The Southwest New York Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Program with Cornell Cooperative Extension offers educational programming and research based information to agricultural producers, growers, and agribusinesses in the five county region of Southwestern New York. 

**CANCELLED/POSTPONED**2020 Agronomy Scout School

April 4, 2020
8:00am - 5:30pm
Geneseo, NY

EVENT CANCELLED/POSTPONED: Due to Cornell University and Governor's announcement that all SUNY campuses go to remote learning to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, locally. It has been decided to cancel the 2020 Agronomy Scout School that was set to be held on Saturday, April 4th. We plan to reschedule this event for a later date, pending further knowledge of the COVID-19 mitigation regulations both in the state and nationwide. Refunds will be made to everyone who paid thus far. 

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Dairy Market Watch Released - March 2020

Dairy Producers - Read this month's commentary from Katelyn Walley-Stoll on the Dairy Market Response to COVID-19 and Early Spring Flush. Dairy Market Watch is an educational newsletter to keep producers informed of changing market factors affecting the dairy industry. 

NY FarmNet Continues to Offer Free Services - Call 1-800-547-3276

NY FarmNet is continuing to support our agricultural producers through free and confidential consultations. While they are following health and government officials and limiting face-to-face meetings, their consultants are still able to work with farmers and agri-service via phone, email, and webinar. Their hotline will be answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by a live person. NY FarmNet remains committed to providing technical assistance in farm business management and personal wellbeing to New York's farm community. Their toll-free, confidential hotline number is 1-800-547-3276.

COVID-19 Resources Available Online

Richard Stup, PhD, Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development, and Rob Lynch, DVM, Cornell CALS PRO-DAIRY hosted a webinar recently discussing COVID-19 and Your Dairy, which is now available online. You can watch the webinar, and download a PDF of their slide show. You can find other useful resources on the Agricultural Workforce Development Website. These include, Ag & Markets Interim Guidance for Animal Care Operations, information on H-2A Visas, Embassy Closures, and Travel Restrictions, and more.

Other useful materials can be found at:

General Questions & Links: https://eden.cce.cornell.edu/

Food Production, Processing & Safety Questions: https://instituteforfoodsafety.cornell.edu/coronavirus-covid-19/

Employment & Agricultural Workforce Questions: http://agworkforce.cals.cornell.edu/

Cornell Small Farms Resiliency Resources: https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/resources/farm-resilience/

Financial & Mental Health Resources for Farmers: https://www.nyfarmnet.org/

Still looking for DEC recertification credits? Here is an opportunity for you!

The Southwest NY Dairy, Livestock, and Field Crops Team recognize that there are many people seeking recertification credits. If you still need applicator credits, there are online courses available at: http://pmepcourses.cce.cornell.edu/. Please note that there is a charge that is dependent on the number of credits assigned to each course. To view the course, you may select the state 'New York' for approved courses OR you can scroll down until you see the section marked 'Current Courses'. The course name, credits, and categories are all listed. Once you select the topic of interest, you will need to login or create an account in which you will be able to revisit again. We are excited that these are available due to the cancelation of recent meetings. If there are any questions, please contact Josh Putman at jap473@cornell.edu or at 716-490-5572 or click here 

Statewide herbicide resistance screening to start in 2020: Help us help you!

Beginning in 2020, a screening effort to describe the distribution of herbicide resistance in the state will begin. This coming summer and fall, growers, crop consultants and allied industry personnel who suspect they have herbicide resistance are encouraged to contact SWNY Field Crops Specialist Josh Putman (jap473@cornell.edu, 716-490-5572) to arrange for weed seed collection. Please visit http://blogs.cornell.edu/whatscroppingup/2020/03/23/statewide-herbicide-resistance-screening-to-start-in-2020-help-us-to-help-you/ to find out more. Please share as we are interested to update our database and inform growers of the current resistance situation. For more information, please visit this page!

Online Quality Assurance Trainings for Beef, Sheep, and Pork Are Available!

While in-person certification classes may be postponed for the time being, opportunities to take online certification trainings in sheep, beef, and pork quality assurance are available! The trainings can be accessed by the links, below: