My first contact with Tom Kilcer was toward the end of my Cooperative Extension career. My last year as an agronomy professional educator was 1977-78, which was also Kilcer’s first. Our contact over the following years was hit-or-miss. Fast forward to 2012, when I interviewed a prominent Midwest see...

Most Northeast haymakers were less than satisfied with their 2024 first cuttings’ quality. At most locations, perennial forage tonnages were exceptional, but rarely does extra quantity make up for lost quality when it comes to balancing rations that support high milk production. During May, the grow...

My sister, who lives in central Ohio, very recently told me that her vicinity, from June 1 – Aug. 31, received approximately 5 inches of rain, nearly 8 inches below normal for this time of year. As part of that problem, Midwestern farmers face the harsh reality of when too much sun combines with not...

Let’s examine current soil nutrient commodity prices. These prices come from research compiled by Jeff Cassim, general manager of Liquid Products in Seneca Falls. Cassim extracts his data from fertilizer industry periodicals – not just commodity prices, but geopolitical facts impacting energy commod...

Why is it sometimes possible to pull up mature corn plants with very little effort? In such cases, the majority of roots are in the top three inches. Soil testing – to maximize the efficiency of fertilizer inputs – often reveals soil’s physical limitations when probes hit compacted layers Soil compa...

Much of the corn in the Northeast has been affected by drought, suffering lower starch build-up levels due to less water during the growing season. But most areas have received (and are still receiving) enough rainfall. In the latter areas, growers are seeing corn’s whole plant dry matter continuing...

There are many clever definitions of the word “average.” I like the one where an individual sticks a finger in ice water at 32º and another finger in water used to scald a freshly slaughtered hog at 140º. (We learned this in the meat and slaughter course I took at Cornell my junior year.) That scald...

Let’s flash back to 1966 and our family’s Greene County, NY, hillside farm where my dad wanted to purchase a new tractor. He was told he should expect to pay $100 per horsepower. He bought a new green 70-hp diesel tractor for about $7,000; he also bought a 250-gallon fuel tank and filled it up with ...

Throughout spring, the white or light pink funnel-shaped flowers of wild morning glory abound along many roadsides in the Northeast. With help from UConn Extension, I can provide information on this pretty white flower. Its scientific name is Calystegia sepium . Translated from Latin, it means “of h...

“Waves of Saharan dust will continue to fly over Florida, but will it bring ‘dirty rain’?” That’s the lead-in question in a USA TODAY article titled “ What is ‘dirty rain’? How Saharan dust is impacting the weather in Florida .” In that July 24 story, author Julia Gomez explained that Florida was se...

As crop growers approach the beginning of August, especially across the northern U.S. and southern Canada, they become very aware of night temperatures starting to drop. This occurrence starts slowing the production of the warm season crops – soybean, corn, sorghum, sudangrass, their hybrids and mil...

In the quest for reliable, economical energy sources, biofuels have long been praised as a potential tool in the fight against carbon emissions. However, a study published in February 2022 suggested that America’s reliance on corn-based ethanol fuel might be doing more harm than good. This is accord...

Who doesn’t like a David vs. Goliath story (with a happy ending… unless you’re a Goliath enthusiast)? Such an article appeared in my inbox very recently, having been published on June 28, 2024 by Mexico News Daily. The article’s headline: “Great news out of Mexico: The country has sent the ag chemic...

How crowding affects animals is something I learned about before acquiring a knowledge of how excessive population affects plants. Most of us are quite familiar with the adverse effects of overcrowding on livestock. But it may be difficult to compare too many hoofed animals crammed into too small a ...

During my last half of high school and all four of my undergraduate college years, my family called a chunk of real estate bordering Huntersfield Mountain home, on the edge of the Catskills. We raised beef cattle: Charolais, Angus, Herefords and their hybrids. They grazed and we baled small square h...