ALBANY COUNTY — Science and technology are expanding the frontiers of modern farming. This month, the Albany County Cornell Cooperative Extension will host a conference on climate change and how it affects pests and food production.

One of the conference speakers is the program manager for New York State Mesonet, a system of automated weather stations that broadcast real-time data every five minutes. A 30-foot Mesonet tower will soon be installed at Indian Ladder Farms in New Scotland.

This is the second annual conference hosted by New York State Integrated Pest Management (NYS IPM), which is part of the cooperative extension. Juliet Caroll, the event’s organizer and master of ceremonies, says this is the first year that the conference will discuss pest control, the previous year being on pollination.

“Last fall, we put our heads together and got some ideas, and this particular idea rose to the top,” she said.

One of the collaborators on the topic, Caroll also contacted many of the event speakers. She is the leader of the Network for Environmental and Weather Applications (NEWA), which develops web applications and tools for farmers and other growers to understand weather and other environmental conditions and how they affect pest conditions.

Caroll is also Fruit Integrated Pest Management Coordinator at NYS IPM, where she works to reduce pesticides in farming by using other means. She will be speaking at the event about NEWA’s various web applications for pest and blight control in crops. Caroll says there are 30 applications, each one correlating to a specific crop, plant disease, or pest.

The Albany County headquarters were chosen for their central location for many of speakers. One speaker will discuss ticks and mosquitoes and their relation to the spread of disease and climate. Another will tell farmers ways to adjust to climate change and encourage them to make preventative changes. Yet another will talk about the impact of climate change on forests and their insects.

“We’re trying to have topics that cover a wide range,” said Caroll.

New weather station at Indian Ladder Farms

Dr. Jerry Brotzge, program manager at the New York State Mesonet, will speak about using soil and weather data as information for planting and harvesting in an overview of the state’s weather system. The Mesonet, according to Brotzge, is a system of automated weather stations that broadcast real-time data every five minutes.

So far, 72 of the planned 125 stations have been set up. Local stations can be found in Duanesburg, Cobleskill, Schaghticoke, and Schuylerville. A new station is in the process of being set up at Indian Ladder Farms in New Scotland. According to Brotzge, the New Scotland station will be set up the same week as the conference.

Like a tree, the 30-foot tall stations are equipped with sensors up top in the air that measure precipitation, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed, and air pressure, and sensors embedded in the ground that measure soil moisture and temperature.

Brotzge says that private farms often end up being the location for the sensors, as the open fields of orchards, croplands, and livestock ranges work well for the sensors, and farmers often contact the Mesonet about using its data.

Peter Ten Eyck, of Indian Ladder Farms, says that the Mesonet program contacted his farm — primarily an orchard — about a year ago. Ten Eyck says that federal money leftover from the cleanup of Hurricane Sandy was put to use in setting up a network that could better predict hurricanes, and now New York State’s goal is to have two in every county.

According to Ten Eyck, Indian Ladder Farms is not receiving payment for having the station on its property, but benefits by being allowed free access to the station’s data.

“We’re trying to be the most sophisticated growers we can be,” said Ten Eyck, explaining how the Mesonet station will allow the farm to predict when insects, spores, or disease could afflict crops. The soil sensors will help him know when to irrigate plants. The station will also provide serious weather alerts.

Indian Ladder Farms now is using a station from NEWA’s own Mesonet, which has stations across the Northeast. The farm’s current station is a significantly smaller device placed on top of one of its roadside signs, equipped with a wind and rain gauge and a solar panel for power.

The data is then sent to the Dutch company RIMpro, which can predict upcoming pest or blight conditions. The benefit of the new station, says Ten Eyck, is the soil sensors that are not on the NEWA station.

Ten Eyck says this spring the farm planted about 6,000 trees — 1,000 to an acre with a yard’s length between each tree. When he was growing up, Ten Eyck said, the farm used to plant 54 large trees to an acre. Now, the little trees, which will grow just 11 feet tall, need to be grown with more attention to their safety.

“We have to grow better fruit and we have to grow it safe,” said Ten Eyck, “If small farmers like us are going to survive in a modern world, we have to maximize the science of it.”

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The Albany County Cornell Cooperative Extension’s conference, “Climate, Weather, Data: Protecting Our Crops and Landscapes,” will be held at 24 Martin Road in New Scotland on Aug. 15, from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. The $45 cost includes lunch. Registration for the event ends on Aug. 10. For more information, call Amanda Grace at (315) 787-2208.