Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Agronomic: other, wheat

• Ecosystem: Ecosystem

Target Pests

Practices

• Pest Management: monitoring/scouting

• Crop Production: cropping systems

• Production Systems: agroecosystems

• Sustainable Communities: public participation, sustainability measures

The wheat stem sawfly (WSS), Cephus cinctus, has increased in abundance and geographic range throughout the Great Plains. It is now considered a key pest of wheat, with grain loss exceeding $350 million in the Northern Plains and vast acres threatened in Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, and now Kansas. This pest can reduce wheat yield to as much as 30% or more. However, losses in crop residue from sawfly cutting greatly threatens the resiliency of dryland cropping systems; threatening soil moisture storage and soil conservation gains made by no-till cropping practices within these systems. Currently, few IPM tools, tactics, or strategies have been broadly adopted throughout the region. While there are not many commercialized IPM solutions available to manage this pest, limitations to adoption throughout the region are not well defined and some limitations may be more perceived (e.g., inherently low yield in WSS-resistant wheat varieties) than real. Therefore, we propose to form a working group to inform needs and routes to IPM adoption through 4 objectives: 1) WSS field damage assessment, 2) Grower focus group discussions, 3) Regional wheat IPM quantitative survey, and 4) A mixed-methods synthesis of objectives 1-3. The chief outcome of these objectives will be a wheat IPM forum to take place at the 2023 ESA Annual Meeting at National Harbor, MD. The main output of this project will be a white paper that details the current status posed by the WSS to U.S. agriculture.

1. WSS field damage assessement
2. Grower focus group discussions
3. Regional wheat IPM grower survey
4. Mixed-methods synthesis of wheat IPM and wheat stem sawfly risk to U.S. wheat