BATAVIA, N.Y. -- When it comes to growing vegetables, knowing the challenges that can affect your crops is half the battle.
The Cornell Vegetable Program's 2nd annual Vegetable Field Day was an opportunity for farmers and growers to come together to learn about pest management options, as well as the latest agricultural innovations.
Whether it's keeping birds and bugs at bay or keeping weeds from taking root, but this year, farmers' biggest concerns is the weather.
"And it's mostly just the sharing, we bring the research coming out of campus, Ithaca or wherever, and we try to apply it to the field." said Dr. Darcy Telenko, a vegetable specialist from Cornell Cooperative Extension. "It's a seven-year deal, if you talk to any of farmers that have been farming 20 or 30 years, their dads, and their granddads have told them every seven to 10 years we tend to have a drought."
"The drought is real bad this year, It's terribly dry and I don't have any real irrigation," local farmer Mark Upton said. "If you were to go farming without their help, you'd probably go bankrupt pretty quick."
And in dryer summer seasons like 2016, that makes Cornell Cooperative Extension's role that much more important.