Jamie Storrow, Author at SARE

Showing 11-14 of 14 results

Innovative Assessment Helps Farmers in the Northeast Improve Soil Health

Posted on January 8, 2016December 16, 2025 by Jamie Storrow

Improving soil health without understanding the soil's condition is not easy and traditional soil tests, though important management tools, don't provide information on the physical structure or microbial life living in the soil. That is why a multidisciplinary team at Cornell University created a soil health assessment, which measures physical, chemical and biological indicators as well as pH and nutrient levels in the soil. The soil health assessment received early funding from multiple SARE grants as well as other sources.

The need for the assessment was born out of a survey of Northeastern farmers, many of whom used traditional soil tests but “felt there was something more going on with their soils,” says Bianca Moebius-Clune, director of the soil health division at USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. “There were erosion issues, they had weed issues, they had decreasing yields even though they needed to irrigate more, put on more fertilizer, more pesticides. And they really didn’t have good diagnostic tools for all of these issues.”

The Cornell lab currently receives about 2,000 samples per year, and interest in the assessment continues to grow in the Northeast and across the country.

Raising Locally-Adapted and Disease Resistant Queens in Illinois

Posted on September 9, 2015December 16, 2025 by Jamie Storrow

It is no secret that we are losing bees at higher rates than ever before: On average, beekeepers lose 33 percent of their hives each year. This unfortunate occurrence is known as Colony Collapse Disorder, caused by many different factors such as disease, the varroa mite, pesticide poisoning and habitat loss. And while most bees today are raised in warm climates to be highly productive, they are not necessarily resilient to pests, diseases and cold weather.

To help increase the prevalence of locally-raised bees in Illinois, beekeeper Stu Jacobson used a SARE grant to start the Illinois Queen Initiative (IQI). The organization provides training to beekeepers on how to raise queens that are adapted to Illinois' harsh winters, and resistant to disease and the varroa mite.

Since 2008, the IQI has conducted trainings and workshops around SARE’s North Central Region, and has helped create a queen rearing industry in Illinois. “Before we started the first grant, there was one person raising queens that I know of in Illinois that was selling them,” says Stu. “Now there’s about eight, which doesn’t sound like a great deal but it has steadily grown over the past eight years and I’m hoping it will continue to grow.”

Integrated Pest Management in Alabama

Posted on September 9, 2015December 16, 2025 by Jamie Storrow

Organic vegetable growers in the Deep South face a constant battle with pests. In Alabama, new information is leading to better crop protection and more profitability, thanks to the work of Ayanava Majumdar, Alabama Extension entomologist and Southern SARE state coordinator. As a SARE state coordinator, Majumdar is tasked with bringing sustainable agriculture information to fellow Extension colleagues and local farmers.

Majumdar works with growers on a range of prevention and control strategies, from scouting to trap cropping to novel techniques like the use of shade cloth. Through research and the dissemination of strategies to improve farmers' use of integrated pest management (IPM), Majumdar has helped growers statewide protect crops worth an estimated $2 million since 2012. "From the producer perspective, there was no knowledge infrastructure before the SARE program was initiated," Majumdar says.

Interested in learning more about shade cloth? In this video, Alabama farmer Will Mastin discusses his experience using shade cloth during the course of his Southern SARE Farmer grant. Also available is the bulletin High Tunnel Pest Exclusion System: A Novel Strategy for Organic Crop Production in the South (PDF), written by Majumdar and Mastin.

No-Till and Cover Crop Innovations Increase Dairy Profits

Posted on November 4, 2013December 16, 2025 by Jamie Storrow

Summertime for dairy farmers in New England is anything but slow. Silage corn must be planted and harvested in a short window to provide high-quality forage for cattle, leaving little time to plant cover crops to replenish the soil. Under pressure to get corn planted early, farmers may delay the first cutting of hay, sacrificing forage quality.

To help dairy farmers optimize overall forage production and quality, SARE-funded researchers led field trials and demonstrations in three New England states to determine the benefits of cover crops, no-till and shorter-season corn silage varieties. They found that planting silage corn using no-till reduced time and money spent in the field—to the tune of $50 per acre. Farmer participants accomplished this by reducing fuel use on average by 5.7 gallons per acre and time in the field by 2.75 hours per acre. And at $30 per acre, the cost of planting cover crops effectively replaced nitrogen fertilizer, both in cost and N availability.

“Winter cover crops were not something that we used on every field before no-till, but now they are essential,” say silage farmers Jeffrey and Penny Stevens, who participated in the project and have adopted these innovations. “Our fuel costs are lower and the cover crops replace some of our fertilizer inputs.”

The research team, led by University of Maine Cooperative Extension Educator Rick Kersbergen, demonstrated that a combination of shorter-season silage corn and no-till planting freed up time for farmer participants to incorporate cover crops into their rotation. The improvement in forage quality—without sacrificing yield—resulted in increased milk production and farm profitability. “It is critical to find ways to reduce costs for dairy farmers to stay viable. And quality forage production is critical for farmers reducing input costs,” Kersbergen says.

Thirty-three of 103 farmers who responded to the post-project survey adopted no-till corn and cover crop strategies on almost 3,000 acres of land, primarily because of the economic benefits. They also cited improved moisture management and soil quality. “There was more adoption because we did trials on farm fields and held lots of field days,” Kersbergen says. “People saw the actual impact and results on other farmers’ fields—on commercial farms.”

Short-season corn had similar yields that were higher in quality than longer-season varieties, according to variety trials in Maine and Massachusetts. On one Maine farm in a 2012 trial, for example, researchers estimated that switching from a 94-day variety to an 85-day variety would increase income by $670 per acre, when using a milk value of $20 per hundredweight, because milk production per acre increased by 3,350 pounds.

For their work, Kersbergen and his colleagues received the 2013 Search for Excellence in Sustainable Agriculture Award. Sponsored by SARE and the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA), the award recognizes four NACAA members each year for excellence in the development and implementation of educational programs that advance the adoption of sustainable management practices.