Month: February 2015

Take Action to Support Ag IPM

GREAT NEWS! The NY Farm Bureau has included us on their e-advocacy site—making it very easy for you and others to voice your support for restoring Agricultural IPM funding to previous levels. Farmers have relied upon Integrated Pest Management (IPM), for decades.  IPM allows farmers to target pests and diseases in an efficient, profitable, and…Continue Reading Take Action to Support Ag IPM

Invasive Pest A Killer in the Cabbage Patch: Growers, Take This Survey

The invasive swede midge has been slowly but relentlessly making its way into the Northeast. This tiny pest is a baddie, sometimes causing complete loss of entire plantings of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and their cabbage-family kin. New York is the top producer for fresh cabbage nationwide — and second in processing cabbage. The market value…Continue Reading Invasive Pest A Killer in the Cabbage Patch: Growers, Take This Survey

Snow, Frost a Big Help for Head Start on Quality Turf — or Crops

Are you in charge of maintaining athletic fields? If you’re looking for a two or three week head start on getting your fields ready for spring — consider a proven IPM practice: dormant overseeding. (Farmers, this can work for cool-season grains and forage crops. And homeowners — here’s a trick from the pros that you…Continue Reading Snow, Frost a Big Help for Head Start on Quality Turf — or Crops

IPM TAg Teams: A Quarter Century Later, What’s Old Is New Again

The NYS IPM Program turns 30 this year — a great time for a look down memory lane. We were five years old, for instance, when we began our TAg — Tactical Agriculture — teams for field crop producers. Then (and now!), TAg teams across the state met at key times during the cropping season:…Continue Reading IPM TAg Teams: A Quarter Century Later, What’s Old Is New Again

The Difference Between Voles and Moles

Is it mole? A vole? These small mammals are often confused with each other, probably because they’re both associated with tunnels. But they’re really quite different and, depending on the circumstance, could be a pest — or not. Since the first step in IPM is to identify your problem, let’s shed light on these two…Continue Reading The Difference Between Voles and Moles