Progress 10/01/20 to 09/30/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience will be the New York (NY) agricultural producer of annual crops. While this proposal initially focuses on the producers of corn and soybeans, SCM is a problem as any large, seeded crops which include beans, peas, and other vegetables. Persistent EPNs have been shown to be effective against a wide array of soil insects including wireworms, corn rootworms and root weevil. If treated with persistent EPNs against these pests are also active against SCM, there will be an added benefit for a wide array of growers from the conventional producer to the organic producer. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The Shields' Lab has been encouraging colleagues throughout NY increased risks of economic losses from SCM by NY corn farmers if seed applied insecticide is not available for use. Currently, due to the short NY growing season, replanting after stand losses from SCM is not a viable economic option under most situations. These initial trials document the increased risk of economic losses from SCM when the farmer plants corn after a cover crop/green manure crop, which is utilized in soil building and nutrient retention over winter months. The data also verifies why previous farm practices of adopting cover crops in the 1990s was not successful due to related stand losses caused by SCM when the farmer planted his corn following the planting of a cover crop. The adoption of cover crops to build soil health and nutrient retention was not successful until corn seed was treated with a seed-applied insecticide to prevent stand losses in cropping situations where SCM pressure was increased. Planting of fewer cover crops without the seed protectants as an option could help to avoid losses to SCM. With a limitation in physical presence this year due to pandemic, the Shields's Lab is confident that the application and assay protocols developed in the lab have proven to be useful in allowing training and professional development for use by colleagues and Ag personnel to have successful nematode applications. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?No field days, in-person meetings, or demonstrations were conducted during the 2021 research year. While unable to be physical present this year, the Shields's Lab is confident that the application and assay protocols developed in the lab have proven to be useful tool in disseminating the necessary information to interested ag personnel and growers to have successful nematode applications. While limited in-person meetings, the Shields' Lab published an article for Cornell Field Crops, What's Cropping Up? Blog. Prior publications involving the Shields' Lab research using persistent biocontrol nematodes have reached an unknown number of farmers. The article appeared on October 8, 2021, and can be found at the following link: What's Cropping Up? Blog - Articles from the bi-monthly Cornell Field Crops newsletter What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For year 2, evaluations will continue at Musgrave Research Farm and Eastern, NY. Evaluations will once again be measured by documenting the continued presence of persistent biocontrol nematodes in the treated plots and the absence of persistent biocontrol nematodes in the untreated control plots. Planting pairs will once again be compared and analyzed to determine SCM stand losses for indicating economic losses (corn type x presence/absence of seed applied insecticide). That data will further define parameters for costs to the farmer to protect yield loss with insecticide seed treatment versus non-insecticide seed treatment. Discussion this winter to resolve the third objective beyond what was conducted this past year in Eastern, NY. Discussion also will be conducted concerning the trials at Musgrave within the corn following cover crop plots and if any alternative steps Elson Shields was a guest speaker at the Northeast field crop dealer meeting, held in conjunction with CCA training on December 1, 2021. Elson presented virtually using ZOOM for certified crop advisors and his discussion focused on the current project, increased risk of economic stand losses from SCM when a farmer plants corn after a cover crop/green manure crop, using biocontrol nematodes as a management tool, and the continued need for insecticide seed treatments.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The focus of this project is to try and examine the impact of SCM, Delia platura, and the necessity of insecticide seed treatments on corn grown under continuous corn culture with minimal organic matter and corn following a green manure cover crop with high organic matter. The latter cropping mechanism is frequently used in NY and increases the attractiveness of the fields to SCM. Under NY growing conditions, measurable yield losses in corn start to occur between 10-20% stand losses. Multiple factors that make managing SCM difficult include unpredictability of the infestations, lack of an insecticide rescue option, and lack of flexibility to compensate for crop stand losses. Potential economic losses based on two cropping strategies if seed applied insecticide is not available will be documented. The dissemination of results will include developing an appropriate IPM and IRM strategies within areas of observation. Trials Simulating Dairy-Field in Crop System Musgrave Research Farm - Conventional Corn To meet objectives 1) simulate the dairy-field crop system using cover crops and animal manure and 2) simulate the cash-cropping system using corn with no cover crop, a decision was made to conduct trials at Musgrave Research Farm in Popular Ridge. This decision was made primarily due to the differences found under normal farm practices where producers have a choice between a no-till versus cover crop (organic) management system. In June 2020, a 5.0-acre research block was planted to clover to establish the cover crop that could be used to replicate the cover crop management practice for objective one once the full project began in 2021. Leveraging the continuous corn plots (treated and untreated) which have been in?continuous rootworm -BT corn, since 2014, for objective two would allow evaluation to whether biocontrol nematodes as a management tool could control seed corn maggots. Persistent Biocontrol Nematodes The clover cover crop and continuous corn replicated design for this project includes using the multi-species approach, two native NY strains of biocontrol entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs), (Steinernema carpocapsae & Steinernema feltiae) and an untreated check. On September 10, 2020, infective juveniles were washed from rearing containers, duped into the spray tank, and then applied to half of the field site (2.5ac) at a rate of about 50 gallons/acre. The continuous corn site was applied with EPNs in June 2014. Planting Program To facilitate these differences, a planting program was created that would be repeated on a weekly basis over a 6-week period. Each area was planted on a weekly basis yielding 6 different sequential planting dates. Plots for each planting date were comprised of a single pass in the continuous cornsite and two planter passes in the cover cropsite. Each single row treatment was planted within each planter pass; conventional corn (non-BT RW) with no seed applied insecticide, conventional corn (non-BT RW) with seed applied insecticide, Bt-RW corn with no seed applied insecticide, and Bt-RW corn with seed applied insecticide and replicated four times at each location. Along with an extra planting pass in the cover crop plots, manure would be spread along the 20' x 200' strips prior to the weekly planting. Once the manure had sat and dried for a few days, the area would be disked and planted with designated corn treatments. Planting began on May 17, 2021, and concluded during the week of June 21, 2021.Manure was spread across the area within the cover crop block only (not spread in continuous corn block locations). The manure was then disked into the designated 20' block for that week prior to the planting occurring. Corn was planted weekly starting with no-nematode control plots (continuous corn then cover crop locations) to avoid contaminating the fields with nematodes. Half of the rows of corn were planted with seed treated with neonicotinoids, and the remaining half were untreated seeds. Within the two seed treatments we had Bt-corn and non-Bt-corn. Having the latter two seed treatments allowed the Shields' lab to test how well biocontrol nematode treatments control seed corn maggot compared to the industry standard. Data Collection Stand Counts - Stand counts were conducted once the corn reached the V3-V4 stage. A record of the number of plants was recorded, observations for missing plants also were recorded; missing plants had a notation to identify if missing plant was a result from SCM feeding or planting issues. The experimental design allowed for 24 planting pairs (corn type x presence/absence of seed applied insecticide) which were compared and analyzed based on established thresholds to indicate the percentage of economic yield (Table 1). 2021 Continuous Corn Site Total Planting Pairs # Pairs Stand Loss % Suffered Stand Loss Range of Loss 24 14 58 2-66 Threshold # Pairs Stand Loss % Indicated Economic Yield Losses 10% 9 38 14% 8 33 20% 6 25 >40% 4 16 Corn Following Cover Crop Site Total Planting Pairs # Suffered Stand Loss % Suffered Stand Loss Range of Loss 24 16 66 2-62 Threshold # Pairs Stand Loss % Indicated Economic Yield Losses 10% 13 54 14% 9 38 20% 7 29 >40% 5 21 Table 1. Evaluation of Stand Losses at Musgrave Research Farm Documenting EPN Population Levels - Soil assays collected in April and September from the continuous corn and corn following cover crop plots were evaluated to determine persistence biocontrol nematode populations levels before the winter (Table 2). Musgrave-SCM Sc & Sf Combo Continuous Corn Site Sc Sf Mean SE Mean SE Spring - 2020 0 0 41 3 Fall - 2020 0 0 36 1 Spring - 2021 0 0 65 10 Fall - 2021 0 0 37 5 Musgrave-SCM Sc & Sf Combo Cover Crop Site Sc Sf Mean SE Mean SE Pre-Sample 0 0 0 0 35 Days Post application 0 0 30 4 230 Days Post Application 0 0 40 6 380 Days Post Application 0 0 38 6 Table 2. Soil Assay Results - Musgrave Research Farm Eastern, NY-Hudson Valley Producers in the organic production system currently have no effective insecticides against SCM. As a result, the focus for objective 3 became reducing seed corn maggot larval populations and associated stand losses in the Hudson Valley. The goal would be the reduction in organic production agriculture from the establishment of persistent biocontrol nematodes in the field; persistent biocontrol nematodes have been shown to be effective against a wide array of soil insects including wireworms and root weevil. Persistent Biocontrol Nematodes Two commercial organic farms in Eastern New York, Hepworth Farm (Milton, NY) and Wertman Greenhouses & Farm (Melrose, NY) were identified in May 2021, as potential SCM management demonstrations sites for early spring 2022. Hepworth Farm - Hepworth's farm is a 500-acre NOFA certified farm growing 400 varieties of vegetables. A 4.0ac research plot was established, assayed, and with two native NY strains of persistent biocontrol nematodes, S. feltiae and H. bacteriophora on May 15, 2021. Wertman Greenhouses and Farm - Wertman Greenhouse Farm is a 150-acre conventional farm growing vegetables and brassicas. Two .30ac research plots were established at the Wertman Greenhouse Farm site (untreated and treated). The treated.30ac site was inoculated with two native NY strains of persistent biocontrol nematodes, S. feltiae and H. bacteriophora on May 12, 2021. Data Collection Soil assays collected in June and September from Hepworth Farms and Wertman Greenhouses Farm. Samples were returned to the Shields's Lab and analyzed to determine population levels (Table 3). Hudson Valley Sf & Hb Combo Hepworth Farms Sf Hb Mean SE Mean SE Pre-Sample 0 0 0 0 40 Days Post application 49 2 0 0 140 Days Post Application 32 2 4 10 Sf & Hb Combo Wertman Farm & Greenhouses Sf Hb Mean SE Mean SE 42 Days Post application 45 0 0 0 140 Days Post Application 33 4 0 0 Table 3. Soil Assay Results - Hudson Valley Demonstration Sites
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Are Persistent Biocontrol nematodes (Entomopathogenic) an economic benefit for your NY farm? Whats Cropping UP? October 2, 2020
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Persistent Biocontrol Nematodes: What, Why, How, When and Where to get Them. Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, Press Release, November 11, 2020.
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Managing Corn Rootworm in NY to delay Bt resistance (& save seed costs). Whats Cropping UP? November 13, 2020.
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Seed Corn Maggot, Stand Losses and the Need for Insecticide Seed Treatments. Whats Cropping UP? October 8, 2021.
|