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| Darker shading in the pie chart indicates projects with IPM staff as project leader. Lighter shading is for projects where IPM staffers are team members. |
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| The table below breaks down the 2008 IPM funding budget portrayed in the above pie chart. |
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| Funding source |
IPM Role |
2008 |
| CSREES Extension IPM |
core budget |
$127,000 |
| Project GREEEN/MAES/MSUE |
core budge |
$250,000 |
| Grants |
| Federal grants |
team leader |
$659,000 |
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team member |
$2,184,000 |
| Project GREEEN |
team leader |
$87,000 |
| |
team member |
$142,000 |
| Project GREEEN/MAES/MSUE - Enviro-weather |
team leader |
$83,000 |
| |
team member |
$106,000 |
| State agency grant |
team member |
$25,000 |
| Other (industry, NGOs) |
team leader |
$144,000 |
| |
team member |
$36,000 |
| Sub-total |
Team leader |
$ 998,000 |
| Sub-total |
Team member |
$ 2,468,000 |
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The MSU IPM Program continues work with the MSU Climatological Resources Program to produce high quality weather-based IPM information delivery in Michigan. In just over two years, achievements include adding 19 more automated weather stations to total 61; revising nine pest models and testing and validating 20 more; launching four new pest models in 2009. We’ve also added three plant growth models along with links to services at nine partnering websites. Equally important, these achievements reflect a coming together of a fine staff, excellent collaborators (six MSU departments, MSU Extension and MAES station staff, two colleges, two state agencies, and many in the private sector), and users interested in pest, plant production, and natural resource management. We have recently launched a donation site for users at: http://www.enviroweather.msu.edu/support.asp. Read more about Enviro-weather in its annual report: http://www.enviroweather.msu.edu/report.asp. |
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Starting in 2004, Michigan apple growers have been very successfully implementing whole-farm, or area-wide, codling moth management using pheromone-based mating disruption as the centerpiece of their control programs. This advanced IPM technology is based on interfering with this pest's normal mating process in which female moths emit a sex pheromone to attract malemates. Mating disruption uses a synthetic version of the female codling moth's pheromone to disrupt male moths' abilities to locate females, and ultimately curtail mating. Pheromone is typically dispensed in individual dispensers and placed in tree canopies throughout an orchard.
Growers across the lower peninsula of the state have been working with MSU researchers and extension personnel to better understand how to incorporate mating disruption into their control programs in ways that are both effective at controlling codling moth and economical. Not only are cooperating growers keeping fruit injury levels low on their farms, but those deploying pheromone disruption for four years have reduced the overall number of companion insecticide applications targeting codling moth, helping to lower spray bills and recoup product and application costs of mating disruption.
Starting with eight growers on 800 acres in 2004 in Kent and Ottawa counties, IPM integrator David Epstein, the project’s manager, reports the project has grown to approximately 3,000 acres on over 30 farms by expanding into Berrien, Cass, Monroe and Grand Traverse counties. The project has served as a catalyst to promote adoption of pheromone mating disruption in the wider Michigan apple industry. Over 8,000 acres of Michigan apple orchards were treated with mating disruption in 2007, up from about 4,000 treated acres prior to the start of the project. Growers have learned that it works and can be cost effective.
The cost of mating disruption deployment and biological monitoring ranged from $125-$170 per acre, depending on the number of dispensers per acre and type of dispenser chosen. The additional returns for reduced insecticide use and increased pack-out of non-damaged fruit on farms using disruption for four years ranged from $210-$305 per acre per year. Thus, net returns exceeded net costs at about a 1.75:1 ratio for the 20 farms studied in this analysis, strongly indicating that area-wide deployment of mating disruption for codling moth is a very worthwhile management approach.
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Comparison of spray applications for 20 farms practicing whole-farm or area-wide pheromone mating disruption in Michigan between 2004 and 2008. |
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| A pheromone dispenser. |
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| Farms deploying pheromone disruption for five years have reduced the mean overall number of insecticide applications for codling moth by about 50% and the mean number of organophosphorous (OP) insecticide sprays from five to one during 2004 to 2008.
The average application of OP insecticides targeting codling moth dropped from 5.8 pounds in year one to about 2.2 pounds in 2007 – a 65% reduction.
On 20 farms where pheromone disruption was deployed for four consecutive years, mean capture of males in pheromone-baited traps was reduced 93%.
Fruit injury attributed to codling moth was 95% lower in area-wide blocks than in non-mating disrupted blocks relying only on insecticide. Mean net returns exceeded net costs at about a 1.75:1 ratio for the 20 farms deploying whole-farm mating disruption. |
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Grazing hogs in fruit orchards for pest and weed management has a long history that includes Thomas Jefferson foraging hogs in his Monticello orchards. The practice nearly disappeared with the advent of modern chemical farming in the late 20th century. During 2008, the project team continued their work to rediscover and scientifically evaluate the benefits of integrated apple and pork production practices. The team, organized by IPM integrator David Epstein, is excited about highly promising results showing hogs can help organic growers control critical pests that are currently difficult to manage organically. Addressing these problems can help to widen the bottleneck blocking further expansion of organic production. So far the project has documented:
- Flash grazing hogs in apple orchards significantly reduced the incidence of injury to fruit from the two most economically important insect pests of organic apples in Michigan, plum curculio and codling moth.
- Flash grazing hogs in apple orchards significantly reduced weed cover within tree rows.
- Orchard-reared hogs demonstrated adequate reproductive, growth and health characteristics and have not required any use of antibiotics.
The project team’s future proposals include continuing research and extension to better understand long-term impacts on pest populations, and the food safety, economic and sociological implications for growers adopting this system. Areas for study include:
- Potential for controlling apple scab through control of overwintering inoculum on foliage on the orchard floor. This disease results in more pesticide applications than any one pest of apples.
- Potential for controlling additional insect and vertebrate pests that live some portion of their lifecycle on the orchard floor.
- Improved profit potential from sale of locally raised, non-confined, apple-fed, organic pork products.
- Decreased need for off-farm inputs, in particular pesticide and tractor fuel use.
- Food safety and worker risk potential from exposure to hog manure in the orchard.
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| Farmer Jim Koan with the orchard-grazing hogs |
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Contact David Epstein, epstei10@msu.edu |
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The MSU IPM Program continues an important part of its mission: delivering research findings and basic knowledge of IPM to the citizens of Michigan through publications and web sites. IPM Communications Manager Joy Landis along with Andrea Buchholz partnered with many specialists including others on the IPM staff in these efforts this year:
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Farmers are being encouraged to adopt IPM techniques that help preserve the quality of our natural resources. These techniques tend to be more complex and costly at least during initial adoption than traditional pest control approaches. Well implemented, they can also provide community-wide benefits in resource conservation. We are working to link the research and extension IPM work at MSU with several state and federal programs that provide support to growers in adopting IPM for its joint plant protection and natural resource conservation value. Here are a few examples in joining forces with our state and federal agency partners. Thanks for the collaborative spirit!
Mike Brewer and Joy Landis (MSU IPM) along with Hannah Stevens, Amy Irish-Brown (MSU Extension) and Mark Whalon, John Wise, and David Mota-Sanchez (Entomology) continue to work with local, state and federal staff of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in assisting farmers to adopt IPM strategies that meet their plant protection needs while preserving natural resources on the farm. Supported by local training, workshops, and direct grower assistance, growers have really responded to this opportunity by increasing their participation in the voluntary Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP). With financial support from EQIP, grower adoption of IPM ranged from scouting to reduced-risk pesticides to non-pesticide management methods. Support from EQIP to implement these types of IPM tactics in Michigan was about $1 million in 2008. The opportunity is being expanded in the new Farm Bill. For more information on how to get involved, visit our IPM website: www.ipm.msu.edu/farmbill.htm. We also contribute to regional and national activities to better align IPM with opportunities available in these programs. This effort will be given a team IPM Recognition Award at the 2009 International IPM Symposium. |
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| Mike Brewer (MSU IPM), Maria Josefa Santos, Pedro Bautista and David Mota-Sanchez (MSU Entomology) at the training series IPM and Nutrient Management Planning: Addressing Farm Production and Resource Conservation. Dr. Santos is a collaborator and cultural anthropologist at National Autonomous University of Mexico and Mr. Bautista hosted some of the training at his farm. |
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Beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers may not be aware of long-standing government agricultural programs or know how to become involved with them. In southwest Michigan, the number of Hispanic farmers producing specialty crops such as blueberries on small to medium-sized farms is on the rise. Speciality crop growers need specific knowledge and skills in pest and nutrition management to maintain quality production while adhering to practices encouraged by government to protect the land. For this project, Mike Brewer, David Mota-Sanchez, and Filiberto Villa-Gomez (MSU Extension) worked with partners in MSU Departments of Entomology and Horticulture, Michigan Food and Farming Systems, USDA-NRCS and FSA, and the Michigan Department of Agriculture’s Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) and Pesticide Training Program. The result was an introductory pest and nutrient management workshop in fall 2008. This series of training was attended by about 45 Latino growers. The program included a farm walk demonstrating the services available to growers by federal and state agricultural services. In follow up, growers are working on voluntary farm risk assessments of MAEAP and investigating voluntary FSA and NRCS programs. |
The brief in this annual report, Grape growers gain tool for measuring on-farm sustainability and IPM planning describes another example of MSU IPM Program and agency collaboration to help farmers implement IPM and other sustainable farm practices. And last, two booklets produced by the USDA State Outreach Council provide an overview of the new opportunities in the Farm Bill and how to get involved: 1) Opportunities for Fruit, Vegetable, and Specialty Crop Growers and 2) Opportunities for Beginning and/or Socially Disadvantaged Farmers. These booklets are available online as part of a Farm Bill session co-hosted by the MSU IPM Program and MSU Extension at the 2008 Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable, and Farm Market Expo. Visit www.glexpo.com/abstracts/2008abstracts/farm_bill.pdf and see the end of the file for the booklets.
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We have become firm believers in the success that results when farmers participate in publication development. In 2005 a group of 13 farmers, four weed scientists, four county Extension educators met with a professional facilitator for four day-long working sessions to create and write a 112-page MSU bulletin titled, Integrated Weed Management… “One Year’s Seeding” (E-2931). All of the initial 4,000 copies were sold and minor revisions were made in the 2007 reprint. As a follow-up, an intensive survey (21 pages) was sent to 100 farmers across the state and north central United States to evaluate the bulletin. Fifty farmers responded to the survey indicating they liked the publication and wanted more in-depth information on several of its topics.
With input from the survey, in 2007 a team of Extension specialists lead by Erin Taylor, Karen Renner and Christy Sprague (MSU Crop and Soil Sciences) started a new bulletin titled Integrated Weed Management: Fine Tuning the System (E-3065). This 136-page, full-color publication was released in December 2008. The chapters in the new bulletin include complex crop rotations, cover crops systems, manure and compost, flaming, grazing and other biological controls, weed thresholds, on-farm weed management trials and 14 new weed profiles. The goal of the new book was to compile information on each of these topics from researchers, Extension educators and experienced farmers to create easily digestible information regarding sustainable weed management systems. An extensive Extension education program throughout Michigan, the north central United States and Canada is scheduled in 2009 to promote the content of the new publication. MSU IPM/Cover Crops Specialist Dale Mutch was editor of the publication and provided research data for chapters on cover crops and flaming. He is also part of the team teaching more than six programs across Michigan and Canada. |
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| Bulletin on integrated weed management. Buy it from MSUE. |
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- Erin Taylor, Karen Renner, Christy Sprague, and Wesley Everman, Crop and Soil Sciences
- Daniel Brainard, Horticulture
- Dale Mutch, IPM/ Kellogg Biological Station
- Steve Deming, graphic artist
- Natalie Rector, reviewer, MSU Extension
- Leah Worthington, reviewer, KBS/ MSUE
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| The demand for sustainable agricultural products is on the rise due to increased interest by consumers and major retail outlets. MSU is collaborating with the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and the National Grape Cooperative to produce an on-farm sustainability assessment and IPM planning tool for Michigan grape growers. MAEAP is a voluntary program for helping farmers assess agricultural risks and plan strategies to reduce these risks. This tool, led by Paul Jenkins and Mike Brewer, Entomology/MSU IPM Program, and Allen Krizek and Josh Appleby working in MAEAP, will allow growers to evaluate their level of sustainability and IPM implementation and track progress as they implement new practices recommended by collaborating MSU scientists into their vineyard management program. |
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| Michigan has over 14,000 acres of commercial vineyards that could benefit from the new IPM planning and assessment tool. |
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The project is in direct response to National Grape’s initiative to develop and implement sustainable vineyard practices for their grower members. National Grape is an agricultural cooperative withapproximately 325 members in Michigan, farming over 12,000 acres of Concord and Niagara grapes. Welch’s is the cooperative’s wholly-owned processing and marketing subsidiary, with production facilities in Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington State. This assessment tool is also supported by Michigan’s wine grape industry, netting a potential impact on over 14,000 acres of grapes produced in the state.
The new assessment tool is a series of risk questions that score the sustainability level for specific production practices, and is being fully integrated into the risk assessment tools of MAEAP. Research-based options provide the grower to develop a customized sustainability and IPM plan for their farm. Stakeholders will be able to benchmark increases in sustainability as growers adopt new sustainable practices.
A print version of the Michigan grape grower sustainability assessment is scheduled to be available in April 2009, and an online version is targeted for release by the end of the year.
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- MSU: Paul Jenkins, Michael Brewer, Allen Krizek, Rufus Isaacs, Annemiek Schilder, and Paolo Sabbatini
- MSUE: Mark Longstroth, Duke Elsner, and Roberta Dow
- MDA: Jan Wilford, Josh Appleby, Kyle Mead, and Suzanne Forraht
- National Grape Cooperative: Terry Holloway, Tom Davenport, and Jay Hardenburg
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| , contact Paul Jenkins, jenki132@msu.edu |
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American brown rot is caused by the fungi Monilinia fructicola, and is an important pathogen on apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums and cherries (particularly sweet cherry varieties). The fungus attacks fruit, blossoms, spurs and shoots with ideal infection conditions initiating epidemic inoculum levels in as little as 24 hours. The most notable characteristic of brown rot is the fruit rot it causes, which greatly reduces the quality and quantity of yield.
During the 2008 growing season, all 30 days preceding sweet cherry harvest provided ideal conditions for M. fructicola germination, spore production and infection. Brown rot infections reached epidemic levels in some orchards, causing growers to abandon whole blocks of sweet cherries and to question the efficacy of our most commonly utilized brown rot fungicides, sterol inhibitors. Sterol inhibitors are the most effective class of fungicides used against brown rot, but are highly prone to resistance development, which has been confirmed in M. fructicola isolates from Georgia and New York.
In response to grower concerns about sterol inhibitor efficacy, Nikki Rothwell and Erin Lizotter (Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station and IPM) worked collaboratively with Dr. George Sundin (MSU Plant Pathology) to determine the in vitro fungicide sensitivity levels of M. fructicola and to evaluate the efficacy of traditional and novel fungicides in field work supported by the Michigan Cherry Committee. With the help of grower collaborators, the team was able to test samples from 30 Michigan orchards, spanning from Benton Harbor to Northport during the 2008 growing season. Participating growers received information regarding the sensitivity of isolates collected on their individual farms and were able to compare their population’s sensitivity to both regional data and resistance guidelines determined in states with documented resistance. This timely and specific feedback has been highly valued by growers for evaluating their success in managing brown rot and utilizing resistance management strategies. Additionally, field trials continued to show excellent brown rot control with sterol inhibitors, alleviating grower concern over sterol inhibitor field resistance.
The overarching goal is to improve application timing, product selection and resistance management strategies to contribute to better disease management. The benefits of successfully meeting these goals include reducing agricultural inputs, increasing crop quality, and improving grower profitability. |
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Since 2004, researchers and extension personnel from MSU, Wisconsin and Utah have been working with cherry growers to develop, implement and evaluate reduced-risk and organophosphorous (OP) alternative pest management strategies. The strategies must enhance this industry’s productivity, profitability, and competitiveness in the global market place and minimize risk to workers, consumers, and the environment. With the help of two back-to-back proposals funded by the USDA Risk Avoidance and Mitigation Program totaling over $3.1 million, the project team is developing:
- In-season controls for insects and disease.
- Strategies for ecosystem management of immigrant insect pests in overwintering habitats adjacent to commercial orchards.
- Post-harvest tactics targeting management of previously ignored life stages of key internal fruit feeders.
- Resistance management to preserve currently available fungicides.
- Tools to measure orchard ecosystem health as impacted by management tactics, particularly those related to the shift away from OP-based pest management systems toward OP alternative and reduced-risk pesticides.
More details are available at the project web site. Project manager David Epstein reports activities will continue through the 2009 and 2010 seasons. |
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- David Epstein, IPM/ Entomology
- Mark Whalon, Larry Gut, and George Bird, Entomology
- George Sundin, Plant Pathology
- Jim Flore, Horticulture
- Nikki Rothwell, Erin Lizotte, IPM/ NWMHRS
- Diane Alston, Utah State University – Entomology
- Patricia McManus, University of Wisconsin - Plant Pathology
- Jean Haley, Haley Consulting (sociological);
- Barbara Dartt, Salisbury Management Services (economics)
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| contact David Epstein, epstei10@msu.edu. |
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David Epstein and Joy Landis were awarded All-University Distinguished Academic Staff awards by President Lou Anna Simon this winter.
The Grower Incentives for IPM Project, spearheaded by Mike Brewer, will receive an IPM Recognition Award at the 6th International IPM Symposium in March 2009. The team award reflects collaboration by university IPM programs, departments of agriculture, USDA NRCS and CSREES, EPA, and agricultural commodities and environmental groups in Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, and Maine. |
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David Epstein |
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Generating partnerships for better pest management in Michigan.
Who we serve
We work with growers, consultants and their commodity groups to solve pest management problems in fruit, landscape, nursery, field crops, vegetables, and forestry-related plant production systems.
Agency partners
To serve stakeholders, we collaborate with state and federal agencies such as in Michigan departments of Agriculture and Environmental Quality, the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education Service, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
MSU Partners
We work with MSU field staff and campus faculty within the departments of Plant Pathology, Entomology, Crop & Soil Sciences, Geography, Horticulture, Forestry, MSU Diagnostic Services, MSU Extension, the Michigan Agricultural Experimentation Station, and Project GREEEN. Our home department is Entomology.
How we collaborate
We work with specialists and educators in research, demonstration and educational projects and help deliver their findings to IPM practitioners. This work is often coordinated through MSU's Area of Expertise teams. |
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Michael J. Brewer - IPM coordinator.
Joy Landis - Assistant IPM coordinator and communications manager.
Andrea Buchholz - Communications specialist.
David Epstein - Tree fruit IPM integrator.
Paul Jenkins, Small fruit education coordinator
Dale Mutch - Cover crops/ IPM specialist.
Erin Lizotte - Integrated fruit practices and pest management educator.
Read more about our staff and program.
Integrated Crop Management (ICM) educators: Amy Irish-Brown, Mira Danilovich, and Jill O’Donnell. Our best wishes to these recent retirees: Jim Breinling and Dean Krauskopf.
Enviro-weather staff
Beth Bishop, Jeff Andresen, Tracy Aichele, Jim Brown, Steve Marquie, Aaron Pollyea. |
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Christmas trees
