SEMINARS, CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS

Fourth Annual Floriculture Field Day - August 8, 2006

The fourth annual Cornell University Floriculture Field Day will be held on Tuesday, August 8. Faculty, staff, and extension educators across the state plan the Field Day together with an industry advisory board and NYSFI to provide an occasion for networking, education, inspiration, and sheer enjoyment of horticulture. There will be nearly 1,000 kinds of annuals and perennials to observe and learn about.

The morning program features speakers Jim Nau, Ball Horticulture Company, discussing "Tried and True Landscape Plants" and Terri Starman, Texas A&M University, speaking on "Container Gardens are not Rocket Science." Additional speakers include Buffalo NY garden writer Sally Cunningham and Cornell entomologist John Sanderson. This session will be held in the James Law Auditorium, Shurman Hall, East Tower Road.

The afternoon program continues at the Bluegrass Lane Research facility with tours, emphasizing the perennial trials. Further information is available at: http://www.greenhouse.cornell.edu/floriday.html

INFORMATION

Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors Fact Sheets

Cornell's Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors (BCERF), now part of the College of Veterinary Medicine's Sprecher Institute for Comparative Cancer Research, has recently published a new fact sheet entitled, "Farm Family Pesticide Exposure: New Pathways for Understanding Risk." This fact sheet provides up-to-date information on what's known about exposure assessment in farming communities; the indoor environments of farm households; and what farm families can do to minimize their exposure to pesticides.

The fact sheet is available online at: http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/FactSheet/Pesticide/fs54.farmexposure.cfm, and also in printable PDF form at http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/factsheet/cPESTICIDES.cfm.

For more information and many downloadable resources on environmental risk factors for breast cancer and other cancers, please visit BCERF at: http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/

Specialty Crops and the 2007 Farm Bill

A group of Cornell agricultural economists have been engaged in research to collect regional (Northeast) input on how the 2002 Farm Bill could be made more relevant to specialty crop agriculture and to analyze specialty crop policy options and consequences for the 2007 Farm Bill. This project is a national effort that involves agricultural economists from seven universities: Arizona State; California State, Fresno; Cornell; Florida; Michigan State; Texas A & M, and Washington State. The effort was organized and funded by The California Institute for the Study of Specialty Crops (CISSC) at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo.

If you want to learn more about the project and the group's results and recommendations to policy makers, please see the following link: http://hortmgt.aem.cornell.edu/resources/publications.htm and scroll down to Miscellaneous Publications and select the first three items listed.

If you want a bulletin (Research Bulletin 2006-04) that describes a report of the group's listening sessions with specialty crops and agricultural interests; an analysis of Farm Savings accounts (a policy option); and a report on "Farming in the City's Shadow in the Northeast and in the United States, you may contact Jerry White at gbw2@cornell.edu for a free copy.

Global Warming and Agriculture

Researchers are increasingly concerned about the measurable impacts of global warming on our environment and our society. Some efforts are underway to understand the impacts of global warming on agriculture. Below is a link to articles relating to global warming and grape production that you may find interesting. http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/07/10/climate.wine.ap/index.html

In March, several local Cooperative Extension staff attended an excellent workshop on global warming effects on agriculture. The information presented at the workshop is available at http://www.climateandfarming.org/

Pest Alert Helps Track Changing Climates

A Cornell University "trap network" began in 1994 to alert farmers when damaging pests were on the fly in 60,000 acres of sweet corn across New York State. It may now provide a second, unlooked-for service by helping researchers track how these pests could respond to changing climates.

Corn earworm is typically a late-season pest of sweet corn in upstate New York. Earworm adults -- pale brown moths -- migrate north each year, often arriving in mid-August. During the first years of the trap network, this left the special pheromone traps, set up in July to monitor earworms, empty for several weeks.

However in June, 1999, an unexpected outbreak in Eden, New York prompted researchers at the NYS Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program and Cornell Cooperative Extension to start looking more closely. Since then, low numbers of earworms -- with occasional spikes requiring sprays -- have consistently turned up in traps in western NY from early June until the migratory flight kicks in during August.

"This is the sort of thing we anticipate seeing as climates shift," says Abby Seaman, a vegetable IPM educator who began the trap network. "We expect that insects will expand their range and reproduce more quickly. The network is giving us an idea of what pest pressure might look like in the future."

No one is sure yet if these early trap catches mean that corn earworm moths are overwintering in Eden, Seaman notes. "But higher trap catches of corn earworms trigger shorter spray intervals," she says. "Since IPM management recommendations for corn earworm are based on trap catches, it's clear that earworms are already costing some farmers more than they did nine years ago."

For more information, see http://www.nysipm.cornel.edu .

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