Ag Report : Washington County Ag Report July 8, 2003

Washington County Ag Report
July 8,2003

Contributors are Sandy Buxton, Colleen Converse, Aaron Gabriel, Mandy Hulett, and Laura McDermott. If you would like to be removed from the mailing list or know of someone that should receive it, please let us know.

"Opportunities are often things you haven't noticed the first time around." - Catherine Deneuve

Announcements
FIELD CROP SCOUTING, COME EARN A PESTICIDE RECERTIFICATION CREDIT BY SCOUTING WITH ME FOR ONE HOUR:
Tuesday, July 15, 10 am at Lloyd & Tammy Thomas Farm, Rte 40 in Easton -
SCOUTING AND VIEW OUR PARDEE TREFOIL PLOT
Tuesday, July 22, 10 am at Duane Robinson Farm, 81 Meeting House Rd., White Creek

Saturday, July 12 at 12:30pm, Cornell Cooperative Extension in Jefferson County will host a talk from Alain Breault, a grapevine nurseryman from Quebec that specializes in cold hardy grapevines. The cost is $10/person. Call CCE in Jefferson County to register.
Tuesday, July 15, 11am-1pm, Designing and Building Containment Facilities For Pesticide Storage and Mixing/Loading, Umass Tree Fruit Orchard, Belchertown, Mass. $25. Natalia Clifton at 413-545-1044 or Bill Coli at 413-545-1051
Wednesday, July 16, 8 am - 1 pm - Vegetable Weed Science Field Day, , Thompson Vegetable Research Farm, Freeville. Call Sue at 607-255-7889 by July 8th to register.
Thursday, July 17, 6 - 8 pm - Poughkeepsie Farm Project, a thriving CSA - a farm tour of a successful community supported agriculture farm, which also sells at local farmers markets, provides on-farm education for college interns, and runs summer educational programs for area youth. Call the Regional Farm and Food Project to attend, 518-271-0744.

THURSDAY JULY 31 - DAIRY TOUR ON MILK MARKETING -
SEE FLYER AT END OF REPORT

Tuesday, August 12, 9:30am-5pm- Organic Crops and Soils Field Day, Geneva NY. $25 contact Maxine Welcome at 607-255-5439. www.neon.cornell.edu

New York Agritourism and Education Grant Available.
All farms in Washington County are eligible to apply. The program's purpose is to help the rural economy by generating revenue for agribusinesses while providing educational and fun opportunities for tourists and school groups to see and learn first hand about food production, the challenges of daily farm life, and the importance of agriculture in the state and nation.
The grant has three levels:
STOP & LOOK - Grants up to $10,000 for sightseeing amenities.
STOP & VISIT - Grants up to $25,000 for farm tours.
STOP & STAY - Grants up to $50,000 for developing or improving over-night tourist accommodations.
Application due August 15, 2003 and available at the CCE office. Stop by or call to have a copy mailed to you. Questions? Call Paula Schafer

Weather Data - 2003 and average of 1999 - 2002

Midwest Commodity Prices - from the Wall Street Journal
Corn per bushel $2.225/bu
Cotton Seed Meal per ton $145/ton
Soybean per bushel 6.07/bu
Corn Gluten Feed 60/ton
Hominy Feed per ton 46/ton
Wheat, soft white 3.44/bu
48% Soybean meal per ton 188/ton
Tallow per pound .17/lb
These prices are provided only to show where the general market trends are moving and to help you determine appropriate ration ingredients. Local prices will vary due to shipping, processing, and discounts.

FARM BUSINESS MANAGEMENT: The Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) program is still alive with a commitment of 70% of the U.S. milk supply. The modified program is going to be implemented with a fee of $.05/cwt for investment. The investment will continue for 12 months as the program works toward the goal of reducing the milk supply by 1.2 billion pounds. This level is predicted to impact the overall milk price by 36 cents/cwt with a net gain (accounting for MILC payments) of 23 cents/cwt. Source: www.dairymarketingservices.com/cwt on 7/7/03

CROPS
Soil Quality: I get paid to talk about unpopular subjects, so let me expound the virtues of cultivating corn. Bare soil in the hot sun loses lots of water. Cultivating breaks up the soil pores near the surface and the disturbed soil creates a "mulch" that stops moisture from leaving the soil. Done properly, by cultivating 2 inches deep, it conserves soil moisture. A hardpan will also bear its ugly head at this time of year by acting like a barrier for moisture moving up from the subsoil. After harvesting small grains, the soil is usually dry and very suitable for breaking up hardpans with deep tillage. The soil breaks and cracks more when it is dry, rather than smearing when it is wet in the spring and fall.

Alfalfa: Today I looked at only one alfalfa field (flowering) and it was above threshold for potato leafhopper (>2 per sweep of the net). PLH are a lime/neon green and do a cute little side-step when disturbed (if they do not fly away). Check all fields, PLH are very mobile and move around lots when harvest is under way. The action thresholds below (population level at which action is needed to prevent economic loss) is based on taking 10 sweeps with a sweep net in 5 locations throughout each field. Warrior is the only insecticide recommended for alfalfa/grass mixtures.

(Photo is from Marlin Rice, Iowa State Entomological Image Gallery)

Field Corn: Corn is being drought-stressed. Notice which spots of the field have stress and determine why. If the problem is correctable, then maybe you can fix that part of the field (deep tillage, more organic matter, etc). Corn borer were quite noticeable at Valatia field station. You will see holes in the leaves and feeding in the whorls.

Grasses: Second cutting is modest in yield, but the quality "looks" good. Individual leaves have a 30-day life-span or so. If your cutting interval goes beyond 30 days very much, then some of the additional yield is an accumulation of old dead leaves. If you expect rain soon, then leave some green leaf area for a faster regrowth (3-inch cutting height).

Pasture: The grazing party is over and now the summer slump begins. Do not graze pastures too closely when it is dry. Having leaf tissue on the plant helps speed up regrowth.

Vegetables: Corn flea beetles have generally been light this year as the degree-day model predicted. However, flea beetles on other crops such as crucifers have been a problem this year. Some people have asked why this is. The reason is that the flea beetles are different species and have a different capacity to survive winter temperatures. (OWYS Veg Update)

Solanaceae: Potato Report T. A. Zitter
To date there have been no reports of late blight anywhere in New York or in the Northeast. The same holds true for all Midwestern states. This is good news, given that we have exceeded 18 severity values in most locations in the state. Growers and scouts need to remain vigilant for the symptoms of late blight in the coming weeks.

Early blight should begin to appear on the lower leaves where they touch the ground, are becoming senescent, and where the most favorable moist environment occurs. Remember, earlier heavy rains may have leached applied nitrogen, and this can lead to increasing plant susceptibility to the early blight fungus. Fungicides effective for early blight control include the strobilurin chemistries like Quadris or Gem (Headline is not yet registered) and should be tank mixed with a protectant fungicide such as chlorothalonil, mancozeb or metiram. The use of a tank mix will reduce the chance for the development of fungicide resistance of strobilurins to Alternaria solani. Researchers like Walt Stevenson in Wisconsin, and results from our own plots at Freeville, have shown that up to three sprays with this mixture alternated with chlorothalonil, mancozeb or metiram and then continuing at least weekly for the rest of the season with these latter materials will easily control early blight. Triphenyltin hydroxide mixed with chlorothalonil, mancozeb or metiram would also provide good control of early blight.

Black dot (Colletotrichum coccodes) was a major player during the last two stressful growing seasons, and was largely responsible for early vine decline seen in most varieties. This organism affects both plants and tubers, resulting in significant yield losses and tuber quality losses in storage. Black dot appears in the field in mid to late summer as chlorosis and wilting of the plant tops. These symptoms can be confused with Fusarium and Verticillium wilts, with normal plant stress, and with damage caused by potato leafhopper feeding. Plants will eventually die and many small black dots, which are sclerotia of the fungus, will appear on the stems and stolons. Infection of tubers will appear as grayish background discolorations beginning at the stolon attachment, and often resembles silver scurf. These symptoms will intensify while in storage. How much damage is seen on plants depends upon the length of the rotational period out of potatoes and how stressful the growing season is during July and August. The amount of soilborne inoculum increases as the rotational period is shortened (3 vs 2 vs 1). Considerable loss in vine health was noted in 2001 and 2002 when temperatures exceeded 88F during July and August (9 days and 26 days, respectively). Applying one strobilurin spray during July and two additional strobilurin sprays during August, with chlorothalonil applied in the intervening weeks, provided excellent potato vine control. By monitoring temperatures during that portion of the season, growers can decide how many strobilurin sprays to apply, but remembering that strobilurins also provide excellent early blight control as discussed above.

Weed: Galinsoga - Because of its biology and its tolerance to vegetable herbicides, galinsoga may quickly become a major weed once it is introduced into a vegetable field. It has opposite, oval to triangular, coarsely-toothed, hairy leaves. The flowers are less than 1 cm wide and have 4 to 5 white outer flowers with yellow inner flowers. Galinsoga is not sensitive to day length and, as a consequence, begins to flower and produce seed when it has about five or six pairs of leaves. It continues to form seed until it is killed by frost. Fresh seed drops onto the soil surface and soon sprouts because there is little or no dormancy. The new seedlings begin to flower at the fifth or sixth node, and the cycle is repeated. Three to five generations per season are often observed in Ithaca, New York. Cultivation is only partially helpful because Galinsoga roots quickly and easily reestablish themselves from cut stems and uprooted plants unless conditions are very dry for several days after cultivation.
Many herbicides used on vegetables are only slightly helpful for control of Galinsoga. Ineffective chemicals include Dacthal, Eptam, Prefar, Ro-Neet, Tillam, and Treflan. Several herbicides are extremely toxic to Galinsoga: *AAtrex, Dual, *Lasso, Lorox, Lexone, and Sencor.
Go to http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/galci.htm for detailed photos.

Photos courtesy of the Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide

Ornamentals:
Turfgrass: We have seen a lot of problems with turfgrass failure this summer, primarily
related to weather and management and not disease. Cool wet weather this spring
followed immediately by extreme heat and drought left many poorly drained soils with
poor growing conditions and widespread failure. We have also had a lot of problems
with late fertilizer treatments. The abrupt change in the overall weather pattern
predisposed lawns treated after Memorial Day to burn. Improper spreader calibration has
been a big problem. Homeowners should never apply more than 1# of actual
Nitrogen/1000 sq ft in a single application, and there should be adequate irrigation for
those lawns treated in late spring. For those landscapers dealing with shady situations,
any area that receives less than 5-6 hrs of full sun daily is under some type of shade that
will alter growth. The last 10 years of research has suggested that Supina bluegrass may
offer an excellent option for high traffic shaded areas. Supina bluegrass is available from
"Ultraturf Company" in US or available through Drew Kinder's
http://www.superseedstore.com and sells for roughly $25-30 per pound. However it does need
to be seeded in at 100%. It is a European selection and therefore color will be a lighter green
that does not respond to iron. More information about Supina bluegrass is available at
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/pubs/pdf/A3700.PDF. (For more consistent and in-depth
information re: turfgrass management, subscribe to Dr. Frank Rossi's ShortCUTT, a
weekly electronic newsletter that features different national turf experts weighing in on
all matters of turf - an excellent value!! Email Dr. Rossi at fsr3@cornell.edu to
subscribe.)

Mosquito Traps: There are a number of traps currently marketed for the consumer to "control" mosquitoes although in some of the advertisements the word "trap" is used instead of "control." The commercial traps marketed for use by the public utilize a combination of CO2, heat, moisture, octenol, and/or linalool just to name a few of the attractants or inhibitors currently on the market. The traps work by attracting mosquitoes to the devices and are then drawn into the traps through the use of a fan into a collecting net, a killing device, or are trapped on boards that are coated with sticky material. Based on the available scientific literature that is currently available, these traps do indeed do what the manufacturers claim, if placed properly and maintained, the traps do collect mosquitoes. To collect adult female mosquitoes, mosquito biologists have used these very same attractants for decades and for good reason because they work so well! So there is validity to the claims that these types of traps will collect mosquitoes. As a side note, octenol and linalool are by definition pesticides and are subject to EPA regulations and are registered in New York as pesticides. There is no validity to those traps that utilize sonic devices to lure or repel mosquitoes or use black lights and a combination of electronic grids to attract and kill mosquitoes. The question is whether these traps will collect enough of the mosquitoes to "control" them remains to be verified. Based on the scientific literature to date, the term "control" seems to be too strong of a statement. A few hundred to several thousands females trapped in a single night is impressive, but whether that actually puts a dent in the millions that are present in a given area remains to be verified. There is nothing in the peer reviewed scientific literature to support the "control" statement.

Fruit: Strawberry renovation is at hand - it is recommended immediately after harvest. This is largely a thinning process to prevent overcrowding but it can also reduce disease and mite pressure. It should be done prior to August 1st, so northern growers really have to jump on it right after picking. To kill perennial broadleaf weeds, you can use 2,4-D, then mow the leaves, although mowing can be detrimental if the planting is under water stress. Immediately after mowing use a rototiller or a disc harrow to reduce the width of the row to 10-15". Then fertilize with 60-80lbs/A of actual Nitrogen. (To determine the
exact nutrient needs of small fruits, growers should send leaves in for analysis - call us for submission instructions and forms.) If necessary, pre-emergent herbicides and/or miticides can be applied after mowing, but before any leaf tissue emerges from the crown. As a final step, the planting should be irrigated thoroughly. For commercial tree fruit and small fruit questions, please call Kevin Iungerman at 885-8995. Kevin is the fruit specialist for the Northeast fruit program. He holds many timely field meetings, does in-field research and publishes monthly newsletters. For homeowner fruit questions, call Laura McDermott at 746-2560.

Sincerely,

Aaron D. Gabriel
Extension Resource Educator
Crops and Soils
2003 Summer Dairy Tour
July 31, 2003

Join Cornell Cooperative Extension for a jam-packed one-day event touring businesses that market milk as dairy products both locally and nationally. Learn about the issues that impact consumption of dairy products as well as their manufacture.

Thursday - July 31, 2003
5:45 a.m. Leave Saratoga Wal-Mart parking lot, Northway Exit 15. 6:30 pick up in Hudson Falls.

8:45-10:00 a.m. Ben & Jerry's Factory, Waterbury, Vermont
Visit a success story that converts milk into a product that travels the nation. Learn about some of the decisions and information that helps to keep them tickling customer taste buds.

10:45-11:45 a.m. Cabot Creamery Cooperative, Inc., Cabot, Vermont
Producing product off of three cheese lines, a cultured system and a butter room, Agri-Mark owned Cabot Cheese works to encourage us to add dairy to every occasion. By constant upgrades in technology, product development and marketing, the company moves to improve the bottom line. Learn more about the issues surrounding cheese production and national marketing.

12:15-1:45 p.m. Lunch and discussion in Montpelier, VT
Explore some of the issues related to regulation, pricing and marketing with Mark Stephenson, Cornell University, and Bob Parsons, University of Vermont Extension. Discover what parts can be impacted by farmers. Gain insight into how the supermarkets view the dairy case.

2:45 - 3:45 p.m. Neighborly Farms, Randolph Center, Vermont
Linda and Rob Dimmick welcome us to visit their organic farm and cheese production facility. Their 48 cows produce milk that in part becomes a wide variety of cheddar flavors, monterey jack, mozzarella and feta cheese. Transitioning from a conventional system, the Dimmicks are working to improve their long term opportunities as well as their bottom line by moving their product into the retail marketplace.

5:45 - 7:00 p.m. Dinner in Rutland, VT on your own.

8:45 p.m. Arrive Wal-Mart parking lot. Earlier drop-off (8:00) in Hudson Falls.

As part of the trip we will have several discussion sessions on other marketing related topics during the drive. This trip will involve a moderate activity level and stairs as we tour the various facilities.

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Sign-up for the 2003 Summer Dairy Tour
Registration deadline is July 22, 2003 (seating is limited). Please enclose $60 per person. Please make checks payable to Cornell Cooperative Extension - Washington County, 415 Lower Main Street, Hudson Falls, NY 12839.

Name: ______________________________ Number of Spots: __________

Address: ______________________________________________________

Phone number: ___________________________ Amount enclosed: $_________

Please mark your pick-up location: Saratoga Hudson Falls