Fall 2017

Nature's Classroom: Professor inspires students with on-the-ground research experiences

salibalr — Thu, 24 May 2018 16:00:24 +0000

Nature's Classroom: Professor inspires students with on-the-ground research experiences salibalr Thu, 05/24/2018 - 12:00

Ask assistant biology professor Eric Diefenbacher what his special field of interest is and without hesitation he says “salamanders,’’ particularly spring salamanders. Why? Because “salamanders are a great bio-indicator of how healthy an environment might be overall, and that’s really important.’’

Diefenbacher says this while leading an outing with one of his students to a seep, or intermittent stream, at the Cush Hill property of Rogers Environmental Education Center, in Sherburne, not far from the Morrisville State College Norwich Campus. The pair hike into a densely wooded area, take note of trees downed as a result of summer’s pounding rain and thunderstorms, record the air and water temperature and crouch to gently lift rocks, logs and brush in search of the small, brownish salamanders, or evidence of them.

If you’re in Diefenbacher’s Biology 101 class, you’ve learned by now that the area is on the edge of a major “salamander hotbed,’’ and that no one has done a survey of the salamanders in decades. The slimy creatures have no lungs, breathe entirely through their skin and can often be found in streams or streamside, in places where it tends to be damp. You also learn, as you conduct your survey, to do so with care and leave the environment as you found it.

Even if they don’t catch a glimpse of spring salamanders or their larvae, Diefenbacher’s enthusiasm for biology and undergraduate research—and getting students out into nature’s classroom—is contagious.

“This truly is almost extra-curricular for me,’’ said Kyle Brooks, 20, a human services major from Norwich. “The guy is a great teacher. He’s one of those teachers you can really tell how passionate he is about his subject.’’

For Diefenbacher, 33, working with students like Brooks is the essence of teaching. It’s one thing to stand in front of a classroom and cite facts and figures. It’s another thing entirely to engage students and keep them engaged. The salamander survey and related field work helps with that.

“Science is dynamic,’’ Diefenbacher said. “It’s not static. The students really enjoy getting out and gaining on-the-ground research experience.’’

In April, Diefenbacher and Brooks attended the SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC) at SUNY Fredonia in Western New York, a day-long event devoted to student research. Brooks presented on the Biology 101 salamander survey and its implications, and came away with a college and life experience that, down the road, could catch the eye of a hiring manager.

“Our research has real-world applications,’’ Diefenbacher said. “It’s something the students can put on their resumes.’’

Long before Diefenbacher became a researcher, professor and mentor, he had an interest in herpetology–the study of amphibians. He grew up in the rural countryside near Norwich and remembers a childhood spent largely outdoors, observing plant and animal life.

“The forest was my backyard,’’ he recalled. “My parents just opened the back door and away I went.’’

He studied biology in college, earning a bachelor’s degree from Hartwick College and a master’s degree from Marshall University in West Virginia. After graduation, he began his teaching career, initially as a science instructor at Holy Family School in Norwich, where he taught early-childhood-through-eighth-grade students the general concepts of science.

He made the transition to academia at Alderson Broaddus University in West Virginia, where he taught freshmen- and upper-level biology classes, advised students and served as an undergraduate research advisor.

As Diefenbacher and his wife added to their family, he started exploring and researching job opportunities back home. He was “pleasantly surprised’’ to see an opening for an assistant biology professor at the MSC Norwich Campus, “a well-known institution in this area that is very supportive of undergraduate research to help reinforce concepts learned in the classroom.’’

This fall marks Diefenbacher’s fourth year at the Norwich Campus. He’s teaching four classes this semester, including Introduction to Biology, Topics in Contemporary Biology and Human Anatomy and Physiology 1, but his impact goes beyond teaching.

He was instrumental in getting a new biology lab, with new equipment and tools for students, and also took a lead role in the development and creation of the Natural History Exhibit in the lobby/atrium area of Roger Follett Hall.

The exhibit gives the campus community an opportunity to observe natural history displays and live organisms that highlight particular themes, which change from year to year (or semester to semester) and have highlighted a broad spectrum of topics. For the 2016-2017 academic year, the theme was trout and aquaponics. The theme for 2017-18 is amphibians.

It’s another way Diefenbacher inspires others to appreciate biology and raise ecological awareness. “The Natural History Exhibit is a unique feature of the Norwich Campus,’’ he said. “It is a cool way faculty and staff can interact.’’

Author

Margaret McCormick

Published date

December 20, 2017

News Type

Apple-y Ever After: Family tradition, innovation is at core of Wafler Farms apple enterprise

salibalr — Thu, 24 May 2018 15:58:58 +0000

Apple-y Ever After: Family tradition, innovation is at core of Wafler Farms apple enterprise salibalr Thu, 05/24/2018 - 11:58

As autumn sets in at Wafler Farms, a familiar, sweet scent fills the air. The skyline forms a scenic view as it greets uninterrupted rows of apple trees bursting with this year’s bounty.

The harvest of fresh fruit is the core of Wafler Farms, Inc., a family-run apple orchard in the Wayne County town of Wolcott, one of the largest fruit-producing counties in North America.

The business, which has been around for three generations, is run by Morrisville State College alumni Paul Wafler ’84, his wife, Sue ’82, and their sons Kyle ’17 and Jacob, a current student.

Lois Wafler still oversees the operation she and her husband Fritz started 57 years ago on a run-down orchard no one expected to thrive.

Today, the 1,100-acre enterprise includes the apple orchards—growing more than 20 different varieties and yielding over 350,000 bushels per year, and a wholesale fruit tree nursery—growing approximately 800,000 trees per year.

Their apples, sold under the label New York Apple Sales, make their way to superstores all along the East Coast, including Walmart, Costco, Publix and Whole Foods. Their trees also are sold all over the United States, including Beak & Skiff Farms in LaFayette, one of the largest apple operations in New York.

Rooted in Wafler Farms’ success is hard work and an innovative spirit that has kept them on the cutting edge. And it’s what sets them apart from the rest.

A humble beginning

Fall is a busy time of year for the Waflers. It’s the end of the apple season and there is an abundant amount of work to do on the farm located in the heart of New York’s apple production on the southern shore of Lake Ontario.

Moving through the rows of fruit, Paul pauses to share his story with a group of growers from South Africa, there to learn about his growing and management techniques.

Paul’s father, Fritz Wafler, came to the United States at age 26 to gain knowledge for his family farm in Switzerland. During that time, he met his wife, Lois, in California. After they were married, they decided to buy and farm and set out across the country, eventually settling in Wolcott, NY. In 1960, they started Wafler Farms on a neglected, 178-acre orchard, selling mostly vegetables for income while they grew their own apple trees.

“It was Fritz’s dream. People told us it wouldn’t be successful,” said Lois, who at age 91 vividly recalls starting out with a few rows of rootstock planted with borrowed equipment.

Soon neighbors were asking the Waflers to grow trees for them. “We just kept adding rows,” Lois said, explaining how the commercial nursery got its start.

As they bought adjoining farms to grow their business, Fritz traveled to Europe to gain insight from other orchards, including ways to cut costs.

His industrious nature later found an outlet in his son, Paul, who is always experimenting with new ideas to run the orchard more efficiently. A jack of all trades and a master of modification, Paul’s knack for building and customizing equipment has saved the business a significant amount of money throughout the years.

Much of the work performed on the farm—dormant pruning, spring pruning, hand-thinning the trees and picking—is all done through some sort of assisted mechanization.

Gone are the days of carrying ladders to each tree to pick apples, thanks to a self-propelled harvest platform Paul devised.

The Huron Fruit System moving platform, used for almost all of their orchard work, is an elevated, tiered platform that carries six to eight workers and five bins in the center for the apples. As the equipment makes its way through an apple row at about 10 feet per minute, workers on each side pick and empty their apple bags into nearby bins.

“Picking 600 bins a day is a cake walk for us,” Paul said.

Before the apple harvesting platforms were used on their farm, it took 85 workers to pick 375 acres of apple trees. Now, with 12 machines in use, the Waflers are picking more apples with fewer people—66 workers harvesting 425 acres.

“The whole idea is to improve worker productivity,” said Paul’s brother Walter Wafler, manager of Huron Fruit Systems, the subsidiary which produces and sells the platforms.

Paul Wafler calculates all work on the harvester in travel time in feet per minute. He’s able to calculate how fast the harvester should be traveling and how much the day’s work will cost per acre.

“The harvester also increases the quality of the fruit because the pickers are not moving as much and that limits the bruising of the fruit,” Jacob said.

Another of Paul’s creations is a modified spray tank which accommodates extra equipment pulled by tractors, and machinery that makes mowing and weed control as efficient as possible. He also crafted a straddle trailer to haul fruit faster.

A new data collection system, tied in through a Global Positioning System, is helping the Waflers quantify their costs.

“Nobody is able to collect bushels per acre on the fly like we are doing,” Paul said of data collection done through solar panels on farm equipment, which enables them to map the rows and gather various data.

“We are trying to create more of a production factory system to be efficient and quantify our costs,” Paul said of the farm’s overall mission.

Their operation is turning heads and has become a learning tool for businesses conducting pesticide trials, too. The farm also works closely with Cornell University, testing trees and equipment.

Fruits of their labor

A lot of work goes into growing an apple crop. There’s preparing the site, optimizing the soil environment and knowing what varieties of apples to grow.

The Waflers are constantly assessing what will affect fruit quality and orchard sustainability.

Distance between rows and tree height are important considerations in fruit yield. Fuji, for example, is an apple which requires a lot of spacing.

They also changed the concept of their trees, planting them at an angle in a V-orchard system, allowing in more light and facilitating the farm’s moving platform system.

“The angle keeps the body out of the tree so we don’t damage the foliage,” Paul said.

Under Kyle’s direction, the farm is also growing cover crops—soybeans, clover and winter wheat as part of a soil management plan, a crop rotation that puts nutrients back into the soil and readies the area for a nursery again.

“A field that hasn’t rested properly doesn’t have the right makeup for a nursery,” Kyle explained.

Some of their lessons are through trial and error.

“Everything is a risk,” said Paul, who has taken many. “If there are four trains coming in, get on the first one. Look beyond, take risks and don’t wait for anyone else—figure it out yourself.”

That philosophy has set the stage for the farm and is instilled in Jacob and Kyle, the third generation of family members who plan to continue the legacy.

“I am planting the seed for them to take the technology, grow with it and advance it,” said Paul, who manages the horticultural operations in the orchard and nursery.

Family tree

For the Waflers, running the business as a family is the way to go. “It runs more efficiently this way and isn’t just a job to us,” said Jacob, who plans to head the nursery aspect of the business while Kyle takes over the orchard.

Paul and Sue met in the fruit-growing town of Williamson, where she was working at an electronics company. She joined the family and now runs the office. Carrie Herzog, a 2016 graduate of Morrisville’s agricultural business development bachelor’s degree program, recently came onboard as an office assistant and runs the social media.

The family takes pride in their Morrisville education.

“Graduates who come out of Morrisville—they keep moving,” Paul said. “They are very passionate. They have important skills and hands-on knowledge.”

That foundation has kept the Waflers progressive.

Today, the farm employs 20-120 workers depending on the season, including migrant workers who reside in on-site, upscale housing.

While a typical day doesn’t exist, “our employees work a nine-hour day Monday through Friday, sometimes more during harvest season,” Paul said of the daily routine. “For us, you never know what the day will bring.”

Winters are a time for the family to dig their nursery stock and prepare for shipping all of the nursery trees out in the spring. “We also build equipment, work on equipment and create prototypes,” Jacob said.

Harvest time

Harvesting apples at just the right time is key. It generally begins in September and goes through the beginning of November.

“It is based on sugar content, pressure testing of the apples, color and the varieties,” Sue said. Honeycrisps, for example, were harvested in September and Fujis in late October.

“Premature apple picking may lead to fruit that doesn’t taste good,” she explained. “Picking them too late or storing them on a shelf too long before they are sent to grocery stores, could lead to soft and mushy apples.”

Despite planning and mechanization, things don’t always run smoothly. Equipment breaks down and they are constantly battling Mother Nature—their greatest obstacle, according to Paul.

This year they worked through numerous complications, including severe hail storms. Damaged apples become juice or cider.

“This takes your fresh fruit apples (high-dollar) amount to a juice and or process commodity,” Sue said.

It also makes it harder on the picking end.

“The pickers have to evaluate the apples while picking and decide where the apple should go. The end of the summer was exceptionally hot, causing the apples to ripen more quickly than we could pick them,” Sue added.

Despite setbacks, it was a prime harvest for Wafler Farms.

What’s ahead for the budding business? “Never stay stagnant,” Paul said. “Our goal is to create a consistent quality product,” Kyle added.

For now they continue to do what they love with their prospering apple enterprise. “I am living this dream and building it every day,” Paul said.

Author

Franci Valenzano

Published date

December 20, 2017

News Type

Green Acres: Morrisville leads industrial hemp revolution

salibalr — Thu, 24 May 2018 15:56:04 +0000

Green Acres: Morrisville leads industrial hemp revolution salibalr Thu, 05/24/2018 - 11:56

After nearly eight decades of prohibition, industrial hemp is making a comeback in New York with the help of students and faculty at Morrisville State College.

Assistant professor Jennifer Gilbert Jenkins partnered with a local farm last year to cultivate the state’s first legal hemp crop in more than 75 years. This summer, she oversaw nearly 85 acres of hemp planted in campus fields, assisted by a small group of students who spent their summer planting, fertilizing and scouting the crops for weeds and insects.

The seeds of research and strategic partnerships have grown into new support from state lawmakers and New York’s members of Congress, with Morrisville State positioned as a leader in a field that has potential to help farmers turn a profit during difficult economic times.

“This is an industry that is waking up across the country,” said Gilbert Jenkins. “The possibilities are so exciting.”

While hemp is already a nearly $1 billion industry in the United States, most hemp products are imported from Canada, China and Europe due to decades-old federal prohibitions.

Part of the challenge of making hemp mainstream is overcoming the connection to its sister plant, marijuana. The biggest distinction: hemp contains less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, which contains 10 to 20 percent of the chemical compound.

Still, the crop has been caught up in federal anti-drug efforts for nearly a century. Widespread cultivation of the crop fell off dramatically after marijuana prohibition in the 1930s, and hemp production was outlawed entirely by the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

In recent years, attempts to revive the industry have spread from state to state, as proponents wait for the federal government to separate marijuana and hemp production. More than 30 states now permit hemp cultivation, and hemp products already on the market range from food to clothing to medical supplies.

“It is still seen by some as this taboo commodity, but it really isn’t,” said Steve Ammerman of the New York Farm Bureau. “This is an opportunity for farmers to diversify and find a value-added product that can help their farms stay profitable and give them stability moving forward.”

In New York, industrial hemp got its first green light in 2014, when state lawmakers approved a pilot program for research purposes.

The support from Gov. Andrew Cuomo expanded this year, with a $1 million grant for research and infrastructure development and more than 1,500 acres planted statewide in conjunction with state universities.

“By expanding industrial hemp research and development for both farms and businesses, New York is embracing our legacy of innovation to lead the way on this economic engine that will create jobs from the field to the factory,” Cuomo said at a press conference in July. “Industrial hemp is a promising commodity that, with the necessary support and resources, can provide a tremendous boost to our communities by increasing the profitability of our farms, creating new jobs in Upstate New York, and laying the groundwork for future growth.”

Morrisville’s involvement began with a call from Mark Justh and Dan Dolgin of JD Farms, a 1,200-acre organic operation in nearby Georgetown.

Justh initially intended to use hemp as a cover crop to suppress weeds while growing organic hay. But he became more interested in the crop itself after discovering thousands of uses for the stalks, seeds and leaves.

High in protein and fiber and rich in heart-healthy amino acids and omegas, advocates have touted hemp’s ability to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, boost the immune system and act as a weight suppressant.

“It’s a potential superfood,” he said. “It’s a nascent industry, but there are so many uses for it.”

Last year, JD Farms worked with Morrisville State College, planting 35 acres with seeds imported through the college; this year, more than 120 acres are flourishing and Justh hopes to expand to 450 to 600 acres next year.

Justh, a former banker with JP Morgan Chase, said the partnership with Morrisville has brought expertise and enthusiasm.

“You have to remember that this is the first time the crop has been grown in 80 years,” Justh said. “What we are doing is putting together a body of research that will hopefully help others over time.”

Last year’s hemp stalks were sold to Ecovative Designs, an Albany-based company that previously imported its hemp for sustainable packing materials.

This year, JD Farms began to explore food products, producing a baby greens mix with kale and hemp already available in some Whole Foods locations in the Northeast. Justh and Dolgin teamed up with a small-batch Brooklyn pasta maker, Sfoglini, to make dried hemp pastas, available online. And a cold-pressed hempseed oil caught the attention of major New York City chefs for its freshness, since previous hemp products had to be imported.

The first hemp harvest from Morrisville State will head to the SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology, where professors want to use the long-strand fibers in eco-chic couture designs.

The effort has had its roadblocks. This year, some of the seeds intended for fields at Morrisville State were held in customs for more than a week, delaying planting during an already wet and cold season.

“That can’t happen to a traditional farmer, because their livelihood is dependent on getting seeds in the ground on time,” Gilbert Jenkins said.

Gilbert Jenkins focused her initial research on weed pressure, pest control, nutrient requirements and nitrogen management.

“I want to know how to grow it better,” she said. “We try things so we can learn from them. We find out what didn’t work and how to fix it.”

Going forward, she is hoping to explore phyto-remediation, or using plants to clean up polluted soils. Gilbert Jenkins believes hemp could be a strong candidate to help clean up brown fields because the plant accumulates the pollutants in its leaves, leaving the seeds unpolluted and available to harvest and use for non-food products such as biofuels.

Author

Alaina Potrikus Beckett

Published date

December 20, 2017

News Type

Raising Champions: Morrisville students and horses on fast track in racing industry

salibalr — Thu, 24 May 2018 15:54:56 +0000

Raising Champions: Morrisville students and horses on fast track in racing industry salibalr Thu, 05/24/2018 - 11:54

When Barn Sis was donated to the racing program at Morrisville State College, driver Cole Wimmer wasn’t sure that the three-year-old trotting filly would be fast enough to compete on the New York Sire Stakes harness racing circuit.

“She’s tiny,” said Wimmer, a 2006 graduate of the college’s Standardbred racing program who now works for the college as an instructional support assistant.

But Wimmer and Barn Sis have been on a winning streak this year, taking first place at seven races at Vernon Downs and finishing strong at competitions at Monticello and Saratoga. Her earnings total $20, 170 this year for the Morrisville College Foundation, and she set a record finish time of 1:56 at an Aug. 17 race at Vernon Downs.

“She has a lot of heart, and I’ll take heart over size any day of the week,” Wimmer said. “Every time you ask her to do something, she does better than you expected.”

The Standardbred racing program at Morrisville State College has been raising champions since 1985, as part of the equine science and management program.

Home to the only half-mile harness racing track on a college campus in the nation, Morrisville State has developed a reputation of turning out quality graduates and Standardbred horses.

A two-year degree in racing management gives students hands-on experience in the breaking, care, training, conditioning and racing of Standardbreds and Thoroughbreds. Additional coursework includes breeding management, equine rehabilitation and farm and stable management.

And the college’s annual yearling sale is one of the largest in the Northeast, drawing buyers, sellers and trainers who often seek graduates from Morrisville State for internships and full-time positions.

The college plays a key role in the Standardbred racing industry in New York State, which creates a $336.4 million direct economic impact and accounts for more than 6,500 jobs, according to a 2013 industry study.

“It’s not just the horses at the track—it is their trainers, the veterinarians and the university where they are learning their skills,” said Alex Dadoyan, executive director of the Standardbred Owners Association of New York. “If you’re going to have a thriving industry, you need places for people to get started and learn.”

Students spend most of their time in the campus barns off Swamp Road¾just over three miles north of the main campus¾learning how to breed mares, care for foals and manage older horses in the pastures. Racing management students introduce the yearlings to a harness and bridle and train them on the track.

“Sometimes it goes smoothly, and sometimes we end up in the middle of the race track,” Wimmer said with a smile.

Trainer Keith Cluff recalled when Wimmer entered his first race in 2004. Three other students crashed their carts going into the first turn at the Lewis County Fair racetrack in Lowville; Wimmer stayed up and finished the race.

“They have to learn by doing it,” Cluff said. “It’s not something they can read about in a book or on the computer. It’s something they have to learn firsthand.” 

Wimmer got more exposure during an internship at Winbak Farm, a 2,000-acre breeding operation in Maryland. The internships are a key component of the Morrisville curriculum, adding more hands-on experience to student résumés.

“You learn more if you drive a good horse,” Cluff said. “He worked for people who let him train good horses.”

Ann-Mari Daley of Vernon Downs purchased Spin Spanky Spin from the college’s yearling sale in 2006; the bay colt went on to win $237,950 during his career, with 130 lifetime starts and 23 wins.

Daley said she is always impressed with the training yearlings receive at Morrisville State.

“You buy from other stables, and they can be like wild mustangs,” she said. “The students have been with the yearlings since they bred the mare. They foaled the baby and raised them for their whole life. It makes a difference.”

During this year’s yearling sale, Kasey Mang, of Fort Plain, was preparing Hot Seat for the show ring. “He is special. He was my project yearling,” said the equine student who foaled the bay colt along with his half-sister.

“It is so great to see the students involved with the horses, because that will keep our industry going,” Daley continued. “They are the next generation.”

Breeding manager Erin Shantal, a 2003 graduate of the college’s equine science and management bachelor degree program, said she receives calls each week from stables across the country looking for interns and graduates.

“We have never had a student who couldn’t find a job,” Cluff said. “People want them.”

Author

Alaina Potrikus Beckett

Published date

December 20, 2017

News Type

Fairing Well: Alumnus takes Great New York State Fair to new heights

salibalr — Thu, 24 May 2018 15:53:30 +0000

Fairing Well: Alumnus takes Great New York State Fair to new heights salibalr Thu, 05/24/2018 - 11:53

It’s 4:40 p.m. on Monday, August 28, and Troy Waffner is running late for a 3 p.m. interview.

He’s currently all the way across the fairgrounds, dealing with a parking issue—a few issues, really, parking and others—that will take up a sizable part of day six of the 2017 New York State Fair. When he returns to his office in the Administration Building near the main entrance, he’ll take the time to help a senior citizen return the motorized Scootaround he reserved for her before settling into his desk chair and giving the interview for his alma mater’s magazine.

He explains that he met the woman a few years ago when he was assistant to then-fair Director Joe O’Hara. “She comes to see me every year,” he said matter-of-factly, as if every director of a state fair took the time to cater to the individual needs of fairgoers.

Looking unflappable in khakis and a salmon-and-white checkered shirt, sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms, Waffner is in his fourth year as acting director of the fair. And if those around him are eager to see the “acting” part removed from his title, he is typically restrained in talking about himself. “It would be nice,” he said, “but it’s not my decision.” Waffner took a circuitous route to the Solvay fairgrounds. He graduated from Morrisville State College in 1993 (accounting) after an undistinguished high school career in nearby Cazenovia. “I came out of high school as a typical kid who didn’t study much,” he admitted. “Morrisville gave me the opportunity to succeed in small classes with great professors and to do quite well on my grades.”

He says the accounting program gave him a “basis of understanding numbers and the order that comes with them,” and he recalls fondly the late professor Jon Rogers (“a wonderful human being”) and professor Tony Zazzara as the mentors who had a profound effect on him. “I didn’t live on campus; I commuted from home, so it was all business,” he said. “Morrisville gave me a great start.”

After Morrisville, Waffner took a job with an accounting firm for a few years before joining the staff of New York State Assemblyman William Magee (D-Nelson), where he worked from 1996 through 2008. He became fascinated by public policy and did most of his work in drafting and negotiating legislative proposals. In 2000 he earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy from SUNY Empire State College after several years of part-time study. In 2008 he moved from Magee’s staff to that of NYS Sen. David Valesky (D-Oneida), where he stayed until joining the fair staff in 2010. The Great New York State Fair ranks in the country’s top 10 for attendance. With a spike in growth after 2016’s renovations, it has a decent shot at moving into the top 3, some note.

He laughs at the observation that nobody really goes to school to become a state fair director. “That’s for sure!” he replied. “But a lot of the policy issues are familiar to me, and I always loved coming to the fair as a kid, and there was a position as assistant director, so….”

With a year-round staff of dozens and a fair-time staff of more than 1,600 employees, plus 650 vendors, 10,000 animals and more than a million annual visitors, preparation is key.

Across Chevy Court at Emmi’s Little Italy booth in the International Building, Richard “Duke” Emmi of Canastota has seen a lot of change at the fair in his 41 years. He likes what he sees in the acting director. “Troy’s got a good concept of what’s going on,” he said. “The guy’s a straight shooter. He has hundreds of vendors, and I’ve seen him three times since the fair opened five days ago.”

Emmi appreciates that Waffner gives him and other vendors a chance to discuss ideas that will make the fair better. “He really listens. Not all of them do that,” he said.

Waffner has overseen massive changes at the fairgrounds, including a multimillion-dollar renovation over the past three years that improved access, widened walkways from the Midway to the entrance, and generally created a cleaner, more attractive fair. A new Expo Center is still to come.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has taken a heightened interest in the fair with directives in 2014 that resulted in changes like the addition of a skyride this year that gives visitors a view of the Midway from the air. “I think the sense was that it had become ‘The Syracuse Fair.’ We really had the opportunity to do some great things and open it back up to the entire state and beyond.”

The efforts have paid off with increased attendance; the fair now easily tops a million visitors annually—and general comments from fairgoers are far more positive. This year, the fair added a 13^th day to the schedule for the first time. Total attendance for the run of the fair was 1,161,912, a bit more than the record-setting total for the 12-day run of 2016, when 1,117,630 people passed through the gates.

Waffner’s co-workers are fiercely loyal, giving him a lot of credit for the boost in attendance over the last five years. “Troy keeps an even keel, and that keeps us on an even keel,” says public information officer Dave Bullard, a longtime fixture on Syracuse radio and television. “He’s as good a leader here as I think you can find—creative, funny, and he keeps people engaged.”

An ongoing Morrisville connection for Waffner is Geneanne Keegan-Smith, who works as the concessions and exhibits manager for the fair. Her father, Gene Keegan, owned and operated Keegan’s restaurant and bar in Morrisville throughout the 1980s and ’90s. She has worked at the fair since childhood, when her father was a vendor there. At 14, she was already working at an information booth. She has spent the last quarter-century at the fairgrounds. “You couldn’t ask for a better ‘people person,’” she says of her boss. “He understands how to write a law, put something into a bill. And at the same time, he’s natural and honest with people and can work with anybody. I joke that he’s like the brother I never had; our birthdays are two days apart in the same year.”

Keegan-Smith recalls Waffner’s state-fair-themed wedding a few years ago, and how he texted her from Hawaii during his fifth anniversary to spitball a new idea about discount admissions tickets. “He’s such an idea person—always looking to make things better. He’ll text me at 10 p.m. some random day in the off season and write, ‘What do you think about this? Could we do this?’ He never stops trying to make things better.”

Waffner, has been known to drive random fairgoers to their cars just for the chance to ask them for feedback on their fair experience, sits back and thinks for a moment when he is asked what his message would be to current business students at Morrisville. “Nobody cares about what they can’t see,” he starts, recalling a lesson he learned during his stint on the Cazenovia Village Board.

“Change is hard, but change isn’t bad.”

“You have to focus to some extent on short-term goals, but you have to be in it for the long term. That’s what I would tell them.”

And with that, he’s off, striding across Chevy Court, interrupted every 10 feet by fairgoers official and unofficial, serenaded by the cacophonous sound-check of the Classic Rock band Kansas, for an impromptu appearance with the local ABC-TV affiliate, where he will recount patiently for yet another audience the coming and goings of day six of New York State Fair 2017.

Four years as acting director. And happily, no end in sight.

Author

Brian McDowell

Published date

December 20, 2017

News Type

Stovetop to Storefront: Nelson Farms Helps Bring Product Ideas to Market

salibalr — Thu, 24 May 2018 15:49:22 +0000

Stovetop to Storefront: Nelson Farms Helps Bring Product Ideas to Market salibalr Thu, 05/24/2018 - 11:49

Approximately seven miles west of Morrisville State College in the town of Nelson, a small facility has been cooking up big dreams.

For more than a decade, Nelson Farms, a small-scale, FDA-inspected food processing incubator operated by the auxiliary corporation of Morrisville, has helped form some 1,000 businesses and developed more than 600 food products by providing entrepreneurial agribusiness opportunities for a variety of clients.

Morrisville alumnus Stephen Nicolaos turned to Nelson Farms for help in getting a treasured family recipe to the market. A 33-year employee at Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, Nicolaos ’82 and his family have operated the Stephen’s Greek Cuisine stand at the Great New York State Fair since 1985.

Nicolaos’ homemade salad dressing, made fresh daily like the rest of the menu, was such a hit with fairgoers that he decided to begin bottling it for retail in 2008. Although cautious at first, a meeting with the Nelson Farms staff immediately calmed his nerves.

“I was very nervous when the process started, with the materials needed, labels, bottles, ingredients, approval, etc., but there wasn’t a question the team at Nelson Farms could not answer. They made it very easy on me,” said Nicolaos, whose customers can now bring home a 12-ounce bottle of his “State Fair Greek Salad Dressing,” either from his stand right at the fair or the Nelson Farms booth at the Taste NY Marketplace.

Helping bring such products from idea to reality is Nelson Farms’ small-but-hardworking crew of four full-time and three part-time employees.

“Nobody has one specific job,” said Samantha Clark-Collins, associate director of Nelson Farms. “We have productions where all staff is needed to complete the job. We have a great group of flexible employees who support each other on a daily basis.”

The experienced team has a taste for success, especially product development manager and MSC alumna Amanda Hewitt, ’88, who receives ideas from entrepreneurs across the region. After determining if the product meets the facility’s criteria, Hewitt will request a small sample of the product or bring the client into the facility’s shared-use kitchen to make one.

As that process unfolds, the same thought always runs through Hewitt’s mind: how will the item translate to commercial production?

“I have to look ahead,” she explained. “I try to bring them from the way they do it at home to the way that it needs to be done commercially and still maintain the integrity of the product.”

That means it may take up to three attempts tinkering with the recipe before it meets the final approval of Hewitt and the client. Complete details of the new sample are then sent to Cornell Food Venture Center, where it’s ensured for safety and stability through lab analysis and Process Authority approval, which provides a Scheduled Process document detailing each of the recipe’s ingredients by weight per batch size.

Following these steps – usually six months from start to finish – the product is ready to enter the marketplace. But Hewitt, whose own batch of creative ideas have helped Nelson Farms produce more than 200 of its own products, knows the effort doesn’t end there.

“If you don’t market the product from that point on – and who loves your product more than you? Who’s going to market it better than you? – If you don’t do that, you don’t make it a success.”

That’s the value Morrisville students learn as well, as Nelson Farms also serves as an experimental laboratory providing real-world experience in marketing along with entrepreneurship, agritourism, nutrition, and value-added agriculture and development.

Hewitt annually assists with Morrisville’s Distribution and Marketing of Agricultural Products course, where students from a variety of programs are divided into groups and each come up with a product. They develop those ideas during the fall semester, before producing and marketing it throughout the spring semester.

“It’s a great way to develop hands-on experience in a real-life setting,” Clark-Collins said. “They don’t just talk about making a product; they actually produce it. If a product is successful, they can still see it being sold at our location and other stores across New York State for years to come.”

Like Nicolaos’ dressing, many of those products still line the shelves at the Nelson Farms Country Store, a specialty foods market and extension of the facility featuring the recipes made in its kitchen. And Hewitt feels a special connection to each of the people behind them.

“They are like family,” she said. “I’m helping the birth of their product. It’s very rewarding to see these things actually take flight. I have a great job.”

Author

Eugenio Mercurio

Published date

December 20, 2017

News Type