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Biologicals and the Produce Grower
Fruit and vegetable producers across the U.S. share their perspectives on how biological products fit in their operations.
Across agriculture, biologicals have arguably made the biggest impact in high-value specialty crops. Yet within the broad spectrum of U.S. crops, regions, and farms, it seems every grower has a different perspective on how biological tools are a fit in their production systems.
We discussed biologicals with a cross section of specialty crop growers — large and small — in the fruit, vegetable, and nut markets. We even talked with a Pest Control Adviser who makes crop protection recommendations to his grower clients. They shared their perceptions of these tools, strategies for best using them, success stories, and areas they’re looking for more help.
Take a look at how Gayle Thorpe, Thorpe’s Organic Family Farm, East Aurora, NY is incorporating biological products in her operation. Then turn the page for more thoughts from other growers around the U.S.
“You'd like to think the retailers and consumers can be educated as to what are better farming practices, what are more sustainable and so on, and then have some of that price premium that they're willing to pay in the supermarket get down to the farmer,” Boyce says. “Unfortunately, it's not so easy."
Alan Boyce | Executive Chairman, Materra Farming Co.
Specialty crop growers face four main problems, says Alan Boyce, who refers to them as “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”: water, labor, soil, and resistance.
Boyce is Executive Chairman of Materra Farming Co., which grows 3,000 acres of pistachios, as well as lemons and dates, at the southeastern tip of California, in Imperial County.
“Everybody in my company is supposed to be on the lookout for new ideas and technologies that will help solve any one of those problems, and if we can get more than one that would be great,” he says. “So the trick here is, we’ve got to try them because we're a pretty big grower. We're diversified into a lot of areas and a lot of different crops.”
Books have been written about the intricacies of Western U.S. water, and as for labor, Boyce says “in every conversation I have with farmers, labor’s in there somewhere. It comes down to ‘Do you have enough guys? And nobody does.’”
But with the final two, soil and resistance, Boyce believes they can make real improvements, and that’s what interests him about biologicals. He believes biologicals can help with both, but especially resistance, which he sees looming as a large, immediate problem.
It’s NOW Time
As for taking care of NOW, pheromone puffers might be, if anything, more important than his location. Boyce is convinced they wouldn’t be achieving the outstanding NOW control they get without them.
“The navel orangeworm puffers are pretty magical,” he says. “We have eliminated that pest in our pistachio orchards, and that's worth a bunch of money to us in quality premiums from the processor we send our nuts to, the Wonderful Corporation. In the in the long run, that's as close to a silver bullet we could ever expect. I'm not holding other biological controls up to that standard, if they can get there, that's great.”
Pheromones are a great solution that’s beautiful in their simplicity, Boyce says, who adds that he is so enamored with the technology, he has joined the Board of Directors of a California pheromone company, Provivi.
“They keep the male moth from finding the female moth and having a happy ending, so you don't have 1,000 times as many bugs in a couple of weeks,” he says. “I also think we have a healthier ranch because we don't have to use insecticides so we're not killing all the beneficials.”
Boyce says he’s glad that there are so many companies involved in pheromones, and solid companies at that, and that bodes well for the industry’s future.
“There are several competitors in the space,” he notes. “We use Suterra, which has been around the longest, but Semios has an excellent product, as does Pacific Biocontrol. Trécé doesn’t do puffers, they have emitter strips. But I’d say that the most important thing is that there's some competition. So as long as there's competition out there, it makes sure that the suppliers keep pretty sharp pencils.”
“Biologicals are important in agriculture; we're dealing with life systems. Plants are alive, and we have challenges trying to keep them alive and being efficient in feeding them and watering them. So it's important to use biologicals in systems, from my point of view.”
Hector Mariscal | PCA
Know The Source
However, understanding how biologicals fit in a given situation can be difficult, so Mariscal is meticulous when it comes to sourcing products.
“We must understand the origin of the biological. Who's behind the product? Who's behind the box? We must understand,” he says. “You need to know the enterprise itself, who's making it, how are they making it. Is what they are doing sustainable? Does it have benefits to the soil and the plant in the long term?”
Mariscal says he wants to know the “team” that is supplying products. He needs to know if they have a laboratory behind them to analyze the origins of their product. If they have scientists working on new strains, old strains, or different types of strains, Mariscal says he wants to know.
“We are looking for consistency and repeatability in a measured way before we put too much confidence in any products,” Williams says. “We like to call our testing of products firing rifle balls before firing cannon balls.
“Serenade fungicide (Bacillus subtilis, Bayer), for example, is a biological product we started out using on a very small scale but has transitioned into a much larger use product that is important in our operation.”
Lipman Family Farms will continue to evaluate biological products as the market continues to develop with sustainability in mind. That’s sustainability of the environment but, more importantly, sustainability of profitability.