PRO fights pests with information

Investigators are finding and testing ingenious ways to fight crop pests with less chemicals -- thanks in part to AURI-funded Pesticide Reduction Options projects.

Zapping weeds in vegetable plots with propane torches, spraying a thin coat of oil on apple trees to suffocate mites, and developing disease-resistant crop varieties are just some of the weapons PRO projects are investigating.

Perhaps the fiercest weapon is information. With computerized weather and weed ecology data, for example, farmers can predict when weeds will emerge and how abundant they'll be. Other methods pinpoint when threatening levels of insects and disease make treatment necessary. Otherwise, producers don't need to spray, which can cut chemical use in half.

Besides transferring cost-saving methods, PRO field tests can discourage producers from implementing practices that don't work. For example, cover crops have been used successfully by many grain farmers to smother weeds. However, when the cover Brassica was tested in strawberry patches, it successfully competed for water and nutrients, and strawberry yields suffered. Likewise, other PRO projects have shown that certain methods are not worth converting to whole farm production.

But most projects confirm cost-saving, environmentally sound farming practices adaptable to Minnesota farms, says Donna Christianson, who recently assumed PRO responsibilities after Marcy Schutt, former PRO manager, accepted a position with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (see story, page 14). Brent Sorenson, who holds a doctorate in agronomy and manages AURI's northern field office, and Harvey Meredith, a crop consultant from White Bear Lake, are providing technical assistance to PRO.

AURI is now in its fifth round of PRO funding, having invested over $1 million to date in 30 research and demonstration projects intended to reduce farm pesticide use. Investigators must document their projects' economic and environmental benefit and transfer results to Minnesota farmers.