Scouting Patrol: Maryland farmer sticks to thresholds for efficient pest management
Like many farmers across the country, Belinda Burrier wrapped up planting a few weeks ago, but that doesn’t mean she’s forgotten about her soybeans.
“We scout every other week, unless we start to see a problem,” says Burrier, a United Soybean Board farmer-leader from Union Bridge, Maryland. “When we do, we’ll scout more often, sometimes every other day, just depending on the pressure of the pest.”
Burrier makes a point to know the threshold for troublesome insects, diseases and weeds in her soybeans. Recently, she has been treating her soybean fields to control foxtail, Johnsongrass, Marestail and velvetleaf. Left uncontrolled for too long, these weeds will keep growing and can choke a young soybean crop.
“We are very cautious not to over-apply any inputs,” she says. “We have a threshold number of insects or number of weeds within a certain square footage, and we will wait to take care of the problem until it reaches that threshold.”
When scouting, Burrier primarily looks for weed pressure and any evidence of insects. Last year, she dealt with Palmer amaranth, which is known for its resistance to multiple herbicides.
“It looks like so far we have a handle on it,” says Burrier. “We are very careful to rotate our herbicides to keep resistant weeds, like Palmer amaranth, off of our farm. I know that a lot of farmers are having problems with it, and we are all just going to have to be on the ball scouting for that particular weed.”
Besides herbicide-resistant weeds, Burrier is also concerned about the kudzu bug, a relatively new pest plaguing soybean farmers in the South and capable of causing a 60 percent yield reduction. So far, it has not made an appearance on her farm, but it has been confirmed in nearby counties.
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