Producers Leant About Economy, Pests At Chester County Conference MICHELLE KUNJAPPU Lancaster Farming Staff GUTHRIESVILLE (Chester Co.) Recently producers gath ered for a four-day mid-winter conference addressing various as pect of agriculture. The 2003 Southeast Pennsylvania Crops Conference was sponsored by Penn State Cooperative Exten sion and various ag industries. More than 60 producers at tended the meeting conducted in Guthriesvillle. Other locations in cluded Allentown, Creamery, and Leesport. Lou Moore, ag economics pro fessor at Penn State, opened the day with a presentation about what the future holds for local producers. The ag economy has been affected by the abundance of milk, meat, and eggs, sluggish exports, and a deep drought. In addition, U.S. crop produc tion continues rise, even with the challenge of last year’s drought, and Moore looks for the long term trend for yields “to continue to go up,” he said. On the national level, net farm income for 2002 was $36.2 bil lion. Close to half $l7 billion came from government pay ments. “We can’t afford not to bother with the program,” he said. As for the future, “the good thing is that we’ve been getting rains, so a drought is less likely,” said Moore. However the com belt of the U.S. is still dry (water levels are at almost-record lows) “so it looks like next year com production could be down in those areas,” said Moore. He also commented on the Farm Bill a legislative measure that costs each consumer four cents per meed each day. “I think of it as an investment because we’re producing it (food) cheaper than we’d be selling it to consum ers otherwise,” he said. That’s why you need an insurance agent you can trust. Farm Family agents recognize that personal service is the key to meeting your insurance needs. They’ll take the time to sit down and explain the details to you, so you don’t have to go searching. 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Hower also advised that pro ducers keep copies of labels for each product. Websites bluebook tor.com and greenbpdk.net also hold useful label information. To avoid ctoss-cqntamination, producers should stofe different types of containers separately from each other. “This is particularly important with herbicides,” he said. Storing dry materials above liquids elimi No Matter How Close You Get you can still miss something. RUBINO INSURANCE AGENCY INC. CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-334-0998 FAX 1-610-253-6870 E MAIL seth@rubino insurance.com nates problems in case of a leak. Using metal shelves (which will not absorb product and clean eas ily) is also preferable to wood. Maintain an updated product inventory with product names, date of purchases, quantity, an location in storage area, said Hower. In addition, application equipment stored off site should be locked and disabled. Joanne Whalen, University of Delaware, discussed bisect pest management, since “knowing a little bit about potential pests can go a long way,” she said. First on Whalen’s list was the seed com maggot, a fly that over winters as a pupae and can emerge as early as February. The pest prefers moist, freshly-plowed soil with plenty of decaying or ganic material to lay eggs. The eggs hatch in 1-9 days and feed on the field’s seeds, effec tively killing the seeds or causing poor germination for the seeds. The flies are more of a problem on no-till fields. Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 15, 2003-A3l Cheap, effective hopper-box treatments “might be the way I would go at this point,” said Whalen. Wireworms also feed on seeds, besides the roots and growing plant. They overwinter as a lar vae and may stay in the soil for up to five years as a larvae. The adult form of wireworms are click beetles, which emerge in the summer. They also prefer high organic matter content in the soil. Seed treatments generally provide bet ter control than liquid and granu lar insecticides, said Whalen. A producer can identify the work of grubs if the fields plants are uneven a poor-doing plants scattered among more robust neighbors. The adult is the Japa nese beetle. A grub may also spend multi ple years in the soil. Conditions favoring grubs are rotations be hind pastures and double cropped soybeans. They affect corn but “we are starting to see activity in soy beans, too,” she said. Seed treat ments can work under low to modest pressure. Cutworms eat the base of the plant and leaves, and may emerge as early as March. Tank mixing insecticides with herbi cides can be used for control, ap plied immediately before plant ing. Whalen is cautious about new seed treatments used for control ling cutworms, she said. Cut worm control seems to work well on small worms, but may not give complete control if worms are large at planting tie of the popu lation is high. “Producers still need to scout and treat if threshold levels are present,” she said. Slugs, which overwinter as eggs, feed on the whole plant. They prefer cool, wet springs and no-till conditions. Good seed slot closure “making sure the pres sure wheels really close the fur row because they’ll go right down that furrow” she said, is essen tial. Baits tend to work better for slugs than treating. The soybean cyst nematode identified by tiny cysts on the root and yellow, stunted plants can be con trolled with crop rotation or resis tant varieties of plants. Small grains, corn, and sorghum are non-hosts, according to Whalen, who recommended a minimum of two years using non-host crops or resistant varieties. “Rotation, rotation, rotation if I was a nematologist, that’s what Id be up here saying to you,” she said. Phil Staudt, PDA, gave an up dated on Pennsylvania’s ongoing Chem Sweep program. “You can still get rid of unwanted pesti cides,” he said. In approximately 10 years, of ficials have disposed of more them one million pounds of pesti cide through the program. The program costs the user nothing, as it is funded mainly by the registry of products by chemi cal companies, according to Staudt. “Check your particular site, if you have any of that material that you want to get rid of,” he urged the audience. “Your re sponsibility in this program ba sically is advising us to what you have,” he said. “You bring it in to the office and from there it is our responsibility.” The material is sent to an in cinerator. Producers received two core and two category pesticide cred its for the day’s session.
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