This year we are offering our Winter Crop Meeting in a virtual format with weekly webinars taking place from 1pm – 2pm on Thursdays from January 14 through February 4. Cost is $10 for a single session or $20 for access to all sessions. For more information and to register, go to our website: https://scnydfc.cce.cornell.edu/events.php
Jan 14: Crop Stress – Tips for Management
Allen Goodwin, Pioneer Field Agronomist, Eastern NY/NE Managing
Mother nature’s curve ball. You carefully select the ‘right’ hybrid for your soil and growing season. You try to minimize any potential stresses by maintaining soil fertility to feed the crop and weed control to minimize competition for the crop. And then there is weather, the big unknown of the growing season. Any extremes create challenges; wet and cold, hot and dry, hail, high levels of insects or disease, lack of water, excess water, cold snaps. In some ways these are unpredictable, but we have experienced all of them in different years. This presentation will discuss the consequences of different crop stressors and management strategies to minimize their impact when possible.
Jan 21: Soybean Cyst Nematode & Best Practices for Management
Jaime Cummings, Field Crops and Livestock IPM Coordinator, NYS Integrated Pest Management
Cummings has coordinated statewide survey efforts aimed at monitoring the expansion of SCN in NYS. She will discuss the findings of those surveys, what it means to NY soybean producers, the importance of testing, and the best management recommendations for individual growers dealing with SCN on their farms
Jan 28: Corn Silage Hybrid Trials 2020 Update and Management Tips
Joe Lawrence, Dairy Forage Systems Specialist, PRO-DAIRY
The Corn Silage Hybrid Evaluation Program is a source of independent information on hybrid performance and a platform for conducting other work to better understand how to optimize the production of corn silage. Joe oversees the project with tremendous support from Margaret Smith, Tom Overton and their teams. The results of the 2020 trials will be discussed with emphasis on how 2020 growing condition’s influenced both crop yield and forage quality. Forage quality was analyzed and utilized to predict how each hybrid would perform in a dairy feeding program using the Cornell CNCPS nutrition model to predict milk yield from cows fed each of the hybrid entries. A second study, comparing 4 different hybrids was designed to evaluate the growing season and equipment operation and their effect on the performance of forage harvesting equipment in consistently delivering corn silage hybrids that meet the narrow set of criteria set up by the industry for forage particle size and kernel processing. The resulting kernel processing scores and starch digestibility will be reviewed.
Feb 4: Management Factors that Contribute to High Yield in Corn
Martin Battaglia, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Cornell University Department of Animal Science
A number of crop management practices and inputs are reported to increase corn (Zea mays L.) yields, but most research to date has evaluated single practices and not their combined effect. To assess this combined effect, five trials were conducted in Virginia from 2012-2014. Treatments consisted of the Standard and Management Intensification (MI) practices. Single factors were either added (to Standard) or removed (from MI) for each treatment. The lessons learned from this study will be presented.