The Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry (DACF) has allocated approximately $20MM in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for the new Agricultural Infrastructure Investment Program (AIIP).

The AIIP will provide critical funding for Maine farms and agricultural food processors pursuing infrastructure upgrades that will:

The Department has partnered with Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI) to serve as Third-Party Administrator for the program.

Sign up for updates on the program here

For more information, including how to register, visit the Extension Soil Health Course webpage.

There are still spots available! Link to information and registration.

Two poultry farms have been affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI; H5N1 in this case) in Newfoundland, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Since both farms allowed exposure to migratory waterfowl, and the virus has been found in regional wild birds, our regional poultry farmers should be on high alert for A.I. symptoms.

This is also a good time to review your biosecurity systems and enhance those measures. One particularly important practice is to exclude and wild birds from areas where your flock is accessing. The USDA Flock Defender program contains several resources related to improving poultry biosecurity.

If you have poultry mortailities, please reach out to the Cooperative Extension Veteranary Diagnostic Lab, or to the state veterinarian and Animal Health department.

The Northeast Cover Crops Council, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), and University of Vermont Extension invite you to join us for the fifth annual Northeast Cover Crops Council Conference. The conference will be held virtually on Thursday, March 10, 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and Friday, March 11, 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Registration gives you access to the conference platform a week before and two weeks following the conference. Plenary speakers include sustainable agriculture and climate resilience expert Dr. Mitch Hunter from American Farmland Trust, and Dr. Victoria Ackroyd with the University of Maryland sharing information on cover crop tools. Session topics include weed control, pest management, planting green, and tarping in cover crops, corn, soybean and on-farm research, precision agriculture, and more.

You are invited to participate in a research study being conducted by Tori Lee Jackson, Extension Professor of Agriculture & Natural Resources with UMaine Cooperative Extension, and Rosalie Wilson of Rose Wilson Consulting LLC, two of the authors of the 2016 Elderberry Production Guide published by The University of Vermont.

They are reaching out to commercial elderberry producers across New England to ascertain the overall health of the elderberry industry in our region. Participants must be at least 18 years old to participate and should have current or recent experience growing elderberries for sale.If you agree to participate, you will be asked to take an anonymous survey. The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

Please click on the link below to learn more about the study and to take the survey

If you have any questions, contact tori.jackson@maine.edu or 207.581.8201.

The fee is on a sliding scale, up to $10; registration is required to receive the link. Register on the event webpage. For more information or to request a reasonable accommodation, contact Becky Gray, 207.781.6099; extension.agcumberland@maine.edu.

Interested in running a meat goat operation? The Penn State Meat Goat Production and Management Home Study Course is for goat producers interested in improving their production practices and ultimately the profitability of their operation. This is a home study course with an additional offering of three optional supplemental webinars to review materials. Click here for more information.

My name is Elaina Enzien and I'm working on my masters in agricultural sciences at the University of New Hampshire. I am emailing to ask for your help in a research study to help assess cooperative business models of beef production to address harvest capacity constraints in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont (IRB-FY2022-186).

You are being asked to participate in a short online survey that should take you approximately 15 minutes to complete.

Participation is limited to beef producers that reside in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont and sell USDA inspected, State inspected, or Custom processed meat direct to consumers.

The results will be used in reports, presentations, and other publications. All participants identities will not be shared and will remain confidential. Your participation will help contribute to the development of resources, programs, and networks to aid in the expansion and sustainability of beef businesses and harvest facilities in northern New England.

My name is Izzy Ruffin, and I am currently writing a research paper for a Mediation: Premise, Practice and Policy class on the cumulative impact of stress on Maine farmers and how the impact of that stress can and should be addressed. This short anonymous survey, intended for farmers, will take no more than 5 minutes.

The results of this survey will serve as supplemental evidence to substantial research on stress and stress management in the field of agriculture and point to existing resources that are already available for free to Maine farmers through organizations like the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. With any hope, the paper will be officially published by the University of Maine in the Spring.

You can find the link to the survey here. Feel free to share it with other farmers you know. Thank you for your time!

The Farmer Equity National Assessment Project is seeking to better understand the needs and challenges of Farmers of Color and to highlight farmers' barriers, constraints, and innovations through storytelling. If you are willing, please complete a survey by December 15, 2021, to be entered on a list of farmers to potentially serve as case studies. The project will hand-select 50 farmers for the case studies, and farmers who are selected will receive a $500 stipend.