Soil health demonstrations at at 2024 Musgrave Research Farm Field Day in Aurora, N.Y., August 1.
By Craig Cramer
More than 150 farmers, educators, consultants and researchers viewed the latest Cornell field crop research at 2024 Musgrave Research Farm Field Day in Aurora, N.Y., August 1.
“Attendees traveled from all over New York to get the inside scoop on our research and extension efforts,” said Dan Buckley, head of the Soil and Crops Section in the School of Integrative Plant Science. “This event is one of the crown jewels of our extension programming, where we lead conversations about field crop management, on-farm experimentation, weed control, soil health, agrivoltaics and other research.”
The tour stop topics included:
- Herbicide programs for corn and soybeans and the importance of cleaning equipment to prevent weed seed spread.
- Using robots to interseed cover crops.
- Taste-testing dry-bean varieties.
- Managing manure to increase its fertilizer value and protect the environment.
- Predicting seedcorn maggot damage and risks.
- Balancing tradeoffs when no-till planting into cover crops.
- Soil health benchmarks, carbon stocks, and solar farms.
The Musgrave Research Farm is managed by Cornell AES along with eight other research farms, greenhouses and other facilities around New York State.