By Shirley Kirkpatrick
(Published: March 2001, California Grower magazine)
Although most farmers these days
are better educated than their forefathers, they still have an independent streak
and a "show me" attitude. They expect scientific proof before accepting
the notion that reduced use of pesticides can achieve good yield and quality
results without adding to production costs.
Enter the Pest Management Alliance programs in which grants from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation are matched by industry groups. Now in its third year, the Alliance program is designed to encourage industry-wide adoption of pest management techniques that reduce pesticide risks to workers, consumers and the environment.
The Almond Board of California has been involved since the outset. The Board drew together a broad-based group of industry stakeholders to pursue the DPR grant. It brought in University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) almond farm advisors for scientific support.
These advisors, in turn, sought out cooperators and orchard sites where reduced input practices could be evaluated against conventional practices in three distinctly different regions of the state: Northern Sacramento Valley (Butte County); Central San Joaquin Valley (Stanislaus County); and Southern San Joaquin Valley (Kern County).
The Kern County project is headed by Mario Viveros, a 21-year veteran UCCE almond advisor. His highly-pleased cooperator is Thomas Vetsch, of Vetsch Farms. Theirs is a positive story, backed by solid data.
Viveros and Vetsch are in the third year of their Almond PMA program on a 160-acre orchard in the Pond area, west of Delano/McFarland. In its fifth leaf, the orchard provides two 40-acre blocks of hard shell varieties (Butte, Mission and Padre) and two 40-acre blocks of soft shells (Nonpareils, Sonora and Fritz). Each 40-acre block was divided into reduced and conventional programs, providing two replications in each nut type.
While Viveros is focused on quantifying research results, Vetsch is looking at his bottom line. He says excitedly, "We’ve been able to cut costs 30 percent."
Viveros backs that assessment, adding that "yield and reject levels have been the same in all blocks" in the two years the program has been underway.
Thomas Vetsch owns 1,000 acres of almonds in several Kern County locations. He is vertically integrated with such value-added products as marzipan and almond paste made in a Bakersfield facility. He markets these products under the Mandelin label (Mandel means almond in German).
Vetsch admits he likes to study people and social values. Through contacts with consumers at fine food shows and other locations where he promotes his almond products, Vetsch said he has learned to understand their concern about food and the farmers’ use of pesticides. He favors such reduced input programs as the Pest Management Alliance and is willing to make the effort to see it succeed.
"It is extra work," he admits, "and we have additional labor involved in the monitoring, but it is important that we learn to get away from the use of harmful pesticides. We farm a lot differently today than we did just two years ago," he adds — with pride in his voice.
The Almond Board grant requires that target pests be addressed in all three geographic areas. These include the navel orangeworm (NOW), peach twig borer (PTB), San Jose scale, mites and ants. Recognizing regional differences, the advisors are allowed to vary cultural practices in assessing diseases, cover crops, fertilizer and irrigation factors.
"Irrigation is the only practice we don’t want to reduce," said Viveros. The orchards under both programs are well irrigated, according to exacting needs measured by a pressure bomb. Barley has proven to be the best annual cover crop. It is seeded in every middle and it has improved water infiltration rates in the reconditioned saline-alkaline soil.
After two years in PMA, what have they learned? Put succinctly, it’s all about monitoring.
"The essence of the program is monitoring," said Viveros. "We must know what is happening to all the pests as we rethink our chemicals and application rates." He likened the project to the old Rubix cube — when you press one point, it changes another side.
"Treatment for one insect may impact another, and you don’t realize it has happened unless you monitor carefully." Viveros’ research associates monitor for all pests once a week and during bloom they’re also on the lookout for shot hole and brown rot fungus.
Ken Ballou, farm manager of the Vetsch properties, agrees about the importance of monitoring. "We’re paralleling what Mario is doing on the test plots in the rest of our orchards. In the long run, the money we spend on monitoring is not wasted," He calculates that the cost of using trained farm laborers is far less than the amount a pest control advisor would charge for the same services.
Ballou said he’s training his irrigators to monitor pest activity as they walk the furrows, and last year’s trained monitors will be assigned irrigation tasks this year.
He re- calls that last season they saved 70 percent in one of the mite control applications because of monitoring. His pest scouts found mites in the perimeter trees; the levels dropped in the next two or three rows and there were dramatically fewer toward the interior. "We controlled the nozzles and sprayed only the first 10 trees on each side," Ballou said, while admitting, "even at that, I was probably being too cautious and spraying too much."
Viveros said another factor in a successful pest management program is the grower’s confidence and willingness to take risks. "This year Thomas has agreed that we’ll push the envelope on our dormant spray."
Viveros said he has found no difference in the organophosphate sprays versus oil sprays for San Jose Scale and Peach Twig Borror. To further test these results, only half of the orchard will be treated this year. The conventional plots will get 6 gallons of oil mixed with 5 pints of diazanon and the reduced input plots will receive a concentrate spray of only 6 gallons of oil per acre. One-half of each plot will receive no dormant spray whatsoever.
On the premise that "seeing is believing," a major component of the PMA strategy is education and outreach. Viveros includes the Vetsch test plot in his almond field days and writes about the results in his UCCE publications.
For further information about the Almond Board’s projects check out the website: www.lookercomm.com/ AlmondPMA/.