UMN Extension Field Crop IPM Podcasts

Welcome to the University of Minnesota Extension's IPM podcast for field crops, where we talk about integrated pest management and the different methods we can use for controlling pests in our crops. I'm your host, Anthony Hansen. We also have one of our other cohosts today, Dave Nicolai. Dave, it's good to have you back on the podcast again. Partly, it's just been due to COVID and kinda trying to run things myself a little bit out of my home, but now it looks like with better Internet connections, I think we can have both of us on here every now and then.

Well, thank you, Anthony. It's a good time to, actually come back here, be back in the office, and get back to our regular programming.

So for today's guest, we have Liz Stahl, a regional extension educator based out of the Worthington area. And Liz focuses a lot on IPM as well, especially on surveying farmers on what exactly they're doing for their different practices. So welcome, Liz. And do you wanna explain just a little bit about what you do in your program and, you know, what's going on in your region a little bit?

Sure. Well, like you said, Anthony, I work out of the Worthington Regional office in Southwestern Minnesota, focus on corn and soybean management issues, been doing a bit with cover crops, and also work a lot with our pesticide safety education team. So that's where this IPM or integrated pest management survey comes in. Been working with us since I started with Extension back in 2004. And each year during our workshops, we have asked questions of farmers just kind of trying to see what kind of practices that they do, what issues are they seeing, things that they're facing.

And that has helped us. Well, one thing, it keeps the program more interesting. People really like to hear what others are doing, but also it helps us figure out, okay, are there areas where we need to focus some more efforts in our education and outreach? Are there areas we should be doing a little bit more research in? And, again, it just helps take a pulse of what is going on, out in the in in the community.

We survey a lot of producers across the whole state. When we started out with the survey, it was more limited towards Southern Minnesota, but now, it's really been more statewide. And there are years where we're surveying up to almost 2,000 farmers. So we we figure it's a pretty good snapshot of what people are doing and what they're facing in that year.

So what do you do for this IPM assessment specifically? I know this last year, we've moved to all online, and that's just basically Zoom polling and whatnot. But back when we headed in person for all these years you've been running it, how did you actually conduct this survey? Basically, do growers have to list who they are and where they are? Is it anonymous entirely, or how is that basically set up for the data you get out of it?

Yeah. Really good question. You know, when we started out with this, it was paper surveys. And then, of course, as technology advanced, we've been able to use this, technology that's like turning technologies, and farmers just use these clickers. So, we hand out a clicker to every farmer when they come into the room.

The answers are completely anonymous. That is one of the things that really, again, helps us feel too that we're getting, you know, valuable information that is accurate. Because we tell them, hey. You know, we're not tying your clicker with your name. We just hand them out, and and we do encourage people to be honest in how they answer things.

And, again, it's it's totally anonymous, and we get really good participation. A lot of these questions we're getting, like, a 100% of the farmers are answering that. Because, again, when we use this audience response system that we use, they can see the answers, show up on the board right away after they're done once we close the polling. So, again, it's kinda neat for them to see what other people are are thinking and doing too. So, they really do like that kind of participation.

Now that's how we typically have done it in person. This last year was a little weird with COVID. You know, we had everything online. So there we use, like, the polling function in Zoom. And, also, we had an online course, the Canvas course.

So there they, did that online, like, through Qualtrics. So it's a little bit different that that dataset's not as big as it typically is. You know, we're looking at how to combine that with the previous years, but we'll be going back to in person again here too in our next round of, private pesticide applicator recertification workshops.

Liz, do you wanna talk a little bit about some of the typical types of questions that you're asking Minnesota farmers in these workshops and and maybe highlight, a couple of things that you think are of interest to our audience?

Sure. We ask a lot of different questions. Again, since this is an integrated pest management survey, we're trying to focus on what are they doing. Because integrated pest management, that's a really key part of being a certified applicator. So we'll ask a lot of questions about what they do for weed management, what issues they're facing, what practices that they're currently doing.

Other pest management like soybean aphid, for example, that's been a perennial issue for a lot of growers, And so we'll ask a lot of questions about that. We've asked to, you know, what disease pressures did you experience last year? You know, do you use fungicides or not? How did how did they respond if you did, or did you see a response and so forth? We've asked about, like, cover crop use as well.

Getting back to weed management, that's probably where we have a a lot of the questions really focused because a lot of our educators you know, I have a weed science background as as you do as well, Dave, you know, and a lot of our other educators. So that's been a key area where we have focused a lot of questions. So that's probably where we have most of the information. But again, it kinda goes to the whole, pest management realm.

I know that, there's been a lot of concern over the last number of years about new weeds in Minnesota and perhaps even resistance to certain herbicides. Is there any specific thing that, comes up in your viewpoint in terms of of interest, or is there any trend, that's developed, since this program has been started?

Yeah. That is one area that we've asked a lot about. Years ago, we would ask, of course, when glyphosate was a newer product or well, you know, it was kind of the big choice to use. We would say, you know, hey. Are you seeing any issues with glyphosate?

And we saw, people responding that they were having issues with control with glyphosate that was just increasing over time. And then we asked, you know, do you think you have resistance to glyphosate? We quit asking that back in 2016. That was the last year because we were getting locations where about ninety percent. You know, up to ninety percent of the people in some locations were saying, yeah.

I'm having issues. So we've kind of evolved that too, as we've found resistance in the state to other chemistries. Now we're asking producers, well, what chemistries do you think you might have resistant weeds, to? And so, glyphosate still remains to be the number one chemistry where most people are saying that they believe that they have resistant weeds, but also, like, the PPO products. So that's like Flexstar and Cobra.

Also, the ALS inhibitors, we ask about that as well. And, then we ask if there's any other ones kind of as a catch all. So so that's been one area where we've asked a lot, about. And and I guess one thing that's really interesting with that, we are seeing probably around 20% of the people saying that they believe they have weeds resistant to those PPO herbicides, but it's only about twenty percent to the ALS, which is interesting because, you know, waterhemp, which is the number one weed for a lot of producers, certainly in Southwestern Minnesota where I focus my efforts, only about twenty percent of the people feel that they have resistant weeds to that chemistry too. Although, we probably have most of our waterhemp populations in the state carry resistance, you know, to those ALS products.

It's just people haven't really been relying on that chemistry now, recently to control waterhemp. So so that's interesting too. It kinda makes an educational opportunity teaching moment, you know, just to have people, hey. That resistance didn't go away in your field. You know, if you pull this product out and you started trying to rely, say, on Pursuit again to control waterhemp, it's probably not gonna be, very you're probably not gonna be very happy with with the control if you just relied on that.

Liz, one of the other opportunities that exists with the the questions that we do for private pesticide applicator training is asking growers about their motivation for making insecticide treatments, such as for soybean aphids. There might be other insects as well. But at the same time, we're concerned about pollinators in Minnesota. Anthony does a lot of work with that. So this is kind of a question for both of you to talk a little bit about what we found in terms of the results of the questions and the survey.

But also, Anthony, maybe you would like to follow-up after that in terms of, pollinator protection, etcetera.

Yeah. That's a great question, Dave. We do ask couple questions about soybean aphid because, of course, that's a perennial issue for a lot of people or something always people are thinking about every year. And one of the questions we ask is, okay. To control soybean aphid, what do you plan to use?

And to help adjust that pollinator issue, for example, we have a question in there. Do they plan to use a seed treatment? You know, Anthony, you can elaborate a little bit more on that as well, but we know that that's not the number one way by any, you know, stretch really to to command a soybean aphid. But we do then also ask, you know, do they scout and spray? And, you know, so scouting and using that economic threshold.

And the first question where we ask that, it's about, you know, over 60% or around there. We'll say, say, yes. We scout and spray only when the threshold is met. But then we have a follow-up question, like, how do you decide when to spray? And one of the options there again is that they use the economic threshold.

Well, it's interesting, but that percentage there has dropped down around 50%. So a little less of the proportion of people are saying they actually, again, use the threshold, because we also have an option in there too, and they can answer more than they can select more than one choice here. But then they also say, well, they think that threshold is too high. So they think that, you know, two fifty, they're actually spraying before that. So that's kinda interesting too just trying to see what's going on.

And we're trying to figure out, okay, what is actually driving that? And this past year, we asked, hey. You know, one of the options is that their, you know, their coop agronomist or, you know, their crop consultant, they're telling them to spray, and that's one of the driving choices. So, again, that helps inform us, okay, where do we need to make sure that with directing our educational information and helping people feel comfortable with this threshold and understanding, you know, what's going on because, again, we're seeing lots of issues with resistance and so forth. But, yeah, Anthony, maybe you wanna address a little bit more on on the implications of that too.

Yeah, Liz. This is partly why I like soybean aphids so much for talking about integrated pest management, also because I've worked on it for many years before starting this position, but there's so much going on with the management. And that's also part of our challenge too. So you mentioned people spraying below the economic threshold or the action threshold, we call it sometimes, 250 aphids per plant. That's already a really conservative estimate where there's no damage occurring yet to the plant.

It's not until you get about to 670 aphids per plant. So that's kinda part of the messaging. I know it seems like we need to work on a little bit that, yeah, if you hit 250 aphids per plant, that's time to get a spray lined up, but the damage isn't occurring yet. So in some marketing people seen out there, the stream might be some people might say, well, if you see 10 aphids per plant, you should spray because insecticides are cheap. That's not part of the threshold.

You could force the numbers to say that, but those numbers aren't really showing the damage occurring at that low of levels. So it's basically soybeans are pretty resilient, and that's where we try to focus on that 250 level being that minimum time just to get something lined up. It's not a target to avoid yet. But with pollinators, Liz, that's kind of another interesting part here because we have the seed treatments, and we're looking more at, say, our native pollinators getting bumblebees, then also honeybee risk, which that could be an entirely separate episode for this podcast pretty much. But one area I like to carve out a little bit is we also have another pollinator in soybeans that controls soybean aphids as well.

It's both a natural enemy in one life stage and a pollinator, and those are syrphid flies. So the larvae are out there actually kinda patrolling around the leaves and eating aphids. And then as adults, they kinda look like bee mimics, and they're out there pollinating plants as well. So there's kind of a diversity of things that go in there where pollinators actually sometimes can coincide with being able to control the aphids better too. So it's an interesting mix when we bring those two up there.

Yeah, I'm sure that gets to be kind of a big topic when you're doing these surveys that takes a little bit of effort to make sure you get all that information in there.

Well, that's right. Again, it just kinda highlights what practices people are doing, and and then you can identify. It's like, okay. This is something that maybe we need to refresh people's memory. Like you said, at two fifty, you're not losing yield at that point.

And I I think sometimes there's misinformation out there or misperceptions, you know, and just explaining that why and reinforcing what's the basis of that threshold. What's what's going on here? No. We're not telling you to do something that's gonna hurt you economically. We're trying to get you out there to spray before you would have an issue, and so just kinda reinforcing those concepts.

And and and, again, you know, sometimes people just need a refresher. I know I need refreshers on things too, and and this just kinda helps highlight those opportunities.

You know, Liz, one of the other things that is talked about, you know, oftentimes, and we do talk about it from a safety standpoint. But I think you make some assessments, in the survey, and that is what people can do, in a lot of where their private applicators and sometimes commercial, to protect themselves in terms of their habits from the standpoint and their priorities for protective equipment, personal protective equipment, etcetera. You wanna talk about some of the other aspects, maybe a little bit outside of the traditional IPM that are covered, within the survey itself?

Sure. And and, of course, as as we all know, wearing the correct personal protective equipment, that is so key for personal safety of our applicators as well. So that is certainly a topic that we always cover in pesticide private applicator recertification workshops. We'd highlighted PPE like wearing the right eyewear, wearing gloves. In this last round of recertification workshops, we were really focusing on the laundering of pesticide contaminated clothing.

And that was some of the questions that we asked as well, just kinda seeing, okay, what practices are you currently doing? And, you know, again, it's not just to protect you, but it's to protect your family too. So we were asking questions, like, how do they how do they launder that? Do they launder it separately from their other clothing? And a lot of people said yes, but there was, like, 25% of the people that weren't segregating their clothing from, you know, the pesticide contaminated clothing from their families.

So that was just kind of an eye opener to people. And, of course, then we're like, okay. You know, that's a good practice. You wanna make sure you do that. Then we also asked, hey.

Are you what do you do? Do you run an empty load with your washer afterwards after you've washed pesticide contaminated clothing? And here again, that was another big eye opener. That was, like, fifty five to 60% of the people were not doing that as well. And it's like, okay.

That's a really good practice too. Because, again, you're trying to protect your family from having any residues that might remain in that washer, making sure that gets out of there so, again, you don't contaminate clothing. So we do highlight things like that. And and, again, it's just it's interesting for people. They can, again, they get to take a look at what others are doing and and when they realize, wow.

You know, I hadn't really thought about that. So it just kinda help reinforce those good practices.

Liz, for fungicides, have you seen any trends in the survey for that? Kinda what's some interesting data you might have there in terms of when are people deciding to spray fungicides? Is it are they kinda basing it on what their neighbors are up to they hear, or are there specific recommendations coming in that you're hearing for how they get their information?

Yeah. Fungicide use, that's been an area where we've been asking as as educators wondering it's been hard to really take a pulse as to how many people are actually using fungicides and what they're seeing. So that's a couple questions that we have incorporated into the survey recently. And I think one of the biggest take home so far because basically, we're asking, you know, did they use a fungicide in the last year? And if they did, what kind of a response did they see?

So we asked in corn, for example. And, the last two years that we did that, there was, like, sixty nine to eighty one percent did not apply a foliar fungicide in corn. In soybean, it was, like, sixty eight to seventy two percent that did not apply a fungicide in corn. And then we had kind of varying results. You know, some people applied it, didn't see any impact.

Some people didn't did see a yield impact. But one of the biggest take homes that I got from that was, you know, I had farmers coming up to me at the end of the program, and they're saying, wow. You know, I thought everybody was using a fungicide. And you're like, no. You know, not everybody is.

And I think that was just reassuring because there's a lot of marketing out there, a lot of information, and they were just kinda feeling like they were the only ones. But it's like, nope. Again, the decisions that drive whether to use a fungicide or not, you know, what kind of pest are you trying to control, you know, what disease are you trying to control, I should say. You know, what are the levels? It's gotta be warranted to do that or not because, again, that's an extra expense.

We do have resistance issues as well to deal with too, so we don't wanna be using these products when we don't really need them. So that was kinda reassuring. It was just kind of an interesting take on things for people to see that, wow. I'm not the only one who's not doing this.

Yeah. I think that's interesting thinking about farming back home around Bruton for me. Sometimes it's pretty often you'll hear someone saying, well, I saw my neighbor, out here spraying. They didn't know what they're spraying for at the time, but they're worried that they have to do something and they have to do something now. And then that's competing with the idea that, well, if you don't need to spray, that's an added cost you're saving on too.

So those two are definitely competing. So it does sound like that what are my neighbors up to? And actually seeing this data seems to be pretty good for growers to be able to see there. Kind of following up here, one of the other things you mentioned you work on, you get into cover crops quite a bit. And do you wanna give a little primer on what areas you've carved out a bit there, and how does that work with IPM specifically?

I'm sure it probably gets more in the focus on weed management there, but do you get into insects or diseases at all with that as well?

Yeah. And and, again, the work that we've been doing so far, I work a lot with Axel Garcia, Garcia at Lamberton, the Southwest Research and Outreach Center. And it's been great working with him and also, you know, Greg Johnson out at at Waseca. We've got some weed management plots going out there too. And and like you say with cover crops, I think a lot of people assume we know the answers to all these different questions, but we don't.

We really don't have that much research data in Minnesota. And Minnesota is very different than, like, Missouri or, you know, further south. Even Pennsylvania, we might be kinda similar in in latitude, but, hey. You know, we've got different soil types, different cropping systems, and so forth. So it's really tough to just take somebody else's research results and put them up into here in Minnesota where we have a shorter growing season.

We're in a predominantly corn soybean rotation. And, also, again, how to fit cover crops into that system and and effectively use them. And I guess that's one of the things. I'm just trying to see how we can look at risk, assess risk, and try to set ourselves up for success. That's kind of been some of the focuses.

So I know a lot of people, you know, are looking at planting greens, so planting their crop into a a cover crop that's still alive, you know, and terminating it after that. Well, we know that that can create some potential issues with, you know, insect pests and potentially diseases. And from a weed management standpoint too, we know that competition early on the season, you know, we don't want that cover crop to be like like how a weed would be with that with that crop and and take away nutrients and moisture and, you know, light competition and so forth. So, again, just trying to see what we what's the best timing. Is there better seeding rates?

Is there good timings in the fall to plant this cover crop? And and, again, just adjusting that for our situation. So that's kind of the basis of a lot of the work that we're doing right now. Because, again, there's a lot that we don't know, and you do have to modify that, based on our system and conditions here in the state.

Liz, if, people would like to find out a little bit more about both of your IPM survey results. I think some of that's been published perhaps in a crop news. The same thing goes with the cover crop status and and research. Where can people go to find out a little bit more about both subjects?

Yeah. I think, again, going to our extension crops website, that's always a one stop shop. You know, that's z.umn.edu/crops. You can get on to our our cover crop website from there. We don't necessarily always publish the results, from the survey in one big publication, but we do utilize them through our talks.

And certainly people going to our pesticide recertification workshops that you can see, the results, a lot of times too as they're pertinent, and we'll put them in different Minnesota crop news articles too. So, again, just a big thing that's been helpful just driving what we're doing with education and research. But, yeah, if people wanna find out more results, that those would be some areas where they can find, some of the findings that we've we've, discovered.

Last question for you before we wrap up. And I've managed to go over the whole podcast so far without mentioning the drought at all for this summer. And I I hate to, break that record, but it sounds like, oh, that's the question that's gonna come up a lot. So in terms of pest management, what do you think is kind of going to be happening in the next month or two here in terms of main decisions people are going to wanna be looking at, especially, let's say, some crops have definitely drowded out, yields dropped. Should they really be looking at pest control at that point versus other crops are pretty much fine in terms of what moisture they manage to get ahold of?

And kinda how is that affecting management decisions overall right now?

Yeah. And and I should mean, it's a big concern on everybody's mind. I was thinking too, well, this will be the first time we don't talk about the drought for, like, about a month. But, yeah, I I really think if you ever wondered if you should follow economic thresholds or not, this certainly is the year to be doing that. You don't wanna make applications when you don't really need them.

We know there's so many reasons, but, again, when we're looking at we're not really sure what our yield potential is going to be. I don't wanna be a pessimist, we gotta be realists too. And and, again, so you gotta look at what that yield potential is. Don't spend money when you don't really need to do it. You know?

So watch those thresholds, and we know there's all the issues with resistance and so forth too. But that that's one point. Then with cover crops too. One of the things I said is really we're just trying to evaluate what's our our risk assessment, you know, where, of different practices. Like, we know planting green, for example, and soybean carries less risk than planting green and corn.

But when you have a drought year like this, the weather conditions, it's a higher risk to have, planting green, you know, terminating in that cover crop later when we're really dry like this than in in a non, where moisture isn't as as limiting or we're expecting that. So we're just kind of that's one thing to think about too, with the termination of cover crops. We were encouraging people. Well, this would be your probably to look at terminating it earlier versus later, just, again, just due to moisture concerns.

Well, thank you, Liz. And thank you for Dave Nikolai cohosting again on the episode today. And thank you again for everyone for listening to the IPM podcast for field crops.