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CLEANER COTTON
BASIC Methods
Pesticide
Reduction Practice: Pest and Beneficial Monitoring
All enrolled grower fields are monitored on a weekly basis.
Monitoring forms are printed in duplicate and are used to
record data based on observations of the BASIC field staff
and the growers. The monitoring forms give the grower an overall
picture of the field and the local conditions including levels
of pest and beneficials, farmscape observations, the status
of the adjacent beneficial habitat and any unusual sightings
or areas for concern. As well as “sweeping the field,”
BASIC utilizes Dvac’s (vacuum sampling machine) to take
samples in hot spots or to get a more in depth look at insect
populations.
Pesticide Reduction
Practice: Strip Cutting of Alfalfa
Many of the BASIC growers have cotton fields adjacent to alfalfa.
One of the “best management practices” promoted
by the BASIC program is to utilize strip cutting of alfalfa.
By encouraging growers to leave uncut strips of alfalfa that
are then cut and other strips left at the next alfalfa harvest,
growers create a greater stability in the alfalfa environment.
The prevents the emigration of certain species at harvest
time and keeps one of the main cotton pests Lygus Hesperus
from moving out of the alfalfa (its preferred host) into the
adjacent cotton.
Pesticide Reduction
Practice: Bezzerides Weed Cultivator
Bezzerides designs cultivating attachments that can be added
to a growers existing cultivator avoiding the need to purchase
entirely new equipment. The attachment design is meant to
cultivate in the planted row were conventional cultivators
can’t reach. This is the area where chemical herbicides
are used to eliminate competing weeks. Growers agreed that
the cultivator and the cultivating attachments have potential
to help growers cut back on the use of herbicides, but the
cultivator also removes cotton plants along with the weeds.
Growers who tested the equipment felt that it was not significantly
better than their existing cultivator and decided not to utilize
the equipment again in 2003. Weeds in cotton continue to be
a major problem for growers.
Pesticide Reduction
Practice: Beneficial Habitat Planting
Seventy percent of the growers enrolled in the BASIC program
plant beneficial habitat adjacent to their enrolled field.
The habitat is intended to attract and hold naturally occurring
beneficials. BASIC staff work with growers to educate them
on the potential numbers of naturally occurring beneficial
in the planted habitat. Habitat planting creates an in-field
insectary that can generate an enormous complexity of beneficial
insects. By having these beneficials present growers can reduce
or eliminate the need for insecticides and miticides.
Pesticides Reduction
Practice: Beneficial Insect Releases
Releases of beneficial insects are also utilized during the
growing season. Lace wings and predatory mites are released
to augment the naturally occurring insects. Growers are usually
pleased to have the extra help provided by the releases. When
growers see a pest problem starting to develop in their fields
they want fast action and so will often turn to a chemical
spray. Releasing insects helps them to feel like something
is being done, while the natural enemies tool over the pest
control.
Field Days
The BASIC program holds informational meetings during the
year. These meetings show a progressive interest by local
farmers and members of the cotton industry. Our first meeting
in Firebaugh in 2002, netted several new growers to the program
and set the stage for meeting the program goals of over 20
farmers who farm close to 40,0000 acres. Each field meeting
hosts speakers of interest to cotton growers’, provide
an update on the local BASIC project, and have project mentor
growers o hand to answer questions and provide testimonials
about how BASIC management practices are working for them.
Through these meetings we attract local attention and gain
credibility with local growers. Farmers tend to be “watch
and see” folks who want to see how a new practice works
for a neighbor before they adopt.
Field Notes
During the cotton-growing season, BASIC staff perform weekly
monitoring on all enrolled fields. The overall monitoring
results each week are compiled and the information is distributed
to all enrolled growers in a publication called Field Notes.
Included in Field Notes is the entire program monitoring results.
This allows each grower to see how his field compares with
his neighbor and how conditions vary in the different geographic
regions included in the project. Also included in the newsletter
is a short article about biological control pertinent to the
growing stage of the cotton.
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