SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: NECC_OLD29 : Northeastern Corn Improvement Conference
- Period Covered: 10/01/2022 to 09/30/2023
- Date of Report: 09/21/2023
- Annual Meeting Dates: 02/23/2023 to 02/24/2023
Participants
Attached
74th Northeastern Corn Improvement Conference
23-24 February 2023
The Ohio State University, Wooster OH
Business Meeting Notes
Those in attendance met on Friday 24 February 2023 to provide state and industry reports (incorporated into the Proceedings) and plan for the future of NECC029, the Northeastern Corn Improvement Conference. The following points were made.
- With fewer corn researchers in the northeastern US, and in light of current participants from Midwest states, it might be good to change the name of this organization to the Northern Corn Improvement Conference or even just the Corn Improvement Conference.
- We debated whether it would be better to submit a renewal project through the Northeastern or North Central Regional Association of Ag Experiment Station Directors. We did not reach a definitive conclusion, given that there are arguments in favor of each option.
- There are new, younger faculty in many states, and we would like to attract them to this organization.
- Some of the new issues we might explicitly address could include:
- Aerial imagery and crop health
- Emerging diseases, such as tar spot
- Biologicals
- Water quality: participants are from states that border the Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes, and Mississippi River (which connects to the Gulf of Mexico)
- Stress physiology
- We discussed meeting jointly with other organizations/conferences. It seemed that no one group or conference captures the breadth of corn-related topics that we address at our meeting. Participants also liked the smaller size and friendly nature of our conference. We opted to meet independently again, and see how that goes.
Dan Quinn was nominated to be the secretary and chair elect of the group, and unanimously approved.
Our next meeting will be in Indianapolis, IN in February 2024.
Accomplishments
See State Reports beginning on page 11 of the attached Proceedings.
Impacts
- In-person annual meeting was held and current research results shared amongst University, USDA, and private sector researchers, thus advancing knowledge and collaborative opportunities for corn improvement.
- State reports provided shared information about corn pest distributions and severities across corn growing regions of the northeast and north central regions of the US.
- Graduate student presentations and attendance at the conference provided important professional development opportunities for students.
- Discussions about the renewal project focused on building participation and maintaining/building the public-private participation that has been a hallmark of the NECIC.