the Northern Grapes webinar series is back!

February 1, 2018

The Northern Grapes Webinar Series returns this February with a series of four webinars – scheduled for the second Tuesday of each month.

This year’s schedule will include :

· February 13. Description of a new publication and spreadsheet, Winery Establishment Considerations and Costs, by Lindsey Pashow, Ag Business Development & Marketing Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Harvest New York program. Click here to register!

· March 13. Trunk and cordon renewal practices, particularly in response to winter injury, by Thomas Todaro and Paolo Sabbatini of Michigan State University.

· April 10. Using the NEWA weather and pest models in implementing a Vineyard IPM strategy, by Tim Weigle and Dan Olmstead, NYS IPM program, Cornelll University.

· May 8. Methods for determining SO2 levels in the winery, by Demi Perry, Cornell Enology Extension Laboratory.

You are invited to join us via ZOOM, our new web conferencing software that is even easier to use than the WebEx platform for previous Northern Grapes Webinars. Please note that you will have to register for each webinar individually – we will send out a registration link a few weeks prior to each event. I hope you find the information presented in this series informative and useful.

Tim Martinson, Ph. D.

Sr Extension Associate

Cornell University

For questions, or to unsubscribe from the Northern Grapes Project, please email Raquel: rfk58

UVM Apple / VT Tree Fruit Growers Assn meeting Feb 15, Middlebury, VT

By Terence Bradshaw

The 122nd Annual UVM Apple Program and Vermont Tree Fruit Growers Association educational meeting will be held on Thursday, February 15, 2018 at the American Legion Hall, 49 Wilson Rd, in Middlebury, VT. The meeting focus this year is on insect management in Vermont orchards. Those include not only traditional pest insects and how to best monitor them on your farm, but also old and new trunk boring insects of concern as well as beneficial, native pollinator insects and practices that can best manage them on your farm. There will also be presentations on implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, Risk Management through crop insurance, and the latest update on cider apple production research.

The full meeting brochure may be found at: http://go.uvm.edu/2018applemtg
and registration form at: http://go.uvm.edu/2018applereg

Early registration deadline is February 4.

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification,

no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.

Always read the label before using any pesticide.

The label is the legal document for the product use.

Disregard any information in this message if it is in conflict with the

label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the

University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM

Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

Upcoming educational meetings for current and prospective grape producers

Two important and useful meetings for grape growers are coming up in January in New Hampshire and Maine. They are on consecutive days, so consider making a trip of it and attending both:

1. Effective Disease Management in Northeastern Vineyards

Wednesday January 10, 2018 – 8:00 AM – 3:30 PM
Flag Hill Winery – 297 North River Road, Lee NH 03961

Sponsored by: UNH Extension and the New Hampshire Winery Association

The flier is available here:

https://extension.unh.edu/events/files/BF4C947F-5056-A432-4F12A40A7CD78D06.pdf

And the events listing here:

https://extension.unh.edu/events/index.cfm?e=app.event&event_id=43958

2. An Introduction to Growing Grapes in Maine

Thursday January 11, 2018 – 10:30 AM – 3:00 PM
Arnold/Howard Rooms, Augusta Civic Center

76 Community Drive, Augusta, Maine 04330

Sponsored by: University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Maine Pomological Society

More information here: https://extension.umaine.edu/highmoor/blog/2017/12/01/umaine-cooperative-extension-viticulture-workshop-january-11-2018/

I hope to see some of you there.

-Terry

Feb 15: UVM / VT Tree Fruit Growers Assn Winter Meeting

By Terence Bradshaw

Please save the date for the 122nd UVM Apple Program & Vermont Tree Fruit Growers Association Annual Meeting and Conference to be held at the American Legion Hall in Middlebury, VT. The main focus for this year’s meeting will be on insect management, including: developing efficient and effective scouting programs; pollinator protection, preservation, and enhancement; new and emerging insect pests to watch for; and other important topics such as how implementation of new federal food safety rules will affect your farm.

I hope to see everyone there on Thursday, February 15. More details to come.

-TB

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification,

no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.

Always read the label before using any pesticide.

The label is the legal document for the product use.

Disregard any information in this message if it is in conflict with the

label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the

University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM

Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

recruiting farmers- regulations research study

Growers: Meredith is a professor in Nutrition & Food Science who specializes in Food & Ag Policy

Farmers face regulation on a variety of topics. How do these regulations impact agriculture? How long does it take to comply and what does it cost? Are there strategies that could simply regulatory frameworks? Are there ways to make compliance more efficient? Researchers at UVM want to hear from Vermont farmers about how much time and what kind of actions are required to comply with different regulations. This information may identify pathways for regulation changes and gives farmers a voice in expressing how regulations affect their farm. If you are interesting in sharing your perspective, please contact Dr. Meredith Niles at 802-656-4337 or mtniles to schedule an interview. She will travel to your farm for convenience. All individual information will remain anonymous in the reporting of results. Farmers will be compensated with $50 for their time. Interviews will begin in November 2017 and take place through the Winter of 2017.

Meredith T. Niles, PhD

Assistant Professor

Food Systems Program

Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences

350 Carrigan Wing, Marsh Life Sciences Building

University of Vermont

mtniles

Office: 802-656-4337

www.meredithtniles.com

Wine Distribution and Vermont Restaurants- Webinar 11/15

By Terence Bradshaw

Wine Distribution and Vermont Restaurants

A Virtual Workshop

Wednesday, November 15th

8:30 am – 9:30 am

An introduction to wine distribution and restaurant sales in Vermont. We will discuss:

*How to evaluate using a distributor vs. self distribution
*How to research distributors and determine which to approach

*The basics of how to approach a distributor, including information you need to have prepared beforehand.

Plus opportunities for Q&A.

Our speakers come from Farrell Distributing, but will be speaking about Vermont distribution options more broadly. Speakers are: Ryan Chaffin, Dawn Rowlee, Don MacDonald, Stuart Timmons.

Materials, including a webinar recording, will be posted at http://vermontfresh.net/programs/vermont-wine-project/ after the workshop. No pre-registration required.

Instructions for Connecting:

Use This Link: https://zoom.us/j/790877195

This meeting is set up to use your computer audio and video (you can choose to turn both your camera and microphone off when you join, but they are enabled by default to facilitate the Q&A period).

For some browsers this link will ask you to click on a ZoomUs app to run the meeting. If this happens and you don’t want to do that (it really is just one or two clicks) Zoom recommends trying a different browser.

If you have trouble connecting contact helen or call 802-434-2000.

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Don’t forget to sign up for December 1st – a session on sensory profiling and peer-to-peer evaluation systems for wine makers, details & registration are here.

Federal crop insurance deadlines

From: Jake Jacobs
To: Terence Bradshaw
Subject: RE: Crop insurance deadlines?

Hi Terry,

You are correct – sales closing date for crop insurance for apples and peaches is November 20.

I am waiting for reply on an updated Vermont fact sheet for apple growers. In the meantime, there’s info available from RMA. I have attached the RMA fact sheets for 2018 apple and peach crops and also Whole Farm Revenue Protection program (WFRP). WFRP can cover a single commodity but offers some advantages for growers who have multiple commodities, up to a max of $8.5 million in revenue. Apparently quite a few apple growers in Washington state and the northwest are taking advantage of this program, some even going so far as splitting larger orchards into small enough tracts to be able to qualify to participate.

Jake

Fact Sheet.RMA 2018 apples.pdf
Fact Sheet.RMA 2018 peaches.pdf
Fact Sheet.WFRP.Aug2017.pdf

recruiting farmers- regulations research study

Farmers face regulation on a variety of topics. How do these regulations impact agriculture? How long does it take to comply and what does it cost? Are there strategies that could simply regulatory frameworks? Are there ways to make compliance more efficient? Researchers at UVM want to hear from Vermont farmers about how much time and what kind of actions are required to comply with different regulations. This information may identify pathways for regulation changes and gives farmers a voice in expressing how regulations affect their farm. If you are interesting in sharing your perspective, please contact Dr. Meredith Niles at 802-656-4337 or mtniles to schedule an interview. She will travel to your farm for convenience. All individual information will remain anonymous in the reporting of results. Farmers will be compensated with $50 for their time. Interviews will begin in November 2017 and take place through the Winter of 2017.

Meredith T. Niles, PhD

Assistant Professor

Food Systems Program

Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences

350 Carrigan Wing, Marsh Life Sciences Building

University of Vermont

mtniles

Office: 802-656-4337

www.meredithtniles.com

Farmer Recruitment_Policy Stacking.pdf

Final mention for now: A succinct guide to FSMA compliance for small farms

By Terence Bradshaw

Only when describing a new Federal initiative can we say the a 35-page guide is succinct, but this is an excellent resource that should answer many questions about implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act and how it applies to your farm:

http://go.uvm.edu/fsmashortguide

-Terry

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification,

no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.

Always read the label before using any pesticide.

The label is the legal document for the product use.

Disregard any information in this message if it is in conflict with the

label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the

University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM

Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.

Registration Open- New England Fruit & Vegetable Meetings December 12-14

By Terence Bradshaw

Online registration is now open for the 2017 New England Fruit and Vegetable Meetings in Manchester, NH, to be held December 12-14. As usual, there will be sessions for growers of all scales, scopes, and specialty crops, including two sessions each for apples and grapes, a stone fruit session, a cider and cider apple session moderated by me, and numerous other vegetable and general farm management topics. This is one of my favorite meetings of the year, and I look forward to seeing many familiar faces there.

Registration information may be found at: https://newenglandvfc.org/registration

Hotel information: https://newenglandvfc.org/accommodations

See you in December,

Terry

Where trade names or commercial products are used for identification,

no discrimination is intended and no endorsement is implied.

Always read the label before using any pesticide.

The label is the legal document for the product use.

Disregard any information in this message if it is in conflict with the

label.

The UVM Tree Fruit and Viticulture Program is supported by the

University of Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station, a USDA NIFA E-IPM

Grant, and USDA Risk Management Agency Funds.