Please join us for our annual meeting and workshop on December 15 in Batavia! 2022 Soil Health Workshop & Annual Meeting Thursday December 15, 2022 Quality Inn & Suites, 8250 Park Rd. Batavia, NY 14020 * This year we are also offering a virtual option (see below).  9:00-3:00 8:30   Registration and Coffee 9:00 Welcome and Introductions –Emily Reiss, WNYSHA Executive Director 9:10 Cropping SYSTEMS for Soil Health in the Northeast - Kirsten Workman,Cornell PRO-Dairy 10:15 Break 10:30 Soil Compaction: the cause, problem & steps to relieve – Tom Kilcer, Advanced Ag Syste ..read more

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Inter-seeded Corn The WNY Soil Health Alliance is holding its Soil Health Workshop & Alliance Annual Membership Meeting, December 19, 2018, from 8:30am to 3:00pm. Held at the Quality Inn & Suites, 85250 Park Rd. Batavia, NY. Enjoy morning presentations from Dr. Kristine Nichols of KRIS Systems Education & Consulting on how “Regenerative Agriculture Builds Resilience Through Soil Biology”, and John Wallace Assistant Professor from Penn State on “Balancing Tradeoffs Between Weed Management and Soil Health Goals”. The afternoon will have breakout sessions fro ..read more

 Controlling Slugs in agricultural crops is difficult because slugs reproduce quite quickly, once a slug population gets out of control, slugs may be difficult to manage. The first step is understanding slug biology. Second, scout for slugs and take steps to reduce or modify their food and shelter. Third, learn how to utilize and enhance natural predators to reduce slug populations and keep them at acceptable levels. Often this will require reducing the use of neonicotinoid insecticides which are deadly to beneficial slug insect predators. Fourth, when slug populations get out of control ..read more

Source: Penn State Extension   Corn planted into standing un-rolled cover may show reduced yields due to lower populations and greater plant height variability. Save For Later Print The practice of planting a cash crop into a living cover crop is still is in its infancy. Fortunately, we’ve had the opportunity to learn from many early adopters of this practice. However, as this practice has become more commonplace some producers have had less than desirable results. Early research on the practice often utilized a front mounted roller-crimper and more recently planter-mounted roller-crimpe ..read more

February 7, 2018 | Posted in Seeding & Planting Source: Michigan State University When a plant goes into defense mode in order to protect itself against harsh weather or disease, that’s good for the plant, but bad for the farmer growing the plant. Bad because when a plant acts to defend itself, it turns off its growth mechanism. But now researchers at Michigan State University, as part of an international collaboration, have figured out how plants can make the “decision” between growth and defense, a finding that could help them strike a balance – keep safe from harm while continuing to g ..read more

Jessica Ziehm, Executive director of the NY Animal Agriculture Coalition Jessica Ziehm is a dairy farmer and Executive Director of the NY Animal Agriculture Coalition, a group dedicated to enhancing the public’s awareness and understanding of modern animal agriculture. On Wednesday, December 20, 2017 the WNY Soil Health Alliance held their annual meeting and soil health workshop. Featuring Jessica as one of the main speakers. In the Morning Session, Jessica Ziehm from NY Animal Ag Coalition and Jeff Ten Eyck from American Farmland Trust shared three main points; communicating, knowing and cou ..read more

Karl Czymmek, Cornell Senior Extension Associate Karl Czymmeck is a Cornell Senior Extension Associate, who specializes in the areas of environmental management, nutrient management, soil fertility and CAFO farms. His focus is dairy extension in the area of nutrient management and environmental impact. This work allows him to observe evolving critical questions to address the issues and extend information back to producers, field staff and farm advisors. On Wednesday, December 20, 2017 the WNY Soil Health Alliance held their annual meeting and soil health workshop. In the morning session, Kar ..read more

Tuesday August 22nd, 2017 8:30am to 3:30pm Orleans County 4-H Fairgrounds Trolley Building, 12690 Rt. 31 Albion, NY 14411 Mark your calendars — the WNY Soil Health Alliance Summer Field Day is here! Morning lectures from keynote speaker Wendy Taheri of TerraNimbus LLC and John Wallace from Cornell, will be followed by an afternoon at Toussaint Farms in Ridgeway, NY, observing 8 cover crop trials and exploring a soil pit, with on-site discussion led by Wendy Taheri. Cover crop interseeder and herbicide demonstrations will also be included in the workshop. To register for this event, please down ..read more

Photo source: Mike Stanyard Article by Mike Stanyard - NWNY Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Extension Team.  This article was originally published in NWNY Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Extension Team’s April 2017 Ag Focus and is published here with Mike Stanyard's permission. So far, it looks like cover crops did well despite the lack of a prolonged blanket of snow this winter.  This makes our cover crops even more valuable as one of their main purposes is to keep our soils from blowing and washing away.  It was cold enough that the species that were supposed to winterkill ..read more