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

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Impacts of Extreme Precipitation and Flooding

By outcropn

We have posted a few new reports to read on our website – http://go.uvm.edu/nwcrops

Impact of Extreme Precipitation on Nutrient Concentration of Stored Manure Slurry. The extreme precipitation during this past summer and fall heavily impacted the volume and nutrient concentration of the stored manure slurry. To understand this impact, UVM Extension worked in partnership with custom manure applicators and farmers to collect manure samples from farms this fall. View our program webpage at http://go.uvm.edu/nwcrops to access this article that will share the results, which were compared to the average book value for slurry manure in Vermont.

Monitoring Flooded Forages for Clostridial Contamination. After a year of record flooding and precipitation, many producers are faced with feeding forages that were harvested from fields contaminated with soil and flood water. These fields likely have high levels of ash, silt and soil microbes such as clostridia bacteria. Read this article for more information.

Wrapping up the Fiber Field Season

By outcropn

October 23rd marked the end of the 2023 hemp fiber field season, with the collection of the final data points in our retting sensor trial. This trial aimed to monitor localized temperature and moisture at the site of fiber actively dew-retting on the ground. These sensors arrived a bit later in the season, but luckily one of our longer-season varieties was able to lend itself to the last-minute experimental design. That variety was none other than the mighty Yuma; a towering dioecious variety native to China with broad leaves and heights reaching 14 feet, sourced from Kanda Hemp.

Ivy Krezinski, Laura Sullivan, and Lindsey Ruhl Hand harvest Variety Yuma
Sophia Wilcox Warren and Lindsey Ruhl help transport Hemp Stalks to the trial site

Prior to data collection, the NWCS team hand-harvested all 400sqft of Yuma, trucked it to where the sensors were installed, and got to work forming 32 retting piles (8 piles per 4 reps). This was all quite a feat as the plants were nearly twice the size of the 8-foot farm truck bed. Samples of five stems were collected from corresponding piles and photographed twice weekly for 8 intervals spanning 5 weeks.

The Hemp didn’t quite fit in the truck bed, luckily it didn’t have to travel very far.
32 piles were laid neatly on the ground at the Borderview Research Farm in Alburgh, VT.

Photos collected over the course of the experiment show the alchemy of the retting process. Retting is the natural process by which microorganisms colonize the hemp stalks and feed on the pectin and lignin that bind the outer “bark” layer of bast fiber to the inner woody core, known as the hurd.

Hemp stems at harvest.
Retted hemp 29 days after harvest.

In the second sample photo (on right), it is possible to see the bast fiber pulling away from the hurd as those natural glues diminish within the stalk. All the samples were then dried and sent for lab testing in hopes that we can gain a better understanding of what is happening within the stalks while they ret, and how this activity corresponds with temperature and moisture at the ground level.  

For many in Vermont it was a tough growing season, but the monster stature of the Yuma and all of its giant neighbors in the variety trial managed to put a smile on our faces every day. Stay tuned this winter for the corresponding research reports that are sure to shed even more insight on how our fifteen 2023 hemp varieties expressed themselves this year. Our research reports can be found at www.uvm.edu/extension/nwcrops/research.

Hemp Fiber Outreach Recap

By outcropn

There was no shortage of hemp fiber outreach events in the Northeast this growing season. In May, UVM Extension’s hemp fiber specialist Laura Sullivan presented our previous year’s findings at the inaugural Northern New England Fibershed Round Table Event at Sanborn Mills Farm in Loudon, New Hampshire. In June, she held a soggy Lecture and Demo at Two Sisters Mill and Mercantile in Jeffersonville, Vermont.

Hemp Demo in Jeffersonville on June 17, 2023

In July, attendees of the 2023 Annual Crops and Soils Field Day at the Borderview Research Farm in Alburgh were invited to escape the rain and try their hand at hemp processing using antique hand tools after viewing a demo of Roger Rainville’s homemade decorticator.

Field Day Attendants at Borderview Farm on July 27, 2023

Early August brought sunshine and a hemp fiber event to Proctor, VT at the new headquarters of Zion Growers, located in the historic marble building. This event featured a demonstration of hempcrete block making by Green Designers Alex and Bob Escher. Artist and professor Steven Kostell also held a design thinking and ideation session for developing hemp fiber product types and product classifications with attendants. Attendants were enthusiastic to see the building live on as the new home of another one of Vermont’s natural resources.

In September, Laura Sullivan and hemp farm collaborator Andrea Myklebust attended Cornell University’s Hemp Field Day Event. In addition to seeing Cornell’s trial fields and several new prototypes of harvesting equipment, they were invited to tour the USDA germplasm trial fields in Geneva, and interface with industry leaders across the country.

Cornell's Larry Smart speaking in his research Trials on September 14, 2023

Early October saw hemp fiber represented at the Women Can Do Conference, which is held annually at Vermont Technical College in Randolph. Laura Sullivan attended with her regular repertoire of one hundred-year-old hand tools to show high school students and chaperones alike how to process hemp stalks into spinnable fibers.

Laura Sullivan at the Woman Can Do conference on October 5, 2023

Later in the month, she traveled to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck to represent both UVM and the Northern New England Fibershed with her fellow Fibershed representatives. Rhinebeck is an event that often attracts upwards of 30,000 fiber enthusiasts from all over the country. She and her small cohort of NNE Fibershed representatives were the only ones at the entire event to offer bast fiber education and were met with an outpouring of enthusiasm. They have since been awarded a microgrant to move forward with a New England Bast Fiber Mini Mill Feasability assessment, in which the UVM bast fiber research is playing a major part.

November and December might see a slowing down of public-facing events but an uptick of reporting, grant writing, and generating of educational materials to share with interested parties. Research farming is a year-round job that moves with the seasons. Before we know it, it will be time to gather genetics and begin the planning for the 2024 field season! For updates on future events and our research reports, check out our website www.uvm.edu/extension/nwcrops.

Beginning the Hemp Field Season

By outcropn

May 25, 2023 marked the planting date for our hemp fiber trials. This year represented a major expansion of our hemp fiber research.  Our goal is to learn more about practices that will help our farmers produce high quality fiber! Tinkering with varieties, seeding rates, crop rotations and retting times to start. All of this made possible by funding received from the USDA CARE & SARE Grant programs. Thank you!

This multi-year funding allows us enough time to learn, reflect, and perfect. In research farming, there are few opportunities for ‘do-overs’. Often, there is only one opening in the whole year to ‘get something right,’ and any edits to the experimental design must wait an entire year to be implemented. Our team must be intentional with our actions and reflective about what we would do differently in the next year to yield a more favorable outcome. That said, isn’t this what we all love about farming, and what keeps us coming back!? Over the course of this first year of expanded fiber research, much was learned, but like any well-designed experiment, follow-up questions and deeper inquiries have also risen to the surface. Stay tuned for the research reports that will be made available over winter, and for what may come next for hemp fiber in Vermont. Be sure to visit our website www.uvm.edu/extension/nwcrops.

Are you getting ready to order corn seed for 2024?

By outcropn

The NY & VT Corn Silage Hybrid Evaluation Program 2023 results are in! With 5 locations across NY & VT, these 75 hybrids were put to the test across a wide variety of growing conditions. While it was wet and soggy across much of VT this summer, other parts of the region experienced severe drought conditions. Comparing hybrid performance across such a range of environments provides valuable insight for selecting hybrids that perform consistently despite such variable conditions. Data on silage yield, predicted milk yield, and nitrogen utilization are presented for each test location in the full report which can be found here. Tables summarizing the results of the trials conducted just at the VT location can be found here (short season hybrids) and here (long season hybrids). You can view all our research results at https://www.uvm.edu/extension/nwcrops/research.

Changes to our Grains Laboratory

By outcropn

We have streamlined our grain submission forms. Instead of having separate forms for malting barley and other cereal grains, we have combined the forms into one single sample submission form. We’ve also combined some of our most popular testing combinations into packages that are available at a discount. None of the pricing for individual tests has changed.

Malting Barley Package: Grain Moisture, Test Weight, Starch, Protein, Plumpness, Germination Energy, Germination Capacity, and Water Sensitivity ($60, or $50 for Northern Grain Growers members)
Baking Quality Package: Grain Moisture, Test Weight, Starch, Protein, and Falling Number ($37, or $30 for Northern Grain Growers members)
Seed Quality Package: Germination Energy, Germination Capacity, and Seed Purity ($25, or $20 for Northern Grain Growers members)

View the current Sample Submission Form here.

Due to rising costs of lab supplies and decreasing volume of hops samples arriving, the E.E. Cummings Crop Testing lab will no longer be analyzing hops samples. We recommend Alliance Analytical Labs, Advanced Analytical Research, or Cornell AgriTech lab for your hops analysis needs. Please find links below for each of these locations for your convenience.
Alliance Analytical Labs, https://aatestlabs.com/alcoholic-beverage-testing-laboratory.php
Advanced Analytical Research, https://www.aarlab.com/store/c2/HOP_ANALYSIS_AAR
Cornell AgriTech, https://cals.cornell.edu/cornell-agritech/products-we-research/hops

Please visit our lab website to download the current sample submission form. Please note that a google search for the submission form often links to older versions of the form that are no longer valid and have outdated testing options and pricing.

If you ever require grain or seed testing that is not on our menu of options, feel free to contact us about your testing needs and we’d be happy to discuss if we can provide the testing you need. Many of our additions to our analysis options have come from your requests for additional testing and we always strive to be able to meet all of our clients’ testing needs.

2023-2024 Soil Health Training for Technical Assistance Providers

By outcropn

2023-2024 Soil Health Training for Technical Assistance Providers(click to learn more)

The Franklin County Natural Resources Conservation District has been working with a team of advisors from UVM Extension, USDA-NRCS, Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets, American Farmland Trust, and others, to create a soil health training course for technical assistance providers. The overarching goal of the training is to better prepare technical assistance providers for the assistance they will be providing to farmers, forest owners, and other land stewards in their roles with Natural Resources Conservation Districts, state and federal agencies, watershed groups, non profit organizations, and other related groups. This course was created to be directly applicable to the landscapes and land stewards in VT and the Lake Champlain Basin in NY.

​Click here to Sign up for the Training Course which includes:

  •     One Fall 2023 Workshop on Tuesday, November 14, 2023: 9 am-2pm at the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) Farm at 1949 East Main Street, Richmond, VT 05477
  •     12 Winter 2023-2024 Webinars: Online on Tuesdays from 2-4 pm: 12/5, 12/12, 12/19, 1/9, 1/16, 1/23, 1/30, 2/6, 2/13, 2/20, 2/27, 3/5
  •     Four 2024 Field Season Workshops – TBD

​QUESTIONS? Please contact info@FranklinCountyNRCD.org

Farmer’s Guide to Grass-fed Dairy Production

By outcropn

We are pleased to announce our Farmer’s Guide to Grass-fed Dairy Production is finally here! Over many years of learning through our own research and working alongside our wonderful farm partners, we have compiled the latest body of knowledge on grass-fed dairy management. The guide walks you through the ins and outs of grass-fed dairying from soil fertility and nutrient cycling, to forage production and quality, herd health and reproduction, farm financials, and more! You can find it digitally on our Grass-fed Dairy website or request an in-print copy by contacting Sara Ziegler at sara.ziegler@uvm.edu or 802-309-3472.

Additional Flood Resources

By outcropn

In July, Vermont was hit hard by flooding. Farm fields and crops throughout the state were flooded with their fate unclear. We have posted flood related resources on our Northwest Crops & Soils webpage and just added a few more timely resources there on managing flooded corn silage at harvest and mitigating silt and microbe risks. Please visit the webpage at https://www.uvm.edu/extension/nwcrops to view the resources or see below.

Managing Damaged Crops and Forage (PDF)
Managing Damaged Corn (PDF)
Flood Damaged Forage Considerations: Documenting Damage, Cutting Losses, Avoid Compounding the Damage (PDF)
Mitigating Silt and Microbe Risks in Flooded Forages (PDF)
Managing Flooded Corn Silage at Harvest (PDF)

Additional flood related sites and resources can be found at: https://www.uvm.edu/extension/disaster-resources

Free Soil Testing, Heavy Metal Screening, and Soil Nitrate Analysis for Flood-impacted Farms

By outcropn

Now through August 15th, routine soil testing, heavy metal screening, and soil nitrate analysis will be free of charge for flood-impacted farms. Please write ‘FLOODED‘ on sample submission forms accompanying any soil samples.

More information can be found on the UVM Extension Agricultural and Environmental Testing webpage: https://uvm.edu/extension/agricultural-and-environmental-testing-lab

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