Cover crops, here we come! A team of Vermonters—including NWCS team members Heather Darby, Jeff Sanders, and Sara Ziegler; CVCSP staffer Kirsten Workman; farmer Becky Maden; VT NRCS conservation agronomist Sandra Primard; and VT state SARE coordinator Deb Heleba—headed to Baltimore, Maryland in late March to a conference called, “Cover Crops for Soil Health: A …
Continue reading “Team Heads to Maryland for Cover Crop Training”
Looking for a cost effective strategy to improve forage diversity and quality in your fields? Frost seeding is a low cost seeding strategy that relies on the action of the soil freezing and thawing to incorporate broadcasted seed into the ground. Frost seeding can begin at any point now as most fields throughout Vermont are …
Our Northwest Crops & Soils Team has been busy this fall harvesting research trials, collecting samples, and crunching stats on all the data we’ve collected. Now that it is officially winter, we are busy writing reports for all of the trials conducted during the 2015 research season. The first of our reports are ready — …
As the harvest season winds down, folks have turned their attention to post-harvest cover cropping and manure application. The corn harvest was several weeks late (again); delays in getting field work done (due to equipment failures and busy custom operators) has slowed some operators getting corn harvest done in a timely manner. However, although the …
Continue reading “It’s Autumn: Time for Cover Crops, Manure Management, and RAPs”
On Friday, August 21, we will hold a day-long field day focused on soil health. The Summer Soil Health Field Day will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Gervais Family Farm #2 on Davis Road in Enosburg Falls. The day will feature Joel Myers, a private consultant in continuous no-till systems …
Continue reading “Upcoming Field Day Focuses on Soil Health”
The University of Vermont Extension Cereal Grain Quality Testing Laboratory is run by our NWCS team. Since it opened in 2011, we have tested hundreds of grain and hop samples from our research plots as well as commercial samples from farmers throughout the region. The lab is now back open for the season and ready …
Continue reading “School may be out for Summer but the Testing Lab is In Session!”
Join us this Thursday, July 23, 2015 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for our annual Crops and Soils Field Day at the Borderview Research Farm in Alburgh. The day will include our infamous tour where you will see many of the research trials we are conducting, including those on heirloom beans, silage corn, flax, …
Armyworms have been spotted in Addison, Franklin, and Grand Isle Counties of Vermont, as of July 9, 2015. Please don’t panic but do scout your corn and grass fields for armyworm caterpillars. True Armyworm, Pseudaletia unipuncta, are typically spotted each year on some acreage in Vermont — crops most affected are grasses including field corn, grass …
Cover crops can add organic matter, increase soil fertility, and reduce erosion, among many other benefits. However, our short growing season makes getting covers established after corn harvest challenging. As an alternative, farmers and researchers alike are looking at ways to establish cover crops as the corn is growing. The first window to establish covers …
Continue reading “Using the Penn State Interseeder to Plant Cover Crops”
Recent intense rainfall events have caused flooding, ponding, and soil saturation in many of our corn and hay fields. What are the prospects for these crops? Corn Fields Beautiful and dry spring weather allowed most folks to get corn planted in a timely fashion. We’ve seen corn around the state that is just about knee …
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