The Cornell Cooperative Extension Lake Ontario Fruit team invites you to join our organization; you must be enrolled to benefit from the expertise of our Specialists. Enrollment in a partner county will provide a subscription to our newsletter, Fruit Notes, and access to Fruit FAX (the more time sensitive reminders for pest management and horticultural practices) and the Harvest Maturity subscription will provide you with apple ripening index measurements to help time harvest of apples by variety. We can also do farm visits to troubleshoot problems or evaluate situations.

In 2018, our program will be supported, in part, by 5 county Cornell Cooperative Extensions: Monroe, Niagara, Orleans, Oswego and Wayne Counties. If you are farming or living in one of these counties you can click on the county listed above or enroll in our program (form below) by printing and mailing the In-Region PDF Enrollment form below.

However, we still welcome those that farm or conduct agricultural services in other counties outside of Niagara, Orleans, Oswego, Monroe and Wayne Counties to enroll in our program (Satellite Enrollment). The Satellite enrollment will also provide a subscription to our newsletter, Fruit Notes, and access to Fruit FAX and the Harvest Maturity subscription. However, we must continue to respect the major supporting role of the partner counties who continue to support the cost of the program overall. Therefore, the growers who enroll through the Satellite program can only access specialists on the team for consultation by phone, fax, or email. Unfortunately, specialists will not be able to do on-farm visits or applied research out of the partner counties. But there is a lot we can do electronically through communication technology these days! If you would like to become a member of our program through our Satellite enrollment you can enroll by printing and mailing the Satellite PDF Enrollment form below

For enrollment information contact Kim Hazel, email Kim or call her at 585-798-4265 ext. 26.

LOF Enrollment Form - In Region (PDF; 188KB)

LOF Enrollment Form - Satellite (PDF; 187KB)

FSMA 7 Hour Grower Training Course Plus optional 2nd Day Farm Food Safety Plan Writing Workshop

May 2, 2018 : FSMA 7 Hour Grower Training Course

May 3, 2018 : Optional Farm Food Safety Plan Writing Workshop

This program is for fruit and vegetable growers who need Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) certification or GAPs/HGAPs (Good Agricultural Practices/ Harmonized Good Agricultural Practices) training required by buyers (i.e. 3rd-party food safety audits based on a written food safety plan) or if you are just interested in learning about produce safety.

Over the course of the training, certified Produce Safety Alliance trainers will cover content contained in these seven modules:

• Introduction to Produce Safety
• Worker Health, Hygiene, and Training
• Soil Amendments
• Wildlife, Domesticated Animals, and Land Use 
• Agricultural Water (Part I: Production Water; Part II: Postharvest Water) 
• Postharvest Handling and Sanitation 
• How to Develop a Farm Food Safety Plan

An optional farm food safety plan writing workshop is offered on May 3. Separate registration required.

Save these Dates!

July 12 - Lake Ontario Fruit Program Summer Tour - Wayne County

August 2-4 - Young Growers Tour - Pennsylvania

August 6 - Hard Cider Tour - Western NY

Please check back for more details.

FSMA Training & Optional Workshop

2 May - FSMA 7 Hour Grower Training Course
3 May - Farm Food Safety Plan Writing Workshop
For more details & registration visit:  https://lof.cce.cornell.edu/event.php?id=929

Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark Survey

By participating in the Farm Employee Compensation Benchmark survey you can find out how your employee compensation compares to benchmark data in your farm industry and across the state. More details and link to the survey at: https://lof.cce.cornell.edu/submission.php?id=540&crumb=business|business

Fit Testing Organizations

Details on organizations offering fit testing @ https://lof.cce.cornell.edu/submission.php?id=521&crumb=crops|crops|apples|crop*38

Don't Forget to take the Agricultural Labor Survey

More details and survey at: https://lof.cce.cornell.edu/submission.php?id=519&crumb=business|business

2018 Fruit School Presentations Now Available

Now available pdfs of some of the materials presented at the 2018 Lake Ontario Winter Fruit Schools.
https://lof.cce.cornell.edu/submission.php?id=516&crumb=crops|crops|apples|crop*38

2017 Census of Agriculture Info

For info on 2017 Census of Agriculture click here

2017 Census of Agriculture

Producers who are new to farming or did not receive a Census of Agriculture in 2012 still have time to sign up to receive the 2017 Census of Agriculture report form by visiting www.agcensus.usda.gov and clicking on the ‘Make Sure You Are Counted' button through June. NASS defines a farm as any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year (2017).

For more information about the 2017 Census of Agriculture and to see how census data are used, visit www.agcensus.usda.gov or call (800) 727-9540.