New York is fortunate to have so many organizations interested in supporting the State’s agricultural community. Below are organizations that may be good partners for collaboration. This list is not comprehensive. It is simply where we have seen collaborations work previously.
Cornell University
The breadth and depth of expertise found at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell AgriTech and throughout the Cooperative Extension system is significant. Please review the organization’s capabilities online for collaboration opportunities.
William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute. Miner Institute’s highly regarded professional staff, exceptional technical staff, and well-managed dairy and crop program combine to support a unique research model focused on the interface of crops, dairy cattle, nutrient management, and milk quality. In addition to conducting research on-site, we have experience working with area farmers leading research projects in dairy nutrition, nutrient management, calf management, and heat stress. The professional staff at Miner Institute include Dr. Rick Grant, Dr. Heather Dann, Dr. Sarah Morrison, Laura Klaiber and Katie Ballard and spans a broad range of expertise. We look forward to collaborating with others to undertake projects which provide solutions for New York State’s dairy farmers. To learn more please visit www.whminer.com.
Northeast Organic Farming Association of NY (NOFA-NY) . NOFA-NY is the leading organization in New York State that focuses on organic farming. NOFA-NY can offer over 30 years of organic expertise and a trove of organic farmers who can participate with on-farm research projects. NOFA-NY is interested in partnering with academic institutions to extend outreach to the organic community and conduct advanced soil health testing to understand the cumulative impacts of farming practices on soil health. Research results intend to better understand healthy soils and potential increased productivity, profitability and sustainability. Through our members and affiliates, NOFA-NY can share information with hundreds of organic farmers across the region. Visit nofany.org for more information or email our Executive Director, Bethany Wallis at Bethany@nofany.org
Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine. The Light and Health Research Center at Mount Sinai is rooted in over 30 years’ experience at the Lighting Research Center at RPI, developing light-based science, systems and solutions, with extensive facilities and expertise in optics, electronics, mechanics, thermal design, sensing and imaging. Our studies continue to be centered around the development of precision light dosing solutions as a complementary and alternative form of pest management. Our current approaches include tractor-based UV treatments for reduction of powdery mildew on strawberries and cucurbits, downy mildew on cucurbits and are testing ideas for weed reduction. We are interested to expand our scope to new crop and pest systems, bringing the biophysics of light to crop protection. We seek partnerships with growers, cooperative extension, agricultural researchers and farm equipment manufacturers that are looking for novel solutions to treat above ground pests, such as bacteria, fungus, insects and weeds. More information can be found here.
Rochester Institute of Technology. Rochester Institute of Technology’s faculty are tackling food and agriculture challenges faced in our region and beyond. Expertise spans throughout all nine Colleges, whether it’s precision agriculture, imaging and color sciences, data collection and analysis, or developing effective sensors and UAVs, or designing biodegradable food packaging. At RIT, faculty also take on challenges in nutrition, food security and food safety. A culture of creativity, innovation and collaboration ensures the success of our students and faculty. RIT faculty regularly partner with leaders and experts in industry, government, and the community to take on any challenge. RIT faculty and students welcome partnerships from farmers and other agriculture experts to further their desire to make a difference in society.
SUNY Cobleskill
NYS Farm and Food Business Incubator (FFBI) provides business development and technical assistance services to agriculture business entrepreneurs. Incubator clients have access to the campus’ USDA certified meat processing laboratory and the new dairy processing center.
Agricultural Engineering. Trains students to diagnose, maintain and service state-of-the-art agricultural and construction equipment, including diagnostics of electrical and hydraulic systems. Faculty have developed innovative agricultural engineering solutions including a patent-pending waste to energy gasification system.
Institute for Rural Vitality. The Institute for Rural Vitality’s mission is to engage the substantial resources of SUNY Cobleskill in collaboration with regional partners to enhance community and economic vitality in rural New York. The Institute funds faculty fellows who work with students to address rural vitality issues in the community. For more information contact Barry Gell – gellbf@cobleskill.edu 518-255-5450 www.cobleskill.edu
SUNY Morrisville State College. SUNY Morrisville is an Agriculture and Technical college located in Morrisville, NY. The faculty expertise falls in the area of designing demonstration projects, and utilizing applied learning to involve Morrisville students, future industry practitioners, in applied research to improve industry outcomes. We have close ties with industry and community partners and have expertise in outreach education events. The disciplines related to Farm Viability grants include but are not limited to: field crop production, soil fertility and soil health, pasture management, landscape design, horticultural production, agricultural business development, agricultural entrepreneurship, livestock husbandry, dairy farm management, natural resource protection, arboriculture, aquaculture, and renewable fuels production. All faculty can be reached by calling the School of Agriculture and Business main number: 315-684-6056.
SUNY University at Buffalo. With ever growing global population coupled with depleting soil fertility and changing climate, there is an urgent need to optimize the limited food production resources to increase productivity and profitability with minimal environmental impacts. While advances in agricultural machinery and autonomous data acquisition produce huge amounts of data, the utilization of such big-data to support farm management decisions require a high-level of data processing expertise. SUNY at Buffalo has a Digital Agricultural Team (UBDAT) of multi-disciplinary computational scientists with expertise in data analytics (spatial and time-series data analysis, machine learning, etc). With a state-of-the-art Center for Computational Research , the team is seeking collaboration to provide ag-analytics support to fully leverage the information content of big-data projects to advance the viability of NYS Agriculture. The team also provides services in field mapping of soil electrical and magnetic susceptibility, and laboratory soil particle size analysis tests.