periodiCALS, Vol. 9, Issue 1, 2019
I’m the third generation of my family to farm the land my grandfather bought in New York in 1951. Farming has always been heavily dependent on the weather, but every year, there seems to be more weather extremes—greater temperature variations, more periods without rain and, when it does fall, more extreme deluges. Wet conditions increase plant diseases and fungi that can hurt crops. Corn and green peas suffer, for example, from soilborne, moisture-loving pathogens Pythium and Phytophthora. When there are long periods with no rain, that’s problematic, too; this year brought these little pests, thrips, that thrive in dry heat and feed on plants. Thrips attack many vegetables, but they can destroy an onion crop. Other pests that previously would have been killed off over the winter are now surviving the milder winters.
Our operation, CY Farms in Elba, New York, is trying to tackle the problem of weather extremes from many directions. For one, we are highly diversified. We farm 6,000 acres of crops including fresh market onions, processing peas, snap beans, spinach, corn, wheat and soybeans. We also grow alfalfa for our 3,500 dairy heifer replacement facility, and we have 300 acres of commercial turf grass.
A wide variety of digital agriculture technologies is used on the farm to solve challenges. These techniques are helping us respond to problems and weather events in real time in ways that were unimaginable even a decade ago. For example, GPS-based soil samples in the fields are overlaid with historical yield maps and soils maps. Then we can program our equipment to vary our fertilizer and seed application. The equipment actually does the work by changing application rates as the machine moves across the field, with accuracy to a degree of less than an inch. The ability to make these changes allows us to increase productivity on optimal sections of our fields and limit our fertilizer use on the less productive soils. This saves us money and makes us better stewards of the environment: Less fertilizer runoff protects water quality.
Teams of researchers at Cornell CALS and Cornell Cooperative Extension are instrumental in helping our farm succeed. Expertise means boots in the field: Cornell scientists are doing the research, looking ahead at problems and working with us to find solutions. The Cornell Initiative for Digital Agriculture is exciting for farmers like me. As problems grow every year, we need folks who are going to stay in front of these challenges and help us solve them. It’s a perfect fit for Cornell to take on this challenge. Biological systems, plant genetics, information science, robotics—all of these disciplines can be brought together in one place to create the knowledge that agriculture needs to respond. It’s very exciting to be a New York state grower and know that your Land-Grant university is leading change in the agriculture industry.
Farming is all about overcoming obstacles. The more we improve—whether it’s putting in irrigation systems, increasing the accuracy of weather forecasts or implementing digital agriculture technologies—the more we can get ahead of extreme conditions. I’m optimistic about the future. People around the world are recognizing the importance of our industry and the opportunities that lie ahead. Now is our time to seize the challenge.
Christian Yunker ’02 is a third-generation farmer and Cornellian. The family-owned CY Farms is located in western New York between Buffalo and Rochester. Christian returned to the farm in 2008 and became a partner in the business in 2010.
