News from the Center

Dr. Wesley Autio of the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst leads tree fruit research trials at the UMass Cold Spring Orchard Research and Education Center in Belchertown, Mass.  Professor Autio’s efforts are an important component of an ongoing large multi-state tree fruit research program supported by the National Institute for Food and Agriculture at the U.S. Department of Agriculture that began in 1976. The project was recently awarded the 2015 Excellence in Multistate Research Award from U.S.D.A.’s Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy at a Washington D.C. ceremony.

Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA 2nd District) has an appetite for ending hunger. In late August, 2015, he took time from his hectic schedule to tour 13 small to medium-sized farms in his district. Among agenda items, he wanted to learn what was happening with local agriculture, how people are getting fed and how he could be helpful with issues faced by farmers. McGovern easily pulls together threads of connection between healthy food as medicine, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries and sustainable agricultural economies. An aspect of several local farms that interested him is their contribution of local produce to food banks and survival centers with some farms offering discounted CSA shares to low-income people.

Every two years, a Turf Research Field Day is hosted by the UMass Turf Program at the UMass Joseph Troll Turf Research Facility in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. This year’s program, held on July 15, featured discussions and demonstrations of ten ongoing research projects. Over 200 municipal turf managers, lawn care professionals, school field superintendents and others from the “green industry” spent the day under the shadow of Mount Sugarloaf learning about new research developments.

Agricultural producers as well as turf and landscape practitioners in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are advised to keep informed about nutrient management regulations. Statewide plant nutrient regulations are now in effect for turf care and are scheduled to take effect for agricultural production on December 5, 2015.