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Precision Vineyard Management Field Day and Shaulis Symposium set

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County’s Lake Erie Regional Grape Program is pleased to announce that LERGP and Cornell Research and Extension Laboratory has been working to Improve the Bottom Line for commercial competitive grape production using Precision Vineyard Management techniques. The goal is to deliver an innovative, science-driven, and approachable precision viticulture platform to measure and manage sources of vineyard variation.

The 44th American Society for Enology & Viticulture — Eastern Section (ASEV-ES) Annual Meeting is held this year in Geneva, NY from July 16-18 along with the Nelson J. Shaulis Symposium, entitled “Digital Viticulture: New Tools for Precision Management” that will demonstrate our research efforts.

Dr. Terry Bates and the collaborative efforts of a group of viticulturists, engineers, scientists, economists, extension educators, and industry representatives from Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, IRSTEA, and UC Davis worked together to bring to the grape industry the latest in modeling, sensing, and management technologies.

The Shaulis symposium’s focus this year is on applying viticulture principles to address within-vineyard variability using the three-step process: Measure, Model, and Manage. New technologies such as inexpensive sensors, digital imaging, geographical information systems, and precision machinery are converging to make precision viticulture possible.

On July 17, there is a Field Day and Bus Tour that focuses on demonstrations of sensors, mapping technology, and variable-rate GIS-ready equipment for vineyard management. Attendees will spend their morning at Clearview Vineyards in Branchport, NY for demonstrations on spatial crop load management, yield monitors, mechanical yield estimation, tractor mounted normalized difference vegetation index sensors (NDVI), Brix mapping, and GPS-enabled tractors. Attendees will break for lunch, with area wine included, and then travel to Anthony Road Vineyards, Seneca Lake, NY to see demonstrations with drones, imaging systems including drones and cluster imaging systems, novel sensors, and tools for canopy management.

On July 18 the Nelson J. Shaulis Symposium will be held at the Scandling Campus Center of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY. The day consists of 12 speakers delivering research from across the globe over four sessions.

Session 1 focuses on physiology of vine balance and precision viticulture. Session 2 is metrics for management using sensors, drones, satellites, and analytical equipment. Session 3 focuses on models for management of the flood of data to practical tools for deciding ‘what I need to do and where’; and the fourth session are examples from around the world. The Shaulis Symposium will conclude with a reception for attendees after the last session.

Information about the ASEV-ES conference, registration forms, and hotels is available on the website www.asev-es.org. The options for hotel and room accommodations for the conference and the Shaulis Symposium include the Ramada Geneva Lakefront hotel in Geneva, NY, the Hampton Inn by Hilton Geneva, and dorm rooms at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Dr. Nelson Shaulis was the professor of viticulture at Cornell University’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva from 1944 until his retirement in 1978. He also worked at Cornell’s Vineyard Laboratory in Fredonia.

Dr. Shaulis is considered by viticulturists to be the father of canopy management to control vine diseases and improve grape yields and wine quality through techniques to broaden the exposure of leaves and grapes on trellises to the sunshine. He also worked with Cornell’s department of agricultural engineering to develop the mechanical grape harvester, especially for use with the Geneva Double Curtain trellis system. Today, industry and growers use harvesters modeled after the Cornell machine to bring in grapes everywhere.

Dr. Shaulis, along with others, developed principles of vine physiology that formed the basis of modern viticulture that we use today. Their work has allowed New World, areas outside of Europe and the Middle East, juice and winegrowing to emerge as a major factor in international trade in the last 50 years.

The Lake Erie Regional Grape Program is a cooperative effort between Cornell and Penn State Universities; the participating Cornell Cooperative Extension Associations of Chautauqua, Erie, Niagara and Cattaraugus Counties in New York and Erie County in Pennsylvania; and participating industry partners National Grape Cooperative (Welch’s), Constellation Brands and Walkers Fruit Basket. The LERGP extension team provides research-based educational programming for commercial grape growers throughout the year at venues across the Lake Erie grape belt. For more information on LERGP, call 716-792-2800 or visit our website at http://lergp.cce.cornell.edu/

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