Kansas: Extension and Research Cooperation Saves Millions

The Kansas State Cooperative Extension Service estimated 730,000 acres of sorghum were treated for headworm during late August and early September. In Southwest Kansas an estimated 50 percent of the acreage was treated while less than 2 percent was treated in North-Central Kansas.

Sorghum headworms are a sporadic pest, rarely problematic for Kansas sorghum growers. However, moths migrated from Southern corn and cotton tothe Kansas sorghum crop.

As with any sporadic pest, timely information is important when outbreaks occur. The Kansas Extension Service quickly provided producers with information.

After being alterted to the problem by a county agent near the Oklahoma border, entomologists at Kansas State University and the Southwest Research-Extension Center mailed information on pest biology, economic thresholds and recommended insecticides to their general mailing lists, which included county agricultural agents throughout the state.

To expedite communication, articles, newsletters and findings from the Economic Insect Survey of the Kansas Department of Agriculture were e-mailed to county agents.

The economic impact is difficult to determine. In many cases, agents counseled producers to treat because numbers were exceeding the economic thresholds by two- to three-fold. In other cases, fields were below economic threshold and no treatments were needed, saving the producer several dollars per acre. In either case, with a 4,600,000 acre sorghum crop, the impact exceeded several million dollars.