Thursday March 1, 2012 8:30 AM-3:00 PMHadley Horse Farm Manor House, 111 North Maple St, Hadley, MA
Pesticide Credits: 4Registration Fee (includes lunch): $ 55 for first registrant, an additional person from the same business can register for $50.Register by mail or on-site. Online registration available at https://www.regonline.com/potatoesandtomatoesbestpracticesforlateblights....
Program Topics:History, biology ad current events of late blight on potato and tomatoManagement of late blight on potato and tomatoSoil HealthWeed control in potato and tomatoInsect control in potato and tomatoLunch will be served.Pesticide applicator re-certificationFor more information please contact Dr. Rob Wick at 413-545-1045 or rwick@pltpath.umass.edu.
For mail in registrations, please fill out the attached form and mail to Bess Dicklow, 101 University Drive Suite A-7, Amherst MA 01002.
Alert!
When vegetable growers across New England are asked what resources they rely on most for information about producing vegetables, the New England Vegetable Management Guide is always high on their list. Updated every two years by vegetable specialists from the Universities of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, it consists of 250 information-packed pages with latest on cultural practices, nutrients and soil fertility, and pest management.Introductory sections cover:
General cultural practices for vegetables, including soil fertility and nutrients, soil management, cover crops, organic production, raised beds, irrigation, and much more.
General pest management topics including weed, insect and disease management, IPM, efficacy tables, biological controls, organic and lower-risk pesticides, and pesticide safety.
A comprehensive guide to vegetable transplant production.
In the crops section you will find recommended cultural practices, varieties and nutrient recommendations for each crop, along with specific information on management of weeds, insects and diseases for that crop or crop group. The specific production practices for each crop were extensively revised and updated for the 2012 edition.
Our audience includes wide range of types of farms -- large and small, organic and conventional, growing many or just a few crops, and the information reflects that diversity. If you are looking to find out about newly registered pesticides, or new label changes, you will find it here. If you want to know which pesticides are least toxic or are allowed for organic production, this is the place to find it. Trying to identify your pests? You will find a color photo of nearly every weed, disease or insect found on vegetable farms in the Pest Identification Guide bound together with the text.
Most vegetable growers want a hard copy to carry in their truck or have handy in their office. The New England Vegetable Management Guide may be ordered online from the UMass Extension Bookstore among the Books and Resources, athttp://www.umassextensionbookstore.com/store.php?crn=238For quick reference from your computer, the full Guide may also be found online at www.nevegetable.org.
MDAR encourages members of the farming community who suffer storm-related losses to report damages, crop, and physical losses to our federal partners at the USDA Farm Service Agency as soon as possible following storm events. Such contact is a critical first step toward securing assistance for disaster recovery efforts. Please see the following update:
USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director Richard Burke recently announced an important package of disaster assistance to help farmers, land owners, communities and others recover and rebuild after a year in which a wave of natural disasters swept across the State. Massachusetts funding, totaling $4.07 million, provides financial and technical assistance to help rebuild and repair land damaged on account of flooding and tornado disasters last year. Relief will be provided through Farm Service Agency's Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) and Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP).
The Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) program will contribute $2.31 million to producers to help remove debris from farmland, grade and shape farmland, restore permanent fences and restore conservation structures damaged by a natural disaster. FSA county committees determine eligibility based on on-site inspections of damaged land and considering the type and extent of damage. For land to be eligible, the natural disaster must create new conservation problems.
The Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) program will provide $1.76 million in payments to eligible owners of nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) land in order to carry out emergency measures to restore land damaged by a natural disaster.
USDA immediately responds to disasters across the country, ranging from record floods, droughts and tropical storms, with direct support, disaster assistance, technical assistance, and access to credit. In the past 3 years, USDA provided 103,000 loans to family farmers totaling $14.6 billion. Over 50 percent of the loans went to beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.
Contact information for the Massachusetts County offices of the USDA FSA is available at: http://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app?state=ma&agency=fsa.
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