Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Agronomic: corn, hay, medics/alfalfa, soybeans

Target Pests

Practices

• Pest Management: chemical control, economic threshold, forecasting, habitat modification, host resistance, mechanical control, pesticide application timing, pesticide resistance management, pesticides, precision pesticide use

• Crop Production: application rate management, crop rotation, foliar feeding, plant breeding and genetics, pollination/pollinator health/habitat

Problems: Pest management is becoming more complex and farmers are often overwhelmed with choices for profitable crop protection. A needs assessment showed farmers lack confidence to identify pest issues and develop effective IPM/IRM plans in field crops. In addition, farms are getting bigger and have to depend on fewer people to manage everything from planting to harvest. We also anticipate retirements of extension entomology experts and want to support new faculty and staff with an organized Working Group.

Approach: Many of the economically important insects are persistent throughout the northcentral region, but the timing and severity is highly variable between growing season. Sharing updates within the Working Group will provide forecasting to help with local scouting and management recommendations. A focus group of farmers and crop consultant revealed they would like more real-time alerts to help implement more profitable pest management tactics.

Objectives: We propose to address the current and future educational needs of our clientele by harnessing the collective expertise of the field crop extension entomologists in the northcentral region by: 1) creating a pest alert network, 2) developing an accompanying website, and 3) delivering three regional webinars.

Impact: There are native and invasive species that cause economic loss every year in agriculture. Many can be suppressed with prophylactic approaches to minimize losses to grain/forage quantity and quality. This proposed Working Group in the northcentral region will help facilitate improved communication between extension entomologists, farmers, crop consultants, and agribusiness employees. As a result of three objectives, we will 1) expand scouting and identification efforts, 2) increase effective management options, and 3) improve farm profitability.

We propose to address the current and future educational needs of our clientele by harnessing the collective expertise of the field crop extension entomologists in the northcentral region by: 1) creating a pest alert network, 2) developing an accompanying website, and 3) delivering three regional webinars.