Includes on-farm dairy processing virtual series, dairy farm surveys and more
On-farm dairy processing series
Free, Wednesdays, May 25, June 1 and 8 | 6 to 7 p.m.
Virtual
Register Here
Three webinars are planned for dairy producers interested in diversifying or vertically integrating their business.
Topics include:
- Fitting on-farm dairy processing into your business to improve profitability
- Considerations for designing your processing facility for quality production
- Managing the “red tape” for efficient and sustainable value-added dairy
Contact Camila Lage at 607.422.6788 or cdf46@cornell.edu for questions or more information.
Soil health opportunity for dairy farms
The U.S. dairy community is collaborating on an important research initiative, the Dairy Soil and Water Regeneration project, a six-year research initiative across five major dairy regions that is supported by a $10 million Foundation for Food and Agriculture (FFAR) grant. The overall project is designed to provide measurement-based assessments of a dairy farms’ greenhouse gas footprint for feed production. This work will help deliver foundational data to fill current research gaps, assist in the sharing of best practice soil health management systems and support potential new market opportunities related to carbon, water quality and soil health.
One goal of the project is to perform a baseline assessment to quantify the state of soil carbon stocks and soil health on forage fields that regularly receive manure and have had a range of tillage and management practices used. In this task, soil health indicators and soil carbon stocks will be quantified to provide insight into soil water movement, carbon cycling/storage and nutrient cycling.
If you are willing to take part, the time commitment would be relatively small. We will contact you by phone for a five- to 10-minute discussion to better understand your management practices and gauge how many fields might fit our criteria for selection.
To sample your soil, a Soil Health Institute representative will visit your farm between May 23 and June 10, 2022 (exact day will be communicated to you before we sample). Once on site, the scientist would need a contact to confirm the correct fields for sampling, identify gates or access points and gain an understanding of any protocols that should be followed on the farm. All samples will be taken by hand with no large equipment in the fields, ensuring sampling is non-destructive to crop progress.
The Soil Heath Institute will provide participants with an assessment of soil health and soil carbon stocks approximately six months after sampling. Furthermore, an aggregated report of soil health and carbon stocks from the New York region will be shared with you that shows how well your soil health and carbon stocks compare to others in the region. Participants in this sampling study will not be identified, and individual data collected as part of this effort will remain confidential.
If you are willing to take part in this important initiative or have questions regarding the sampling or the project, contact Project Scientist Mara Cloutier at Soil Health Institute. She can be reached at mcloutier@soilhealthinstitute.org or 828.708.3490.
In New York, partnering organizations supporting this effort include Cornell University, Dairy Management, Inc. and the American Dairy Association, North East.
NYS Dairy Think Tank Survey
As part of Institute for Rural Vitality’s work on the New York State Dairy Think Tank and its commitment to workforce development in the industry, there are three surveys that have been prepared by the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets. The surveys take approximately three to five minutes to complete and all responses will be used for research purposes only. This survey is being conducted on behalf of the New York State Dairy Think Tank – a group comprised of various stakeholders to discuss current challenges and identify what can be done to ensure New York’s dairy industry continues to thrive.
If you have any questions, reach out to IRV staff at institute@cobleskill.edu.
FDA water rule webinar recording available
The recording of the 2022 Northeast Regional Water Rule Webinar is now available. Click here see recording and information.
Sizing-up the 2022 fertilizer situation in four charts
By David Widmar
At this point, everyone knows fertilizer prices are at dizzying highs going into the 2022 growing season. Rather than summarizing the latest price data – which have moderated in January and February – this post shares four charts to provide context and insights into the situation.
How challenging one perceives the 2022 fertilizer situation to be depends on timing and the measures considered. That said, fertilizer is historically expensive and burdensome by nearly every measure. The only bright spot is that the overall outlook – despite high fertilizer prices – remains optimistic, thanks to higher commodity prices.
Click here to read the full article and see the charts.
April Dairy Market Watch
April’s Dairy Market Watch is now available here. Contact Katelyn Walley-Stoll at kaw249@cornell.edu if you have any technical issues accessing this information.
Dairy Market Watch is an educational newsletter to keep producers informed of changing market factors affecting the dairy industry. Dairy Market Watch is published at the end of every month, funded in part by Cornell Pro-Dairy and is compiled by Katelyn Walley-Stoll, Business Management Specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Southwest New York Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Program.