Written by Heather Darby Given the delayed planting of corn due to wet and in many cases saturated soil conditions, farmers are asking, “What relative maturity of corn will be harvested before the first killing frost?” Well, as always, the answer is, “It depends.” As we head into the last week of May, there are …
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Written by Jeff Sanders Corn is a Survivor There are two kinds of crops: crops that struggle to survive and crops that fight to survive. A cotton farmer in Texas once told me that all cotton wants to do is die as soon as it comes out of the ground. Corn is not that way …
Continue reading “Mastering No-Till Corn in Vermont: Lessons from the Field”
It’s a winning story for farmers, producers, retailers, and ultimately customers. At the UVM Extension Northwest Crops and Soils (NWCS) program, most of our research happens in the field while planting, growing, and harvesting crops to understand how they perform under different conditions and management practices. However, the NWCS research doesn’t stop when the crop …
“If you can manage your soil well, that’s like wealth.” “If you can manage your soil well, that’s like wealth,” Deborah Neher, Soil Ecologist and Associate Director of SHREC, said when explaining the significance of the new Soil Health Research and Extension Center (SHREC) at the University of Vermont. The SHREC is a cross-disciplinary research …
On March 11, 2025 our friends Patricia Bishop and Josh Oulton drove with their daughter Lily from Nova Scotia to the Borderview Research Farm in Alburgh, Vermont to hand deliver a new hemp fiber hackler to the UVM extension NWCS team. They somehow managed to fit it into the back of a sprinter van, and …
Every season is hemp season! This winter, Northwest Crops & Soils Program (NWCS) is exploring winter retting as an option for Vermont farms looking to grow textile-grade hemp. Retting is a necessary process that bast fiber crops must undergo to release and separate the natural fibers found in the stalk. Typically, this process commences in …
Glad tidings of the season to all of our farmers, millers, bakers, brewers, researchers and other partners. This is our annual reminder that the E. E. Cummings Crop Testing Lab is closed at the end of December. The UVM campus is closed and there is no mail service from 12/23/2024 through 1/2/2025. If you have …
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On November 20th and 21st, the 14th Annual Farm to Plate Network Gathering was held in Killington, Vermont. For the first time, the event included a local fiber panel entitled Vermont-based Food and Fiber- Increasing Diversified Farm and Market Opportunities. The panel featured six panelists with a spectrum of expertise in Vermont fibers- from plant …
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A corn disease and its insect vector were recently documented in New York State for the first time. Researchers at Cornell University found corn stunt and the corn leafhopper in four noncontiguous New York counties in October 2024. Growers should be aware that both could appear in Vermont in future years and that corn stunt …
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The 2024 Corn Silage Hybrid Evaluation report for NY and VT has been completed and is posted on our UVM Research Reports webpage https://www.uvm.edu/extension/nwcrops/research Hybrid evaluation at multiple environments helps in decision making and expands the reach of this type of data to more farmers. Cornell, UVM, and seed companies collaborate to provide this evaluation. …
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