The New Agriculture Network's on-line newsletter with seasonal advice for field crop and vegetable growers interested in organic agriculture.
Vol. 1, No. 5 -June 10, 2004
In this issue
Next issue posted June 24. Previous issues can be read through our calendar of issues by clicking on the publication date in the calendar.
The minute pirate bug: An important predator of soybean aphid
Ho Jung Yoo and Bob O'Neil
Entomology,
Purdue University
Natural enemies of insects, such as predators and parasites, commonly help reduce crop pest populations and their consequent effect on yield. Some of the most effective natural enemies are capable of keeping pest densities to consistently low levels, below economic threshold, with no assistance from us. Others can also effectively reduce pest densities when they are provided pollen, alternative prey, or floral nectaries that help them live in the field. Avoiding use of pesticide sprays helps crops to have a rich diversity of these beneficial insects.
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| The minute pirate bug attacks many insects in soybean and has shown potential for controlling the soybean aphid in Indiana. |
Minute pirate bugs have certain characteristics that attract them to soybean fields even before soybean aphids are present. They will attack many other insects, or “alternative prey,” besides soybean aphids, such as soybean thrips, whitefly nymphs, potato leafhoppers and mites. They also feed on soybean pollen and obtain moisture and minerals from the soybean plant. (They use their “piercing-sucking mouthparts” to suck juice from the plant, and they do not damage the plant in doing so.) From field sampling, we have seen that the later aphids appear in fields after predators have arrived, the more effectively predators appear to prevent aphid population growth. We have found this to be the case among different fields and among different years, and are continuing research to understand how this “head start” allows the predators to exert control on aphid populations. We think that the presence of alternative prey in the early season may help to promote a high abundance of minute pirate bugs. If so, farmers may be “farming” these alternative prey to bring in natural enemies that control soybean aphid! Organic producers who naturally provide many opportunities for beneficial insects to live in their crops may be the first producers to use their home-grown natural enemies to combat this invasive pest.
If you are interested in sharing your methods of control, management or any other ideas to control the aphid, please contact:
Soledad Rodas
Department of Entomology,
Purdue University
901 W. State St
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2089
(765) 494-1422, srodas@purdue.edu
More sales from your stall
Susan Smalley
MSU Sustainable Food & Farming Systems
Gail and Doug Hayden manage 20 farmers’ markets for two market organizations in the San Francisco area, booking 40,000 stalls per year. Gail’s education has included a B.S. in agricultural economics, an M.B.A. in food marketing, and an interest in farm profitability. She conducted a USDA study in the early 1980s, showing that farmers could double their profits at farmers’ markets compared to selling at traditional wholesale. Many California farmers today sell 100 percent direct. Gail, who was a featured speaker at the 2002 North American Farmers’ Direct Marketing Conference, advises farmers about how to maximize their farmers’ market sales. She claims that farmers who use all her tips can increase their sales 30 to 50 percent. Why not give them a try?
Starting with the basics, why should you sell at farmers’ markets? Different reasons appeal to different farmers.
1) Receive immediate cash payment
2) Sell non-shippable products
3) Sell specialty products
4) Employ family members
5) Employ yourself
6) Increased profit margins
7) Sell smaller lots
8) Extend product lines
9) Set your own price
10) Get immediate customer feedback
11) Educate your customers.
You can use the farmers’ market as a marketing tool for other sales on farm, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), etc. There are minimal barriers to entry.
And then there are your customers at farmers’ markets. How are they different? They go out of their way to come to you. They want, and get, fresher food. They value fresh, quality, special, local…. Price is down the list!
At a farmers’ market, it’s critical to understand which are your draw crops, the products that draw customers to your stand. Ask your customers what draws them, why they come. Chances are you’ll hear tree fruit, tomatoes, sweet corn, melons, and berries. All taste better – are sweeter – when the distribution channel is shorter. You are selling sugar, selling flavor. These items also require minimum preparation time and labor. Consider and adjust your planting strategy to provide a constant supply of your draw crops through as much of your season as possible. You are creating a brand -- your farm’s brand. Your customers need to know what they will get from you, from your brand. Don’t bring something to the market unless you are proud to put your name on it.
Be creative with signs
“Cosmetically challenged” tells customers you know these apples don’t look too good. “Petit-cots – good for jam,” tells them that these apricots are smaller than the ones you typically provide and suggests a use for them. Provide an easy jam recipe with the fruit.
Use promotions
Try “snack pack for the back pack,” when school begins to promote healthy snacks for students. Too many peaches on the market? Stage a peach promotion
When you set up the market, work with the market master to be sure that contiguous stalls are filled. Table to table continuous stalls increase sales; don’t leave gaps and keep the tables even. A “hole” in the market lowers sales for stalls on both sides. The goal is the “herding effect.” Don’t make people step into the stall.
Use a tablecloth. Have several to support changing themes through the season. Keep it clean. Use money aprons to make change, color-coordinated with tablecloth and signs. Have sales staff wear nametags and try to learn customer’s names, as customers will learn their names. This helps to encourage repeat customers and customer loyalty. Try to learn names of 100 customers. Try to have the same people selling at the market each time so that customers get to know them.
While you are at the market, you are in costume and on stage. Give your customers a good show. They are coming to buy fresh food from a farmer. Think about the image you want to create. You can wear a special hat (safari hat, cowboy hat, ball cap, etc.), wear one color (lady in red), dress in overalls, or whatever. Remember that you are part of the display and what you wear helps to create your business image.
Good signs are critical. Make them carefully, laminate them, and keep them clean. Show prices for all your products. Remember that your price signs should sell freshness, quality, and uniqueness. Label your products for use: Ready Now; Ready in 2-3 Days; Great for Soup; Eggs so fresh the chickens don’t even know they are gone. Describe the product, its variety, flavor, aroma, color, etc. If a chef buys your product, ask him or her if you can post a sign, “Often found at XXX Restaurant.”
Farm identity signs can communicate the farm name, location, whether it’s a family farm, etc. Use farm pictures and signs that explain your production methods such as certified organic, grown without pesticides, greenhouse grown, raised with no hormones, etc. Put signs up where people can see them.
Provide recipes and samples (within health department guidelines). Provide a basket for rinds, toothpicks, etc. Use tongs to hand out samples, extending into market aisle. Don’t say, “Would you like to try ____?” Instead say, “Have you ever tried _____?” Provide assurance: If you don’t like the sweet corn, bring back the cob.
Keep busy. Do not sit, smoke, eat, read, etc. If the market is really slow, keep loading and unloading product. Ask people what they think of your product. Others will hear their compliments. Say, “See you next week!” to plant the idea of coming back. Have as a goal to get customers to buy something at your stand, take it home to prepare, and then bring samples back to the market.
Consider color within your stall. When arranging products, put the tallest in back. Slant containers toward customers; prop up the back for a better display. Pile products high; the most effective display area is between elbows and eyes. Don’t let bins or baskets get empty. Consider special packaging — a berry triple pack with red, black, golden raspberries; a yuppie pack with tiny squash, washed and in ready-to-microwave package.
Try these tips from Gail Hayden and track how they affect your sales. If you’d like to learn more about selling, here are two books that I’ve found helpful. Both make good winter reading. Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, by Paco Underhill (1999), describes and explains consumer behavior based on data from thousand of hours of field research in shopping malls, supermarkets, and department stores across the U.S. You’ll find useful tips on how to adapt your sales strategies to changing customers. The Experience Economy: Work is Theatre and Every Business a Stage, by B. Joseph Pine II and Joseph H. Gilmore (1999) examines how successful businesses create experiences that engage customers in an inherently personal way. Neither of these books is specifically focused on farmers’ markets, but both provide insights and increased understanding that can help you develop more effective marketing strategies.
Source
This article is reprinted from the October 2003 issue of Michigan Organic Connections, the bi-monthly newsletter of the Michigan Organic Food & Farm Alliance. The October 2003 issue contains additional commentary on organic foods and nutrition, along with other featured articles on organic and local food systems, and can be found at www.moffa.org (under Newsletters).
Set a thief to catch a thief:
Developing biological herbicides for Midwestern growers
Steve Hallett
Botany & Plant Pathology
Purdue University
Biological control has resulted in the safe and effective management of a wide variety of key weeds such as prickly pear cactus in Australia, St. John’s wort on the West Coast and water hyacinth in many countries of the tropics and sub-tropics. The benefits of weed biocontrol have been enormous, especially against extensive infestations of invasive weeds in waterways, rangelands and natural areas. For the most part, these successes have been achieved by the importation of insect pests from the country of origin of the invasive weed.
The difficulty with weed biocontrol has always been its application to horticultural and agricultural cropping systems where weeds occur in complex communities and the environment tends to be highly disturbed. In these systems the ideal biocontrol agents are microorganisms that can be mass-produced and manipulated in the laboratory. This approach to the biocontrol of weeds has been the subject of considerable research in the last two decades and has resulted in the commercialization of niche market products in the USA, the Netherlands, South Africa and China.
The organisms selected as candidate biological herbicides are nearly always fungal plant pathogens with a restricted host range. This restricted host range is a double-edged sword. Limited host range is valuable for off-target safety. (USDA researchers are hoping that host-specific pathogens of opium poppy, coca and marijuana can be used to combat the production of narcotic drugs). Likewise, researchers from McGill University, Montana State University, Purdue University and the Weizmann Institute are developing a host-specific pathogen as a biological herbicide for the control of the African parasitic plant Striga. High host specificity, however, is also problematic in most cropping systems, since weeds always appear in mixed communities.
Biological herbicides offer considerable opportunities for weed control in organic cropping systems. Since they are composed primarily of naturally occurring organisms, their use does not represent a release of a foreign material into the environment. Furthermore, numerous pathogens exist with the potential to cause significant damage to weed species, and their development as weed control tools is likely to cost significantly less than chemical herbicides. As a result, the development of biological herbicides is feasible for niche markets and minor crops.
In addition to the targeted development of biological herbicides as product-oriented weed management inputs, a significant amount of recent research by Iowa State University, Michigan State University and Purdue University has shown the importance of natural enemies in the regulation of weed pressures even when these natural enemies are not manipulated. In particular, we are beginning to understand the importance of arthropod predators and soil-borne microorganisms in the removal and decay of weed seeds in the soil seed bank, and we are developing our understanding of how these impacts can be modified by different cropping systems. Further research is expected to develop an understanding of how cropping systems can be manipulated to modify soil microbial communities to have a direct impact upon the dynamics of weed communities.
We have great hope for the development of biological control strategies for weed management in cropping systems. Farmers will have to wait some time before significant products and recommendations can be made in the Midwest, but as we develop our understanding of the biology of the interactions between weeds and their natural enemies, we will improve our ability to manage weeds in ways that are both effective and environmentally benign. Progress will come from both the selection and development of key plant pathogens as biocontrol products and the manipulation of cropping systems to promote microbial weed suppression.
Reports from organic growers
Illinois
As in many other locations, there has been too much rain (9.9” received the last 3 weeks of May) in Northern Illinois. Dave Campbell reports that a thick crust has developed in one of his cornfields. Fortunately, this crust is not too hard and most of the corn is breaking through. There are forecasts for heavy rains for the next few days and he has concerns about the effects of soil erosion. Field activities have included planting and rotary hoeing corn, and cutting thistles in wheat fields. He hopes to start planting soybeans next week (or whenever this next rain system passes through and the ground is fit to work); rotary hoe corn and soybean ground; sell and load out most of 2003 wheat crop; and mow off thistles around field edges and continue to hand cut thistles in wheat fields.
The last significant rain at Jon Cherniss farm in Central Illinois was May 31 and fields have dried out. It is now hot and dry and continues to be very windy. He is getting fall crops started in the greenhouse. Field activities have included a lot of cultivating, mowing, and hand hoeing. Other activities have included planting sudangrass for a summer cover crop and winter squash, as well as staking tomatoes. Harvest is on-going, three times a week. His last summer planting of tomatoes and peppers will take place by June 15 and fall plantings will begin in early July.
Kevin Brussell who farms in Southern Illinois near Casey reports that excessive rain during the past two weeks has prevented timely hoeing and cultivating. He hoed and cultivated the corn when the soil was still too heavy to work well. It is a trade-off between soil damage and weeds in this year’s crops. His soft red winter wheat is severely infected with head scab (at least 50 percent). Field activities have included cultivating corn and hoeing corn, soil finishing and planting soybeans. Plans for the next few weeks include cultivating corn, hoeing and planting soybeans and mowing and baling alfalfa hay.
Some questions from the Illinois farmers include:
Does anyone know of any markets for grain sorghum? If so, what is the going price paid to the farmer? What can be done to prevent head scab in wheat?
Indiana
In Central Indiana, Dave Swaim reports conventional corn planted before the rainy period is boot-top to waist high and doing very well. The first cutting of hay is just in; it was in full bloom. Wheat is heading up and looks good. Cold and wet weather in May has slowed vegetable crops down. Yields at farmers markets will be reduced as a consequence. Herbicide injury has been observed on field corn, compounded by cold wet weather and compacted soil. Affected plants are stunted and have dead seminal roots.
In Southeastern Indiana, Gary Reding says he is finally starting to mow some hay, but got rained on again with one of those "scattered" showers. “We haven't missed one yet I don't believe.” Total rainfall for May in his area was just short of 7 inches and 1.5 inches for June so far.
Gary’s first cutting of hay is headed out and losing quality and the cattle are already grazing on their pastures for the second time this year. He notes that this is testament to the efficiency of grazing instead of mechanical harvesting. The cattle are doing well with plenty to eat and cooler temperatures for the season.
Gary has spread some compost but has more to do. He is continually clipping pastures behind the cattle on the long grass they trampled on the first time around. He usually does not clip pastures, but with so many getting too tall before grazing, he has had to clip them to remove seed heads so the grass will resume growth.
Several acres were being planted in his neighborhood this week for the first time since the beginning of May. The crops that were planted earlier are showing water damage and several have been replanted due to drowning out.
As far as weed control in pastures, the cattle have done their job to suppress the thistles. Gary has not had any go to seed yet because his are grazed off. He says he has chosen his pastures on the basis of weed control needed as opposed to grass conditions, since his grass is all growing so well. The biggest challenge has been to keep them moving and off the wet areas during the frequent rains.
We welcome a new farmer to our team of reporters. Dan Flotow raises vegetables, cut flowers, and bedding plants at the Country Garden and Farm Market in Roanoke, near Fort Wayne in Northeast Indiana. Produce is sold on site and through a CSA. He started about ten years ago using conventional practices, has been transitioning to organic for the last 4 to 5 years, and this year has applied for organic certification.
Michigan
Matt Wiley of Schoolcraft (Southwest Michigan) reports that his farm received 7 inches of rain in May. Since then conditions have been good. He planted soybeans on June 4-5. The soil temperature was 68-70oF, and the soybeans emerged in four days.
He’s beginning to cultivate and will continue to cultivate. Velvetleaf emerged at the same time as the soybeans. Normally Matt rotary hoes, but this year he didn’t. Instead he’s using a Bezzerides cultivator with spinners to control weeds within the rows. He thinks he can take out velvetleaf up to 3 inches tall.
Larry Dyer at Kellogg Biological Station (Southwest Michigan) reports that the Station recorded 9.8 inches of rain for May. The ground just recently dried enough to work, so they just planted corn and soybeans on June 7-8. Larry notes, “From what farmers we talk with are telling us, much of the state is at a similar point – fields are just getting dry enough for people to plant. People in the area are starting to cut hay, although getting more than two days in a row of sunshine and warm weather is a gamble. “
From East Central Michigan (Lapeer County), John Simmons writes that they have had brief relief from rains along with a very nice hot/warm spell. This new pattern dried most fields and allowed good progress in planting. Most of the corn has been planted, and soybeans show mixed progress. Small grains responded to the warmth and sunshine with a big growth spurt and much improved color.
Green cover crops seeded this spring or last fall at the Simmons farm thrived during the wet spell. Rye that was less than 6" tall when the rains started in early May are 4 to 5 inches tall now. Some of the rye planned for cover crop to soybeans will be harvested as seed - less of a battle than conquering tall/headed rye. Clover cover fields that were fitted to plant in early May re-grew with the month of wet weather and no tillage. “Bonus organic matter and N!” John notes. Not as hard to conquer as rye.
Storms Wednesday (June 9) dumped an instant 2 inches or more of hard rain on farms in his area. There is still a lot of water standing on Thursday morning. This rain coincides with usual rotary hoeing/weeding of corn that is emerged or near emergence. If early mechanical tillage window is not open, flame control of small weeds will be utilized.
Current practices at John’s farm include preparing fields for corn and planting corn, mowing clover and preparing fields for soybeans or sunflowers. (And watching water levels go up and down, and pumping water out of the basement.) Current conditions will require at least one rain-free week with high temperatures and winds to allow any fieldwork. John comments, “We received this last time---now we need it again. Then I will complete soybean and sunflower planting.”
Joy Landis
MSU IPM Program Communications
Upgrades for computers and software make designing web pages a nightmare at times. Here are a couple of tips to help you read our pages (and those at other sites) with fewer glitches:
1) Do you see odd characters at the end of today's grower reports - for example, sunflower planting.$rdquo;
Those nonsense characters
are suppose to be quotation marks.Or perhaps you see different kinds of type scatter throughout our web page. Many people put the popular Internet browser program Netscape on their computer years ago and have not upgraded the software to meet today's standards. It's free to upgrade your Netscape and it will solve this and other odd formatting problems. To upgrade, visit:
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/default.jsp
2) Using old versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer can cause problems, too. To upgrade this program, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/ie6sp1/default.mspx
3) Some readers who are members of AOL may have problems seeing the updates of our web pages. When AOL subscribers look for a new issue, they may find an old issue still appears on our web site. We have learned the solution is to hold down the "control" key on your keyboard and at the same time, click "reload" on your screen. (Perhaps it is command key rather than control for Mac users.)
