Events - month view

January 2022
2022 Finger Lakes Produce Auction Growers Meeting

January 6, 2022
9:00am coffee and registration, 10:00am - 2:30 meeting
Finger Lakes Produce Auction
Penn Yan, NY
This course will educate growers on disease and pest management, varieties and marketing issues in open field and high tunnel vegetables. Topics such as disease resistant varieties, pest/disease, cultural management, biological controls and appropriate spray options. The meeting will include grower and buyer panels and auction updates. 1.75 DEC credits will be offered in categories 10, 1a, 23, 24.
CANCELED: 2022 Empire State Producers Expo
January 11 - January 13, 2022
The Oncenter
Syracuse, NY

UPDATE 12/23/21: Due to the ever changing COVID-19 pandemic, the Empire State Producers Expo and Becker Forum is going virtual.
The Becker Forum will stay the same date and time, January 10, in a virtual format.
The vegetable workshops and DEC credits will be virtual and further information will be going out to people who have registered and others who plan to attend. Please check back for more information on the New York State Vegetable Growers Association website. There will be no Trade Show until 2023.
2022 Ontario Produce Auction Growers Meeting

January 19, 2022
9:00am coffee and registration; 9:30am - 3:00pm meeting
Ontario Produce Auction
Stanley, NY
This course will educate growers on disease and pest management, varieties and marketing issues in field grown vegetables. Topics such as disease resistant varieties, pest/disease, cultural management, biological controls and appropriate spray options. 1.5 DEC recertification credits in categories 10, 1a, 23 will be offered.
February 2022
No Events Scheduled at this Time
March 2022
2022 NYS Dry Bean Meeting

March 16, 2022
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Online via Zoom

The NYS Dry Bean Meeting will be back online again this year, with presentations covering the latest research in NY dry beans. Topic areas include market updates, white mold management, western bean cutworm and soybean cyst nematode management, dry bean variety testing, and incorporating NY dry beans into schools. This event will be held virtually via Zoom, and 1.5 DEC credits will be available.
Success with Laser Scarecrows in 2022
March 22, 2022
9:00 am - 10:30 am EDT
Online via Zoom

Frustrated with bird control on your farm? Curious about what laser scarecrows are or how to optimize their set up? The University of Rhode Island and Cornell Cooperative Extension have teamed up to share their research and on-farm experiences using the University of Rhode Island laser scarecrow which utilizes a constantly moving green laser beam to scare birds away from fields. This workshop will feature a presentation by Rebecca Nelson Brown and David Brown of the University of Rhode Island about the laser scarecrow and what improvements have been made for 2022. Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators Chuck Bornt and Julie Kikkert will share their experiences testing the devices on New York farms. This online event is FREE!
GAPs Farm Food Safety Virtual Training
March 23, 2022
8:45 am - 4:00 pm
Online via Zoom

This workshop will cover the principles and practices of farm food safety for fresh produce farmers. Whether a buyer is asking for you to have a GAPs audit/certification or you just want to learn about improving food safety practices, this workshop is for you.
Topics are broken down into sections covering assessing situations where risk of microbial contamination could and would be a problem. These include land use, appraising adjacent land issues, handling manure/compost, wildlife and domestic animals, water sources/quality, pre-harvest, harvest, and post-harvest operations, wash/pack procedures, facility hygiene and sanitation, and worker training.


Upcoming Events
2025 New York State Potato School

February 11 - February 12, 2025
Waterloo, NY
This year's program will feature speakers covering critically important topics like disease management, updates in storage techniques, new varieties, and other production management practices. New for this year will be the Processor Panel where guests will have the chance to interact with some of the major chip processors in the northeast. Your participation will also earn you DEC and CCA points.
Remote Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) Training
February 12, 2025
Join Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orange and Oneida Counties, the Cornell Vegetable Program, Harvest NY, and the Eastern NY Horticulture Team on Feb. 12 for a remote Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) training. Good Agricultural Practices is a voluntary food safety audit program requiring minimum standards for the production, handling, packing, and storing of fresh fruits and vegetables, and is required by some buyers. Trainers will cover food safety best management practices related to worker training, preharvest assessments and wildlife management, water testing, postharvest handling, hygienic equipment design and efficient wash-pack setups, how to write a farm food safety plan, and more. The training will follow the USDA GAPs audit checklist so that farms will be prepared for an audit. A NYSDAM GAPs auditor will join us to discuss audit logistics and answer questions from participants. Following the course, we will offer a series of virtual office hours to follow up with course participants to assist them with writing their farm food safety plan, which is mandatory for the GAPs audit. Participants will receive a certificate of course completion after the training.
Food Safety Lunch and Learn Webinar Series
February 11, 2025 : Part One: What's Going on with Food Safety?
NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets FSMA inspectors are expected to step up farm visits this season. Why are they showing up on the farm asking about FSMA? Aren't we exempt? This noontime hour we will discuss the purpose of the farm visits and what produce farmers need to know.
February 18, 2025 : Part Two: What Counts as Food Processing?
In this session, we will discuss what counts as processing and what doesn't. Stories of inspectors coming to farmers markets and auctions telling some growers certain products can't be sold usually without much explanation. We will try to make some sense of things and clear up some misunderstandings so hopefully the upcoming season goes smoothly.
February 25, 2025 : Part Three: Traceability - Benefits for Food Safety and Beyond
Can having a traceback process for your produce (and other farm products) make good business sense regardless of FSMA regulations? We will (try to) make the case for farms to have some sort of traceability mechanism in place.