This year, Rutgers University is commemorating its 250th anniversary. To celebrate, the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station is selecting a plant bred at Rutgers as a Rutgers 250 Variety of the Month for each month of the year. This month’s variety (April 2016) is the Rutgers 250TM tomato! Rutgers’ tomato breeding program has been selecting […]
Commercial Agriculture
Cold temperatures are hurting N.J. fruit crop, experts say
Temperatures dipped to 23 degrees Monday night at the Snyder Research Farm, said Rutgers Professor Emeritus Win Cowgill, leading to fears that the cold will damage this year’s fruit tree crops around the state.
The humble dung beetle is a great ally in the fight against climate change
A life surrounded by and living in crap has its benefits – if you’re a dung beetle. That life is also a boon to livestock, us, and our planet. The dung beetle, who spends its days living, eating, and reproducing in poop, is a master at waste management… Today, many entomologists and farmers have high praise for dung beetles. “They are the good guys,” George Hamilton, PhD and chair of the Department of Entomology at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, said. “We have them here in New Jersey. On farms they aerate and consume decomposing manure. Without them, decomposition wouldn’t happen as quickly as it does now.”
Hunterdon County Ag Agent Win Cowgill Retires
Professor Win Cowgill retired April 1, 2016 after 38 years of service. Cowgill started his extension career in 1978 as a county agricultural agent in Warren County, and transferred to Hunterdon County in 1989. He served as the area fruit agent for North Jersey for most of his career. Cowgill helped establish the Rutgers Snyder […]
GARDENER STATE: Jersey Fresh: Loud and proud!
Jersey Fresh. Now, you might be thinking this may be more about that stray salad item that landed on your lap or the food fight tomato or pie in the face? While those may be embarrassing or even a bit funny, this is really about promoting NJ agricultur…
How to Get Ready for the 2016 Fruit Season
As I prepare this article, the season is running a full two weeks ahead of last year’s green tip date on apple! Mature apple scab spores were detected on March 7 in New York’s Hudson Valley by Dave Rosenberger of Cornell University and on March 10 by K…
Recreating Rutgers tomato took some sleuthing
A few weeks ago, we heard from listeners whose curiosity and appetite were piqued by a story we aired about limited seed availability for a new New Jersey tomato – the Rutgers 250, which is based on a tomato developed by Rutgers back in 1934. NewsWorks…
Former RAREC Directors Gerald Ghidiu and Bradley Majek Cited for Distinguished Service to NJ Agriculture
[Source: NJDA press release] Gerald Ghidiu, retired extension specialist in entomology and former director of the Rutgers Agricultural Research and Extension Center (RAREC), and Bradley Majek, weed specialist who retired in 2013 as director of RAREC, were honored Feb. 10 with Distinguished Service to Agriculture citations by the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture during […]
2015 NJAES Annual Report Available for New Jersey Stakeholders
The 2015 NJAES Annual Report, produced by the Office of the Executive Dean of Agriculture and Natural Resources Robert Goodman, was unveiled on Feb. 11 at the final day of the New Jersey Agricultural Convention in Atlantic City. The report highlights the research and extension activities of the experiment station under the six broad categories […]
Rutgers Revolutionary: Cracking the Genetic Code of Plants
Prof. Joachim Messing, among the world’s top experts in molecular genetics, became famous for developing a genetic engineering technique used in laboratories to create plants that have produced disease-resistant crops considered vital to feeding the world’s population. Instead of cashing in on his discovery, he gave this scientific blueprint away for free to his fellow […]
