NCRAT Weekly Update, Friday, December 18, 2020

• All of the NCRAT will be OFF from December 24^th till January 4 ^th.

Crops:

• 4 new or updated Nutrient Management Spear Program factsheets will be published in the coming days. NNY agronomists had a hand in most of them.
• Drought conditions have improved in a few spots but have spread slightly across NNY since last week. We need snow!

• We are co-hosting a Practical Soil Health Series of 4 virtual programs together with the CNY regional team and Oneida County. Weekly programs will be promoted soon and area planned for February into early March.
• We are finalizing the details and dates for the 2021 Crop Congress. Targeting first half of February. We’re hosting in conjunction with the Miner Institute once again. We are planning 2-hr sessions on each of 2 consecutive days around the middle of the day.
• 2021 Hay and Pasture School will be organized after the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Dairy:

• Lindsay is on maternity leave now through to the New Year - please reach out to Casey for all dairy related topics
• *NEW EPISODES* for the Troubleshooting Herd Health Podcast has been released! Click hereto access the episodes
• Working on multiple research projects (calf diarrhea and cow comfort) and DAP calf discussion group (farm visits for calf weights and blood samples, forage variability feed project feed out sampling has started
• Working with producers and local CCE staff on the Workforce Protection Grant
• Details are finalized for our "Critical Calf Care: Decision Making for Urgent Calf Health" program. Click here to register

Farm Business Management:

• REMINDER: NY Farm Bureau (I confirmed this with the President) is offering ALL OF ITS COVID-19 related information to ALL FARMERS on their website. They want everyone to be aware and involved. Feel free to direct farmers there - they can all access it here is the link: https://www.nyfb.org/news/covid-19-news

The USDA Farm Service Agency shared the following reminders, loan rates and deadlines this week:

Stress Management:

• NY Farm Net is Open- 1-800-547-3276 and www.nyfarmnet.org
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255 (TALK) , www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org
• Crisis Text Line Text “GOT 5” to 741-741 , www.crisistextline.org