Europe Could Learn a Lot from US farmers about Using Fungicides on Corn Crops

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Eyespot Disease on Maize Leaves

Eyespot Disease on Maize Leaves

Recently in the US, farmers have increasingly used fungicides on corn crops with a noticeable yield increase. There is significant corn (maize) acreage in Europe, but hardly even any research on fungicides. Recently, a European researcher experimented with fungicides and discovered the great potential of using fungicides for this overlooked problem.

“Since 2008, fungicide trials have been carried out by both the Danish advisory service (Knowledge Centre for Agriculture) and University of Aarhus to test the impact of fungicides on control of leaf diseases. In several of the trials, significant levels of diseases have occurred and significant yield responses have been obtained.

In 2009, a severe attack of northern corn leaf blight (E. turcicum) developed and 50% yield increases were accomplished from fungicide treatments in a number of trials. In 2011, a severe and early attack of Eyespot (K. zeae) developed in several trials and in that season yield increases between 50 to 60% were also achieved in grain maize crops in fields with minimal tillage with maize as the previous crop.

Based on good efficacy trials, the first fungicide epoxiconazole plus pyraclostrobin (as Opera) was authorized in Denmark for control of the leaf diseases in maize between detection of 3rd node and the tassels appearing at the top of the stem (BBCH GS 33-51).

For scientists, advisors and farmers, it was a surprise that yield reducing leaf diseases could play such a major role in the production of maize. When looking around Europe for information on this subject, we were slightly surprised that very little information on the use of fungicides was available. When looking around we also realized that in many countries no fungicides are authorized for control. Looking across to the US, which has long experiences with foliar diseases, there seem to be more knowledge available on disease management, including experiences from use of fungicides.”

Author: Jorgensen, L. N.
Affiliation: Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Denmark
Title: Significant yield increases from control of leaf diseases in maize – an overlooked problem?!
Source: Outlooks on Pest Management. August 2012. Pgs.162-165.

Taiwan is Free of the Codling Moth and Wants to Keep It That Way: US Apple Growers Need to Spray in Order to Export

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Asian with Foood

Apple Inspection in Taiwan

Gross Apple

Codling Moth in Imported Apple

The Taiwanese have the highest per capita consumption of fresh fruit in the world, about 300 pounds per person. The apple is the most heavily consumed imported fruit in Taiwan. US exports supply about 40% of the marketplace. If Taiwanese inspectors find three living codling moth larvae anywhere in the 2 million boxes of apples Washington growers send them, that shuts down the entire export market.  That happened in the fall of 2004 and in the four following months it cost the industry about $25 million. Since then, US growers have been vigilant……

“In 2002, Taiwan ruled that the discovery of three codling moths in US apple shipments in any given crop year would result in the closing of the Taiwanese market to all US apple imports. Since then, warehouses and shippers have been very careful in inspecting and rejecting damaged fruit from growers, and growers have been vigilant in spraying for codling moth as needed.”

Authors: Goldberger, J. A., Lehrer, N., and Brunner, J. F.
Affiliation: Washington State University
Title: Azinphos-methyl (AZM) phase-out: actions and attitudes of apple growers in Washington state.
Source: Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. 2011. 26(4):276-286.

 

To weed or not to weed: Shakespeare as Ag Communicator

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Shakespeare

Shakespeare

An Ag Communication specialist recently read through the Bard’s plays and found several quotes about the importance of controlling weeds.

“I suppose Shakespeare wasn’t an agronomist in the proper sense so much as he had an acute, affectionate love of nature along with the transcendent genius to contemplate and express his sublime sentiments. It wasn’t that he surveyed or discovered things in the world that no one else could see externally, but everywhere in nature he found metaphors for the human condition.

The Bard was so comprehensive and universally appealing that multitudes of professions have “claimed” him as their own practitioner: Why can’t we agricultural communicators claim him as our own as well?

Without further ado, here are just a few quotes I plucked out of the Bard’s works pertaining in some manner to the foulness of weeds or other pests.

Gardener:
I would go root away
The noisome weeds, which without profit suck
The soil’s fertility from wholesome flowers.

Servant:
The whole land,
Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers choked up,
Her fruit-trees all unpruned, her hedges ruin’d
Her knots disorder’d and her wholesome herbs
Swarming with caterpillars?
Richard II, act iii, sc. 4

I think the above clearly shows that Shakespeare would’ve concurred with our contention that one must control weeds if one wants to preserve moisture and nutrients for one’s crops.

Hamlet:
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fye on it, ah fye! ‘tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.
Hamlet, act I, sc. 2

Fye on you weeds! Thou art rank and gross! My fellow ag communicators have been proclaiming this for years… just like Hamlet.

Friar:
I must up-fill this willow cage of ours0
With baleful weeds and precious juiced flowers.
Romeo and Juliet, act ii, sc. 3
 
“Baleful weeds”…now that’s ominous.

Queen:
Now ‘tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted;
Suffer them now, and they’ll o’ergrow the garden,
And choke the herbs for want of husbandry.
2nd Henry VI, act iii, sc. 1

Bravo! Spray weeds early and often!”

Author: Loftis, D.
Affiliation: McCormick Co.
Title: To weed or not to weed
Source: Agri Marketing. November/December 2009. Pgs.54-55.

$17 Billion in Sales of Ornamental Plants in the US-Growers Have to Use Insecticides to Satisfy Consumers

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Azalea Leafminer

Azalea Leafminer

Ornamental plants are big business in the US-$17 billion in retail sales. Ornamental plants provide visual beauty and reduce the stagnation that occurs in everyday work environments. Ornamentals may have a profound effect on observers or occupants. Several studies have shown that ornamentals have a positive impact on an individual’s well-being and emotional stability and may improve productivity. When purchasing an ornamental plant, consumers demand that they be free of insects and insect damage.

“The intensive nature of production and aesthetic quality requirements of producing ornamental plants supports the necessity of using pesticides to manage arthropod pests. The use of pesticides is vitally important to the ornamental industry in order economically to prevent the multitude of arthropod pests from damaging plants and at the same time produce quality plant material that may be purchased by consumers/homeowners. Furthermore, the use of pesticides allows ornamental producers successfully to compete in national and international markets.

…a single arthropod pest can significantly damage or vector a disease, rendering a crop unmarketable. As such, ornamental producers cannot wait for arthropod pest populations to build up to a critical level, and so, in actuality, pesticides serve as an ‘insurance policy’ to manage or regulate the diversity of arthropod pests so that they do not damage ornamental crops.

The aesthetic value and the consumer demand for high-quality ornamental crops necessitates the application of pesticides in order to protect crops from the myriad of arthropod pests encountered in ornamental production systems.”

Authors: Bethke, J. A., and Cloyd, R. A.
Affiliations: University of California, and Kansas State University.
Title: Pesticide use in ornamental production: what are the benefits?
Source: Pest Management Science. 2009. 65:345-350.

Organic Cotton Profits on Women’s Back Breaking Work

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Women Handweeding Cotton

Women Handweeding Cotton

Organic cotton is highly profitable. However, growing cotton without  herbicides for controlling weeds means that more labor is needed in back breaking hand weeding. A recent analysis of organic cotton production reports that the bulk of this labor falls on women’s backs.

“The aim of this article is to describe the economic performance and perceived social and environmental impacts of organic cotton in southern Kyrgyzstan… Due to lower input costs as well as organic and fair trade price premiums, the average gross margin from organic cotton was 27% higher… The major disadvantage of organic farming is the high manual labor input required. In the study area, where manual farm work is mainly women’s work and male labor migration is widespread, women are most affected by this negative aspect of organic farming.

The vast majority of female respondents from organic farms (farm managers or wives) perceived higher workloads. It was generally agreed that organic farming requires more manual work, is more labor intensive, and that women in particular must bear the negative effects because (a) manual work is typically done by women, and (b) the work-related outmigration of men has left more work to women in general. Indeed, the biggest negative impact perceived by respondents in regards to organic farming—an increased workload—appeared to affect women the most.”

Author: Bachmann, F.
Affiliation: Centre for Development and Environment CDE, University of Bern, Switzerland.
Title: Potential and limitations of organic and fair trade cotton for improving livelihoods of smallholders: evidence from Central Asia.
Source: Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. 2011. 27(2):138-147.

Using Herbicides to Reduce the Risk of Forest Fires

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Wildfires

Wildfire Burning on Forest Floor

Sprays

Spraying Weeds on Forest Floor

Forest floors can be covered with many weeds that dry out and become a source of fuel
for forest fires. Many weed species dry quickly during drought creating hazardous “flashy” fuels in wildfire situations.  Studies have shown a significant reduction in fire intensity in areas where herbicides are applied to remove weeds. Incorporating herbicides into land management plans helps to decrease fuel loads and reduce the risk of forest fires.

“Exotic annual grasses such as cheatgrass, medusahead, and Ventenata can produce large amounts of fine fuel loads creating favorable conditions for wild fires… Herbicides imazapic and propoxicarbazone sodium have been particularly effective in controlling or suppressing exotic annual grasses, depending on rates and time of application. The main limitation for extensive use of these herbicides, particularly in rangelands, is the cost. However, if the fuel load from exotic annual grasses is reduced, the risk of wild fires will also decrease as a result of the herbicide applications. This could help create lower fire risk sections or corridors in order to protect more sensitive areas such as installations, roadsides, buildings, animal shelters, etc. The cost of herbicide applications for these areas would be compensated by the value of the saved resources and reduction in the cost of controlling frequent wild fires. The use of herbicides would only be justified if a significant reduction of the fuel load is achieved. The objective of this study was to quantify the impact of herbicides and application timings on invasive annual grass fuel load production.

…Although every treatment had an impact on the produced litter, the most significant biomass reduction, 53 percent, was observed with the application of Plateau®.

These preliminary results suggest that herbicides have the potential be used to reduce fuel loads from annual weedy grasses, particularly in recently burned fields.”

Authors: Sbatella, G., and Twelker, S.
Affiliations: Oregon State University
Title: Impact of herbicide applications for exotic annual grass control on fuel load production.
Source: Rangeland Research Reports, available at: http://oregonstate.edu/dept/coarc/sites/default/files/impact_of_herbicide_applications_for_exotic_annual_grass_control_on_fuel_load_production.pdf

To Maintain High Profits, California Organic Growers Gain Exemption from Worker Protection Rule

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Hand Weeding in California

Hand Weeding Organic Crops in California

In 2005, the State of California banned the practice of hand weeding crop fields in order to protect farm workers from lifelong back pain. Because they don’t use herbicides, California organic vegetable growers employ farm workers to pull weeds by hand and claimed that hand weeding was absolutely essential to maintain high profits on organic produce. As a result of their lobbying, the California organic vegetable companies were exempted from the worker protection rule.

“The physically demanding nature of organic farming sparked a recent battle that pitted organic farmers against farmworkers. The UFW had long drawn attention to musculoskeletal problems suffered by people who work stooped over in the fields. In the 1970s the union led a successful campaign to ban the short-handled hoe, arguing that the tool caused back injuries. When union founder Cesar Chavez died, friends at the funeral placed one of the hoes on his casket. But growers soon found a way around the ban by requiring workers to weed by hand. Moises Olivera, a migrant worker who’s hopped from job to job throughout the Central Valley, explained to me how it feels…

“You go along on your knees,” he said. “There is a constant, numbing pain. By the end of a year people develop a lot of problems with their bones.”

In 2004 farmworker groups lobbied the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration to restrict hand-weeding. Organic farmers led the backlash against the proposal. While they have devised many creative tactics for banishing weeds without pesticides—singeing them with torches, slicing them with disks, allowing them to flourish before planting and then mowing them down—every organic farmer I talked to insisted there’s only one way to completely rid your crop of pesky plants: sitting, kneeling or bending, plucking them out one by one.

It’s tremendously costly. Yet farmers say there’s little alternative; long-handed hoes, which would allow workers to stand upright, can destroy some of the delicate specialty crops, such as baby leaf lettuce, that many organic farmers cultivate. At a minimum they would force farmers to space their plants farther apart, cutting into profits by yielding a smaller harvest on the same area of land…

The farmers ultimately triumphed, and OSHA exempted organic farms from the new rules, which went into effect last year. For labor advocates like Martha Guzman, who had sought to reach a compromise, it was a slap in the face…”

Author: Mello, F.
Affiliation: Reporter, The Nation.
Title: Hard Labor
Source: The Nation. September 11th, 2006.

2013: Perfect Year for Peanut Diseases, But No Problem Thanks to Fungicides

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White Mould

White Mold

The unrelenting rains of 2013 in southeastern peanut fields created perfect conditions for the rapid development of white mold and rhizoctonia- diseases that can cause plant death. However, disease outbreaks did not occur because peanut growers were vigilant in applying fungicides.

“So far, 2013 has been a perfect weather year for peanut diseases in the Deep South: wet with swampy plus short spurts of hot with swampy.

But that disease pressure just hasn’t hit yet.

“Despite my repeated and dire predictions for severe disease outbreaks this year in our peanut fields, the reports from county agents have been fairly quiet.

…I know of very few situations where disease has overwhelmed a (peanut ) crop,” said Bob Kemerait, plant pathologist with the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

Why have peanut diseases not been so bad?

“Fungicides” is the short answer, he said, good fungicide products matched with grower know-how on best ways to use them.”

Author: Haire, B.
Affiliation: Reporter, Southeast Farm Press
Title: Grower know-how, good fungicides keeping peanut diseases at bay.
Source: Southeast Farm Press. August 9th, 2013. Available at: http://southeastfarmpress.com/peanuts/grower-know-how-good-fungicides-keeping-peanut-diseases-bay

Apple Scab Would Almost Completely Destroy Dutch Apple Orchards Without Fungicide Sprays

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Apple Scab

Apple Scab

Apple scab is caused by a fungus Venturia inaqualis, which overwinters in infected leaves on the orchard floor.  Mating among different strains of the fungus occurs shortly after leaf fall and spores develop in the fallen leaves during the winter.  Spring rains cause spores to be forcibly discharged. Spores continue to mature and are discharged over a period of 5-9 weeks. If the surface of apple tissue is wet and temperatures are suitable, the spores germinate and penetrate the cuticle and outer layers of the plant, causing an infection.  The fungus grows beneath the cuticle and eventually ruptures it and forms dark green lesions.  Masses of spores are produced asexually within the lesions and become detached during rain.  Water splashes and redistributes these spores, causing secondary infections. Each leaf scab lesion is capable of producing 50,000-100,000 spores. Assuming 50,000 leaves per tree have 2% scab infection, about 50 million spores would be present on a single tree.  One spore can cause an infection. Infections early in the season can kill tissues near the fruit surface and the fruit develops unevenly as uninfected portions continue to grow.  Cracks appear in the skin and flesh and the fruit may become deformed.  Heavily infected fruit fall from the tree resulting in yield losses.  Scab lesions on harvested apples result in a lower price for growers since the commercial tolerance for scab damage approaches zero.

“Apple scab [Venturia inaequalis (CKE.) Winter] is one of the most important diseases of apple, causing considerable losses every year in many countries. Crop losses in the Netherlands caused by apple scab would be about 80% if no control measures were taken; therefore, 15-22 conventional spray applications per season are used to prevent apple yield loss under Dutch weather conditions.”

Authors: Holb, I. J., et al.
Affiliation: Department of Plant Protection, Centre of Agricultural Sciences, Debrecen University.
Title: Summer epidemics of apple scab: the relationship between measurements and their implications for the development of predictive models and threshold levels under different disease control regimes.
Source: Journal of Phytopathology. 2003. 151:335-343.

Weed from Hell Invades Florida

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Tropical Soda Apple

Tropical Soda Apple

Tropical soda apple (TSA) is a weed native to Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay that has invaded Florida. The pathway of introduction is unknown, but it may have been accidentally introduced with cattle carrying undigested TSA seeds. Currently, more than 404,000 acres are believed infested in Florida. TSA invades pasture, where it reduces livestock carrying capacity. Dense stands of the prickly shrub prevent cattle access to shaded areas, which results in summer heat stress and economic losses from cattle heat stress have been estimated at $2 million. TSA is a reservoir for at least six crop viruses; in addition, major insect pests use TSA as an alternate host. Herbicides are a major management practice for this “weed from hell.”

“Tropical soda apple (TSA) is an invasive weed of agricultural and natural areas in Florida. The plant is native to South America and was first found in south Florida in 1988. Its spiny foliage and stems are unpalatable to livestock, and dense stands of this prickly plant often grow into large impenetrable thickets.

In some areas of central and south Florida, TSA has covered entire pastures, rendering them unusable for grazing livestock. Some have called this weed the “plant from hell”.

The preferred methods of TSA control were chemical herbicides and mowing. On a statewide basis, 20% of cattle producers used herbicides alone, 7% used mowing alone, and 20% used both methods. Triclopyr and glyphosate were the two most commonly used herbicides reported by cattle producers. However, many had begun using amino-pyralid, an herbicide registered for use in pasture and rangeland in 2005, and becoming the new standard for TSA control. With continued TSA spread and the absence of alternative effective control measures, it is likely that the demand for these herbicides will continue to grow.”

Authors: Salaudeen, T., et al.
Affiliation: College of Agriculture, Florida A&M University.
Title: Economic impact of tropical soda apple (Solanum viarum) on Florida cattle production.
Source: Weed Technology. 2013. 27:389-394.