Federal proposal limits hiring of younger teens on farms

As usual legislators are out of touch with how life really is down on the farm. We know that farming is a very dangerous occupation and we sure don't want to put our youth in a situation that they are not prepared to handle.We do however need our youth to learn to perform in a safe and effective manner.

To read more about this issue click this link.

http://www.agriview.com/feature/farmlife/federal-proposal-limits-hiring-of-younger-teens-on-farms/article_a9221c4a-0f1d-11e1-a643-001cc4c002e0.html#.TsVb_PGxHmE

Corn Dry Matter

The PFM Team tested 16 samples at the Dry Down held on Thursday 9/29/2011.
This was the second event held this year. We scheduled them over a week apart to try to fit the expected drying rate of corn with widely varying planting dates because of the extremely wet weather this growing season.

Dry matter range was 25% to 42%,which was similar to the results we saw 9/20/2011. Several fields were tested at both dates. Surprisingly the the results were only a few points different, probably because of the constant precipitation and soaked soil. As expected much of the corn that was at acceptable DM levels last time is in the process of being harvested. It seems that it is a slow muddy process this year seeing that we have record precipitation this season, even exceeding the rain fall of 2006.
Some corn may well have to stand until frost to reach acceptable DM levels for harvest and fermentation.
Several observations that surprised us is that whole plant moisture is higher that one might expect form the condition of the kernels. Fully dented and flinty kernels still could be on the low side of whole plant dry matter. Kernel processing is definitely indicated if at all possible.

The second is that BMR samples consistently look to be dryer that they are. Although the stalk and leaves look to be overly dry there still is a lot of moisture in the ears. This should help starch utilization even in unprocessed silage.

The take home message from what we have seen is especially in a year like this, dry matter testing is very important. The time honored whole plant indicators we have relied on may easily fool you in a year like this.

To that end, if you need assistance measuring dry matter in late maturing corn, we can do a chop and test at the WAC office in Walton. Contact the office at 607-865-6531 . Ask for Dale,Paul, Dan or Nate to schedule a time.

Flood Damaged Crops

The heavy rains and flooding over the weekend has caused significant damage to a number of crops. The level of damage is variable across the area, but if you had any flood water in crop fields you have some tough decisions to make. The photo at the right, taken after the 2006 flooding, reminds us of similar problems faced in the no so distant past.

First, we urge you to document damage to fields and crops by contacting the Farm Service Agency. You are strongly encouraged to take photos of damage. This information is critical in Federal Program decisions.

Next assess the extent of flood damage to fields and access roads that may need repair, and flood trash deposits that may need removal before harvest is possible.

Crop quality may also be impacted. Silt deposited on forage crops should be a concern for dairy and livestock farms. We have put a together a short fact sheet that will help you to make harvest decisions. Click here to open the PDF.

If you have damaged crops in Delaware County and have questions please give Paul or Dale a call at the Watershed Ag Program office, 865-7090, or Mariane a call at Cornell Cooperative Extension main office, 865-6531.

Delaware County Scissor Cut Results 5/17/11

The old timers always said, “a cold wet May, means a barn full of hay”. I guess I’m almost an old timer now, and I say a cold wet May is depressing.

Most farmers we talk to are itching to get started early this year to make high quality forage, and know that the rainy weather is making it harder to achieve this goal. Our data from this week unfortunately confirms this. All of the fields we sampled rapidly increased in NDF over the past week, and a number of fields were beginning to show heads.

Read our entire report and see the field by field results. Click Here

Scissor Cut results 5/10/2011

We are monitoring 48 hay fields in Delaware County for NDF content to predict optimum first cutting timing. Haying time is almost here.

Highlights of Week 2

• NDF has increased slowly in the past week, but observations indicate grass has begun stem elongation and fiber will increase rapidly in the next week
• This week’s tests suggest harvest should begin next week!. (right on the long term average)
• Corn planting and hay harvest will conflict on most farms this year. Make plans park the corn planter when hay is ready and complete harvest of core acres before finishing corn planting.

Click Here to see our full report and site by site results

Is 2011 the Year to Wide Swath?

Forage quality has never been more important than right now. With record feed prices, higher forage rations are not just desirable, they are the key to thriving in the dairy business.

Timely harvest is the most critical step in achieving forage quality. Check out my previous post and stay tuned to our scissor cut sample results to hit the optimum harvest window. The rainy weather this spring may have you worried, though. How will you squeeze in enough good days to get that great stuff in the silo? Wide swathing may be just what you need.

The graph above shows results from Tom Kilcer in 2010. With a full swath mowed at 9:00 am, hay was ready to chop by mid afternoon, with tedding right after mowing it was ready by 11:30. In 2004, a very wet May, we measured drying rates in very challenging drying conditions. Grass mowed into a wide swath dried about 1% point per hour, if tedded right after mowing it dried at 2% points per hour, in a windrow it did not dry at all.

If the weather is really challenging, or your mower won't make a swath of at least 90% of the cutter bar width, try tedding for silage harvest. It means another trip over the filed, but great quality hay in the silo may be priceless come next winter.

Wide swathing can turn a one day weather window into grass in th silo. If the present weather trend continues, one day windows may be all we get.

Wide swathing is still worth doing even if we have great weather. The rapid dry down saves sugars, yielding higher energy silages. Silage at the correct moisture has lower soluble protein, helping more forage fit in a ration.

2011 may just the right time to give wide swath haylage a try.

Dale Dewing

Scissor Cuts 5/3/11

We just finished our first week of Scissor Cut samples for 2011.

For as cold and wet as it has been, hay was taller and more advanced than we thought it might be. Fields were 2-4 inches shorter than the multi-year average, and very nearly the same in NDF.

Click Here for the full report.

Dale Dewing

EPA Exempts Milk from Oil Spill Regulations

New York Farm Bureau Released This 4/12/2011

NYFB has just received word that the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to exempt dairy from the Oil Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Program, which would have treated dairy products like oil because of the fat content and forced farmers to develop expensive and unnecessary oil spill plans for their milk.

“This is a huge victory for dairy farmers all throughout Upstate New York, one which has been a long time coming,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, who strongly advocated against these regulations on behalf of dairy farmers. “Everyone knows that when Congress enacted these laws it was targeting massive oil spills and toxic substances, not an accident involving milk at one of our state’s small dairy farms. With this exemption, I can now ensure New York dairy farmers that they will no longer have to cry over spilled milk, let alone the costly preparation for it.”

Senator Gillibrand and Congressmen Gibson, Owens and Reed also supported farmers by asking EPA to exempt milk from the oil spill regulations and were co-sponsors of bills to do so.

While milk tanks and piping will now be exempt from the regulations, other oil and fuel tanks on a dairy may still be regulated under SPCC and farms should make sure they are in compliance. For more information, please see the October issue of Grassroots (page 4) or contact NYFB’s Kelly Young at kyoung@nyfb.org.

2011 Delaware County No Till School Presentations Available

The 2011 No till school was extremely well attended. The following videos are the presentations made that day by speakers Drs Quirine Ketterings and Russ Hahn of Cornell University; Paul Cerosaletti and Dale Dewing of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County and Kevin Ganoe, regional crop specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension Central NY Dairy and Crop Crop Team. Topics for the day included:

Precision Nitrogen Management for Corn

Use of Aerators to Incorporate Manure in Minimum Till Systems


Weed Control updates for Corn and Small Grains


The Nitrogen Cycle


Why Soil pH Still Matters

Presentations on Grazing

At the 2011 Catskill Regional Dairy, Livestock and Grazing Conference there were a couple good presentations on grazing. One, by Dale Dewing of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County and Dan Flaherty of the Watershed Agricultural Council, touched on ways to extend the grazing season using stockpiled forage. Another, by Karen Hoffman of the New York Natural Resources Conservation Service, detailed the do's and don'ts of grazing dairy heifers. If either of these presentations are of interest to you - click below to hear the talk and see the slides!

New DairyTie Stall Design Results in Improved Comfort and Animal Production

The 2011 Catskill Regional Dairy Livestock and Grazing Conference featured a panel discussion with New York State farmers that have installed the Canadian tie stall system designed by Dr. Neil Anderson of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This stall system was designed by researching how cows get up and down on pasture and is composed of several key components working together - and not any one feature. The components are:

• Tailed stall length and width
• Elevated tie rail
• Forward tie rail palcement
• Neck chain length
• Elevated manger (relative to stall bed)
• Stall mattress/mat
• Cow trainer and trainer placement
• Headroom above water bucket

The New York State farmers that participated in this panel discussion included Rob and Darlene Howland of Candor NY, Frank and Mark Albano of Stamford NY and Jim Keator of Davenport NY. A paired observational study conducted by John Conway of the NY Pro Dairy Program on the Albano farm capitalized on a unique circumstance over the last 12 months where cows received the same treatment except what stall they received after calving. Cows in the new stalls have average nearly 6 lbs more milk per day than cows in the old stalls. Recently, Jim Keator reports that since he has implemented the new stall system in December 2010, he had the lowest somatic cell count in over 30 years of dairy farming - 46,000 cells/ml. Economic analysis on the Howland farm, again conducted by John Conway, shows a payback of less than one year. The Howlands have seen a dramatic lowering of involuntary culls and now routinely sell several cows each year for dairy purposes.

The original papers written by Dr Anderson on assessing cow comfort and implementing the new tie stall (and free stall) system can be accessed via the links below:

Assessing cow comfort and behavior
Canadian tie stall system design
Canadian free stall design