Grafton County

Food Safety Reminder

As the holiday season rapidly approaches, many cooks are getting ready to share meals with family members and loved ones.  Lots of myths exist about how to make sure your food is safe.  Click here read a few of them.

Field Crop Meeting was Well Received

On Tuesday, November 3, 2009 a group of 27 individuals from Grafton, Coos, Caledonia, and Orange Counties gathered at the church on Route 302 in Bath, NH for the Field Crop Meeting hosted by UNH Cooperative Extension. 

The meeting focused on making the most of homegrown forages and feeds; a topic very important to dairy producers trying to stay competitive despite low milk prices.  The featured speaker of the day was Tom Kilcer, retired Certified Crop Advisor and Field Crop Agent for Cornell Cooperative Extension. 

Kilcer opened his morning presentation, titled A Whole-Farm Approach to Forage Systems, by saying that over the years he has given the correct answers to a lot ofproducers’ wrong questions.  He sited the example of having a Steiger [200+ horsepower] tractor hooked to a one row corn chopper and a square bale kicker wagon.  On their own, each piece of equipment is a wonderful machine, but when hooked together, they will not workas an efficient system.  Producers were reminded to think of their farm as a whole system, where eachindividual decision is a piece of the puzzle and must fit into the overall plan, goals, and workings of the business’ unique operation. 

During the afternoon session, Strategies for Success with Alternative Forage Crops, Kilcer asked workshop participants to “think outside the box”.  He discussed alternative crops such as Brown Mid-Rib Sorghum-Sudan, Teff and Triticale as either replacement for, or as an accompanying crop to, growing straight corn silage and alfalfa, as is custom in New England.

One dairy farmer, in particular, was excited about the possibility of growing Teff.  The gentleman rents some of his farmland from a neighbor who doesn’t want corn grown in his field, as he and his wife would not be able to watch the deer frolic at dusk.  Given the nutritional components of this alternative crop, the suitable harvest window, and the wide variety of harvest options, Teff may be an annual this landowner and farmer can agree upon. 

Also speaking at the workshop were Larry Jones, PhD, who presented information on silage inoculants, and Art Graves, who discussed corn hybrid selection.  Both topics were geared to guide the participants towards thoughtful purchases, rather than buying corn seed and silage preservative based on sales pitches and clever marketing techniques.

Participants at the day-long workshop had opportunities at break time and during lunch to ask the speakers for additional information, ensuring that they left the meeting with useful tips and ideas to try at home.

Similar presentations over the next two days will be held in Webster and Westmoreland, NH.  All three workshops are co-sponsored by UNH Cooperative Extension, SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education), Connecticut River Ag Services, and Crop Production Services.

For more information about upcoming workshops please contact the UNH Cooperative Extension office in North Haverhill at 603-787-6944.

  By Kristina Vaughan

Welcome

Welcome to the Grafton County portion of the UNH Cooperative Extension website.

• To view the state-wide home page for UNHCE please click on the "Home" tab in the upper left-hand corner of this page.
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Feel free to contact our office if you need any assistance navigating this webpage (603-787-6944).