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Nebraska: IPM Programs influence Nebraska Field Crops |
Nebraska's recent focus on the end user during IPM program planning and delivery resulted in modification of existing programs and new program development. These changes had significant impact on implementation of IPM in Nebraska fields.
Some of the programs implemented were:
The 1995 Crop and Pest Management Update Conference. It represented a new partnership between UNL Cooperative Extension, Farmland Industries and the Nebsraska Independent Crop Consultants Association, which jointly planned and sponsored the meeting.
Four crop management and field diagnostic clinics in Eastern Nebraska during July 1996, responded to a need by several clientele groups. For two days, 130 attendees received training on crop growth and development, pest management, soil fertility and soil and water management.
In February 1995, 198 growers attended three Central Great Plains Jointed Goatgrass Conferences. One year later, a mail survey sent to 164 participants revealed that 80 percent had implemented at least one of the control strategies discussed at the conference. Forty-one percent planned to implement an additional strategy during 1996.
Midwest Biological Control News, a monthly newsletter, started in September 1994 with funding from a USDA-ES IPM Special Grant. Its goal is to provide biological insect control information to extension educators in the North Central Region and to extension entomologists nationally.
The newsletter provides biological control information on field, fruit, vegetable, ornamental and nursery crops. Editors from the University of Nebraska, University of Wisconsin, Purdue University and Michigan State University contribute to the newsletter.
Grant funding provides a free copy to every local extension office in the North Central Region and every extension entomologist in the U.S. The newsletter has more than 150 paid subscribers and is available on the World Wide Web.
The newsletter's multiplier effect is difficult to quantify but educators and specialists frequently use newsletter information in programs across the country to help answer questions about biological insect control.