NMSP Staff

People

We work in close collaboration with:

Cornell Cooperative Extension Field Crops Educators

Program Report (9/5/2009)


Quirine Ketterings	Greg Godwin	Anne Place	Sheryl Swink	Karl Czymmek


Patty Ristow	Caroline Rasmussen	Sanjay Gami	Sarah Wharton	Lisa Fields


Emma Long	Sarah Moss	Chang Lian	Tom Kilcer	Peter Barney


Hettie Krol	Jeff Williard	Margaret Dunn	Eun Hong

The Nutrient Management Spear Program was initiated in August 2000 when Quirine Ketterings joined the faculty of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Cornell University as assistant professor of nutrient management in agricultural systems. Key collaborator in the Spear Program is Karl Czymmek, PRO-DAIRY's senior extension associate in nutrient management. Greg Godwin research support specialist, joined us in August of 2002. Greg carries responsibilities for our (largely) field-based research program. Caroline Rasmussen joined our staff as research support specialist in October of 2002. Besides work on our mass nutrient balance projects, Caroline also helps with software development and support. Sheryl Swink joined us as program support specialist for the NY Starter P Project in the fall of 2002 and is currently working on documentation of our soil fertility research history at Cornell University. Patty Ristow, extension associate, joined us in December of 2006. Patty is responsible for Cropware support and development with help from Caroline, and leads a project focussing on optimization of whole farm nutrient management with case study dairy farms in New York (both small and large farms). Kate Birchenough and Sara Zglobicki are our writer for student and project impact stories. We contracted with Peter Barney, who retired from Cornell Cooperative Extension of St Lawrence County in December of 2007 for on-farm projects in St Lawrence. Our latest staff addition to the team is post doctoral researcher Sanjay Gami. Sanjay completed his PhD at Cornell University and joined us in December of 2008.

We have two graduate students in our program: Anne Place and Sarah Wharton. Anne graduated from SUNY Cobleskill and joined us in May of 2009. She works on our manure application method study, evaluation both nutrient use efficiency and economics of various application methods. Sarah Wharton joins us in June of 2009. She is a graduate from SUNY Plattsburgh.

We greatly enjoy working with undergraduates, through independent research projects, work-study programs, and internships. Sarah Moss, freshman in animal science at the time, joined us in the fall of 2006 and is helping with a variety of projects. Emma Long and Chang Lian, both Agricultural Sciences majors joined us to gain research experience in the spring of 2009, and this summer we will be joined by Graham Swanepoel (International Studies Program) and two new Cobleskill interns, John Weiss and Hillary Bundick.

Of great help has been Hettie Krol. She helps with data entry, has been invaluable in the preparation of a 7-day trip to the Netherlands by a team of Cornell animal scientist and agronomists in 2003 to learn about nutrient management issues. She was instrumental in the development of our soil test summaries and co-recipient of the 2005 Outstanding New Publication Award from the NYS Association of County Agricultural Extension Educators (NYSACAA) for this publication series.

A major role in the program is played by Cornell Cooperative Extension Field Crops Educators. Twice a year we get together to discuss progress, needs for future research and extension activities, new research findings, and to inform each other of subject matters that are of importance to the future of New York farming. Many of our projects were developed in collaboration with our field crop agents and almost all are involved in one or more of our research and demonstration projects.

Past Spear members include:

Kulbushan Grover joined us as post doc in December of 2008 after graduation from Penn State University. He was offered a faculty position at New Mexico State University and started his new position in April of 2009.

Kevin Dietzel joined us in fall 2006 to help with harvest and decided to stay with us to work on a lime study (publication in press), a phosphorus incubation study, and a sulfur for alfalfa project on which he worked together with Chie Miyamoto, our second Cobleskill inter, who joined us again after completion of her internship as a Cobleskill student. Kevin left for Iowa in December of 2008. Chie returned to Japan in January of 2009.

In the summer of 2008, Kate Orloski, sociology major at Cornell University, joined us and she worked with us on two independent research projects in the fall of 2008.

Scott Grant, sophomore double majoring in Crop and Soil Science and Agricultural Economics, joined us in 2005 to work on an independent research project on spatial variability in soil fertility and its impact on fertilizer and management guidelines. Scott graduated with a research distinction and honors thesis in May of 2008. Has was Presidential Scholar and is the lead author on a journal publication that is currently in review. Scott currently works with Citigroup Inc. in Houston, Texas.

Our latest international visitor was Cansheng Yuan, Senior Agronomist with Nanjing Management Station of Soil and Fertilization, Nanjing Bureau of Agriculture and Forestry, China. Cansheng worked with us on a CEC project during his 6 months sabbatical leave (December 2007-May, 2008). Prior to Cansheng, we were visited by Dr. Metin Turan, Ataturk University in Turkey. He joined us for 3 months of research on P sorption capacities of calcareous soils in September-December 2006. We are now working on not only the publication of the research Dr. Metin did while at Cornell but also on a number of new joint projects and have co-published 4 journal articles to date.

Joe Lawrence joined as a graduate student (MSc degree in soil science) in January 2006 and graduated in January 2008. He joined Cornell Cooperative Extension of Lewis County after graduation and is their field crops specialist now. His studies resulted in three journal articles focussing on tools for nitrogen management and a manure application method comparison.

Wayne Berry did his Cobleskill internship with us in 2007. Wayne was our first Cobleskill intern. He helped out with ongoing work and conducted a greenhouse study on the effect of manure treatments on N and P availability with sorghum sudangrass as test crop. He returned to his home-state Maine after graduation.

Ryan Haden joined us in summer 2003 and again winter and summer 2006 to work on research on phosphorus dynamics including writing of a publication which was published in 2007. Ryan is currently working on his PhD with research in the Phillipines under guidance of Dr. John Duxbury.

Hannah Graeper joined us for the summer of 2006 to help Joe and Greg with field work. She was a geography student at Binghamton University at the time.

In February of 2002, Greg Albrecht became extension associate with teaching and extension responsibilities. Greg's major responsibilities were in teaching an undergraduate capstone course on whole farm nutrient management (AS/CSS 412), support, further development and teaching of Cornell Cropware, and development of learning modules and nutrient management tools (calculators etc.). Greg left NMSP to become statewide CNMP specialist working with the Soil and Water Conservation Committee, a newly created job for CNMP support in NY, in February of 2006.

Liz Brock joined us in January of 2004 to work on her masters in Soils and Crops with research on phosphorus dynamics on dairy farms. She succesfully defended her thesis in December 2005. Her work generated three journal articles, two focusing on phosphorus and one on zinc and copper. After graduation, she joined American Farmland Trust to be their Hudson Valley New York Field Representative.

Beth Medvecky transferred into the program in the spring of 2003. She worked on her PhD degree in Soils and Crops with research on the interactions between bean root rot diseases and soil fertility management Kenya. She graduated in August 2005. Her work resulted in three papers (two published and one in press). She is working as assistant director with CIIFAD at Cornell University.

We worked closely with Micah Woods, graduate student in the Department of Horticulture. Micah worked on nonacid cations bioavailability in sand rootzones. His work has generated five published journal articles. Micah succesfully defended his dissertation in December 2005 and received his PhD in January 2006. He now runs is own company (Asian Turfgrass Center), with a home-base in Bangkok, Thailand.

Andy Durow joined us in the summer of 2003 after graduation from Suny Morrisville. He did his junior and senior year at Cornell in the Dairy Fellows Program and is currently operating a 500-cow dairy farm in Minnesotal. Rory Mauro joined us in the summer of 2004. He went on to pursue a degree in Environmental Health from Columbia University in 2005.

Jason Kahabka joined us in November of 2003 as extension associate with half-time duties for phosphorus research in Northern New York, including rainfall simulations (he build our rainfall simulator) on farms and research stations. Jason left our team in November 2005 to pursue a 2-year contract with the Graduate School at Cornell University.

Naoko Suzuki joined our staff in November of 2002 to work on laboratory analyses for a project on phosphorus dynamics in Northern NY. She moved to North Carolina in October 2004 and current lives in Tokyo, Japan.

In the spring of 2002, Jonathan Klapwyk joined us to pursue a masters degree in soil and crop sciences. Jonathan graduated with a degree in Agronomy from the University of Guelph in May of 2003 and conducted his research project at Cornell on testing and calibration of the Illinois Soil N Test for corn in New York. Jon graduated in August 2005, worked as a lecturer in Kemptville College - University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, prior to moving back to Ontario where he now works for Price Seeds. Jon's work generated three journal articles of which one was published before he graduated. The last two were published in 2006.

In the winter of 2003, we had Marike Noij and Desiree Brandhorst, two undergraduates (juniors) from Larenstein University of Professional Studies, the Netherlands, with us for their 3-month internship. Marike conducted research on aggregate distribution and stability as part of a study on the effects of manure management on soil health and Desiree worked with Natalie Galens on the NY Amino Sugar Project. Sander van den Hoogen joined us for 6 months in the winter and spring of 2004 helping us with field projects and working with Jon Klapwyk on analyses of samples for the aminosugar N project. Erwin Nijsingh did his 3- month internship with us in the fall of 2004 working on assessment of soil physical characteristics of production fields that have been amended with compost or manure. Our last Dutch intern was Johan Mekken. He conducted a 6 month research project with us in 2005. Due to visa issues, we could unfortunately not continue our exchange program with Larenstein University.

Natalie Galens joined in the spring of 2002 when she a junior majoring in agronomy at Cornell. She led the New York Amino Sugar Project until she graduated in May of 2003. Natalie presented her research at the 2003 undergraduate research forum organized by CURB. This June, she was selected as the winner of the 2003 NE Region Agronomy Society of America Outstanding Senior Student Award. She received the award at the 2003 NE-ASA/SSSA meeting that was held in Burlington, Vermont. Natalie was first employed as the Horticulture/Nutrition Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rensselaer County following graduation and then moved to New Hampshire in December of 2003. She is now back in New York State, working with FSA in Cayuga County.

Joe Orloski (Cornell biology major) joined the program as summer intern in 2001 and continued to work with us through fall 2001 and spring 2002 on his individual research project on the effects of N and K fertility management on reed canary grass root systems (jointly advised by Dr. Jerry Cherney). He finished his undergraduate thesis in May of 2002 and graduated in May of 2003. Joe presented his research at the 2002 undergraduate research forum organized by CURB. He is coauthor on a publication that appeared in the Journal of Plant Nutrition in 2004. Joe went to medical school in his home state of Pennsylvania.

Tim Byron was our first research support specialist in the program. He joined in February of 2001 and left us to return to Montana in August of 2002.