Commercial Ag Updates + Farm Food Safety

Rutgers Cooperative Extension Ag Agents provide updates on what they see in the field, upcoming events, and other important news that affects your operation, such as developments in on-farm Food Safety. Subscribe if you wish to be notified about workshops, meetings, and upcoming commercial ag events.
 
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March 16, 2018

Weed Survey for Specialty Crop Producers Using Organic Practices

Do you grow specialty crops and use organic practices?  Meredith Melendez, who is an Agricultural Agent at Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Mercer County and Thierry Besancon, Weed Specialist, Department of Plant Biology at Rutgers The School of Environmental and Biological Sciences are conducting a survey to assess weed pressure and management strategies. This research is conducted through an anonymous 23 question online survey. The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete. Anyone who is certified organic, transitioning to certified organic or uses organic production practices is eligible to complete the survey. Results will be used to assess programmatic impacts and develop future outreach efforts. This survey will open from March 2018 to April 2018.

To access the survey please click HERE!

If you have any questions about the study or study procedures, you may contact myself at 930 Spruce Street, Trenton, NJ 08648 or Melendez@njaes.rutgers.edu or 609-989-6830.

 

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates
February 26, 2018

US Food & Drug Administration Announces Microbiological Surveillance Sampling for Fresh Herbs (Cilantro, Basil & Parsley) to Continue Through 2018

The US FDA has announced an ongoing surveillance program started in October 2017 will continue through 2018 until they collect at least 1600 samples each of fresh cilantro, parsley and basil. FDA inspectors will be visiting farm packinghouses, wholesale packers, domestic and import warehouses and shippers, as well as retail purveyors, From their press release,

From 1996 to 2015, the FDA reported nine [food born illness] outbreaks linked to basil, parsley, and cilantro, which resulted in 2,699 illnesses and 84 hospitalizations. Four of the outbreaks were linked to basil, three to cilantro, and two to parsley.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Food Safety, Fruit, Vegetable Crops
February 26, 2018

NJ DEP Annual Ag Water Use Reports Due 2/28

If you downloaded the RCE irrigation pump log sheet posted here last fall, and you haven’t sent in your water use report yet, you have until Wed to calculate your monthly water use and submit it to NJ DEP. Keeping a hard copy of the log sheet by each well makes a simple way to record actual water use, but tallying the monthly and annual totals will take one more step. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Fruit, Landscape, Nursery, & Turf, Vegetable Crops
February 23, 2018

New Rutgers On-Farm Food Safety Website!

Visit the new Rutgers On-Farm Food Safety website for information on Good Agricultural Practices, the Food Safety Modernization Act Produce Safety Rule, and USDA Third Party Audits.  Information can also be found on upcoming on-farm food safety workshops, publications and resources to help you understand and implement on-farm food safety practices.

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Food Safety
February 22, 2018

Still Time to Register for North Jersey Commercial Vegetable and/or Tree Fruit Meetings

Morris County Agent Peter Nitzsche and Hunterdon County Agent Megan Muehlbauer indicate there is still limited time to register for two upcoming educational events they are hosting at the Hunterdon County Complex in Flemington:

What:  North Jersey Commercial Vegetable Grower Meeting
When:  February 27, 2018
Where:  Hunterdon County Complex, Flemington, NJ
For Program & Registration Details go to https://events.rutgers.edu/pdfs/North_Jersey_Commercial_Vegetable_Growers_Meeting_2018.pdf

What:  North Jersey Commercial Tree Fruit Meeting
When:  March 6, 2018
Where:  Hunterdon County Complex, Flemington, NJ
For Program & Registration Details go to https://events.rutgers.edu/pdfs/NorthJerseyFruitMeeting_Program_2018.pdf

NJ & PA PESTICIDE RECERTIFICATION CREDITS HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED FOR THESE PROGRAMS

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Fruit, Vegetable Crops
February 13, 2018

Robots in the Field – Online Videos Illustrate Automation from Seedling Production through Harvesting

When asked for the links to some of the videos I shared in this presentation at the 2018 NJ Agricultural Convention, I found that I had only included about half of the videos that illustrated my talk in the Proceedings book which will be available on the NJ Veg Crops Online Resources site shortly. What follows is the amended version of that abstract with all of the (complete) video links and/or company websites that I mentioned. It’s ‘complete’ now because I had used only small portions of many of these videos that are online, so you’ll have much more content to view than what you would have seen in my talk. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Fruit, Vegetable Crops