While the adoption of cover crops across the northeast has exploded over the last 10 years and farmers have learned how to manage the termination of the winter cover crop, there are times when issues arise. At the start of the 2022 planting season we’ve run into some cool, unsettled weather leading to delayed plantings. …
Continue reading “Rock and Roll-er Crimping: Management of Cereal Rye Late Spring”
Summer annual grasses, such as sudangrass and millet, can provide supplemental forage during the hot summer months as the growth of cool season perennial grasses slows. These grasses can yield 3 to 5 tons of highly digestible dry matter per acre even under droughty conditions! Now is the time to be planting these heat loving …
The State of Soil Health is an initiative to measure soil health and soil carbon on farms across the state of Vermont. This project is coordinated by UVM Extension and relied upon in-kind donations, data sharing and field support from partnering organizations and farmers. The project has five primary objectives: Establish a baseline of soil …
INTRODUCTION: From improving soil health to pollinator habitat to protecting water quality, cover crops can provide a multitude of benefits! One way cover crops can protect the field from erosion and reduce nutrients from reaching our waterways is by covering the soil with their leaves and stems. This is called surface cover by cover crop …
Continue reading “Measuring Percent Surface Cover: In-Field vs Remote Technology”
UVM Extension will be partnering with Cornell University on a newly awarded Northeast SARE Research and Education grant titled “Regenerative Organic Dry Bean Production in the Northeast”. This project seeks to expand organic dry bean production as part of a regenerative cropping system in the Northeast through the creation of a farmer community of practice …
Trouble viewing this email? View it as a webpage. USDA Accepting Applications to Help Cover Costs for Organic Certification. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced that organic producers and handlers can now apply for funds to assist with the cost of receiving or maintaining organic certification. Applications for the Organic Certification Cost Share Program (OCCSP) are due Nov. 1, 2021. OCCSP provides …
Continue reading “Applications to Help Cover Costs for Organic Certification”
Join s on June 28th for a ‘Lunch and Learn’ session with UVM Extension farm business advisors Tony Kitsos and Zac Smith as they discuss the details of the Clean Water Initiative Program (CWIP). They will also review examples of how farms can utilize financial assistance programs to implement water quality improvements. Topics to be …
This new program is for farmers who have crop insurance coverage and have planted cover crops. The USDA Risk Management Agency is providing a program for producers who have crop insurance and planted qualifying cover crops. This new Pandemic Cover Crop Program (PCCP) provides additional premiums to reduce crop insurance premium bills to help them …
CREP takes agricultural land that is located along waterways and is currently in perennial and annual crops out of production to plant riparian forest buffers. You could receive payments for land that may not be very productive, and you could help improve water quality and critical habitat for some species. For more information, visit https://agriculture.vermont.gov/crep …
Continue reading “Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP)”
The Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program is seeking preproposals for three grant program: Research and Education, Professional Development, and Research for Novel Approaches. Preproposals, which capture the preliminary project concept, are required for each grant program and are due online by 5 pm on August 3. A webinar about Northeast SARE and these …
Continue reading “Northeast SARE Now Accepting Preproposals for 2022 Projects”