Our CCE North Country Regional Ag Team has collaborated with CCE Oneida and the SCNY Regional Team to host a webinar series covering practical soil health topics for NYS farms. Soil health is universally understood to be a major step toward resilience and sustainability for any commercial farm, but the practical implementation of management changes are complex and can be daunting. We are hosting a series of 4 webinars, appropriate for farms across NYS and the Northeast, featuring experts and farmers who will address the nuts and bolts of some of these soil health strategies. Each event in the series will be delivered via Zoom, and preregistration is required. These 4 webinars are each scheduled for Tuesday middays, from 12:30 to about 2:00 from Feb. 9 to March 2. Questions and discussion will be welcomed. NYS DEC pesticide and CCA credits are offered with complete registration.
Session 1, Feb 9th: Cover Crop Management and Termination
- John Wallace, Penn State weed specialist, and Mike Hunter, NNY CCE team agronomist, will discuss residual herbicides used in corn and soybean production and their impact on fall seeded cover crops as well as herbicide selection to terminate spring cover crops. 1.0 NYSDEC recert credit and 1.5 CCA credits (PM), free. Register at the CCE Oneida website.
Session 2, Feb 16th: Compaction Management
- Warren Schneckenberger, innovative crop farmer from Ontario, Canada will discuss sources of compaction in field crop production, technologies and practices that can reduce compaction. 1.5 CCA credits (SW, CM), $10. Register at the NCRAT website.
Session 3, Feb 23rd: Discussion of No-Till planters and components
- The components of a no till planter are discussed in this video. To be followed by a Q/A session including CCE staff and no-till farmers, free. Register through the CCE Oneida website. CCA credits available.
Session 4, Mar 2nd: Soil Health Practices in Dairy Systems
- This video seminar features a farmer panel who share their experiences adopting reduced and no-till cover crops. Changes in practices and adaptations for improvement are described. Panelists share the detail of practices used such as interseeding, seeding mixes, and tillage. Panelists include Forrest Watson of Mulligan Farm in Livingston County, Ryan Akin of Hemdale Farms in Ontario County and Jason Burroughs of Aurora Ridge Dairy in Cayuga County. The panel is moderated by Janice Degni, CCE Field Crops Specialist from the South-Central NY Dairy and Field Crops Program, $10. Register at the SCNY Regional Team’s Zoom website. CCA credits available.
We hope you can join us for this informative series. Contact Kitty O’Neil for more info at kitty.oneil@cornell.edu.