scholarly journals Self identified research needs of New York organic farmers

1987 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian P. Baker ◽  
Douglas B. Smith
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Weed Management ◽  
New York State ◽  
Organic Production ◽  
Extension Agents ◽  
Insect Management ◽  
Farm Work ◽  
Organic Farmers ◽  
Insufficient Time ◽  
On Farm

AbstractA survey of organic farmers in New York State identified problems in need of university research. Weed management was the most frequently mentioned problem by far, identified as significant by two-thirds of the organic farmers. Only a few other problems were listed as significant, including insufficient time for farm work, lack of markets, low prices, and lack of appropriate tools. These were cited by more than a third of the farmers. Drought, insect management, and a lack of a dependable supply of labor were cited by about one-third of the respondents. The survey also examined organic farmers' information sources. They do not use conventional sources of agricultural information, such as the extension service and conventional agricultural media, as much as books, magazines, and newsletters on organic f arming, other organic f armers, and on-farm experiments. Many respondents noted that local extension agents did not know very much about non-chemical solutions to organic production problems. They considered University Extension to be accessible, but not very useful in solving problems specific to organic farming, and had many suggestions to improve Land Grant research in organic agriculture.

An online decision support tool to evaluate ecological weed management strategies

Weed Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-473
Author(s):  
Douglas Bessette ◽  
Robyn Wilson ◽  
Christian Beaudrie ◽  
Clayton Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Soil Quality ◽  
Weed Management ◽  
Decision Support Tool ◽  
The United States ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Organic Farmers ◽  
Ecological Weed Management ◽  
On Farm

AbstractWeeds remain the most commonly cited concern of organic farmers. Without the benefit of synthetic herbicides, organic farmers must rely on a host of ecological weed management (EWM) practices to control weeds. Despite EWM’s ability to improve soil quality, the perceived rate of integrated EWM strategy adoption remains low. This low adoption is likely a result of the complexity in designing and evaluating EWM strategies, the tendency for outreach to focus on the risks of EWM strategies rather than their benefits, and a lack of quantitative measures linking the performance of EWM strategies to farmers’ on-farm objectives and practices. Here we report on the development and deployment of an easy-to-use online decision support tool (DST) that aids organic farmers in identifying their on-farm objectives, characterizing the performance of their practices, and evaluating EWM strategies recommended by an expert advisory panel. Informed by the principles of structured decision making, the DST uses multiple choice tasks to help farmers evaluate the short- and long-term trade-offs of EWM strategies, while also focusing their attention on their most important objectives. We then invited organic farmers across the United States, in particular those whose email addresses were registered on the USDA’s Organic Research Integrity Database, to engage the DST online. Results show considerable movement in participants’ (n = 45) preferences from practices focused on reducing weeding costs and labor in the short term to EWM strategies focused on improving soil quality in the long term. Indeed, nearly half of those farmers (48%) who initially ranked a strategy composed of their current practices highest ultimately preferred a better-performing EWM strategy focused on eliminating the weed seedbank over 5 yr.

Preferences for crop production practices among conventional and alternative farmers

1988 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick H. Buttel ◽  
Gilbert W. Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
New York State ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Tillage Practices ◽  
Crop Varieties ◽  
Commercial Scale ◽  
Organic Farmers ◽  
Farm Operators ◽  
Production Practices

One of the major gaps in the empirical literature comparing conventional and organic farmers is the degree to which conventional farmers would prefer or can be motivated to use reduced-input practices comparable to those of alternative agriculturalists. This paper presents the results of a 1987 survey of a random sample of New York farm operators and a two-thirds sample of the membership list of the New York State chapter of the Natural Organic Farmers Association (NOFA-NY). The results show that while conventional farmers tend to have a lower preference for reduced-input practices than do alternative agriculturalists (NOFA-NY members), conventional farmers tend to prefer pest- and disease-resistant crop varieties, nonpurchased, on-farmproduced sources of fertility, and nonchemical means of disease control over high-input, chemically-based production practices. The largest differences between conventional and alternative agriculturalists are with respect to preferences for weed control practices. For six of the eight practices assessed, operators of small farms (annual gross sales less than $40,000) were intermediate in their preferences between commercial-scale farmers (gross sales $40,000 or more) and alternative agriculturalists. There was, however, virtually no difference between conventional and organic farmers in their tillage practice preferences; similar percentages of the NOFA members and commercial-scale farmers preferred minimum tillage practices, while the percentage of small farmers preferring to use as few tillage operations as possible was lower than that of both commercialscale and organic farmers. Differences between conventional and organic farmers in their production practice preferences are far smaller than differences in their environmental orientations.

scholarly journals Weed Management Practice Selection Among Midwest U.S. Organic Growers

Weed Science ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 520-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. DeDecker ◽  
John B. Masiunas ◽  
Adam S. Davis ◽  
Courtney G. Flint
Keyword(s):  
Weed Management ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Organic Production ◽  
Integrated Weed Management ◽  
Organic Farmers ◽  
Organic Weed Management ◽  
Selection Of

Organic agricultural systems increase the complexity of weed management, leading organic farmers to cite weeds as one of the greatest barriers to organic production. Integrated Weed Management (IWM) systems have been developed to address the ecological implications of weeds and weed management in cropping systems, but adoption is minimal. Organic agriculture offers a favorable context for application of IWM, as both approaches are motivated by concern for environmental quality and agricultural sustainability. However, adoption of IWM on organic farms is poorly understood due to limited data on weed management practices used, absence of an IWM adoption metric, and insufficient consideration given to the unique farming contexts within which weed management decisions are made. Therefore, this study aimed to (1) characterize organic weed management systems; (2) identify motivations for, and barriers to, selection of weed management practices; and (3) generate guiding principles for effective targeting of weed management outreach. We surveyed Midwestern organic growers to determine how specified psychosocial, demographic, and farm structure factors influence selection of weed management practices. Cluster analysis of the data detected three disparate, yet scaled, approaches to organic weed management. Clusters were distinguished by perspective regarding weeds and the number of weed management practices used. Categorization of individual farms within the identified approaches was influenced by primary farm products as well as farmer education, years farming, and information-seeking behavior. The proposed conceptual model allows weed management educators to target outreach for enhanced compatibility of farming contexts and weed management technologies.

Silage corn yield is reduced by burcucumber competition and drought in New York State

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Kristine M. Averill ◽  
Anna S. Westbrook ◽  
Scott H. Morris ◽  
Emma Kubinski ◽  
Antonio DiTommaso
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New York ◽  
Weed Management ◽  
New York State ◽  
Planting Density ◽  
Corn Yield ◽  
Yield Losses ◽  
Drought Treatment ◽  
York State ◽  
Effects Of Drought

Abstract Drought stress and weed competition are two of the most important threats to corn production in the northeastern United States. Both pressures have the potential to worsen under climate change. In a two-year field study in Ithaca, NY, USA, we tested the effects of drought and burcucumber, an increasingly problematic annual vine, on silage corn. Burcucumber seedlings were transplanted into corn rows at densities of 0, 0.5, 2, and 3 plants m−2 and the drought treatment was later imposed with rainout shelters constructed from steel frames and high-clarity plastic. Available soil moisture was lower in drought plots (47% ± 1% in 2018 and 52% ± 2% in 2019) than no-drought plots (69% ± 1% in 2018 and 68% ± 1% in 2019). Burcucumber planting density (P=0.008) reduced fresh silage yield. Drought also reduced fresh silage yield (P<0.001) with a drought-by-year interaction (P=0.007): drought reduced fresh weight by 29% in 2018 (48,000 ± 2,000 kg ha−1 to 34,000 ± 3,000 kg ha−1) and 9% in 2019 (38,000 ± 3,000 kg ha−1 to 34,000 ± 3,000 kg ha−1). Burcucumber planting density and drought did not interact. Overall, our findings indicate that drought and competition from burcucumber may have additive effects on silage corn in New York State. Regardless of water availability, active weed management is required to prevent yield losses due to burcucumber. Yield losses may be similar or greater in grain corn and might increase under climate change.

PERFORMANCE OF GENEVA® ROOTSTOCKS IN ON-FARM TRIALS IN NEW YORK STATE

2011 ◽  
pp. 249-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.L. Robinson ◽  
S.A. Hoying ◽  
G. Fazio
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York State ◽  
York State ◽  
On Farm

Adaptability analysis in a participatory variety trial of organic vegetable crops

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 296-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Lyon ◽  
William Tracy ◽  
Micaela Colley ◽  
Patrick Culbert ◽  
Michael Mazourek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Environmental Variability ◽  
Risk Tolerance ◽  
Organic Production ◽  
Continuous Variables ◽  
Vegetable Crops ◽  
Environmental Index ◽  
Specific Adaptation ◽  
Variety Performance ◽  
On Farm

AbstractSuccessful organic farming requires crop varieties that are resilient to environmental variability. Assessing variety performance across the range of conditions represented on working farms is vital to developing such varieties; however, data collected from on-farm, participatory trials can be difficult to both collect and interpret. To assess the utility of data arising from participatory trialing efforts, we examined the performance of butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata L.), broccoli (Brassica oleracea L.) and carrot (Daucus carota L.) varieties grown in diverse organic production environments in participatory trials in Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin and New York using adaptability analysis (regression of variety means on environmental index). Patterns of adaptation varied across varieties, with some demonstrating broad adaptation and others showing specific adaptation to low- or high-yielding environments. Selection of varieties with broad vs specific adaptation should be guided by farmers’ risk tolerance and on-farm environmental variation. Adaptability analysis was appropriate for continuous variables (e.g., yield traits), but less so for ordinal variables and quality traits such as flavor and appearance, which can be vitally important in organic vegetable crop variety selection. The relative advantages of adaptability analysis and additive main effects and multiplicative interactions are also discussed in relation to on-farm trial networks. This work demonstrated the unique challenges presented by extensive participatory vegetable trialing efforts, which, as compared to grain crops, require novel approaches to facilitating farmer participation as well as data collection and analysis. Efficient, precise and reliable methods for evaluating quality related traits in these crops would allow researchers to assess stability and adaptation across a wider range of traits, providing advantages for effective plant breeding and trialing activities within the organic sector.

scholarly journals Weed management in organic farming

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 712-718
Author(s):  
Atisha Mohapatra ◽  
Milan Mahapatra ◽  
Ujjwal Naik ◽  
Somanath Routray ◽  
Saurav Barman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Farming ◽  
Weed Control ◽  
Weed Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Organic Production ◽  
System Level ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Potential Hazard ◽  
Organic Farmers

The enhancing requirement for organic products seeks at resolving difficulties of organic production systems. Primary hindrance for this production system is weed management. The base of weed control in organic farming is cultivation. Organic farmers implement eco-friendly management practices against less efficiency products, uncertain weather conditions, cost, potential hazard to soil health. System level practices that include crop rotation and cover cropping mostly recognized as weed management weapons. Somehow weed control should be implemented with proper knowledge of weed biology and these operations may get less profit or even enlarged weed population. Organic farmers embrace new management systems to enhance the outcome of pre-existing practices. Invention of modern cultivation tools leads to improved efficiency, faster and better working rate shows good result in control of weeds. Eco-friendly management practiced with the support of these tools centralize on reducing weed, increasing crop-weed interference will produce reliable weed management systems for organic farming.

Weed management by upstate New York organic farmers: Strategies, techniques and research priorities

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 418-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian P. Baker ◽  
Charles L. Mohler
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Cover Crops ◽  
Weed Management ◽  
Nutrient Management ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Natural Herbicides ◽  
Upstate New York ◽  
Organic Farmers

AbstractWeed management is a major concern for organic farmers. Strategies and techniques used by organic farmers vary according to crops, soils, climate and other factors. Organic farmers in upstate New York experienced in weed management were interviewed about what weed–crop complexes they face, how they manage weeds, and what priorities they have for research. The interviews were complemented with an all-day focus group conducted with the farmers who were interviewed. All of the farmers interviewed relied heavily on cultural practices, such as crop rotation, fertility management, high-density planting, transplants and the use of cover crops. Mechanical practices were also important for the farmers interviewed. They emphasized selection of the appropriate tools for the situation and techniques for using tools effectively. Most of the farmers interviewed relied on intensive tillage to control perennial weeds. Differences in practices were notable among the farmers interviewed. Several farmers shared innovations both in practices and equipment modification. Farmers identified soil and nutrient management; tillage and cultivation tools and practices; natural herbicides; flame weeding and no-till systems without herbicides as research priorities. Some of the topics suggested for research have already received substantial research attention; identification of these topics by the farmers indicated a need to disseminate research findings through extension materials and demonstration of viable practices.

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