Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development will be offering two Ag Supervisory Leadership courses for all agricultural operations starting in June for farms in the Northeastern Region including: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Registration is currently open and closes on June 25. There are separate registration fees for New York residents and out of state residents. See below.
The courses available are:
ASL101-SP: Transición a Supervisor (in Spanish)
Transition to Supervisor helps to develop leaders and focuses on skills to improve communication and manage conflict. Learn how to recognize our inherent biases and how to build better working relationships. Gain insight into your leadership style and learn how to effectively lead diverse and multicultural teams.
Course topics include:
How to make the mental transition to supervisor
How to develop effective working relationships
Essential communication skills
How to be the leader of a multicultural group
How to build better working relationships
Course begins: Friday, June 20, 2025
Live Zoom discussions: Thursdays, June 26 – July 31, 4:00–5:00 PM ET
Register for ASL101-SP Transición a Supervisor
ASL106: Ethics and Employment Regulations (in English)
In ASL106: Ethics and Employment Regulations, you’ll explore how to implement fair and ethical labor practices in agriculture and why they matter. You’ll learn to recognize and prevent sexual harassment, understand wage and hour laws, and apply Equal Employment Opportunity regulations to foster a respectful, inclusive workplace. The course also covers best practices for handling employee discipline and termination.
Course topics include:
Ethics and sustainability
Equal Employment Opportunity, laws and implications
Hiring regulations and practices
Safety issues in agriculture
Farm employee housing
Compensation regulations
Being an ethical supervisor
Course begins: Friday, June 20, 2025
Live Zoom discussions: Thursdays, June 26 – July 31, 3:00–4:00 PM ET
Register for ASL106: Ethics and Employment Regulations
Course costs:
$275 for NYS residents/$325 for out-of-state residents
Scholarship Opportunity for Dairy Producers:
Thanks to the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center (NEDBIC), eligible dairy producers can apply for a $100 scholarship to help cover registration fees. Scholarships are available to participants from qualifying states in the Northeast, including Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Questions? Email cu-agworkforce@cornell.edu
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/cornellagworkforcedevelopment
Organic Farm Advisory
The Plant & Pest Advisory serves NJ growers by reporting on important pests and recommending responses that are grounded in reproducible trials.
Articles in this section contain information helpful to the NJ commercial organic grower.
Sharing organic practice trial results between land-grant universities is a cost effective way to create a common knowledge base built on the strengths of individual programs. In the sidebar, find institutions with programs in organic agriculture which augment knowledge developed at the Rutgers New Jersey Ag Experiment Station.
Rutgers Cooperative Extension Field Guides: These concise guides help with decision making from pre-planting to harvest. For each crop listed, learn what pests to proactively look for as the season progresses, how to look for them, and when to take action.
Registration Open for 2 Agricultural Supervisor Training Courses: In English and Spanish
Need a Manure Spreader? Nutrient Management Assistance Grants – Deadline 6/16/25
New Jersey Department of Agriculture (NJDA), Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources is offering the following grant opportunity:
Nutrient Management Assistance Grants
Available Funding: Up to $25,000
Application Deadline: June 16, 2025
Funding Period: Three Years
The New Jersey Department of Agriculture (NJDA), Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources is pleased to announce a funding opportunity to support manure spreader purchase and maintenance, and to establish a community use program for the manure spreader. This grant aims to advance nutrient management Best Management Practices (BMPs) across New Jersey farms by enabling the shared use of properly maintained equipment.
Eligible Applicants:
• New Jersey-based individuals
• Agricultural businesses
• Cooperatives
• Not-for-profit organizations (NFPs)
• Government agencies
Applicants should demonstrate a strong working relationship with local agricultural producers and must be committed to supporting nutrient management in their communities.
Program Highlights:
• Purchase and maintain a manure spreader
• Establish a community use program for the manure spreader with a minimum of five farms
• Support the implementation of Animal Waste Management Plans (AWMPs) with Nutrient Management Plans or nutrient budgets where the manure spreader will be used
• Implement all funded activities over a three-year period
For application materials and additional information, please visit: https://www.nj.gov/agriculture/grants/njdanutrientmanagementgrants.html
Allium Leafminer Update 3/24/2025- First oviposition scars spotted
The first Allium leafminer (ALM) oviposition scars were reported in Cape May this past weekend (38.9588N, 74.9082W), suggesting that adults are active in the southern part of the state. ALM are active around 250 GDDs. If you want to know how many GDDs have accumulated in your area, the NEWA website https://newa.cornell.edu/ has a helpful GDD calculator. From the NEWA home screen, select the nearest weather station from the drop-down menu at the center of the page. Next, scroll down to “Weather Tools” on the right side of the page and select “DD Calculator.” Select your start date (1/01/25) and end date, as well as Degree Day Type (39 F) from the menu at the left of the page. The site will automatically generate the accumulated GDD base 39 F to the last day of your requested sample, and then offer a forecast of accumulated GDD for the next week.
ALM can cause injury to chives, scallions, garlic, onions and leeks, but leeks and scallions seem to be the most effected. Look for neat rows of white spots descending from the upper tips of allium leaves (see photo below). Initial injury often occurs on the tallest leaves. Adults may be seen in warmer conditions at the tips of the leaves- look for small flies with grey-black bodies and yellow heads (see photo below).
If you are concerned about crop injury due to Allium leafminer, you may want to prepare for control efforts. Floating row covers, kept on until the first flight ends (around the end of May) can restrict ALM’s access to vulnerable plants. Adults can be targeted through insecticide sprays. Appropriate materials that are labeled for ALM control include spinosyns (Radiant, Entrust (OMRI approved)), pyrethroids (Mustang Maxx, Warrior), neonicotinoids (Scorpion, Venom), and the insect growth regulator Trigard. The first application should be applied 2- 3 weeks after initial detection of ALM flies (if you see oviposition scars or the fly itself) and subsequent sprays should be completed in 1–2-week intervals. Two or three sprays should provide adequate control.
Notice the white oviposition scars and an adult female ALM. Photo: Brian A. Nault, Cornell AgriTech.
If you have any questions/concerns, feel free to reach out to me at amanda.quadrel@rutgers.edu or 732-742-8441.
Allium Leafminer Update 3/20/2025
Happy first day of Spring! Many parts of New Jersey are close to accumulating 250 growing degree days (GDDs) base 39˚F, which is when the first emergence of Allium leafminer (ALM) adults is predicted to occur. In some areas of New Jersey, 250 GDDs are forecasted to be surpassed as early as this weekend. In Cape May, oviposition scars have already been spotted. If you would like to know how many GDDs have accumulated in your area, the NEWA website https://newa.cornell.edu/ has a helpful GDD calculator. From the NEWA home screen, select the nearest weather station from drop down menu at the center of the page. Next, scroll down to “Weather Tools” on the right side of the page, and select “DD Calculator”. Select your start date (1/01/25) and end date, as well as Degree Day Type (39 F) from the menu at the left of the page. The site will automatically generate the accumulated GDD base 39F to the last day of your requested sample, and then offer a forecast of accumulated GDD for the next week.
ALM can cause injury to chives, scallions, garlic, onions and leeks, but leeks and scallions seem to be the most effected. Look for neat rows of white spots descending from the upper tips of allium leaves (see photo below). Initial injury often occurs on the tallest leaves. Adults may be seen in warmer conditions at the tips of the leaves- look for small flies with grey-black bodies and yellow heads (see photo below).
If you are concerned about crop injury due to Allium leafminer, you may want to prepare for control efforts. Floating row covers, kept on until the first flight ends (around the end of May) can restrict ALM’s access to vulnerable plants. Adults can be targeted through insecticide sprays. Appropriate materials that are labeled for ALM control include spinosyns (Radiant, Entrust (OMRI approved)), pyrethroids (Mustang Maxx, Warrior), neonicotinoids (Scorpion, Venom), and the insect growth regulator Trigard. The first application should be applied 2- 3 weeks after initial detection of ALM flies (if you see oviposition scars or the fly itself) and subsequent sprays should be completed in 1–2-week intervals. Two or three sprays should provide adequate control.
Notice the white oviposition scars and an adult female ALM. Photo: Brian A. Nault, Cornell AgriTech.
If you have any questions/concerns, feel free to reach out to me at amanda.quadrel@rutgers.edu or 732-742-8441.
USDA Extends Deadline For The 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties
Trenton, NJ – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will continue to collect the 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties through April 18, 2025. Conducted just once every five years, the Census of Horticultural Specialties is the only source of detailed production and sales data for U.S. floriculture, nursery, and specialty crop industries, including greenhouse food crops.
Growers are encouraged to complete their survey either online at agcounts.usda.gov or by mail as soon as possible. The online questionnaire is user-friendly, accessible on most electronic devices, and saves producers time by calculating totals and automatically skipping questions that do not apply to their operations.
NASS enumerators will also continue gathering data and ask respondents to complete and return their survey form as soon as possible. If those who have received the form are no longer involved in horticultural operations, or need assistance completing the questionnaire, they can call toll-free, 888-424-7828 so their record can be updated.
Producers who receive the 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties are required to respond by federal law (Title 7 USC 2204(g) Public Law 105-113), as it is part of the Census of Agriculture program. That same law also requires NASS to keep all individual information confidential.
“This is a great opportunity to show the importance of New Jersey food grown under cover,” stated Bruce Eklund, USDA/NASS NJ State Statistician. “Our end-of-the-year vegetable survey, for example, only shows crops grown in the open.” Growers should have received the survey via mail and or a specific survey code to complete the survey online. If you can’t locate the survey or your code, please contact Bruce at 503.308.0404 or by email at bruce.eklund@usda.gov.
The 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties data is scheduled to be available on December 16, 2025, at nass.usda.gov/AgCensus and in the Quick Stats database at quickstats.nass.usda.gov. For more about the 2024 Census of Horticultural Specialties, please visit nass.usda.gov/go/hort.
NASS is the federal statistical agency responsible for producing official data about U.S. agriculture and is committed to providing timely, accurate and useful statistics in service to U.S. agriculture. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
South Jersey Spring Vegetable Growers Meeting
DATE: Thursday, March 27, 2025
TIME: 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Gloucester County
Shady Lane Complex, 254 County House Rd, Clarksboro, NJ 08020
(Please enter through the far-right side of the building up the first ramp)
CO- SPONSORED BY THE VEGETABLE GROWERS ASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY
NO REGISTRATION NEEDED
6:00 -6:30PM Sign in and Light Dinner
6:30-7:00PM Rutgers Vegetable Integrated Pest Management Update
Amanda Quadrel, Sr. Program Coordinator, Vegetable IPM, RCE
7:00-7:30PM Update on the Water Requirements for the Produce Safety Rule
Wes Kline, Ag Agent, RCE Cumberland County
7:30-8:00PM Update on Disease Control in Vegetable Crops
Andy Wyenandt, Rutgers NJAES Vegetable Pathologist
8:00-8:30PM Labor and Regulatory Updates from NJ Farm Bureau
Ben Casella, NJFB
8:30-9:00PM USEPA/NJDEP Worker Protection Standards Overview for Pesticide Safety
Michelle Infante-Casella, Ag Agent, RCE Gloucester County
9:00PM Pesticide Recertification credits – CREDITS INCLUDE: 1-CORE, 3-PP2, 3-Cat. 1A, 2-Cat. 10
Contact the RCE of Gloucester County Office for more information 856-224-8040 ext. 1 or email Michelle Infante-Casella at minfante@njaes.rutgers.edu
Pesticide Recertification Credits have been requested from NJDEP for this meeting – TBD.
