A Scouting Program in Texas Gets Naturally Good Results

Texas Cooperative Extension Agent Monti Vandiver could tell by the frantic voice on the other end of the phone that one of his clients was out of patience. Panicked as a population of destructive cotton aphids were continuing to amass in number and beginning to attack his crop, the farmer explained that he could no longer postpone spraying pesticides on his fields. But Vandiver begged him to wait; weeks earlier he had noticed a population of ladybugs within the field, also growing in number. After a long phone conversation and a personal visit, Vandiver finally convinced him to wait another week before he sprayed.

Vandiver’s prediction was correct: the ladybugs annihilated the aphids before the end of the week. The producer never needed to apply pesticides at all.

Vandiver faces a common problem: convincing growers that they can control pests by natural methods with minimal crop damage. As manager of the Northwest Plains Integrated Pest Management Program, he counsels producers individually, from the initial meeting to discuss the program to the last step of implementing a tailor-made integrated pest management solution.

The Northwest Plains IPM program educates crop producers about implementing integrated pest management (IPM) techniques, beginning with intensive scouting for pests and beneficial insects, quick reporting and direct counseling with each of the producers. Part of the Texas IPM program and Texas Cooperative Extension, the Northwest Plains program began in the mid to late 1980s. Vandiver has managed the Northwest Plains program since 2002.

During his weekly visits to farm fields, Vandiver combs through each field crop to document the presence of destructive insects and beneficial insects that may be the pests’ natural enemies. This scouting visit often takes several hours, depending on the number and size of a producer’s field. After he has finished scouting the field, he then shares a written report of what he observed in terms of pests and beneficial insects and develops a pest management program for their individual situations. His goal: to save the farmers money without sacrificing yield.

“One participating farmer would have sprayed one and possibly two more times because he did not feel he could afford to take a chance,” Vandiver said. “He would have spent at least $7,000 on one pesticide application. The program gave him the confidence to know that there were alternatives. And because he saw the results in his own fields, next year he’s gong to be a lot more confident to let nature take its course.”

However, he says, not all producers achieve that much confidence in natural alternatives in pest management. Because of the state’s hot, dry climate, farmers often face numerous challenges to a profitable crop in addition to insect pests. Often the weather itself tends to be the biggest hurdle. And because a crop producer takes on several roles in addition to growing crops, from finance management to crop protection, many of them choose to insure their future livelihood by spraying in advance, whether or not it’s needed.

However, pre-treating fields for pests is expensive by itself. According to Vandiver, just one pesticide application can cost between $12 and $15 per acre, easily totaling $7,500 to $15,000 for an entire farm. If the producer encounters a group of chemical-resistant pests, the application can complicate other pest management strategies by killing off beneficial insects that could have suppressed the pests while leaving the pests in full force. Some pesticides persist in the environment as well, adding to environmental concerns.

Before Vandiver began directing the program, the scouting program had been cancelled due to a personnel change. So he along with a local steering committee started a new one and promoted it to local producers. Today the scouting program is at full capacity, scouting 3,000-4,000 acres of cotton, corn, peanuts, sunflowers, grain sorghum, wheat, and dry beans and peas.

Of the two types of Texas IPM scouting programs that exist—intensive and survey—The Northwest Plains IPM program employs an intensive scouting approach, which involves working with each producer directly and scouting each individual field, rather than determining the number and types of pests based on their presence in the general area. The process takes between thirty minutes to an hour for one field, and because most moderately-sized farms have at least ten fields, scouting alone can take up to a day or more. Because of the enormous amount of time involved, and his limited staff, to keep the program moving, Vandiver tries to build the confidence level in his producers until they feel ready to disembark from the program and continue using IPM on their own or with the help of a private consultant.

“I couldn’t take on any more fields,” he said. “One producer worked with us for several years and has hired a private consultant and has continued practicing IPM. That’s what the program is designed to do—to give growers the confidence to apply IPM concepts in their everyday operations.”

Scouting is only the first part of the solution. After compiling a report on the types of pests and beneficial insects, Vandiver assesses other possible problems and favorable conditions at each site to determine an individual pest management plan. Because each location presents both different challenges and different solutions, very few growers end up with exactly the same plan.

“Each situation is unique,” he said. “You have to consider all the alternatives while developing the plan. You treat it as a whole because pest management strategies that work in a majority of cases may not work in all of them. You have to make pest management decisions based on what’s going on at that particular time in that particular location.”

Many Northwest Plains producers like Vandiver’s individual approach. And along with the resources they save by not spraying, Vandiver says that many producers tell him that they can now “sleep at night,” knowing that someone else is also watching over their livelihood. Recent survey results from the past five years indicate that, since 2003, every producer who enrolled in the program had their crops scouted regularly, as opposed to only half in previous years. Over 70% of program participants reduced pesticide use, and of those, about 55% reported increased yields. No one reported yield reduction after reducing chemical usage. And the results? Over $560,000 net positive return for the entire Northwest Plains area.

The program’s success earned Vandiver the 2004 “Excellence in IPM Programming” Award presented by the Texas Pest Management Association in February 2005.