By Jenny Mills, NEAFA President
Spring has sprung in the Northeast – one week we were reaching for the t-shirts and shorts and the next week we were digging the winter jackets back out - a reminder of how diverse our weather and agricultural landscape is! Spring’s cycle of planning and planting is not just seen in the many fields being worked, but also in our state capitols with legislative sessions in full swing as well as industry meetings and gatherings.
It was wonderful to connect with many of you at the Herd Health and Nutrition Conference that was held April 3rd and 4th in Syracuse. We held our NEAFA spring Board meeting just prior to the conference, and focused on advocacy updates with Hinman Straub, our lobby team in New York reviewing the current budget proposals. There is a renewed effort in the legislature around the “birds and bees bill” that, if enacted, would ban the use of neonicotinoid class pesticides as seed treatments.
This prohibition would significantly impact the ability of New York farmers to successfully raise sufficient crops, including corn for grain and silage, beans, wheat, barley, oats, pumpkins, and soybeans, which are valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars to NY farmers. This bill came up last session as well. Hinman Straub continues to monitor committee agendas and we have written a memo articulating why NEAFA is opposed to this bill, citing economic, environmental and production impacts.
We are excited to continue advocacy efforts in Vermont by collaborating with the Vermont Dairy Producers Association. NEAFA will work with VDPA to have representation in Montpelier, with the goal of having a consistent pro-ag message. Thank you to our board members Charlie Elrod, Kevin Kouri, Mike Thresher and VDPA members Amanda St. Pierre and Bill Rowell for brainstorming what a successful relationship would look like moving forward so both organizations keep a clear identity while multiplying advocacy efforts.
On the education front, kudos to the Cornell Pro Dairy team and our education committee, headed up by Dr. Kristan Reed, on planning and delivering a great Herd Health and Nutrition Conference. It was wonderful to catch up with many of you, and we were able to welcome several new members at our table over the two days. Relevant presentations around current nutrition research including particle size of corn silage on performance, heat stress with varying heat abatement strategies, impacts of crossbreeding on feed efficiency from pasture and confinement environments, as well as a great presentation on the dairy economic outlook and a fantastic producer panel around managing the herd utilizing wearable technology which gave the audience several ideas that can be implemented with producers. Thank you to the many sponsors of the conference. We look forward to your feedback to continue to improve the program and topics for next year!
The Herd Health and Nutrition Conference was also a very fitting place to present our final Distinguished Service Award to Dr. Rick Grant. As a past President of NEAFA and Chair of the Education committee, Rick’s impact on our Northeast agricultural industry has been huge. Please check out the article by Dr. Charlie Elrod on this special presentation by clicking here.
Looking ahead, we are excited to see you at our Annual Golf for Good Works event to be held on Tuesday August 22, with a reception to be held Monday evening August 21 at the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, NY. Great golf combined with a first class networking event are in store again for this year. Please note, due to the many conflicts that our June date posed with graduations, we pivoted this event to hopefully accommodate your schedule!
I look forward to seeing you soon – Happy Spring, stay safe as we plant and plan for a successful harvest all over the Northeast – in the fields, state capitols and with many industry happenings!