Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Agronomic: hay, medics/alfalfa

Target Pests

Practices

• Pest Management: chemical control, cultural control, monitoring/scouting, pesticide resistance management

Alfalfa is a valuable perennial forage crop grown throughout the United States. Obtaining high yields of quality forage, stand longevity, and animal well-being are top priorities for alfalfa farmers and others involved in alfalfa production and protection. However, multiple diseases, insect pests, and disorders threaten alfalfa production and can even harm animals consuming it. Pest management strategies include resistant alfalfa varieties, pesticides, and cultural practices. Foliar fungicide use is becoming increasingly popular on alfalfa, which can increase risk of pathogen resistance, especially with modern fungicide formulations. Alfalfa weevil has shown resistance to pyrethroid insecticides in several U.S. states. Furthermore, climate pattern changes can complicate risks associated with disease and insect pests. Managing disease and insect pests in alfalfa begins with regular field scouting and properly identifying disease and insect pest issues in a timely fashion. Improper identification and pest sampling techniques may lead to inappropriate and costly management attempts.

In order to help meet these challenges, an alfalfa pest management working group will be maintained to inform new educational resources. Thus, the goal of this Working Group proposal is to continue to facilitate meetings with, and gather input from, a multidisciplinary team of alfalfa pest management experts to inform continued development of an interactive alfalfa pest and disorder management encyclopedia and to create videos for alfalfa scouting. To accomplish this goal and address NCIPMC desired outcomes, this proposal has three objectives. 

The first objective is for an interdisciplinary Alfalfa Pest Management (APM) Working Group to convene and develop priorities for outreach activities. The APM consists of both plant pathologists and entomologists, who will also review outputs from the second and third objectives. The second objective is to further develop a searchable alfalfa pest and disorder encyclopedia. Knowledge gained from the APM Working Group will be used to inform continued production of online encyclopedia articles. To increase ease of access and to place encyclopedia articles among existing and well-used resources, the Crop Protection Network (CPN) encyclopedia web tool will be used to house alfalfa outputs. The third objective is to create six alfalfa scouting videos through the University of Wisconsin-Madison Nutrient and Pest Management (NPM) Program. Video topics will be decided by the APM Working Group during 2022. Although not yet determined, potential video topics could include “Proper Sweep Netting Techniques for Alfalfa Insect Scouting,” and “Early Alfalfa Cutting to Avoid Disease and Insect Injury.” 

This project has a direct benefit to alfalfa farmers, agriculture professionals, and extension professionals in the North Central region and elsewhere by providing current and timely Extension material. To measure the value and impact of this project and resources produced, we will use several metrics supplied by the CPN.

1) Alfalfa Pest Management Working Group convenes and informs priorities for alfalfa outreach activities;

2) Further develop searchable alfalfa pest and disorder encyclopedia; and

3) Create alfalfa scouting videos.