1995 Annual Report for ENE95-006
Addressing the Needs of Extension Faculty - Staff Through a New York State Cover Crop Symposium
Summary
Researchers, extension staff and growers in New York State have shown a renewed interest in cover crops. Over the past few years, several SARE grants were funded in New York State looking at ways to increase their utilization across commodities. Although useful information has been collected and disseminated throughout the state, it has often been limited by commodity. Those working in vegetable crops, for example, are aware of work in that field. They are likely to lack information on cover crop utilization in other commodities however -- information that may be useful in their field. There has been no comprehensive effort to bring all of the New York State programsand several of the NE projects together to review the status of cover crop research in the state.
On November 15, 1995, a one day cover crop symposium will be conducted in Ithaca, NY. More than 60 Cornell Cooperative Extension faculty and staff with expertise in fruit, vegetables, field crops and landscape horticulture will attend to hear and relate to soil structure, nutrient management, pest management and production systems were discussed by New York State growers as well as experts from Cornell, Maine, and Quebec, Canada. With the training and resources received at the symposium, field agents are better able to access cover crop information, answer growers questions and concerns, and improve their expertise on the subject.