Addison County Fair & Field Days will be held August 5th - August 9th! Don't forget to enter your best crops and win cash and bragging rights. Check your inbox for a special email with all the details, or go to the website:
http://www.addisoncountyfielddays.com/

Crop Entries are due on August 4th between 8:00 am and 12:00 pm. Bring them to the north end of the 4H building at Field Days. Then come back to the Fair to see who won.

Categories are as follows:

Corn Plants
Soybean Plants
Wheat, Barley & Oat Plants
Corn Silage
Haylage
Corn Grain
Soybean Grain
Wheat, Barley & Oat Grain
Dry Hay (grass, legume & mixed)
Wrapped Baleage

For more information, contact Jeff Carter at (802) 388-4969 or jeff.carter@uvm.edu

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Soil Health Field Days

UVM Extension, VACD, and NRCS are pleased to announce two field days for farmers focused on soil health. Get out on real farms and see what soil health is all about. This FREE event includes lunch and will take a close-up look at soils, tillage practices, manure management, crops, cover crops, equipment and MORE. Take the chance to attend the event closest to YOU. We are pleased to have avid no-tiller, agronomist and consultant, Joel Myers join us from Pennsylvania as we see how dairy producers can adopt practices to promote healthy soil, productive farms, and great crop yields.

Friday, August 29th

10:00 - 3:00

Vorsteveld Family Farm

Panton, VT

contact Rico Balzano (rico.balzano@uvm.edu)

802-388-4969 x338

Thursday, August 28th

10:00 - 3:00

Gingue Bros. Dairy

Waterford, VT

contact Sarah Damsell (Sarah.Damsell@vt.nacdnet.net) 802-748-2641 x114

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Summer Organic

Dairy Series

Together, UVM Extension Northwest Crops and Soils Program (NWCS) and Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) invite you to participate in our Summer Organic Dairy Series events.

The cost is $20 per person (per event) and includes lunch from the NOFA-VT Pizza Oven.

Register Here

or Call 802-524-6501

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Crops and Soils
Field Day

Feeding the Soils, the Plants, and the Community

July 24, 2014

Borderview Research Farm
146 Line Road
Alburgh, Vermont

10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

The Field Day will give you an opportunity to tour Borderview Research Farm, where over 40 crop and soil experiments are being conducted, as well as getting up-to-date research results. Take a look at the many experiments being conducted at the farm on corn varieties, cover crops, nutrient dense forage management, fertigation, oilseeds, hops (including the new 'Hop Ranch'), reduced tillage strategies and much more!

or call (802) 524-6501

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CROP INSURANCE DEADLINES

The cropping season is here...and so are your Crop Insurance deadlines. Here are a few key dates coming up:

June 10th: Final planting date for corn and soybeans
June 30th: Final planting date for sweet corn
August 31st: Final planting date for fall seeded forages

For a full list of Key Crop Insurance Dates, click HERE

Ask ELSIE
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Q: Dear ELSIE...

The Champlain Valley Crop, Soil & Pasture Team seems like it has gotten bigger...who are your newest members?

?????

Answer :

Yes, indeed. As our team expands its work with farmers in the Champlain Valley...we've expanded our numbers to get all that work done! Let me introduce you to our two newest members:

Lindsey Ruhl

Lindsey is a current Master's candidate in UVM's Plant and Soil Science Department at UVM. Her research focuses on how soil fertility is effected by flooding and how cover crops can be used to remediate soils damaged by flooding. She has worked on a small organic vegetable farm in Burlington's Intervale for four seasons and spent a summer working in PSU's weed ecology lab. She is working with the CV Crops team this summer and fall as a field technician, helping with our many on-farm research and demonstration projects.

Kristin Williams

Kristin enjoys assisting with a multifaceted group of assignments in Extension, with the aim of helping farmer's create and maintain more sustainable systems on their farm, with a particular focus on soil conservation and nutrient management. Kristin holds a B.S. in Environmental Science and a M.S. in Plant and Soil Science, both from the University of Vermont. Her graduate research focused on biological indicators of soil health, in particular nematode ecology. That work exposed her to the critical value of the living fraction of the soil and Kristin is interested in how soil ecology is measured and sustained. Her work in nutrient management began as an intern with Ben & Jerry's as an undergraduate. However, the roots of her passion for soil science began while playing and working on the farm she grew up on in Vermont. In general she enjoys work that makes research applicable to real world solutions, and she takes a multidisciplinary approach that has led her to work in transportation, sociology and applied economics. In her free time she loves to hike and holds a passion for local food that extends into her love of gardening, farmer's markets, and cooking.

To meet the rest of the TEAM, click: HERE

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If you would like to Ask ELSIE? a question, please email her by clicking HERE.

Funding for the Champlain Valley Crop, Soil & Pasture Team and the programs and resources we offer is provided by the following organizations:

UVM Extension
Lake Champlain Basin Program
Great Lakes Fishery Commission
USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service
VT Agency of Natural Resources
VT Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets
USDA-Risk Management Agency
USDA-National Institute of Food & Agriculture
NE-SARE Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture. University of Vermont Extension, Burlington, Vermont.

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University of Vermont Extension, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, cooperating, offer education and employment to everyone without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or familial status.

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News and Events

For Vermont Farmers in the Lake Champlain Watershed

Farmers Demonstrate in the Champlain Valley

Yes, more farmers than ever are demonstrating that cover crops and no-till really can work in our area to increase crop yields and keep nutrients in your field, not in the water. Starting early this spring we have been planting a lot of field trials to see how we can have better success with no-till plantings to improve pasture with improved varieties of chicory, white clovers, Crimson and Berseem clovers, and annuals like millet, forage brassicas and mixes like oats and peas. Better quality forage and more for grazing. The past few weeks we have been starting to overseed cover crops into corn at sidedress time. One set of demonstrations in using whole fields to show a dozen different cover crop mixes that are readily available from local seed companies. We will follow-up with the same mixes flown onto fields at corn tassling time and then again after harvest by using the no-till drills or by broadcast and cover with manure.

Oh, we are also planting those same mixes in Panton so you can come see them at the Soil Health / Cover Crop / No-Till Field day at the end of August.

The No-Till grain drills are still moving from farm to farm and covering ground from South Hero down through Addison County and into Rutland county to Danby and Pawlett. Now we need to make sure to really evaluate the gains in forage from all these seedings, so my agronomy crew is out there sampling areas that were seeded with either different seeds or different seeding rates. No sense planting seeds if we can't measure a difference.

We got a good start on the Cover Crop Mix trials that we are planting as part of the NRCS grant we got to evaluate ten different three-way mixes to figuure out the best rates, mixes and timing. Again we are targeting sidedress, tassle and post-harvest before Oct 1 in corn fields. As a side note, about on-half of farmers who applied for NRCS contracts for covercrops were successful this year, and we are working with the farmer coalitions and NRCS to see if we can secure more funding for the region to increase cover crops and other practices that will help farmers meet the "clean up the lake" goals of the state TMDL plan. We are anxious to see how our application, and the state's application, for Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) funds is accepted.

Jeff Carter

UVM Extension Agronomy Specialist

http://www.uvm.edu/extension/cvcrops

https://www.facebook.com/ChamplainCropSoilPasture

COVER CROP CORNER

What Vermont farmers want to know about cover cropping

by Kirsten Workman and Lindsey Ruhl

As you may have read here in our newsletter, we asked our readers to respond to a survey for Vermont farmers regarding the use of Cover Crops. We have wrapped up that survey for now and got some interesting results.

We received 81 valid responses to the survey, representing 43,876 acres. 60 of those farms said they planted 6104 acres of cover crops in 2013 or almost 14% of total acreage.

Nearly 1/5 of the cover crops were harvested for forage or grain
82% of cover crops planted were winter cereal grains (followed by cool season grasses, legumes and mixtures)
6% of the cover crop acres were two or three way mixes

The primary advantages to planting cover crops were

Preventing soil erosion
Increasing organic matter
Capturing and recycling nutrients

The primary perceived challenges to planting cover crops were

Cost required for seed, planting and managing cover crops
Not enough time after cash crop harvest to establish cover crops
Selecting the right cover crop species

The types of assistance that Vermont farmers desire

Reduced seed cost
Having the right equipment available to establish cover crops
Cost share assistance

Farmers would like to see the following questions regarding cover crops addressed in Vermont

Cover crop varieties
Mixtures
Intercropping and double-cropping
Establishment techniques

Although we didn't receive enough responses to have a statistically representative survey analysis, this information is extremely important to us. It helps us direct our work to meet the needs of YOU...the Vermont farmer. It also validates some of the work we are already doing. Here's a short list of some of the work UVM Extension agronomy outreach staff and faculty are working on regarding cover crops in Vermont to help address what Vermont farmers want to know.

On farm demonstrations with new cover crop varieties, cover crop mixtures, interseeding and MORE
Facilitating farmer cost share assistance to establish cover crops
Providing equipment like no-till drills to establish cover crops
Researching cover crop varieties, mixtures, seeding rates, seeding dates and establishment techniques
Coordinating aerial (helicopter) seeding of cover crops into standing corn
Numerous on-farm field days and workshops
No-Till & Cover Crop Symposium

Interseeding cover crops into corn for an on farm demonstration project

Farmers at Cover Crop Field Day last fall.

GRAZING GREENER

Frost seeded forage chicory is growing!

by Cheryl Cesario

As a follow- up note to the article in the April newsletter on frost seeding forage chicory, I wanted to give a quick update from the field. In addition to the three farms where the trial was conducted (Taconic End Farm, Water's Run Farm, and Morgan Hill Farms), two other sites also experimented with forage chicory frost seeding as well - Meeting Place Pastures in Cornwall and Wagner Ranch in Bridport.

We have been out to see chicory growing at four of the five sites so far. The plants we are seeing have already been grazed and with adequate rest have re-grown and are thriving. Forage sample results from an established seeding at a site in Richmond, demonstrates the nutritional value of this plant: 19.3% crude protein, NEL at .66, a relative feed value of 177, and high levels of minerals - calcium, magnesium, potassium and zinc. We are planning to sample our Addison county sites this year as well to see how they compare to the above results.

A crowd turns out for workshop with Ian Mitchell-Innes in Sudbury

On June 16th, we welcomed 70 attendees to a field day with South African rancher and educator Ian Mitchell-Innes at Mountain Meadows Farm in Sudbury. A diverse mix of farmers and service providers from Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Connecticut, and Quebec came together for a classroom session followed by a pasture walk. Ian focused on how to improve animal performance based on the concepts of Holistic Management. That is, to consider the 'whole' - the soil, the plants, and the animals - wit

Farmers and service providers listen to Ian Mitchell-Innes at a field day at Mountain Meadows Farm.

h planned grazing to achieve our goals. From stocking density to animal pH, Ian touched on many topics, some familiar and some 'outside the box'. He reminded us that farmers are in the energy business - harnessing as much solar energy as possible and converting that into products such as meat and milk. He stressed the need to optimize solar energy conversion through our management to improve animal performance and the bottom line. Thanks to all who attended and a thank you to Mountain Meadows for hosting and helping to sponsor the event.

Upcoming Pasture Events

The UVM Extension Northwest Crops & Soils Program and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) are partnering for a Summer Organic Dairy Series, with the theme "Making the Most of Your Forages".

July 18th, 10:30am to 2:30pm,
Grazing, Summer Annuals and No Grain Organic Dairy Production
at the Beidler Family Farm in Randolph Center, VT

August 19th, 10:30am to 2:30pm,
Summer Annuals, Irrigation and Cow Health
at The Fournier Farm in Swanton, VT

August 28th, 10:00am to 3:30pm,
Soils, Foliar Sprays and Nutrient Dense Forages
at Butterworks Farm in Westfield, VT

Click HERE for more information and to register!

Contact Cheryl today if you would like her to create a grazing plan for your farm for 2014!

SOILS & TILLAGE

No-Till, Soil Health and Cover Crops to be Featured at August Soil Health Workshops in Panton, Waterford

by Rico Balzano

The UVM Extension Champlain Valley Crop, Soil and Pasture Team, Middlebury NRCS and the Vorsteveld Family Farm will host a hands on Soil Health/No-till/Cover Crop Workshop in Panton, VT on August 29. Joel Myers, a No-Till Consultant and retired NRCS State Agronomist in Pennsylvania will share his knowledge of practical no-till approaches, including challenging soil conditions and how to utilize dairy manure in no-till systems.

This event is FREE for farmers and includes lunch. We will spend the day in the

Radish Roots in a Soil Pit
photo courtesy Univ. of MD

field looking at crops, soil, and running some equipment. Demonstrations will include getting into soil pits showing root penetration of various crops and cover crops, including radish and winter rye, and aggregate stability with a rainfall simulator. Soil compaction and water infiltration are two important topics of the day.

There will be cover crop plots to tour featuring commercially available mixes, as well as single species cover crops. We'll have those planted at the end of July in a Rye field so you can see what they look like after a month. Crop walks will also include no-till corn planting and fertilizer management on clay soil. Planting and manure spreading equipment will be on hand for discussion about no-till modifications, and there will be a planter and drill cover crop planting demonstration.

Certified Crops Adviser credits will be available.

PLEASE RSVP BEFORE THAT DAY TO GET LUNCH!!

Friday, August 29th | 10:00 - 3:00

Vorsteveld Family Farm | Panton, VT

contact Rico Balzano (rico.balzano@uvm.edu) 388-4969 x338

or George Tucker (George.Tucker@vt.usda.gov) 388-6748 x121.

Joel will also present at the Soil Health Workshop on August 28 in Waterford, VT hosted by St. Johnsbury NRCS and Essex County NRCD.

Thursday, August 28th | 10:00 - 3:00

Gingue Bros. Dairy | Waterford, VT

contact Sarah Damsell (Sarah.Damsell@vt.nacdnet.net) 748-2641 x114, or Brandon Carpenter (Brandon.Carpenter@vt.usda.gov) 748-2641 x106.

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY FARMER COALITION

Vermont Farmers working together for a clean Lake Champlain

& thriving agriculture in Vermont

CVFC Member Highlight:

Conant's Riverside

Farm spotlighted as a National NRCS Producer Profile in Soil Health. Find out what this Vermont farm is doing to improve soil health.

Click HERE for the full Soil Health Profile

CVFC Farms Participate in On-Farm Research & Demos

CVFC Directors and members have stepped up to the plate to host several research and demonstration projects on their farms. UVM Extension's Champlain Valley Crop, Soil & Pasture Team is currently implementing several projects on working farms. Below are some highlights of what your fellow farmers are trying out:

Mountain Meadows Farm (Sudbury) - Interseeding cover crops at last culitvation in organic corn silage
Woodnotch Farm (Shoreham) - Interseeding commercially available cover crop mixes into corn silage
The Farm at VYCC (Richmond) - Annual pasture plantings, no-till summer annuals for forage, interseeding cover crops into ear corn
Deer Valley Farm (Ferrisburgh) -CIG Cover Crop Mixes, no till vs. conventional till corn silage, nitrogen management
Foster Bros. Farm (Middlebury) - CIG Cover Crop Mixes, interseeding commercially available cover crop mixes, no-till corn
Senesac Farm (Colchester) - mulch till vs. no till vs. conventional till in grain corn, interseeding cover crops
Conant's Riverside Farm (Richmond) - CIG Cover Crop Mixes, NIFA Winter Rye + Radish cover crops with manure
Clifford Farm (Starksboro) - CIG Cover Crop Mixes, NIFA Winter Rye + Radish cover crops with manure
Lacy Ranch (Jericho) - Chicory as grazing forage and soil builder

Interested in trying a new farming practice and want help measuring it's effectiveness?? Drop us a line any time to ask us what we think of on-farm research and demonstration!

If you are interested in becoming a member, please give us a call or just apply! You can find our membership application HERE. It is a valuable way to stay informed, be proactive, and add

your voice to the discussion.

For more information about this farmer organization visit our website at:

www.champlainvalleyfarmercoaltion.com

CROP INSURANCE SPOTLIGHT

Crop insurance acreage reporting July 15 deadline nears

by Pamela Smith, UVM Extension

Spring seeded crops must be reported to your crop insurance agent by July 15. This includes silage and grain corn, soybeans, sweet corn, barley, and wheat.

Crop reports must also be filed with the Farm Service Agency (FSA) by July 15. Eligibility for farm programs under the new Farm Bill depends on timely reporting.

Contact your crop insurance agent or your county FSA office for details.

FROM THE FIELD

Covering Ground for Cover Cropping

by Michelle Smith

In the last month I have been running around crop fields to evaluate and document existing resource concerns on farms that applied for EQIP. Due to the increased popularity of cover cropping, NRCS has picked up the responsibility from the State of offering cost share assistance to applicants interested in cover cropping this year. They received such an overwhelming response to the cover crop EQIP funding pool that they were not able to get out to all the farms that submitted applications for assistance. Instead of fretting they turned to UVM Extension for some assistance in completing the field evaluations. In just over 3 weeks' time I assisted in evaluating almost 1,900 cropland acres in Rutland, Washington, Chittenden, and Addison Counties with the help of 3 other Crop, Soil and Pasture team members: Dan, Kristin, and Lindsey, as well as Tim from VACD\NRCS. Why is this work important? To get to root of the matter we will look at where the roots spend their time: the soil.

In the EQIP program, participants receive financial and technical assistance to install conservation practices to improve and protect natural resources on their land. Topsoil is definitely a valuable resource and in order for it to be productive into the future soil needs to be managed as the priceless commodity it is. According to a report published by Cornell, the US is losing topsoil from cropland at TEN TIMES the natural soil replacement rate of 0.5 to 1 T/ha/yr. One ton of fertile topsoil contains 1-6 kg of N, 1-3 kg of P, and 20-30 kg of K so topsoil loss can be a costly loss if you consider the cost of fertilizer to replace the nutrients alone.

When out walking crop fields for EQIP applicants, I was looking for was indicators of erosion or deposition like ephemeral gullies and rills; taking photos of benchmark conditions, measuring field slope and length, and documenting noteworthy features. You might be thinking "but why is such a small gully important if I can just run my tractor through it and it is gone?" When a gully forms topsoil is leaving the field carrying valuable soil and nutrients off of the field.

For example, an ephemeral gully that measures 8" wide x 1 ft deep x 200 ft long will move 9T of soil off of the field in one gully occurrence.

If the same gully forms multiple times per year, that is another 9T of soil lost with every gully. With cover cropping systems, living roots and vegetative canopy help to hold soil in place during vulnerable times of year when soil would otherwise be bare and prone to erosion.

In the photo to the right, the orange notebook is approximately 8" tall x 4.5" wide to provide a sense of scale of the size of the gully. Photo by Michelle Smith, May 2014.

The Importance of Calibrating Equipment

by Daniel Infurna, Field Technician

A lot of acres have been planted this season with the use of the no-till drills. Whether they are seeding into sod, tilled ground, or just filling in some bad spots you want to make sure your seed is coming out at a rate you will be happy with. Depending on the seed you are planting and if that seed belongs in the legume box or grain box is the start to finding the proper calibration to your project. An important note that we have found is that when starting a new seeding always bring the rate dial on the drill down to zero to ensure proper tuning for when you set the rate for your next job. From there on, depending on your seed size and pounds per acre you wish to apply at you can then seek the recommended rate for the desired pounds per acre you want in your planting. There is a guide on the lids of the drills as well as a collection of notes from past plantings for you to gain references in order to have a successful planting. Having time put into a project then discovering you have burned through most of your seed can be disappointing, expensive, and time consuming. That all can be avoided with a little preparation and finding the perfect setting for your seeding. So next time you are using one of our no-till drills and are unsure of exactly what you want. Let us know and we would be happy to help you calibrate and get you going in the right direction.

Here's a link to a resource from Penn State Extension with some useful information

http://extension.psu.edu/plants/crops/grains/small/production/calibration-of-grain-seed-drills

If you know someone else who might be interested in receiving
this jeff

newsletter, please share it and encourage them to join our mailing list. Meanwhile, please call if you have an interest in helping us move forward with selecting projects that you feel are important to you. We are hearing more about how soil health is so critical to your farm profitability and will protect the lake water quality, we just need to be sure any moves toward reduced tillage and more soil cover are based on good field research data.

Jeff Carter,
Extension Agronomist
UVM Extension- Champlain Valley Crop, Soil & Pasture Team