A UVM blog Out Croppings: Important crop news from the field!

Thursday, July 8th from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm
Tamerlane Farm, 2586 Pudding Hill Rd Lyndonville, VT

Download a brochure for this workshop (pdf).

Tamerlane Farm is a diverse dairy, livestock, vegetable and grass-fed beef operation in Lyndonville, VT.  Milk is produced for Organic Valley/CROPP Cooperative and they supply beef and vegetables to their family-ownedrestaurant, Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital, St. Johnsbury School and Lyndon Institute. They also run a small composting operation where 5 tons of food waste per week from area schools, stores and restaurants is diverted from landfills, mixed with wood chips and manure and is converted to screened compost.  They worked with NRCS to develop a Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan for the 420 acres they farm, and have been certified organic since 2003.
The Paris’ feed their cows a low-grain diet combined with high quality forages. They practice the hay in a day system and grow high energy grains as a complement to the high-protein pasture. We will tour their double cropping system of barley and turnips for late season grazing, the pastured poultry system as well as their vegetable gardens.
This workshop is Co-sponsored by NOFA-VT, UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture’s Pasture Program, the Vermont Grass Farmers Association and the Organic Valley Farmers Advocating for Organics Program.
Cost: $10
Lunch will be provided by the NOFA pizza oven.

For more information or to register by June 30th,  please contact: Heather Darby or Amanda Gervais

Phone: 802-524-6501

Directions: From Interstate 91 take exit 23 for US-5 toward State Route 114/Lyndonville/Burke.  Turn Right at US-5 N/Memorial Dr.  Continue to follow US-5 N.  Turn left at Center St.  Turn right to stay on Center St.  Take a slight left at VT-122 N/Gilman Rd.  Take the first right onto Pudding Hill Rd.  Farm will be on the right.
*If you require accommodations to participate in this program, please let our office know by June 24th so we may assist  you.
UVM Extension helps individuals and communities put research-based knowledge to work.
Many thanks to our sponsors for their generous support and contributions!

Emergence Problems Plague Vermont Corn Fields
Dr. Heather Darby, UVM Extension

Download a pdf version of this article.
It was a great spring for planting. The conditions were dry and many folks were able to get their corn planted by mid-May. However, dry and cool conditions during planting have resulted in a number of corn fields with less than optimum germination. These stand losses could translate into yield loss at harvest time.
I have been asked by many, what is the penalty for uneven emergence?  Uneven stands will lower yields compared to stands where all the plants look the same. The later emerged corn is at a competitive disadvantage because it must compete with larger plants for moisture, sunlight, and nutrients. The amount of loss from uneven stands or reduced stands is difficult to estimate.  Studies from the Midwest indicate a 6% grain yield loss if a quarter of the plants emerge 1 week later.  A 17% yield loss can be expected if plants emerge 2 weeks later.  If the stands were filled in at this time the yield difference will only be 7%.  A 3 week emergence delay will decrease yields greater than 20%.  In some cases the corn will not emerge at all and yield losses will be higher than from uneven emergence. In fields with losses of ¼, ½, and ¾ of the stand, grain yields will be reduced by 10, 30, and 50% respectively. There have been no studies conducted to measure potential silage loss in uneven or reduced stands.
There are many factors that influenced corn seed germination this spring. Corn needs uniform soil moisture and temperature for rapid, uniform germination and emergence. The most likely culprits of uneven emergence and stand loss were the dry and cool soil! If the soil is too dry at planting, seedlings will emerge at different times.  The emergence times can vary between sections of the field, within rows of the field, and from one plant to the next. The primary factors that influence soil moisture in a field are differences in soil type or topography.  However, I think this year the biggest cause of moisture variation was from secondary tillage passes.  Secondary tillage will impact soil moisture because it will unevenly distribute moist and dry soil particles.  The more tillage trips before planting the more the soil would have dried out.  Many farmers plant corn at a 2 inch depth to ensure seed has adequate moisture to germinate. This year this depth may have been too dry as well. Crops that were seeded shallow would have been a greater risk for poor emergence.
Uneven soil temperature may also contribute to reduced or uneven emergence.  Corn will germinate and emerge slowly and unevenly when soil temperatures are less than 50F. Uneven soil temperatures in the seed zone can also be caused by variable soil type, drainage, seed depth control, and surface residue cover in reduced tillage systems. This year many farmers tried no-till and/or zone-till systems to reduce fuel costs. Uneven residue coverage in these systems causes lower soil temperatures under heavier cover than under barer spots in the field.  It is possible we also experienced uneven seeding depths due to the well worked soil.
Although it maybe too late to replant or fill in the stand, we will hope for an excellent growing season that will bring the existing corn stands to maximum yield potential.

Monday, June 21 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm
Windfall Acres
Highgate, VT

Download a brochure (pdf)
Interested in integrating reduced tillage into your cropping system? Come and learn from Joel Myers from the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance about his tried and true strategies for successful reduced tillage. Joel will discuss advantages and disadvantages of no-till, zone till, and strip till. He will also talk about how to integrate cover crops into these systems. Co-sponsored by The Friends of the Northern Lake and USDA NRCS.

Joel  is currently serving as the technical coordinator for the Pennsylvania  No-Till Alliance . He coordinates no-till activities and frequently speaks on various no-till topics and discussions on the transitions necessary to move into continuous no-till systems.

Joel is a well informed speaker.  He has attended the last eleven National No-Till Conferences and the Mid Atlantic CCA conference .  He has also served SCS and NRCS for thirty nine years and was the Pennsylvania State Agronomist for fifteen years.

Brian Jerose will speak for Friends of Northern Lake Champlain about fall and spring  projects on farms in Rock River and St. Albans Bay watersheds.   These projects used state grant funding to improve water quality and soil quality on farms in these watersheds, and to serve as demonstration projects for other farmers.

Lunch will be provided by the NOFA pizza oven.

For more information or to register by June 16th,  please

contact:  Heather Darby or Amanda Gervais

Phone: 802-524-6501

Directions: From Interstate 89 take exit 20 and travel north on VT Route 207 (Highgate Rd) for 7 miles.  Turn right onto VT Route 78.  Travel east on VT-78 for 1.7 miles.  Take a slight left onto Franklin Rd, travel for 2.2 miles.  Continue onto Browns Corner Rd for .7 miles.  Turn right onto Durkee Rd.  Windfall Acres is on the left.

UVM Extension helps individuals and communities put research-based knowledge to work.

Many thanks to our sponsors for their generous support and contributions!

Natural Resources Conservation Service
Friends of Northern Lake Champlain
University of Vermont Extension
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

Lots of exciting workshops are cropping up this summer.  Our 7th annual NW Crops and Soils Field Day is on August 5th, be sure to mark it on your calendar, there’s something for everyone! Click here to download a detailed list of the workshops and events we have planned for this growing season.

Producing High Quality Organic Bread Wheat
Tuesday, June 8 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm
Gleason Grains
Bridport, VT

Download a pdf version of the brochure.

Ben and his wife Theresa have been growing organic grain and milling on their farm in Bridport for over 28 years!  Join us as we tour their farm and milling facility.

Ben will talk about his experiences growing organic grain including; crop rotation, weed control, and plant  fertility.  One of the most challenging aspects of growing organic wheat is providing the crop with enough fertility at the right time. UVM Extension is currently collaborating with Ben on a SARE Partnership grant to address this issue. We’ll take a look at this organic fertility trial, investigating topdressing strategies and how they relate to wheat growth, production and quality.
We will then have the opportunity to tour Ben’s wheat processing facility, where he’ll discuss grain harvest, storage, seed cleaning,  and his milling operation.
The workshop fee is $10.00 per person

Lunch will be provided by the NOFA pizza oven

For more information or to register by June 1,  please contact:

Phone: 802-524-6501
Heather Darby or Erica  Cummings

Recently, we have received a number of inquiries in regards to a timothy look alike that has colonized many
fields in northern Vermont.  This grass has a purple hue and a similar spike shaped head to timothy.  Yes, this grass has already “headed-out”!  If you take a closer look you’ll find that it is quite different from the
commonly grown forage grass timothy.  This grass is actually called Meadow Barley, a common grass found in conservation mixes, which may explain its relatively new appearance in the area.  It has high feed value for wildlife in the early spring, but unfortunately, it has low feed value for domestic animals.  It is a scrawny,

short, wiry stemmed plant with few leaves that can quickly colonize a variety of soil types and conditions.  It

is well suited to grow in wet areas but can also tolerate dry conditions.  It heads out in the early spring

before you would even think about putting a mowing machine in the field.  Under the right conditions it can
out-compete the desirable forage species.  Control is relatively easy to achieve.  One option is to rotate the
field to an annual crop.  In a perennial forage situation, early season close mowing and/or management intensive grazing is a means to eliminate this weedy species.  Lastly, proper fertility and pH for the desired forage species will help these plants out compete the meadow barley.  For further information please feel free to contact the NW Crops and Soils Team.  Download a pdf version of this article.

Reports of wireworms destroying crops have been rolling in from the fields.  Wireworms are a hard-bodied brown worm that is the larvae form of the click beetle.  They look very similar to meal worms.  The adult click beetles burrow into the ground and lay their eggs near grass roots.  This is why wireworms are commonly an issue in newly turned sod and/or weedy fields where grass is the primary species.  Wireworms have a wide range of plants they like to eat but are especially destructive to corn.  Corn fields attacked by wireworms will exhibit reduced plant populations and ultimately yield.  The wireworms feed on the seeds prior to or just after germination.  In addition, they can also bore into underground portions of the corn plant causing them to wither and die.

Wireworms are most often a problem in fields that have been in sod for many years or the second year following sod.  They are generally an early season pest issue of corn.  Wireworm infestations are usually noted in areas of a field that stay moist for long periods of time or when corn planted early is subject to cool and wet soil conditions.  As soil temperatures warm, wireworms will begin to move deeper in the soil profile, eventually to where they are no longer a threat to the growing corn.  With wireworms, there is no effective rescue treatment once symptoms of damage are observed.  Therefore it is wise to either keep highly susceptible crops out of high risk areas, delay planting in high risk fields, or apply an approved insecticide treatment.  There are several soil-applied or seed treatment insecticides that can give satisfactory wireworm control.  Some natural controls, such as fungi and nematodes, may keep wireworm populations at tolerable levels.  For a list of recommended insecticides, contact your local Extension office.  Download a pdf version of this article.

The projected high fertilizer prices, especially nitrogen (N), should encourage you to manage nutrients on your farm as efficiently as possible.  The goal this year should be to reduce input costs without sacrificing yield.  Follow the link below to learn about three strategies that can help you manage nutrient supplies efficiently for 2010.

Manage Nutrients Efficiently to Offset High Fertilizer Prices (pdf) by Heather Darby, UVM Extension Agronomic Specialist

New England Farm Energy Conference
March 15-16, 2010
Radisson Hotel
Manchester, New Hampshire

Click here to download brochure and for registration information.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Mike Morris, National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT)

Mike Morris works with farmers, ranchers, and communities on more sustainable ways of using energy and water. He is especially interested in irrigation, solar energy, and small-scale biofuels. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh, and has taught at colleges and universities in Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, specializing in ethics, technology, and the environment. Mike’s keynote address will focus on assessing on-farm energy options.

There will be Two Concurrent Tracks of Presentations over Two Days of the Conference.

I) Track 1: Oilseeeds and Biodiesel

* Oilseed agronomics
* Equipment for oilseed production and seed handling
* Biodiesel processing: quality and safety
* Harvesting and storing oilseed crops
* Modifying tractors and equipment for vegetable oil
* Community-based biodiesel production

II) Track 2: Greenhouse Efficiency and Renewable Energy

* Greenhouse efficiency and conservation
* Solar PV and hot water systems
* Heating with shell corn
* Heating with waste vegetable oil
* Logwood systems
* Wood pellet use

Hosted by:

Cooperative Extension of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont; and the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.

Please join us at the 6th annual grain growing conference.  This daylong event will provide you with a diverse array of educational topics. This year the conference has been expanded to include 3 concurrent sessions throughout the day.  This new format will have something for everyone!

Download the Brochure (pdf)

LOCATION: The University of Vermont’s Davis Center, Burlington

DATE: March 9, 2010

TIME: 9:30 am to 4:00 pm

CONFERENCE FEE: $40.00

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS:

We are excited to have Dr. Paul Hepperly in Vermont for our 2010 conference! Dr. Hepperly is a Fullbright scholar who has spent his career working with farmers to create sustainable food systems. He has worked with farmers from India, Africa, Europe, and South America to solve critical agricultural sustainability issues. Paul grew up on a family farm in Illinois and holds a Ph.D. in plant pathology and an M.S. in agronomy from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He has worked for the USDA Agricultural Research Service, in academia, and most recently for the Rodale Institute. Dr. Hepperly has been a champion of sustainable agricultural systems throughout his career. He has received the Rachel Carson Council Sense of Science Award and the da Vinci Community Award from the da Vinci Discovery Center of Science and Technology.

We are grateful that Ron Rosmann, a pioneer organic farmer, will provide a practical outlook on strategies for successful grain production. Ron and his family operate a 600 acre diversified certified organic grain and livestock farm west of Harlan, Iowa. Crops include corn, soybeans, flax, oats, barley, hay and pasture. Livestock includes 90 certified organic stock cows utilizing intensive grazing management practices and a 50 sow farrow-to-finish hog operation. In 1986, he helped found the Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), whose mission is to “research, develop and promote profitable, ecologically sound, and community-enhancing approaches to agriculture”. He has been an on-farm research cooperator with PFI, Iowa State University, and the USDA. Ron was the board president of the Organic Farming Research Foundation.
New this year, we will offer a series of baking and cooking demonstrations throughout the day. The goal is to learn how to integrate local grains into local products. We are honored to have local bakers join us in the grain movement.