New York Farm Viability Institute Names New Executive Director --- New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc. (NYFVI) Board Chairman John Lincoln has announced the appointment of Thomas N. Sleight as NYFVI Executive Director. Mr. Sleight comes to New York from Virginia, where he has been Director of the Division of Marketing for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services since 1999. Prior to joining that Department, he worked for the U.S. Grains Council in Washington, D.C. for 16 years, most recently as Executive Director for the Council. Tom worked in the Councils international program, directing its activities in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, as well as serving as the Councils representative in Vienna, Austria, with responsibility for Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Mr. Sleight was born and raised on a Dutchess County, NY, dairy farm that has been in the family for ten generations. He graduated from Cornell University with dual specialization in agricultural economics and agronomy.
Mr. Lincoln announced that Mr. Sleight will take the NYFVI reins from Dr. R. David Smith, who has served as Executive Director of the NYFVI since its foundation in 2004, on November 1.
SEMINARS, CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS
Making the Farm to School Connection: A Workshop for Extension Educators and other Community Leaders Across the country and in a growing number of communities in New York State, schools and colleges are interested in establishing or enhancing a farm to school program. Parents, food service directors, community leaders and school and college administrators are realizing the value of local food for student health and their communities. In response to this growing interest, and with funding from the Northeast SARE Program, the Cornell Farm to School Program has teamed up with New York Farms and the New York State School Nutrition Association, to develop a new resource - a farm to school toolkit - to help Extension Educators and other community leaders develop, facilitate, and support farm to school connections.
In this workshop, participants will: become familiar with the toolkit, gain skills on how to initiate and support local farm to school projects, tour a school food service kitchen, network with others in the region making farm to school connections
The toolkit and workshop are targeted to individuals involved with farm to school projects at all levels of development - from those in the exploratory phase to those working with programs that have been successfully running for several years. By the end of the workshop, participants should know the major components of the tool kit and understand how it can help them and the farm to school stakeholders with whom they work address challenges and take advantage of new opportunities. Equipped with their own copy of the farm to school toolkit, educators will be ready to engage in farm to school work when they return home.
Extension educators completing the workshop and committing to work on a farm to school project in their county or region will also have an opportunity to participate in a one year professional development program designed to provide them with additional farm to school training and technical support.
Workshop Locations: Monday, October 30th, 9:00am - 3:00pm -- Alden Central School District, Alden High School 13190 -- Park Street, Alden NY 14004
Tuesday, October 31st, 9:00am - 3:00pm -- Geneva High School, 335 Gambee Road, Geneva, NY 14456
Thursday, November 16th, 9:00am - 3:00pm -- Schoharie Central School, (TBA on building) Schoharie, NY 12157
Registration for this training is due by Wednesday, October 25th. For more information and a registration form contact Heidi Mouillesseaux-Kunzman at 607-255-6702 or hmm1@cornell.edu
Cornell Farm to School Program http://farmtoschool.cce.cornell.edu
INFORMATION
NYFVI-Funded Project Evaluates Economic and Environmental Benefits of Reducing Nitrogen Use Farmers, agricultural educators and farm consultants want better tools for managing the use of nitrogen, particularly for growing corn. An applied research project funded by the New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc. and the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is helping to meet that need.
This fall, as they harvest corn, 13 farmers, four research farm managers and Cornell Cooperative Extension educators in 14 counties are taking soil samples for Cornell University researchers Quirine M. Ketterings and Karl J. Czymmek to help evaluate ways to maximize economic gains and minimize nitrogen loss into the environment through more precise nitrogen management.
In 2003, New York's corn crop was valued at $401 million. Corn needs more nitrogen (N), by far, than any other nutrient. Used in excess, however, N can reach nearby ground or surface waters and/or contribute to air pollution, and, at forty cents per pound of nitrogen fertilizer, the loss of N not used by corn crops can be an unnecessary expense for farmers.
The farmers and researchers agree that the scientific evaluation must identify the application range when reducing or eliminating N fertilizer does not reduce silage yield or quality. Ketterings, and Czymmek of Cornell's ProDairy Program, say project results so far show that significant economic and environmental gains can be made with a small spring starter N application (30 lbs N/acre or less) that is sufficient to meet, but not exceed, first-year corn N needs following either a healthy grass or legume/grass sod.
Cyzmmek says, Working directly with the farmers allows them to see the results for themselves. We believe this project will result in high quality forage production at substantially lower cost, saving a minimum of $30-40 per acre based on an application of 50 to 100 pounds of nitrogen to first-year corn and 75 to 150 pounds to second-year corn.
This NYFVI-funded project is breaking ground in New York in two ways: the calibration of the new Illinois Soil N Test for NY growing conditions, and the large-scale quantification of sod N credits in NY. Sod credits represent the amount of nitrogen from the decomposing sod that is expected to become available for uptake by the next seasons corn crop when the field is rotated. Measurements will be entered into a statewide database.
Knowing how much nitrogen already exists in a field before applying any additional N is essential to more accurately predicting the amount, if any, of additional fertilizer N needed, Ketterings says. For many years, the Cornell Guidelines have included N credits from soil mineralization; our hope is that the New York Farm Viability Institute -funded project will help in fine-tuning these soil-N book values.
This project builds on other nitrogen management studies conducted by Cornell University researchers and on work funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. For more information on this precise nitrogen management project, contact Quirine M. Ketterings, Cornell University, 607-255-3061 or Karl J. Czymmek, 607-255-4890.
Forest Harvest Fair at Mann Library, Cornell University -- October 19, 4:00pm In cooperation with Cornell Department of Horticulture, Mann Library invites you to a Forest Harvest Fair exploring the gourmet foods, energy boosters and other surprising fruits of sustainable forest farming.
The fair will feature: -- 4 pm talk by horticulture professor Ken Mudge on "Forest Farming as an Agroforestry System for the Northeast" Special exhibit on "Farming under the Forest Canopy" Displays of mushroom art and information booths by the Cornell Mushroom Cultivators, Collectors and Connoisseurs, the MacDaniels Nut Grove, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene and Schuyler Counties, The Arnot Teaching and Research Forest and others Flavorful samplings of mushrooms, nuts, syrup, herbal teas and sodas, and other fruits from the forest
Location: Mann Library, 2nd floor, this event is free and open to the public.
This event is presented in conjunction with an open house at the MacDaniels Nut Grove (behind the Library Annex, just south of the Cornell School of Veterinary Medicine and Cornell Orchards at the east end of campus) that will take place on Saturday, October 14. "Farming under the Forest Canopy" exhibit will be on display at Mann Library October 16, 2006 through January 15, 2007. Mushroom art by Carl Whittaker and fungi photography by Jeanine Moy will be on display from October 19 through November 2006. For more information, please call 607-255-5406.
http://www.staff.cce.cornell.edu/administration/ccenews/index.htm