Weekly Berry Office Hours held on Thursdays at 12:30pm via Zoom or on your phone.  Format will be a short, in-depth presentation about a production issue and then Q&A.

As New York "Reopens" business during the COVID-19 crisis, business owners are evaluating what actions they need to take to protect themselves, their employees, and their customers.

Join a panel of experts for a Question and Answer lunchtime session that will address common questions that apple growers and other producers have about managing their field crew.

Join us for office hours - Thursday, June 11 at 12:30pm.  Bring questions about SWD management, ID, etc.  There will be a short presentation first - yes, about SWD! - and then we'll try and touch on highlights for management. 

Click the link below to join

https://cornell.zoom.us/j/9551...

Password: 4FyY8D

Or dial by phone: 1-646-518-9805

Meeting ID: 955 1458 6018

This virtual training will help farmers and workers understand the concepts of food safety from harvest to packing. This training will also cover facility design, operation for washing produce and cleaning/sanitizing to minimize the risk of possible microbial contamination.

The Cornell Vegetable Program is receiving many requests for a summer meeting schedule. Traditionally these meetings are held on a cooperating farm and feature peer learning, crop demonstrations and insights from Cornell specialists, often with pesticide license re-certification credits. They are great opportunities to hear research updates and learn from other farmers. They go by many names: Twilight, Field Walk, Coffee Pots, Muck Donut…We look forward to them as much as you do.

Due to COVID-19 pandemic guidance from NYS Department of Ag & Markets, NYS Department of Health, and Cornell University, we do not have dates for meetings right now. But keep reading, as we are working towards hosting meetings by the end of the growing season. 

Topic: Renovating June-bearing strawberries - this can help control SWD population growth and also help keep perennial berry patches healthy, but there are challenges to the approach.

Join us as Dr. Srdjan Acimovic of the Hudson Valley Research Lab discusses the basic biology and his recommended management approaches for multiple summer diseases.

Join us the afternoon of July 20th to learn what's new in orchard precision spraying technology. We'll be joined by Dr. Jason Deveau, Dr. Heping Zhu, and Steve Booher. 

After their presentations, we will open up the meeting for all three presenters to field questions and comments. 

Medical guidance for producers, service providers, farmworkers, and community members.

 The Cornell Farmworker Program and Finger Lakes Community Health (the clinic) present a free English presentation with Dr. Jose Canario, M.D. In this one hour webinar, Dr. Canario will give an update on COVID-19 research, discuss safe ways to go out under "reopening", and appropriate behavior during social settings. Attendees are required to register and are encouraged to submit questions in advance or raise them during the call. The English webinar will provide important information for producers, service providers, and community members. All welcome.

Since we can't gather on the Cornell campus this year, we're taking your favorite IPM workshop virtual!

July 28 from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. via Zoom.

Please join us for a virtual twilight meeting on how to manage humidity and condensation in coolers to increase shelf life and prevent food-borne illness.

NYFB is pleased to partner once again with the law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King to present a complimentary webinar to members on the farm labor regulations that went into effect January 1, 2020.

In a webinar late last year, these attorneys informed our members about overtime pay, the mandatory day of rest, the right to organize and negotiate a Collective Bargaining Agreement, and other topics. Join us on Thursday, July 30 at 12 p.m. to learn about guidance on these regulations just issued by New York including which employees are excluded from the day of rest provision, who is covered by the over-60 hour overtime provision, the definition of immediate family, and more. Check future FB Alerts for more information.

In this meeting, we will review our current harvest PGR and storage recommendations.  

Agenda:

Dr. Terence Robinson: Harvest PGR rate and timing recommendations for 2020.  
Keith Culver, AgroFresh Commercial Director North America: New innovations from AgroFresh.  
Dr. Greg Clarke, Valent USA Senior Field, Northeast Market Development Specialist: ReTain for managing harvest and improving fruit quality; Best practices for ReTain use; New application strategies for Honeycrisp, Gala and McIntosh.  
Dr. Christopher Watkins: PGR use on storage quality and disorder development.

Beginning on Tuesday, August 25th at 4:00 PM EST, Cornell CALS and CCE will host office hours for farmers  and packers to answer any questions they might have about managing and responding to protect the farm workforce during COVID-19.  Participants will be able to log in from a computer or call in from a phone to ask questions or just to listen. A panel of experts will be available to answer questions immediately, questions that the experts cannot answer right away will be recorded, studied and answered later. The next 6 weeks are a critical time for the farm workforce as seasonal harvest ramps up, so the office hours will repeat every Tuesday at 4:00 PM EST through the end of September. Look for log in information and phone numbers in coming news releases and watch this website: www.agworkforce.cals.cornell.edu.