1. Announcements

Today is your last chance to sign up for the Organic Cropping Systems field day tomorrow at Musgrave Research Farm in Aurora, featuring an overview of the 20 years of the Cornell Organic Cropping Systems Experiment (OCS), and a farmer panel on successful organic crop rotations. Click here to register.

There will be a Manure Injection Field Day in Unadilla on August 29 (registration info below):

And staying on the theme of manure, Sara Latessa, Greg Albrecht, and Kirsten Workman of Cornell PRO-DAIRY have provided us with the following Guidance for manure applications on prevented planting acres for farms under the CAFO permit and/or following a CNMP.

Winter grain planting season is coming soon, so Mark Sorrells has shared with us his recent data regarding Winter Malting Barley Performance. He points out that Lake Effect continues to perform well:

2. Pests and Disease

We might have found our first corn leafhopper (which spreads corn stunt disease to young corn plants) in Cayuga Co this week, but no other potential reports in NY.

So far we've had no reports of major disease outbreaks, but keep an eye out for tar spot and let me know if you suspect any!

Here are our recent trap numbers for certain moth pests of corn (WBCW = western bean cutworm; TAW = true armyworm; FAW = fall armyworm):

3. Growing Degree Days (GDD) (See: Climate Smart Farming Growing Degree Day Calculator)

Growing degree days (GDD) are calculated by taking the average daily temperature and subtracting the base temperature for development of a given organism ((High + Low)/2 - base temp = GDD). For corn silage, we are using base 50/86, as corn development starts at 50 degrees F and ceases above 86. Check your location and planting date.

The silking dates in section 2 begin July 17th, when I first saw tasseling in the region - so this does not mean that every crop in your particular area tasseled on that earliest date. Your crop may have tasseled on or more closely to one of the later dates. So While our GDD tables in section 2 can get you in the ballpark, check your own whole-plant DM to make sure you're ready, and not ahead/behind schedule!

Remember: Silage corn needs 750-800 GDD (depending on hybrid maturity) after silking to reach a whole plant DM of 32%. Under typical late season dry down conditions we can expect the crop to reach 35% DM four to seven days later. We can expect to accumulate 15-25 GDD per day, or even up to 30, so peak maturity can creep up on us quickly. But no matter what the numbers say, always check your crop to see how close you may be to harvest. For more details, see this article.