Cornell Cooperative Extension Oneida AG team updates

by Linda A. Wightman

Farm Flash June Livestock Issue

‘Farm Flash’ is the monthly Agriculture newsletter from Cornell Cooperative Extension Oneida County’s Ag team. The latest issue as well as past issues are available on-line in FULL color, to view newsletter, click here.

Cornell Cooperative Extension Oneida County

Plan for Upcoming Programming and events by visiting the CCE events page.

The Residential Agriculture Discount Program

The Residential Agricultural Discount Program is an electricity rate discount available to farm businesses which have a residence connected to the same electric meter as the farm business.

New applications, and yearly renewals if you already participate in the program, must be submitted by July 1st. If you have a residence on the same electric meter as your farm business and you file with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a farm business with either an:

IRS – Schedule F (Form 1040) or,
IRS Form 1120, 1120S, or 1065,

you can apply for this Discount, even if you generate your own electricity. Applications are available on your utility company’s website, along with eligibility criteria and other information. Or you can contact your utility company directly.

National Grid website

NYSEG website

The Residential Agricultural Discount Program is funded through the New York Power Authority – ReCharge New York program.

Contact your service provider if you have questions.

Attention Oneida County Food Producers

First Directory of Oneida County Farm/Food Producers Deadline June 15^th, 2022

To increase area farm sales and raise awareness about locally produced foods, Cornell Cooperative Extension Oneida County is gathering individual producer profiles to publish the first Oneida County Farm & Food Directory.

The Directory will be delivered to restaurants, specialty markets and grocers, small/mid-sized businesses, schools, food vendors, wholesalers, and other potential purchasing venues in search of local food products. Each producer will have a two-page listing highlighting their farm’s unique history, products, and services. Listings will also include logos (if available), mapped locations, and photos (supplied by farms or taken by CCEOC).

If you are a local producer of vegetables, fruits, animal proteins, value-added dairy, maple, honey, cut flowers, or nursery products, please complete the short listing profile about your farm by clicking this link https://tinyurl.com/54bfsv48 if the link won’t open please copy the link into your browser or email Sammi Collins at SC992@cornell.edu for assistance/information.

Producer listings should be submitted as soon as possible but will be accepted on a rolling basis through the June 15^th, deadline. Directory distribution throughout Oneida County is expected to start the end of June.

Please note, pricing information will not be included in this directory.

SMV Emblems available to Oneida County Farmers

As a result of a recent grant that the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office received through the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, Sheriff Robert Maciol has a limited quantity of Slow Moving Vehicle Emblems (SMV) available to farmers in Oneida County.

These will be made available to you at no cost as supplies last.

By law, every farm tractor and piece of agricultural farm equipment traveling on a public road or highway in New York must each separately display an SMV.

If you would like to take advantage of this opportunity, please contact Sheriff Rob Maciol’s office directly at 315-765-2222 and arrangements will be made to get the SMV’s to you.

CCE Oneida County has a weekly crop report!

CCE Oneida County will be sampling 5 local hay fields on a weekly basis and reporting NDF, CP and NEL along with alfalfa height at each location each week so that you can follow the progress. This information is emailed Thursday each week. If you don’t currently receive this information, you can email Jeff Miller at jjm14@cornell.edu and I will send you our weekly crop report by email.

I am also looking for growers to measure alfalfa height in one field each Monday until first harvest and share that information with me and I will add that to a table in the crop report. This will give us more information to review! Hopefully you can assist us with a location near you. You can call and leave it as a voicemail at 315-736-3394 x 120. Or email it to me at JJM14@cornell.edu.

MVT here, The CCE Oneida County AG Team has done such a phenomenal job sending information to us that we’re going to feature more of their updates in subsequent posts. Many thanks to the CCE Oneida County AG Team and Linda Wightment for their press releases and trove of valuable information for folks throughout the Mohawk Valley.