Maine's Sweet Corn IPM Program: Another Successful Season
The goal of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program is to teach farmers how to minimize pesticide inputs needed for growing sweet corn while improving the effectiveness of their insect management efforts. During the 2005 growing season, 24 volunteer farmers cooperated in our insect monitoring program. Their fields were regularly scouted for pest populations by our summer students, and specific action thresholds were used to determine if and when pest populations were high enough to economically justify an insecticide application. Over 100 farmers received weekly updates of the pest situation on the participating farms and management advice through the Sweet Corn IPM newsletter, available as both e-mail and surface mail. Post-season surveys indicate that most growers harvested good to average yields in 2005, despite some poor weather conditions. Insect pressure was thought to be somewhat lower than average, with corn earworm perceived to be the most significant problem followed in order by European corn borer and fall armyworm. Weeds and birds also caused significant injury for some growers. Of the 22 surveys returned by growers receiving our IPM information, 90% indicated that using it improved the quality of their crop. Most of the growers receiving the information (73%) significantly reduced the number of pesticide applications they made to their crop as a result. Nearly 90% of farmers found that the program improved the profitability of their crop this year by reducing pesticide application costs and/or improving the number of marketable ears harvested.
The University of Maine Sweet Corn IPM Program has been working with growers since 1983, and is still having a significant impact on the industry. The program continues to improve the profitability of sweet corn and reduce environmental risks by minimizing pesticide use. In recent years the program has expanded its efforts to introduce pesticide alternatives for insect management through the release of parasitic wasps to control European corn borer, in cooperation with research being carried out by Dr. Michael Hoffman at Cornell University, through the use of silk treatments of oil and other materials to control corn earworm in cooperation with Ruth Hazzard at the University of Massachusetts, and by evaluating new low risk chemicals on growers fields through an EPA grant with the New England Vegetable & Berry Growers Association. We hope that through efforts like this growers will be able to further reduce the pesticide inputs needed to produce high quality sweet corn and thereby enhance the value of this crop for farmers and consumers alike.
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