Crop and Soil Sciences Seminar
No Seminar
November 5, 2009
12:20 – 1:10 pm
135 Emerson Hall
http://www.css.cornell.edu/seminars/seminar.html
Other Related Seminars
Biogeochemistry and Environmental Change
Natural Resources
Plant Breeding and Genetics
Plant Pathology
Cornell Nutrient Analysis Laboratory Transition
This message is provided by Renuka Rao, Director of Cornell Nutrient Analysis Laboratory (CNAL) to inform you of you of the transition of CNAL standard soil fertility testing services for growers to Agro-One Services.
Effective August 17, all grower soil testing activities that were previously performed at CNAL are being transferred to Agro-One Services. Agro-One, part of Dairy One Inc., is located at 730 Warren Rd. in Ithaca, NY. All grower soil samples for standard fertility test package (using Modified Morgan) and recommendations are now being processed at Agro-One as are the payments, fees, and questions pertaining to your routine soil fertility analysis. Pre-paid Cornell soil test bags will still be honored by Agro-One. All samples submitted in the pre-paid soil test bags will automatically receive a Cornell recommendation. When submitting samples directly to Agro-One, please request the Cornell recommendation; otherwise, you may receive no recommendation - just results. Bags should be mailed to the Agro-One address beginning August 17. For your convenience, any soil bags inadvertently mailed or delivered to our location at Bradfield Hall on the Cornell campus will be picked up and delivered to the Agro-One site. Agro One has pick-up points for samples located across the Northeast (see web site). These may be used for sending soil samples to the Agro-One lab in Ithaca, NY at no charge. Samples will be delivered to the lab the morning after they are picked up. Contact information for Agro-One is available at the website: http://www.dairyone.com/AgroOne/default.htm . Calls can be made to Agro-One at 1.800.496.3344 or 607.257.1272.CNAL will continue to provide tissue sample analysis for this season, with an anticipated transition date of July 1, 2010.Testing services of soil (including Morgan analysis), plant, water and environmental samples will continue to be offered under CNAL's research program. Additional information on our research services is available on our website: http://cnal.cals.cornell.edu/.Your patronage over the years has been very much appreciated and we thank you for your support. Renuka Mathur
Kathy Howard, Teaching Support Specialist, has been busy this spring developing the new site for the CSS crop garden, a demonstration garden of major crops of the world. The crop garden is used primarily as a teaching tool by crop science faculty in the department. It has been located at the entrance of Cornell Plantations for over 30 years; however, Plantations is now starting to develop the area to include a welcoming center, so the garden has temporarily been moved to a new site. The Plantations intends to host the garden permanently after the construction of the welcoming center is completed.
Kathy has moved the crop garden to the northeast section of Caldwell Field, in the vicinity of where it was originally located (prior to moving to the Cornell Plantations). If you are in a vehicle and can drive to Cornell Plantations arboretum, the plot is located on the right, before the water tower. Just look for the banana plant in a tilled field, surrounded by an electric fence. It is early in the planting season, so the plants are not fully grown; be sure to visit again in August, when most of the crops will be more fully developed.
If you do make a trip to visit the crop garden, be sure to check out the new weed garden and rice garden as well. They have also been relocated from the Plantations to a site that is close to the entrance to the Caldwell Fieldhouses, just behind Muenscher (Weed Ecology lab).
New GSA Officers
New officers have been elected for the CSS Graduate Student Association. They are (left to right): Warshi Dandeniya, Social Coordinator; Verena Jauss, Secretary; Thea Whitman, Vice President; and Ryan Haden, President. Sarah Wharton (not pictured) is the new Treasurer. The GSA is working on updating their website and we all look forward to a new look and a launch in the upcoming weeks.
Awards
CALS scientists earn grants for sustainability research
Eleven faculty from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are part of university-wide teams awarded more than $500,000 in Academic Venture Fund (AVF) grants from the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future (CCSF) in May. Initiated in 2008, the AVF is designed to stimulate original, cross-disciplinary research at Cornell in sustainability science, emphasizing work having the potential to involve external partners such as industry, government, foundations, and NGOs.
The funded projects and participating CALS faculty are:
- Sustainability of Food Systems – Miguel Gomez, Dennis Miller, and Jonathan Russell-Anelli;
- The Impact of Green Energy Development on Rural Community Sustainability – Richard Stedman, Rod Howe, and Susan Riha;
- Assessing Carbon Sequestration in Complex Agricultural Landscapes – James Lassoie, David Wolfe, Todd Walter, and Philip McMichael;
- Micropowdered Biomass Combustion – Antonio Bento.
For more information about the research proposals, visit http://www.sustainablefuture.cornell.edu/grants/AVF/2009
Marie Caudill, Marla Lujan, and Olena Vatamaniuk—Affinito-Stewart Grant
The President’s Council of Cornell Women (PCCW) honored three CALS researchers with 2009 Affinito-Stewart grants. Each year, the PCCW recognizes women scholars with awards ranging from $1,000 to $12,500 for research and other projects. Since its inception in 1992, the Affinito-Stewart grant program has awarded more than $540,000 to 164 women at Cornell.
The CALS award winners are:
- Caudill, associate professor of nutritional sciences, who received $10,044 to study, “Effect of prenatal choline intake on maternal and fetal biomarkers of choline status”;
- Lujan, assistant professor of nutritional sciences, who received $4,557 to study, “Ultrasound characterization of abnormal follicle dynamics in women with obesity-related amenorrhea”;
- Vatamaniuk, assistant professor of crop and soil sciences, who received $12,500 to study “Biochemical and genetic studies of HMT-1, a half molecule ABC transporter that is required for heavy metal detoxification.”
Recent Publications
Crop Rotation on Organic Farms: Planning Manual, Charles L. Mohler and Sue Ellen Johnson, Editors
Although many of the benefits of crop rotation are well understood scientifically and widely acknowledged by farmers, implementing a good crop rotation on a farm growing a diversity of crops is remarkably difficult. The high diversity of crops, great variation in acreage of various crops and variation in field conditions on most organic farms makes a simple repeating sequence of crops impractical. To develop tools to help farmers plan effective crop rotations, the authors consulted intensively with a large group of successful organic farmers. They took these farmers strategies and methods and combined those with a great wealth of scientific information to produce the book. "Crop Rotation Planning on Organic Farms" provides both a summary of farmer's planning methods, and a step-by-step procedure for strategically allocating crops to fields in successive years. The book also includes sections on use of rotation in the management of diseases, insects, weeds, soil health, and mineral nutrition, the relation of intercropping to crop rotation, crop rotation during transition to organic production, and extensive examples of crop rotations from real farms, Roughly one third of the book is reference tables that list characteristics of crops relevant to rotation such as family and mineral use; the persistence and dispersal mode of crop pathogens; crop sequences that help solve or create various disease, insect, weed, and soil health problems; and weed characteristics relevant in rotation planning, including crop diseases hosted by various weeds. The book can be used in a variety of ways. First, it can be used as a reference, for example, to determine whether a particular disease problem can be solved through rotation, and if so, what length of rest from crops susceptible to that disease is required. Second, the manual can be used to see how experienced growers think about crop rotations, and how they manage particular crop sequences on their farms. Reading about what researchers have discovered about how crop rotation affects soil and pests will further increase understanding of crop rotation planning. Finally, the manual provides a method for systematically planning the crop rotations on a farm.
This book is available from Natural Resources, Agriculture and Engineering Service (NRAES), http://www.nraes.org/.
The latest issue of What's Cropping Up? is now available on-line at:http://css.cals.cornell.edu/cals/css/extension/cropping-up/index.cfm
Inside this issue Volume 19 Number 4, September-October, 2009:
- Corn Grain Hybrids for New York
- Field-scale Studies Evaluating the Agronomics and Economics of Selecting Double and Triple-stacked Hybrids
- Seeding rates for Soft Red Winter Wheat
- Laudis Registered for Annual Broadleaf and Grass Control in Corn
- Nitrogen Fertilizers for Field Crops: Agronomy factsheet # 44
What's Cropping Up? is a bimonthly newsletter distributed by the Crop and Soil Sciences Department at Cornell University. The purpose of the newsletter is to provide timely information on field crop production and environmental issues as it relates to New York agriculture. Articles are regularly contributed by the following departments at Cornell University: Crop and Soil Sciences, Plant Breeding, Plant Pathology, Animal Science, and Entomology. To receive a hard copy, send your name and address to Larissa Smith, 237 Emerson Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 or lls14@cornell.edu.
Guide to the Plant Communities of the Central Finger Lakes by Chuck Mohler, Peter Marks and Sana Gardescu.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the plant communities in a 1,000 square mile area of New York centered on Cayuga Lake. The book is intended for the general public and will be of interest to hikers, bird watchers and anyone who has an interest in understanding the natural world. Read more about the book. (PDF)
Crop and Soil Sciences Newsletter - click here to view the Summer 2009 Edition