Extension in Western Massachusetts

About Western Massachusetts

The western region of Massachusetts is composed of Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin Counties. The largest city in the region is Springfield, located in Hampden County, along the Interstate 91 corridor on the Connecticut River.

Maple Sugaring: Tapping into climate impacts, study tours, and new grading system

March 9, 2016

If you are a devotee of New England sugar houses and their distinctive seasonal crop, you may soon be eating your syrup-drenched pancakes along with a side order of concern.

Kristina Stinson, plant ecologist at the University of Massachusetts, recently received a two-year, $149,800 grant to study the impact of climate change on the quantity and quality of sugar maple sap, including its chemical composition.

Mass Net Zero Data Center in Holyoke aims to make Green High Performance Computing Center carbon neutral

March 1, 2016

HOLYOKE — Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (professor Prashant Shenoy, College of Information and Computer Sciences) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing battery technology at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center that could make the hydropowered city even more carbon neutral.

UMass Amherst Offers Online Associate of Science in Sustainable Food and Farming

February 16, 2016

AMHERST, Mass. – The Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is now offering a fully online associate of science degree in sustainable food and farming. Starting in September 2016, the 60-credit associate degree will allow students to study sustainable food and farming from anywhere in the world. (News Office 2/11/16)

Dairy Event

February 11, 2016

Are you wondering if a robotic milking machine is right for your farm? If so, be sure to attend a one-day conference on Wednesday, February 24 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at UMass Crop and Animal Research and Education Center in South Deerfield. This event will share perspectives from both farmers and industry representatives on robotic milking to help you decide whether or not robotic milking is a viable option for your farm. Come and speak with farmers who have the system in place.

Young Energy for an Older City

Students and faculty from UMass Amherst have become welcome partners in the work of effective planning for Massachusetts’ third largest city. Through collaboration between the UMass Amherst Design Center in Springfield, Massachusetts and that city’s Planning Department, students from the University twenty miles to the north have been actively creating opportunities for citizen engagement and innovation. 

Joseph Troll Turf Research Facility, South Deerfield, Massachusetts

If you stand atop Mount Sugarloaf in South Deerfield, Massachusetts and turn your eyes to the base of the mountain to the south, you could well imagine you are gazing upon a lush patchwork quilt in shades of green.  In fact, you would be observing the well-defined square plots that form research fields along the Connecticut River. Thanks to the ground-breaking turfgrass research conducted by University of Massachusetts professor Joseph Troll forty years ago, the facility on River Road in South Deerfield has evolved into one of the premier turf research centers in the Northeast.

Pages