By Kara Lynn Dunn and Patricia McGlynn

Faculty and extension educators from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) are working on nearly four dozen projects designed to return measurable farm-level impacts and help New York’s agricultural industry statewide. With $2.8 million in funding from the New York Farm Viability Institute (NYFVI), some 138 specialists are filling 188 roles with dairy, aquaculture, business planning and marketing, computerized farming, horticulture, organic production, food processing and safety, maple, equine, and turf projects.

 

photo/Cornell Food Venture Center

Olga Padilla-Zakour and the food processing and safety specialists at the Cornell Food Venture Center provide vital product development assistance to New York's farm-based entrepreneurs.

The list of success stories includes perennial plant and tree trials evaluated under backyard-style conditions to help nurseries meet consumer demands, the partnership of a baker and a peach grower producing fancy-packed peaches for upscale markets, the conversion of $740 barrels of bulk maple syrup into $3,000 worth of value-added confections, and improved production techniques for grape, apple, berry and Christmas tree growers and dairy herdsmen.

It’s no wonder that Patrick Brennan, the commissioner of agriculture for the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, describes the NYFVI as “the most exciting thing to happen in a long time — creating buzz in Albany and Washington.”

The NYFVI is a nonprofit corporation established in late 2003 with start-up funds from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and in-kind support from CALS to provide funding for research, extension, and technical assistance to strengthen New York’s agricultural and horticultural industries by helping producers overcome barriers and capitalize on new opportunities. Through the NYFVI’s Ag Innovation Center and grants programs, faculty and extension educators provide vital knowledge and expertise to farmers and growers statewide.

“The institute is pleased to provide the funding that makes vital expertise and resources available to New York’s agricultural and horticultural producers in response to their identified obstacles and opportunities,” says NYFVI executive director R. David Smith, professor of animal science, whose leadership is made possible by loan from Cornell University.

Business planning underpins all NYFVI projects. Specialists from the Department of Applied Economics and Management (AEM) and New York FarmNet assist groups and individuals with business structure planning assistance. In one such example, AEM extension associates Judith Barry and Brian Henehan helped St. Lawrence County vegetable growers form the North Country Growing Cooperative. The cooperative sells primarily to institutional markets. In their first year, the group of 13 growers added four new customers, including a local hospital.

In another, Barry and Henehan helped John Umlauf of Halal Premium Meats, LLC, in Randolph, New York, form the Artisan Farms Cooperative and an investor-owned firm, which are now working productively in a joint venture.

“The co-op has about 50 producers, all with family-owned farms,” says Umlauf. “By 2008, the group expects to be selling 200-plus cattle, 2,000-plus lambs, and 2,000-plus kids each year with top-of-the-market pricing to producers.”

Specialists are also assisting the New York dairy industry with evaluating the effect on herd health of using recycled manure as bedding. The project with farmers, veterinarians, economists, and nutrient specialists, which is directed by senior extension associate Ellen Harrison, from the Cornell Waste Management Institute, and Jean Bonhotal, extension associate with the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, “helps us [New York’s dairy farmers] interpret the best bedding method to use,” says project participant Connie Patterson of Patterson Farms in Auburn, New York.

Other NYFVI-funded dairy projects focus on manure treatment systems planning, air ammonia emissions, organic production, value-added dairy, nutrient management, and the use of waste milk.

Across northern New York, more than 20 CCE educators provide information and business management expertise to farmers involved or interested in alternative agricultural ventures.

Six counties are already interested in a CCE equine project that will provide business planning and analysis to support and grow the horse-related industry in and around Saratoga County. CCE Saratoga has hired Jennifer Conte to identify the industry’s scope. She says the project goals are to help existing farms implement business plans that will bring at least a 5 percent increase in profitability. Less well established and new operations will be planning for at least a 10 percent increase on the positive side of the ledger, Conte says.

In another NYFVI success story, the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan that food scientists Randy Worobo and Olga Padilla-Zakour and the New York State Food Venture Center (FVC) team at the experiment station in Geneva helped develop for Empire Fresh-Cuts has turned national food buyers into customers for the young $3.2 million, 30-employee onion processing plant in Oswego County. The FVC also provided vital food processing assistance to the new partnership of a Niagara County peach grower and DiCamillo’s Bakery in producing fancy-packed peaches for upscale markets.

The maple production team funded by NYFVI includes maple specialists Steve Childs, Brian Chabot, Peter Smallidge, Michael Farrell, Padilla-Zakour, Henehan, Barry, and New York FarmNet / FarmLink director Steve Richards. They have been working closely with representatives of the New York state maple producers industry to add value to the state’s maple crop.

Faculty and staff with innovative ideas are encouraged to pair up with agricultural and horticultural producers to respond to requests for proposals for NYFVI applied research, extension innovation, and agriculture innovation grants by logging onto www.nyfarmviability.org. Application deadlines range from August 1 to October 1, 2006.

Researchers and educators at academic institutions, extension staff, and others involved in agricultural research and development, technology adoption, and business assistance in the agricultural sector may apply. The grants are reviewed by the farmer-producer board of directors at the NYFVI.

For more information: www.nyfarmviability.org.