Man Killed While Making Maple Syrup

Go to http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/news03/man-killed-when-theresa-sugar-shack-collapses-high-winds-causing-damage-across-north-country-20180405 to see the story.

Cornell's Climate Smart Farming Extension Team Helps Farmers Deal with Weather Woes

From EMPIRE FARM & DAIRY MAGAZINE

By DARCY TELENKO
CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION
 
Cornell’s Climate Smart Farming Extension Team was established to help farmers increase their resiliency to climate impacts and reduce risks and costs on their farms.
 
The team provides New York farmers with access to top extension specialists with the expertise needed to help manage the risks posed by increasing extreme weather, climate variability and long-term change.
 
The team works in partnership with the Cornell Climate Smart Farming program and faculty at Cornell, and draws on the latest science to answer producers’ questions about changes they can make on their farm to help increase future sustainability.
 
The six-member team of Luke Haggerty, Laura McDermott, Kimberley Morrill, Kitty O’Neil, Jesse Strzok and Darcy Telenko provides a wealth of expertise in fields such as: dairy management, agricultural economics, field crops and soil health, vegetables and integrated pest management, viticulture and enology and small fruit production.
 
Cornell’s Climate Smart Farming Extension Team was created in partnership with the Cornell Climate Smart Farming program to help farmers increase their resiliency, reduce risks and reduce costs on their farms.
 
The team gives New York farmers access to top extension specialists with the particular expertise to help manage the risks posed by increasing extreme weather, climate variability and long-term change.
 
Climate change can impact New York agriculture in many ways, and the Climate Smart Farming team is adept in helping farmers identify practices that can be implemented to mitigate these impacts. 
 
Here is a brief overview of some of these impacts and tactics:
 
Precipitation events: The trend of an increase in the intensity and unpredictability of precipitation events (both rain and snow) in the Northeastern U.S., which can lead to flooding and storm damage, is expected to continue.
 
Precipitation will likely continue to fall in fewer, more intense events, which can lead to periods of short-term drought during the growing season when rain is needed the most, causing reduction and variation in crop yields. Intense rainfall events can also cause soil erosion, planting and harvesting interference and nutrient runoff. 
 
Adaptation options: Farmers can adapt to both of these issues in tandem by focusing on the health of their soils – by increasing soil organic matter and allowing water infiltration through reduced tillage, cover cropping, and infrastructure investments (e.g. irrigation or drainage systems).
 
Heat Stress: The growing season across New York has increased by an average of eight days, however the number of heat stress days (exceeding 90 degrees) is also expected to increase, with winters continuing to grow milder. 
 
Heat stress, induced by an increasing number of days above 90 degrees, and longer growing seasons with more sporadic rainfall also pose challenges to farmers.
 
These challenges include lower crop yield and quality for some varieties, and conditions that reduce productivity and reproductive capacity for livestock.
 
Adaptation options: To combat this, producers can explore new varieties and diversification of crops to reduce reliance on heat-sensitive crops. For livestock in particular, farmers can strive to minimize heat exposure, increase water availability, adjust cows’ diets, and prevent over-crowding, thus improving barn-cooling capacity.
 
Disease, Insects and Weeds: Interactions between the climate, crops, insects, weeds and diseases are complex. However, evidence suggests climate change will increase disease, pest, and weed pressure, as more pests and weeds survive mild winters and warmer summers allow for new species to invade and native ones to develop faster.
 
Adaptation options: To prepare for increased pest pressure, growers need to develop rapid response plans and monitor management options that allow for targeted control of weeds, diseases, and insects.  Wide adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) will also help farmers manage new pests with minimal economic, environmental, and health risks.
 
Freeze Risk: In the past few years, late season freeze events have struck orchards and vineyards after plants had already bloomed, causing serious crop losses.
 
Adaptation options: Producers can implement several strategies to guard against these freezes. These include: using heaters and wind machines to circulate warmer air in vineyards or orchards, irrigating before or during potential freezes, and paying close attention to detailed weather forecasts.
 
The Climate Smart Farming Extension Team is equipped with the knowledge and information to provide constructive advice for farmers to combat these stresses. The goal of the Cornell Climate Smart Farming Program is to provide research-based information, training and tools to help famers make the most informed decisions they can. 
 
Cornell has developed several new decision support tools based on long term climate data, weather forecasts and agronomic models – the tools include a new Growing Degree Day calculator, Freeze Risk Tools and Irrigation Scheduler – and can be found on the CSF website (climatesmartfarming.org), along with the contact information for the CSF Extension Team members in New York.

Ag Secretary's Weekly Column

By Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack:

Farmers, ranchers and foresters have long understood the need to care for our land and water — not only because preserving those resources for our children and their children is the right thing to do, but because they know that our farms and forests are more productive and efficient when they’re properly cared for.

Science and technology has expanded our capability and improved our understanding over the years, but this core mission remains the same. Today’s farmers and ranchers have risen to the twin responsibilities of producing safe, affordable food while employing cutting edge conservation practices on their operations to conserve water, minimize runoff, prevent soil erosion, and preserve wildlife habitat. They know that this will only become more critical as we take on the challenges of feeding a growing global population and dealing with the impacts of a changing climate.

This past week, the White House released the Third National Climate Assessment (NCA) report, which provides an unprecedented look at what many of us in agriculture already know: climate change is not just a problem for the future.

We’ve seen firsthand the impact of increasingly severe drought, floods, extreme temperatures, and other dramatic weather patterns. Drought alone was estimated to cost the U.S. $50 billion from 2011 to 2013.

Farmers and ranchers know that severe and extreme weather means crop damage, delayed spring planting, delayed harvest, and reduced yields, and they know that those things have happened with increasing frequency over the past decade.

The NCA authors — 240 of the nation’s leading scientists and experts, including researchers from USDA — confirm our on-the-ground understanding. The authors found that climate disruptions to agriculture have increased in the past 40 years, and project that those disruptions will increase over the next 25.

Thus far, agriculture has been able to adapt, and USDA has been there to buffer and protect producers from weather-related risks through programs like disaster assistance. However, as the impacts of climate change become more prevalent, farmers and ranchers will need new tools and techniques to protect their bottom line and ensure the future food security of our nation.

USDA has undertaken a multipronged, multiyear approach to protect producers from the negative impacts of climate change. Our regional Climate Hubs collect data, conduct research, and develop practical, science-based conservation tools and techniques tailored specifically to the differing needs of each region of the country. 

We support cutting edge research by our land-grant university partners, including $6 million to ten schools to study the effects of climate on agriculture and an additional $6 million to develop tools to improve water resource quantity and quality. This research will help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners deal with the complex consequences of climate change in the short term.

Our efforts provide invaluable information and will help to safeguard the future food security of our nation, but there is more to do. We must continue to support policies and practices that mitigate the negative impacts of climate change, reduce consumption of fossil fuels, and make our land, air and water cleaner. You can learn more about the Climate Hubs and USDA’s climate change research at www.usda.gov/climatechange.

Meteorologist Says Recent Weather An Aberration

USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says the recent frigid weather was an aberration and that the rest of the winter in most areas of the nation should be milder than normal.

In this clip, he also talks about the recent cold snap, the effect on agriculture, the current drought conditions, and the rest of the winter.

1- Rippey says this week’s weather, while severe, was an aberration. :22

2-Rippey says the cold’s effect on agriculture was minimal, but parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas may see some crop damage. :39

3-The rest of the winter should be milder than average in most of the nation, with some exceptions. :55

4-The drought situation in parts of the west is still severe. :42


Go to ftp://ocbmtcmedia.download.akamai.com/23747/TV_Features/winter%20weather.mov to see Rippey's report. Username is usdaftp and password is 1qaz2wsx

Cornell Offers Website to Help Farmers with Climate Change Issues

From Cornell University:

Farmers and gardeners have a new place to learn about dealing with climate change, and how to be part of the solution.

The website at climatechange.cornell.edu is a one-stop shop for everything climate change says David Wolfe, faculty fellow at Cornell University’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and chair of the center’s Climate Change Task Force.

“The Northeast is already feeling the effects of climate change,” notes Wolfe. “There are so many people at Cornell working on practical solutions to these challenges – from research in agriculture to economics, engineering to social sciences, and Cooperative Extension’s work with farmers and communities. Our website will help the public engage with the expertise at Cornell to put these solutions into practice.”

At the core of the site is a searchable directory of climate change research and outreach programs at Cornell with summaries, contact information, and links to more information.

In addition, issue-specific pages to help farmers, local government officials, youth educators, and others connect with Cornell’s research-based resources and tools for reliable information.

“Our ultimate goal is to explain the science of climate change so that everyone can understand how it affects their lives, and can start to make changes,” said Allison Chatrchyan, director of Cornell’s new Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture.

One of Chatrchyan’s favorite features of the site is the frequently updated “What’s with the Weather?” 

“We relay information from the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell that helps explain recent weather events within the context of climate change,” she says. “It’s the kind of timely research-based information that you can share around the water cooler when the conversation inevitably turns to weird weather.”

Additional features include:

• A Climate Forum column, where Cornell experts explain their research for the public or a current issue in the news.
• Climate Change Q&A, where visitors can ask a Cornell expert to answer a burning question.
• Climate change-related videos
• News updates focusing on how the Cornell community is addressing climate change issues