Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences
Montana State University-Bozeman
LRES 110, Land Resources and Environmental Science
Site Specific Pest Management
September 8, 1999
I was born and raised in southwest Wisconsin. I lived and worked on a 160 acre dairy farm through my undergraduate degree. As an undergrad, I major in soil and crop science and chemistry. I completed my M.S. degree in agronomy/weeds at the University of Minnesota and my Ph. D. in weeds at the University of Wisconsin. Upon the completion of my studies at the UW I began working at MSU in the fall of 1997.
My appointment is 60% research and 40% extension. I work primarily with cropland weeds. My research has focused on the integrated management of weeds. Current research projects include: site specific wild oat management, biology and management of Persian darnel, effectiveness of reduced herbicide rates for control of wild oat, and screening and evaluation of herbicides for weed control in crops.
LRES
110 - Land Resources and Environmental
Science
Site Specific Pest Management
September 8, 1999
I. What are pests???
Types of Pests
insects — parasitism, predation
rodents — predation
pathogens (bacteria, fungi, virus, mycoplasms) — parasitism
WEEDS – competition
Why should you as an individual care about invasive species in particular weeds???
Break out session and discussion:
II. Current farm crisis
-Estimates over the next year is 25% reduction in the number of farms/ranches in the U.S.
-increased size of farms — average farm size in the state of Montana is 3,000 A
-vertical integration — poultry, swine, cattle yards, fruit and vegetables
-average age of farmers nation wide continues to increase (56-58 yrs of age)
Why should you as an individual care about current farm crises???
Break out session and discussion
Possible source of current farm crises
-Increase production over the past 4-5 decades
-decreased net return over the same periods of time
-cost of input costs continues to increase
Where do inputs come from???
Possible Solutions??? A pest management point of view
Reduce off farm inputs
improve local economy by shifting to locally available inputs
Sustainable farming systems???
Site-Specific Pest Management
III. What allows for site-specific pest management???
Pests are spatially variable -- in particular weeds
what accounts for spatial variability in weeds
-soils
-management
herbicides
tillage
crop factors – time of emergence, crop density, crop health
presence of disease and insect pests
-dispersal
new tools available to quantify spatial variability
-GPS
-GIS
-Scouting
Spatial variability on varying scales
-regional variability
-field to field
-within a field
IV. Site specific application of products
don’t increase production / acre
reduce amount of inputs and minimizing the influence of the pest
-net result — overall increase in net return on the field.
Optimize inputs for maximum net return.
- we can variably apply
seed rate, variety, fertilizer, herbicide etc....
How do we make site specific weed management decisions
-This year
-Future year
-presence/absence of weeds
-threshold
Outcomes of site specific weed management --goal is to increase profitability
-do we increase profitability
may add another layer of input costs
where do those costs go
-what happens if we quit managing weeds in one area and focus on another area
within a field
new patches in areas where weeds weren’t previously
eradicate other patches