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Local Farms Assisting NNYADP Alfalfa Pest Management
Research
Published: January 26, 2022
at 11:45 a.m.
By: Press Release from Northern New York Agricultural
Development Program
PHOTO: Cornell
University researcher Virginia Moore, Ph.D., collects alfalfa plants from
the NNYADP alfalfa snout beetle-resistance trial plots at Grace-Way Farm in
Lowville, New York, in the summer of 2021
Northern NY Farms Assisting NNYADP Alfalfa Pest Management Research
Lowville, New York- Grace-Way Farm, Lowville, New York, is among
several regional farms assisting the Northern New York Agricultural
Development Program's research-based development of alfalfa varieties
resistant to alfalfa snout beetle (ASB). ASB is the most destructive pest
of alfalfa, a highly valued dairy and livestock
forage crop.
In the summer of 2021, plant breeding specialists from Cornell University
collected five-year-old surviving alfalfa plants from field research plots
at the Marc Laribee family's Grace-Way Farm in
Lewis County. The plants are now being propagated in a Cornell greenhouse
in Ithaca, New York, to develop five new populations of ASB-resistant
alfalfa. They will produce seed that will become the basis of a larger
field trial to develop alfalfa varieties with progressively-increasing
resistance to ASB.
Two of the five populations of alfalfa established at Grace-Way Farm are
advanced selections from the first NNYADP-funded ASB-resistance trials at
Peck Homestead Farm in Great Bend in the 1990s. This greenhouse phase of
the research also includes more recent ASB-resistance trial alfalfa populations
selected from NNYADP research plots at Sheland
Farms in Belleville and Limestone Ridge in Lowville.
The development of ASB-resistant alfalfa varieties is part of a two-pronged
management solution developed through the long-term commitment of the NNYADP
and regional farmers. The research developed original science for the use
of native New York nematodes as a biocontrol application that has proven to
reduce ASB populations. The combined use of the biocontrol nematodes
protocol in tandem with planting progressively-bred
ASB-resistant alfalfa varieties is restoring alfalfa production on northern
New York dairy farms.
Cornell University Plant Breeding and Genetics Assistant Professor Virginia
Moore, Ph.D., leads the ASB-resistance breeding project that was started by
Professor Emeritus Dr. Don Viands and Research Support Specialist Jamie
Crawford. Cornell University Entomologist Elson Shields, Ph.D., pioneered
the biocontrol nematode science that is now being applied to or tested with
multiple crops in multiple states. Learn more about both
of these NNYADP research efforts at https://www.nnyagdev.org.
The New York State Legislature established the Northern New York
Agricultural Development Program in 1961. Funding for the Program is
administered through the New York State Department of Agriculture and
Markets.
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