As I started writing this column the afternoon of June 17, our home’s remote-sensing thermometer registered 87º, which would turn out to be the day’s peak temperature. Right after that reading, at about 4 p.m., a phone recording from the Otsego County Office of Emergency Services stated that during ...

Two years ago, a TV commercial aired in which an all-wheel-drive SUV pulled a landscape gravel rake across an oceanside sandy beach, gathering huge quantities of litter. The now-clean beach was shown with swarms of baby sea turtles “winging” their way surf-ward, no longer impeded by human debris. Th...

During the last week of May, the same chilly weather that made emerged corn look yellower than growers liked also made autumn-planted winter forages (triticale, rye, wheat, barley and some speltz) look pretty good. That was particularly the case if these small grains got a dose of nitrogen (N) as so...

From his Connecticut residence on May 26, my son Peter forwarded me a 25-minute video. In it, John Oliver, a transplanted English comic, discusses U.S. corn, its production, politics and ecological and economic impact. Check out “Corn: John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight” here . Oliver begins on a light...

Exactly one year ago, as I was writing my column, Canadian wildfires were building up a full head of steam (or more accurately, smoke). The maximum impact would be felt in the northern tier of the U.S. during the second week of June 2023. During that period, Canadian firefighters scrambled to put ou...

There are at least five yellow-blossoming weeds that welcome spring into the Northeast. They are, in order of appearance, marsh marigold (also called cowslip), buttercup, yellow rocket, dandelion and wild mustard. I’ll apologize to weeds number one and two, ignoring them so as to concentrate on the ...

As a lifetime ag educator, I try to impart a spirit of patience to corn growers this time of year. It’s tempting to plant corn – even soybeans – as soon as soil temperature reaches the 50º threshold for a couple days (soybeans prefer 60º), but pluses may not outweigh minuses, risk-wise. Here’s my fa...

Around mid-April one of our readers phoned me to ask a question about prussic acid. Before I discuss the conversation that he and I shared, let me write about information that I found on that subject after we both said goodbye. For a long time prior to this gentleman’s call, I had thought that term ...

I’m hoping that growing season 2024 behaves much more normally than its predecessor did. Last year boasted some of the planet’s highest average temperatures ever recorded. At the same time, I’m hard-pressed to forget 2012. While not as hot as 2023, the lack of rainfall was epic 12 years ago. Most up...

The weather forecast for the weekend just past was for rain, possibly a thunderstorm. I remember hoping that we would get the latter; such would make me feel more comfortable making my first fall frost forecast. On the afternoon of April 14 as we were driving to Oneonta, we encountered enough rain t...

This summer annual is currently planted on much smaller U.S. acreage than years ago. Buckwheat was a much more popular crop before the Industrial Revolution delivered impressive new technologies to farms around the world. Notably, new fertilizers dramatically increased the productivity and profitabi...

On March 26, a container-laden cargo ship hit Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, spanning the entrance to that city’s harbor, completely collapsing that structure. As a result, all shipping into that harbor ceased for an undetermined amount of time. Early estimates of the duration of the harbor c...

Peter Wohlleben, professional forester and science writer in Germany, explained how snow loads can seriously harm trees. From his book “ The Hidden Life of Trees ” – “The pressure from above is simply too great. Such breakdowns mostly happen in the months of March and April, when the snow is transfo...

As I was writing this column, there were two days left of winter. It was a milder than usual cold weather season. I only used the snowblower once. A gift from my three sons 15 winters ago, it’s seen lots of use other years. In any case, the winter forages and grasses are kicking into gear. Up till 1...

In his March Advanced Ag Systems newsletter, Certified Crop Advisor Tom Kilcer wrote that most farms growing winter triticale forage, with a high yield management package, often harvest tonnage above what they expected, yet the protein often is less than hoped for. With high soy meal prices, the lac...