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.
 
Subscriptions are available via EMAIL and RSS.

September 22, 2020

Farm Worker Housing Simulator Shows How To Help Reduce COVID-19 Spread

Partnering with the Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety (NEC), the Vessel Dynamics Laboratory at George Mason University created an online app that shows how various practices aimed to slow the spread of COVID-19 among farm workers in shared housing can work.

Room for Improvement:  An Online Tool for Reducing the Spread of COVID-19 in Farmworker Housing allows you to put in information about your on-farm housing and it will show how coronavirus can spread through farmworker housing. You can change the size of the room, type of beds, number of workers housed, and a variety of preventative practices to see the impact on spread of the disease.

The simulator is available at https://vesseldynamics.com/research/farmworker-housing-simulator/. (Note that the simulator works best in Google Chrome.)

More information about farmworker safety programs from the NEC are available at https://www.necenter.org/.

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Field, Forage & Livestock, Fruit, Landscape, Nursery, & Turf, Vegetable Crops Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
September 21, 2020

Climate Adaptation Fellowship Program Seeks Farmer and Advisor Applicants

 

Climate change is bringing challenges for vegetable and small fruit growers. For farmers to reduce their risk, they need to adapt. To address this increasing need, the Climate Adaptation Fellowship was created. The 1-year program provides a peer-to-peer curriculum for farmers and advisors. Its framework is designed to integrate climate science with a land manager’s knowledge that builds climate resilience within specific commodity areas.

The first full Climate Adaptation Fellowship program with northeast vegetable / small fruit growers and agricultural advisors will be offered in 2021-2022 and is now accepting applications through October 1. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blueberry, Commercial Ag Updates, Cranberry, Fruit, Organic Production, Strawberry, Vegetable Crops, Wine Grape Tagged With: , , , ,
September 17, 2020

Every Farmer Counts! 76th National Farm Safety & Health Week – Sept. 20-26, 2020.

Rutgers Cooperative Extension Ag and Natural Resources Dept Chair Nick Polanin has announced the good news that RCE has been able to hire Ms. Kate Brown as Program Associate II to work on commercial crop production in the RCE-Burlington County office. We welcome Kate to the job. In continuing some of the programs of retired County Agent Ray Samulis, Kate is now the Rutgers liaison to the NE Ag Safety and Health Coalition and has shared this news about next week’s celebration of National Farm Safety & Health Week (NFSHW). — Rick VanVranken [Read more…]

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Field, Forage & Livestock, Fruit, Landscape, Nursery, & Turf, Vegetable Crops Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
September 10, 2020

Ask the Agent Fall Series

“Ask the Ag Agent” was created in spring 2020, when COVID-19 forced a new normal in communications nationwide. Rutgers Cooperative Extension Agricultural Agents working with “Ask the Ag Agent” education and outreach are committed to the agriculture industry and all interested in growing plants, raising livestock and essential resources related to agriculture. The program will now continue beginning on Wednesday, September 16th and run every-other Wednesday in September and October.

Farmers and others are welcome to join this bi-weekly teleconference each Wednesday night from 7:00pm-8:00pm. Weekly events are hosted by Rutgers Cooperative Extension Agricultural Agents working with the farming industry.

This call-in/WebEx event features updates on farm management, crop conditions, farm industry observations, agricultural agency programs and other topics discussed by farmers, agricultural agents and other agricultural service providers.

Hosted by Agricultural Agents Bill Bamka, Stephen Komar, Michelle Infante-Casella and Meredith Melendez, this bi-weekly communication provides a forum for discussion for farmers and all involved in NJ agriculture, including agricultural agency personnel, non-profit organizations and others.

This event and other events hosted by Rutgers Cooperative Extension can be found on the Rutgers NJAES Events website.

To join the “Ask the Ag Agent” forum each week on a computer/tablet/smartphone via the WebEx Videoconference use the link:

“Ask the Ag Agent” was created in spring 2020, when COVID-19 forced a new normal in communications nationwide. Rutgers Cooperative Extension Agricultural Agents working with “Ask the Ag Agent” education and outreach are committed to the agriculture industry and all interested in growing plants, raising livestock and essential resources related to agriculture. The program will now continue beginning on Wednesday, September 16th and run every-other Wednesday in September and October.

Farmers and others are welcome to join this bi-weekly teleconference each Wednesday night from 7:00pm-8:00pm. Weekly events are hosted by Rutgers Cooperative Extension Agricultural Agents working with the farming industry.

This call-in/WebEx event features updates on farm management, crop conditions, farm industry observations, agricultural agency programs and other topics discussed by farmers, agricultural agents and other agricultural service providers.

Hosted by Agricultural Agents Bill Bamka, Stephen Komar, Michelle Infante-Casella and Meredith Melendez, this bi-weekly communication provides a forum for discussion for farmers and all involved in NJ agriculture, including agricultural agency personnel, non-profit organizations and others.

This event and other events hosted by Rutgers Cooperative Extension can be found on the Rutgers NJAES Events website.

To join the “Ask the Ag Agent” forum each week on a computer/tablet/smartphone via the WebEx Videoconference click here

Join by phone
+1-650-429-3300 passcode 1202639477##

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Disease Forecasting, Field, Forage & Livestock, Food Safety, Fruit, Organic Production, Uncategorized, Vegetable Crops Tagged With: ,
August 31, 2020

Reminder: Considerations for Agritourism Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic, last Webinar Tonight

Please join us for the 2nd webinar to discuss our resource, “Considerations for Agritourism Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic”

Time: Sep 1, 2020 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

To Join on Zoom:

https://go.rutgers.edu/sfk96jlp

Meeting ID: 912 2343 8378
Password: 636141

Join By Phone
+1-646-558-8656
Meeting ID: 912 2343 8378

If you have any questions, please email the host group:

Michelle Infante-Casella’s email: minfante@njaes.rutgers.edu

Bill Bamka’s email: bamka@njaes.rutgers.edu

Steve Komar’s email: komar@njaes.rutgers.edu

Meredith Melendez’s email: melendez@njaes.rutgers.edu

Rick VanVranken’s email: vanvranken@njaes.rutgers.edu

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Food Safety, Organic Production, Tree Fruit, Uncategorized, Vegetable Crops, Wine Grape Tagged With:
August 28, 2020

Crop Insurance Deadline Nears in New Jersey

The USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) wants to remind New Jersey small grains producers that the final date to apply for crop insurance coverage for the 2021 crop year is September 30, 2020. Current policyholders who wish to make changes to their existing policies also have until September 30 to do so. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blueberry, Commercial Ag Updates, Field, Forage & Livestock, Food Safety, Fruit, Landscape, Nursery, & Turf, Tree Fruit, Vegetable Crops, Wine Grape Tagged With: , ,