Posted by On January 15th, 2021 NYFVI and Farm Credit East hosted Part 2 of the webinar series: Identifying Common Elements of Change. Our goal for these sessions is to highlight examples where agricultural change has occurred, so others—whether researchers, educators or policy makers—can consider how to apply these lessons to their own work.
The session featured Cornell University’s Terence Robinson, sharing his perspective on why New York apple growers chose to transition their orchards to a tall spindle planting system over the last two decades. Robinson is an applied fruit crop physiologist focused on practical research and extension on tree fruit production problems that will increase the profitability and strength of the NY fruit industry and fruit growers around the world. His research and extension efforts include Orchard Systems, Root Stocks, Crop Load and Canopy management. Robinson has completed six NYFVI projects that have supported New York growers adoption of the new growing system.
Additionally, NYFVI shared the highlights of a survey among apple growers exploring their current production challenges and research priorities.
A recording of the webinar is available here.
At the first webinar, participants heard from behavioral science expert John Pickering with Evidn about the factors that can influence a farmer’s decision to adopt a new practice. Dr. Julie Sorensen with Basset Healthcare shared her NYFVI funded project on behavioral nudging to increase adoption of safety practices on dairy farms. A recording of that session is available here.