Over the past several years, many agricultural areas have seen new activity on farmland. Instead of fields being planted in corn, hay or soybeans or pastures dotted with grazing animals, farm fields are growing tall steel posts that will support solar arrays. While some residents don’t have a firm o...

MUNNSVILLE, NY – This summer’s intense rainfall events and unlikely tornados in Central New York provided an interesting backdrop for a scheduled no-till crop meeting. The silver lining of moisture is farmers may have more time to attend workshops. A break in the weather brought 60 farmers together ...

Many dairy farms rely on water, usually in combination with fans, to cool cows in hot weather. Dr. Jennifer Van Os, assistant professor and Extension specialist in animal welfare, Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, said although cooling cows with water is helpf...

Recently I learned that a neighbor was planning to get a horse for his young daughter – and realized that it was the second “first horse” I’d heard about in just a few weeks. This can be a daunting experience for a first-time horse owner, resulting in so many questions, beginning with “Where to find...

Fertilizer prices are still high, and in some cases, increasing. During this pinch, cattle producers can make the most of manure to maintain fertility. “We had a drastic increase for all fertilizers throughout 2021 and into 2022,” said Dr. Amanda Grev, University of Maryland Extension specialist, Fo...

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) has a group of passionate volunteers that make up the Solar Eclipse Task Force (SETF) . The SETF educates civilians about upcoming solar eclipses, including why they’re important, when they’re going to happen, what observers are looking for and how to prepare ...

“Biochar is a charcoal-like material that degrades over hundreds to thousands of years,” explained Dr. Deborah Aller during the 2023 Hudson Valley webinar and field day series. “It’s produced through pyrolysis – the thermochemical decomposition of biomass at high temperatures in a no-to-very low oxy...

Dr. Scott Bowridge, associate professor, food animal science at West Virginia University, began a presentation on small ruminant parasites with a quote: “After the symptoms of haemonchosis have been seen, the time necessary for fattening lambs is greatly increased and requires the use of more expens...

How’s the corn in your area of New York? Mike Stanyard, field crops specialist with the Northwest New York Dairy, Livestock & Field Crops Team, presented at the recent New York Corn & Soybean Growers Association ’s Summer Crop Tour. On Aug. 7 and 8, Stanyard and his 10 teams in a 10-county region in...

Dairy farmers who provide a combination of fans and wetting systems for cows often believe they’ve taken care of heat issues for the herd, but that may not be the case. Dr. Jennifer Van Os, assistant professor and Extension specialist in animal welfare, Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, Unive...

Understandably, calving during hot weather can negatively affect dams. But recent research indicates that the effects are far reaching, even to the grown calves of those heat-stressed dams. Geoffrey Dahl presented “Baby It’s Hot in Here: Late Gestation Heat Stress Effects on Cow and Calf” as a recen...

As corn silage season fast approaches, it is important for dairy farmers to consider how to maximize its nutritional value to their herds. Rather than using a combine to harvest dry kernels of corn, harvesting corn silage is quite different. When harvesting corn silage, a chopper is used in the fiel...

During his surprise appearance at the recent New York Corn & Soybean Growers Association’s Summer Crop Tour, New York Commissioner of Agriculture Richard Ball stated that he was “excited about what’s going on” in the Empire State’s work in improving land stewardship on farms. “In New York, I see dec...

In their continuing efforts to connect rural Americans across the country with existing mental health resources, Rural Minds recently partnered with the National Grange to present a webinar titled “Mental Health Benefits of Sleep, Nutrition, Exercise and Mindfulness.” (View the entire webinar and le...

Last growing season I took a few soil samples on a southern Herkimer County dairy farm. One of the fields being sampled that I found particularly interesting had been planted to a mix of forage soybeans and brown midrib sorghum two weeks earlier. There appeared to be more soybean seeds just sproutin...