Before getting underway, she took an informal survey — a show of hands — of who among the attendees was an elected official, an appointed official, or a recovering elected official. [Read more…]
by Elizabeth A. Tomlin
A well designed calf facility and calf management is key to successful calf program said Dr. Kimberly Morrill, northern NY dairy calf specialist, during the second full day of Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Calf Management workshop.
Morrill, along with NWNY Dairy Specialist Dr. Jerry Bertoldo and SCNY Dairy & Field Crops Team member Betsy Hicks, led the CCE Calf Management workshop in Cincinnatus, NY, culminating with a tour of Riverside Dairy, LLC. [Read more…]