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Wisconsin's IPM Program Increases Profitability |
Wisconsin IPM program's goals are to minimize environmental effects of certain agricultural practices and to maintain or increase agricultural profitability. Its database of fresh market growers is designed to alert growers to educational activities and to disseminate pest predictions and damage reports. Its sweet corn demonstration project was designed to reduce the amount of insecticides used to control corn earworm and European corn borers. Field scout training classes, held at three University of Wisconsin campuses, teach pest identification, provide information on pest biology and life cycles, and furnish current field-monitoring techniques for weeds, insects, plant pathogens, and nutrient-deficiency symptoms in field and vegetable crops. IPM educational aides include manuals and guides, full-color insect-identification cards, and IPM's World Wide Web homepage located at http://ipcm.wisc.edu/ipm/. Also, Wisconsin IPM program's software package, Potato Crop Management (PCM), saved growers approximately $84 per acre by reducing input costs. IPM is incorporating PCM into a large-scale, decision-aid software package that analyzes daily crop conditions and makes recommendations for pest and crop management. A Cranberry Crop Management (CCM) software package is scheduled for release in spring of 1996.
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[Integrated Pest Management in the North Central States] |
[National Integrated Pest Management Network] |