Join us for presentations and discussions focusing on soil health concepts and best management practices for vegetable growers. Topics include tarping, maintaining soil health in high tunnels, cover cropping, reduced tillage, compost microbiology, and more!

1.75 DEC pesticide recertification credits available in categories 1A, 10, and 23.

Cost: $30 per person

Please join us for our winter advisory meeting, join the team and provide input for the 3rd Annual WNY Tree Fruit Conference on February 4-5 in Rochester. Please pre-register by December 2th.

For this lunchtime webinar, Cornell Dyson school agricultural and extension economist Wendong Zhang will share recent research findings that examines the property value impacts of large-scale solar facilities and energy infrastructure for residential homeowners as well as farmland owners.

Agritourism Accessibility 

Save the dates for the Labor Roadshow VIII.  In person sessions on Dec 11 and Dec 13 and online sessions on Dec 17 and Dec 18

Fruit and vegetable growers and others interested in learning about produce safety as well as growers who are covered by the FSMA Produce Safety Rule or who anticipate being covered in the future should consider taking this course.

The PSA Grower Training Course is one way to satisfy the FSMA Produce Safety Rule requirement outlined in § 112.22(c) that requires 'At least one supervisor or responsible party for your farm must have successfully completed food safety training at least equivalent to that received under standardized curriculum recognized as adequate by the Food and Drug Administration.'

At this grower-focused meeting, ag industry experts will discuss pest control in vegetables, weed management strategies and best practices, seed germination, an introduction to foliar nutrient uptake in vegetables, and grouping flowers by growth needs. Plus we'll hear from a grower panel from Kutztown Produce Auction, moderated with NYS specific pest control from Judson Reid.

2.25 DEC recertification credits will be offered in categories 10, 1a, 23, and 24.

If you are considering applying to the NYS Grown and Certified grant program or the NYS Beginning Farmer Grant and would like some advice or assistance with your grant proposal, come to this 2-hour workshop at CCE Dutchess County on January 6th from 5:30-5:30pm. Spaces are limited!

Unit 1: Introduction to Business Planning and the Business Plan (Liz Higgins)

• Session 1: The 30,000-foot view, what are you trying to accomplish? What resources do you have?

Do you need a business plan for your farm?  Do you have an idea for a new venture, but aren't sure if it will work? This program is for you!

This course is designed for existing farm businesses or those planning to undertake a new farm business venture. Students will work with their farm's data, and the goal of the class is for participants to have a draft of a written business plan for a specific business venture.

During the course, you will learn to:

• Assess whether or not a business idea is a good fit for you.
• Develop a marketing strategy to make a profit
• Use financial tools to evaluate if your business has the potential to be profitable

This online course meets from January 7-March 4, 2025.  All course content is available online so you can work on it at your own pace.  There will be weekly webinars where you can meet other students and interact directly with the instructor on the content.  These webinars will be recorded. 

If you are considering applying to the NYS Grown and Certified grant program or the NYS Beginning Farmer Grant and would like some advice or assistance with your grant proposal, come to this 2-hour workshop at CCE Clinton County on January 8th from 6-8pm. Spaces are limited!

Unit 1: Introduction to Business Planning and the Business Plan (Liz Higgins)

• Session 2: Introduction to Project Management

Join us for a free webinar on electric weeding in organic perennial crops.

Are you planning to apply to the NYS Beginning Farmer Grant Program, but you have hit a wall in completing the application?  This webinar is for you.  Meet with Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators statewide who are providing support to farmers applying for this program.

This grower-focused meeting will include information about pesticide applicator recertification and record keeping requirements, disease control in cole crops and vine crops, and using biocontrols for insect management in greenhouses. Several seed and ag input companies will be on-hand to share product news.

2.75 DEC recertification credits will be offered in categories 10, 1a, 23 and 24. CORE credits (0.5) offered too!

GRANT MONEY FOR YOUR FARM? IT'S POSSIBLE! THIS WORKSHOP WILL SHOW YOU HOW!

Speakers: Mario Miranda Sazo (CCE LOFP) and Dr. Debbie Aller (Cornell CALS) 

Week 1: Digging Into Pruning and Soil Health

Week 2: Cider Apples - Mechanized Harvesting and Patulin Food Safety

Week 3: The Value of "Eco-Friendly" Marketing - OMRI, Red Tomato, EcoApple, NYS Grown and Certified

Week 4: Biopesticides and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) for Berries

Week 5: St. Peachtrick's Day - Stone Fruit Insect and Disease Management

Unit 1: Introduction to Business Planning and the Business Plan (Liz Higgins)

• Session 3: How Business Planning Becomes a Business Plan

GRANT MONEY FOR YOUR FARM? IT'S POSSIBLE! THIS WORKSHOP WILL SHOW YOU HOW!

Join us for information on sweet corn pest control, Colorado potato beetles, gummy stem blight and black rot of vine crops, pesticide updates, and herbicides between plastic. DEC Credits available: 0.5 in CORE (all license categories) and 1.75 credits 1a, 10 and 23.   

Topics: Tar spot in sweet and field corn, managing anthracnose in vine crops, weed control between plastic beds, pesticide updates, and more. 2.5 DEC credits requested in 1a and 23. 

Unit 2: Developing a Marketing Plan for Your Farm (Bonnie Nelsen)

 Session 4: Your Market and Your Competition

Are you planning to apply to the NYS Grown and Certified ITRD Grant Program, but you have hit a wall in completing the application?  This webinar is for you.  Meet with Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators statewide who are providing support to farmers applying for this program.

GRANT MONEY FOR YOUR FARM? IT'S POSSIBLE! THIS WORKSHOP WILL SHOW YOU HOW!

Join us for a grapevine pruning workshop at Samascott Orchard. This workshop is ideal for anyone looking to learn or refresh their grapevine pruning skills, and we will focus on pruning Concord grape vines. 

Speakers: Dr. Greg Peck (Cornell CALS) and Dr. Randy Worobo (Cornell CALS)

Please join us for the Eastern New York Spotted Lanternfly Workshop on February 4th and 5th at the scenic Benmarl Vineyard in Marlboro, NY. This two-day event will focus on addressing the challenges posed by the Spotted Lanternfly (SLF) through policy, research, outreach, and management strategies. Day One will focus on Municipal Management, Communication, Outreach/Extension and Research Updates.

Date: February 4th, 2025

Snow Date: February 5th, 2025

Time: 9:30 am - 3:30 pm

Place: The Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home

Address: 4079 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park, NY 12538

Join Cornell Cooperative Extension for a day-long intensive focused on leafy greens production! This intensive will focus on both summer and winter growing and will feature grower insights and research. Topics include: soil steaming, spinach variety trials, pest management, heat tolerant varieties and a moderated grower to grower conversation.

Cost: $30 pre-registration up until Feb 3rd at 5pm, $50 at the door. Lunch is included

Do you need a business plan for your farm?  Do you have an idea for a new venture, but aren't sure if it will work? This program is for you!

This course is designed for existing farm businesses or those planning to undertake a new farm business venture. Students will work with their farm's data, and the goal of the class is for participants to have a draft of a written business plan for a specific business venture.

During the course, you will learn to:

• Assess whether or not a business idea is a good fit for you.
• Develop a marketing strategy to make a profit
• Use financial tools to evaluate if your business has the potential to be profitable

This online course meets from January 7-March 4, 2025.  All course content is available online so you can work on it at your own pace.  There will be weekly webinars where you can meet other students and interact directly with the instructor on the content.  These webinars will be recorded. 

Unit 2: Developing a Marketing Plan for Your Farm (Bonnie Nelsen)

• Session 5:  Revenue and Product Mix to Achieve Your Goals

For the 2nd year in a row, we'll be having the Western NY Fruit Conference at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Rochester!  It will be another 1 1/2 day conference. Again, this replaces our traditional "LOF Fruit Schools" and our participation in the Empire Producers Expo in Syracuse. The program will run all day on Tuesday (Feb 4) and Wednesday morning (Feb 5). There will be two Pest Management sessions Tuesday morning, followed by Business and Soil Health afternoon sessions. Wednesday will have 2 morning sessions (Marketing/Fruit Quality and Precision Ag),  ending with lunch at noon.

Becker Forum will focus on key labor issues and trends.

Please join us for the Eastern New York Spotted Lanternfly Workshop on February 4th and 5th at the scenic Benmarl Vineyard in Marlboro, NY. This two-day event will focus on addressing the challenges posed by the Spotted Lanternfly (SLF) through policy, research, outreach, and management strategies. Day two will focus on Vineyard Management, Agricultural Management and Consumer Education.

NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets FSMA inspectors are expected to step up farm visits this season. Why are they showing up on the farm asking about FSMA? Aren't we exempt? This noontime hour we will discuss the purpose of the farm visits and what produce farmers need to know.

This two-session event will feature vegetables and flowers in Session 1, and soils, fertility, and manure management in Session 2.

Unit 2: Developing a Marketing Plan for Your Farm (Bonnie Nelsen)

• Session 6: Marketing Plan and Evaluation of Marketing Efforts

This hands-on workshop is intended for Extension or County staff who either have an interest in learning more about pruning grapevines or have the potential to have someone come through the door asking about grapes. 

This year's program will feature speakers covering critically important topics like disease management, updates in storage techniques, new varieties, and other production management practices. New for this year will be the Processor Panel where guests will have the chance to interact with some of the major chip processors in the northeast. Your participation will also earn you DEC and CCA points.

February 12, 2025 noon - 1:30pm(link is external) Brian Moyer, Penn State Extension will discuss 10 Common Marketing Mistakes. 

February 19, 2025 noon - 1:30pm(link is external) Dr. Maria Gannett, UMass Extension Fruit and Vegetable Weed Specialist will discuss Basic Orchard Weed ID and Management.

February 26, 2025 noon - 1:30pm(link is external) Dr. Anna Wallis, Senior Extension Associate, NYS Integrated Pest Management and Dr. Kerik Cox, Associate Professor, School of Integrative Plant Science, Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section, Cornell AgriTech will dig into Why Did My Scab Program Fail in 2024?. 

March 5, 2025 noon - 1:30pm(link is external) Dr. Srdjan Acimovic Assistant Professor, Tree Fruit and Specialty Crop Pathologist at Virginia Tech University. This presentation will cover the biology and environmental conditions that favor bitter rot on apples; the management options and new areas of research this apple disease. 

March 12, 2025 noon - 1:30pm(link is external) Dr. Jason Londo, Associate Professor, School of Integrative Plant Science, Horticulture Section, Cornell AgriTech and Dr. Renae Moran, Tree Fruit Specialist Professor of Pomology, University of Maine will discuss Understanding Cold Hardiness Risks in Fruit Crops. 

Join Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orange and Oneida Counties, the Cornell Vegetable Program, Harvest NY, and the Eastern NY Horticulture Team on Feb. 12 for a remote Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) training. Good Agricultural Practices is a voluntary food safety audit program requiring minimum standards for the production, handling, packing, and storing of fresh fruits and vegetables, and is required by some buyers. Trainers will cover food safety best management practices related to worker training, preharvest assessments and wildlife management, water testing, postharvest handling, hygienic equipment design and efficient wash-pack setups, how to write a farm food safety plan, and more. The training will follow the USDA GAPs audit checklist so that farms will be prepared for an audit. A NYSDAM GAPs auditor will join us to discuss audit logistics and answer questions from participants. Following the course, we will offer a series of virtual office hours to follow up with course participants to assist them with writing their farm food safety plan, which is mandatory for the GAPs audit. Participants will receive a certificate of course completion after the training.

Join Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orange and Oneida Counties, the Cornell Vegetable Program, Harvest NY, and the Eastern NY Horticulture Team on Feb. 12 for a remote Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) training. Good Agricultural Practices is a voluntary food safety audit program requiring minimum standards for the production, handling, packing, and storing of fresh fruits and vegetables, and is required by some buyers. Trainers will cover food safety best management practices related to worker training, preharvest assessments and wildlife management, water testing, postharvest handling, hygienic equipment design and efficient wash-pack setups, how to write a farm food safety plan, and more. The training will follow the USDA GAPs audit checklist so that farms will be prepared for an audit. A NYSDAM GAPs auditor will join us to discuss audit logistics and answer questions from participants. Following the course, we will offer a series of virtual office hours to follow up with course participants to assist them with writing their farm food safety plan, which is mandatory for the GAPs audit. Participants will receive a certificate of course completion after the training.

The training cost is $10 per farm and includes access to a virtual folder of recordkeeping templates, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), audit checklists, course presentations, and more resources. 

This training will be held on Zoom

GRANT MONEY FOR YOUR FARM? IT'S POSSIBLE! THIS WORKSHOP WILL SHOW YOU HOW!

Week 1: Digging Into Pruning and Soil Health

Week 2: Cider Apples - Mechanized Harvesting and Patulin Food Safety

Week 3: The Value of "Eco-Friendly" Marketing - OMRI, Red Tomato, EcoApple, NYS Grown and Certified

Week 4: Biopesticides and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) for Berries

Week 5: St. Peachtrick's Day - Stone Fruit Insect and Disease Management

Speakers: Liz Higgins (CCE ENYCHP), Josh Morgenthau (Fish Kill Farms), Jim Bittner (Bittner-Singer Orchard, and Kevin Clark (Rose Hill Farm)

REMOTE Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training Course

Monday, Feb. 17 and Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025

8 am - 12:30 PM

Held remotely via Zoom (online)

Registration: $10 per person, open to NY state participants only

Includes printed course manual ($60 value), certificate of course completion ($35 value) and online food safety resources.

All produce growers are encouraged to attend this course to learn more about food safety practices recommended for all farms. This course contains NEW information contained in the finalized Subpart E rule on agricultural water. The PSA Grower Training Course is one way to satisfy the FSMA Produce Safety Rule requirement outlined in § 112.22(c) that requires 'At least one supervisor or responsible party for your farm must have successfully completed food safety training at least equivalent to that received under standardized curriculum recognized as adequate by the Food and Drug Administration.' If you've already earned your PSA certificate, retaking this course is a great way to refresh your memory and learn about the new water requirements!

After attending the entire course, participants will be eligible to receive a certificate from the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) that verifies they have completed the training course. 

In this session, we will discuss what counts as processing and what doesn't. Stories of inspectors coming to farmers markets and auctions telling some growers certain products can't be sold usually without much explanation. We will try to make some sense of things and clear up some misunderstandings so hopefully the upcoming season goes smoothly.

Unit 3: Developing a Financial Plan for Your Farm Business (Steve Hadcock)

• Session 7: The Basics of Financial Statements

GRANT MONEY FOR YOUR FARM? IT'S POSSIBLE! THIS WORKSHOP WILL SHOW YOU HOW!

Can having a traceback process for your produce (and other farm products) make good business sense regardless of FSMA regulations? We will (try to) make the case for farms to have some sort of traceability mechanism in place.

Unit 3: Developing a Financial Plan for Your Farm Business (Steve Hadcock)

• Session 8: Enhancing Confidence in Your Numbers

Presented by Christy Hoepting (CCE Cornell Vegetable Program) and Ann Hazelrigg (Univ. of VT), this webinar will focus on organic management of pests and diseases of onions, garlic, leeks. The webinar is part of a series supported by the Transition to Organic Partnership Program. 

Please join us for our advisory meeting, join the team as they share their current and future projects and programming. Please pre-register by noon on February 24th.

GRANT MONEY FOR YOUR FARM? IT'S POSSIBLE! THIS WORKSHOP WILL SHOW YOU HOW!

Thursdays: February 27 - April 3, with two additional Monday webinars on March 17 and March 24

Tree fruit are an important component of the agricultural and homeowner landscape. This course, which offers eight live webinars for its 2025 offering, trains beginning tree fruit growers in fundamental concepts in orchard planning and management.

Speaker(s): McKenzie Schessl (Cornell AgriTech) and Samantha Willden (Cornell AgriTech)