Thin Kerf Band Sawmilling - A Carbon Reduction Giant

How much fun is it to get to write a book with your son about a huge environmental enhancement he is deeply involved in; thin kerf band sawmilling.  Here's the proposed cover:

You might not own a thin kerf, band sawmill but, if you're interested in practical environmental enhancements you'll like the following "sample story" written so users of the book (sawmill owners) can, without having to write something for themselves, tell others through the medium of the press, about the benefits they are bringing to community in operating a small sawmill business.

We expect to have the book available within the next 30 days.

 

Thin Kerf Sawmilling – An Environmentally Friendly Harvest

“Kerf” is the thickness of the cut a saw blade makes as it passes through wood fiber when lumber is milled.  The ratio of usable lumber to sawdust generated in sawmill operations has a direct relationship to kerf.  Thinner kerfs yield more lumber and generate less sawdust from a given volume of wood fiber.  Over the past quarter century very thin kerf, band sawmills, like those operated by (your business name here) capable of being operated by one or two people have become increasingly important tools in the worldwide quest to achieve numerous environmental goals commonly held to be of value by both governments and peoples of this earth. 

The environmental advantages of thin kerf sawmilling are substantial and demonstrable.  As just one example, former United States Forest Service researcher, Stephen Bratkovich of the Service’s  Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry division, found, based on a study in Missouri that, “We could save the equivalent of 69 million trees annually,” based on the increase in recovery efficiency thin kerf sawmilling offers.  Those unharvested trees, according to Bratkovich at the time of the study, would continue to absorb about 900,000 tons of carbon dioxide and produce about 650,000 tons of oxygen each year as they continue to grow.  Similar studies at sawmills in other places, including Russia, have produced similar findings.

From an environmental standpoint the source of much of the lumber sawn on thin kerf equipment is more important than the quantity.  Sawmills operated by companies like (your name) are more

often than not milling high quality lumber from logs and other tree parts

conventional sawmills cannot, or will not, accept – lumber that would, absent the services of a thin kerf sawmill, be left in the woods to rot, be turned into firewood, or otherwise under utilized.

Numerous Benefits Create Important Environmental Enhancements

Since even small changes in the atmospheric carbon balance are believed by some to have significant impacts on the earth’s climate, portable sawmills can, and do, play an important role in some of the carbon mitigation strategies many believe to be critical in reducing atmospheric carbon.  Some of the reduction strategies thin kerf mills have proved to be invaluable in pursuing include:

Thin Kerf Sawmilling – An Environmentally Friendly Harvest

“Kerf” is the thickness of the cut a saw blade makes as it passes through wood fiber when lumber is milled.  The ratio of usable lumber to sawdust generated in sawmill operations has a direct relationship to kerf.  Thinner kerfs yield more lumber and generate less sawdust from a given volume of wood fiber.  Over the past quarter century very thin kerf, band sawmills, like those operated by (your business name here) capable of being operated by one or two people have become increasingly important tools in the worldwide quest to achieve numerous environmental goals commonly held to be of value by both governments and peoples of this earth. 

The environmental advantages of thin kerf sawmilling are substantial and demonstrable.  As just one example, former United States Forest Service researcher, Stephen Bratkovich of the Service’s  Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry division, found, based on a study in Missouri that, “We could save the equivalent of 69 million trees annually,” based on the increase in recovery efficiency thin kerf sawmilling offers.  Those unharvested trees, according to Bratkovich at the time of the study, would continue to absorb about 900,000 tons of carbon dioxide and produce about 650,000 tons of oxygen each year as they continue to grow.  Similar studies at sawmills in other places, including Russia, have produced similar findings.

From an environmental standpoint the source of much of the lumber sawn on thin kerf equipment is more important than the quantity.  Sawmills operated by companies like (your name) are more

often than not milling high quality lumber from logs and other tree parts

conventional sawmills cannot, or will not, accept – lumber that would, absent the services of a thin kerf sawmill, be left in the woods to rot, be turned into firewood, or otherwise under utilized.

Numerous Benefits Create Important Environmental Enhancements

Since even small changes in the atmospheric carbon balance are believed by some to have significant impacts on the earth’s climate, portable sawmills can, and do, play an important role in some of the carbon mitigation strategies many believe to be critical in reducing atmospheric carbon.  Some of the reduction strategies thin kerf mills have proved to be invaluable in pursuing include:

Substituting wood products for more energy intensive products and reducing demand for energy in growing timber, harvesting timber, and wood processing;

Reducing carbon emissions in wildfires;

Afforestation of marginal crop land and pasture to forest, reducing conversion of forest land to non-forest use, and increased agroforestry;

Improved forest and habitat management;

Reduced harvest in healthy forests; 

Increasing the proportion and retention of carbon in durable wood products;

Allows landowners of all financial means to affordably manage their land to achieve both environmental enhancements and financial goals.

Affordable thin kerf, portable, sawmills were perfected and brought to market about the same time companies like Microsoft and Apple began their corporate lives.  In the intervening years sawmills like the one (your name) utilizes to mill lumber, millwork, timbers, and other forest products have become widely recognized as being one of the most significant of all locally based tools in achieving greenhouse gas emission reductions as well as national, regional and local goals for waste reduction, reuse, and recycling.

“White Privilege” And “White Supremacy” One Coin - Two Faces

European style Fascism and Nazism endemic, to the second quarter of the 20^th Century, are being brought back to vigorous life in modern America.  On the one hand, a loosely organized, but powerful, group of activists speaking to a concept generally termed “White Privilege” are pushing their agenda, with little media attention, to the forefront of discussion about important social and economic issues confronting the new America of the 21^st Century.  On the other hand, the resurgence of a cancer that’s attempted to insinuate its way into American society since World War II, generally termed the “White Supremacy” movement, is dominating headlines in 2017 America.  While inaccurate, “White Privilege” is generally seen as a passion of the “left” while “White Supremacy” is generally seen as the passion of the “right.”  In truth, just as Fascism and Nazism were, in many ways, two sides of the same coin and, thus, natural allies, White Privilege activists and White Supremacists are fused into a single coin by the alloy of racism central to the philosophical approach of each group.  

The Bloody Battle Of Gettysburg 

Because there is little ideological difference distinguishable between the race based positions adopted by the White Privilege movement and those of the White Supremacists, Americans truly interested in effectively addressing social and economic challenges facing the nation today are faced with a Hobson’s choice; a take it or leave it proposition with little public discussion about non-racially oriented alternatives to those challenges either wanted, or, often as not, allowed.

White Privilege as a concept is defined well by Wikipedia, “White privilege (or white skin privilege) is a term for societal privileges that benefit people identified as white in Western countries, beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances.” 

Does White Privilege actually exist in America?

Of course White Privilege exists, in the United States and elsewhere.  In any society many groups enjoy “societal privileges” others are not privy to.  A 2016 Pew study of social and economic differences between whites and blacks in the U.S. demonstrated whites do better than blacks in America in many of the social and economic metrics examined.  Data presented in the study also demonstrates those identified as Asians do considerably better in terms of economics than either whites or blacks.  Does that mean “Asian Privilege” should be of more interest to those engaged in the privilege discussion than “White Privilege?”

The potential list of “Privileged” groups is endless.  A 2016 story about Treasury Department data in the Seattle Times was headlined, “Married gay couples beat straight couples in income.”  So now we should worry about “Gay Privilege?”  Pew’s 2016 Religious Landscape Study shows Jews, Hindus, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians all do considerably better in terms of income than either agnostics or atheists, each of whom do better than all of America’s other religious denominations.  Should we now attack “Jew, Hindu, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian Privilege,” and take government mandated steps to improve the lot of Jehovah’s Witnesses; the most deprived religious group economically?

The point is, making the case for “White Privilege” requires defining groups and individuals by race; didn’t we decide years ago the Nazis went outside the bounds of civilized behavior because of their attitudes regarding race?  Don’t most of us agree White Supremacists offer America almost nothing save hate and violence?  So why do “White Privilege” advocates want to follow the lead of those two hate groups?

“White Privilege” advocates most often use the term “people of color,” in defining people by race.  So, who are these people of color?  How does a person come to be defined as an oppressed “person of color” rather than as a privileged “white?”

My mother-in-law and father-in-law both came from Mexico.  Were they people of color?  “White Privilege” advocates, apparently taking onto themselves the moral authority to decide, would generally say, “Yes.”

If my in-laws were people of color then my wife is a person of color.  I am generally considered to be “white.”  Only being half “Mexican,” are our children “white” or are they oppressed “people of color?” 

My children are married to people generally considered to be “white.”  Being only one-quarter “people of color” how will my grandchildren be defined; or my great-grandchildren who may be only one-eighth “people of color?”

Who gets to decide what a person of color is?  Are Jews people of color?  How about Hindus, many of whom claim descent from Aryan forbearers?  How about the descendants of Asian families?  When does a child become “branded” as “white” when born to a family previously defined as a “family of color?”   

Did we learn nothing from the Fascists; from the Nazis; from our own oppression in past times of American citizens identified as being “Japanese?”    

Defining people by race and then applying race based “fixes” to perceived problems based on race is un-Christian and, from the little I know about several other religions, un-Jewish/Hindi/Muslim/etc., not to mention un-American.

A better approach, one that does not defy common decency, is to adopt and then expand on a universal concept found in nearly all religions: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

“White Privilege” advocates and “White Supremacists” truly represent two faces of the same coin just as the Fascists and the Nazis, both of which espoused versions of Socialism as part of their racist philosophies, were significantly similar.  “White Privilege” advocates and “White Supremacists” want to take the rest of us sliding down the same slippery slope that led to the horrific genocides of the past.  “Never again,” must really mean “Never again” or we will certainly see the horrors of the past repeated again; this time in America.  Is that really a risk we want to take?

Background Noise

Parking Lot Blues Or:

 Broad daylight and still Tina was nervous; but she’d seen nothing when she’d stopped suddenly and quickly turned around to look back.  “Silly girl,” she thought.  “It’s a grocery store parking lot.  There’s plenty of people coming and going.  What am I worried about?  Besides, that’s what panic buttons are for; all I have to do is trigger the car alarm and someone will come to help.” 

Still feeling apprehensive, Tina reached into her purse, pulled out the car keys and resumed pushing her cart, opening the trunk with the fob as she approached her car. 

A moment to transfer the groceries and Tina turned to return the cart.        

The man seemed to come out of nowhere, snatching at Tina’s purse.   A smirk on his face the thief slipped Tina’s billfold out of the purse and into his pocket then turned and sauntered away, no hurry in his steps.

Shocked, Tina fumbled for a moment then pushed the panic button.

Three cars down someone glanced the thief’s way, showing curiosity.  The thief rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, receiving a grin in return; “Someone’s always hitting the wrong button in a parking lot.”

From the next row down shouted words of advice.  “Hit the button again lady.  You’ll wear out your battery!”

Finally someone took notice.  The little old lady was ninety if she was a day.  “Let me help you out dearie,” she said, holding out her hand for the fob.  “I’m always pushing the wrong button too.”   

 

YOU'RE FIRED! A STORY IN 250 WORDS

As an exercise in self discipline I've decided to write some stories in as close to exactly 250 words as possible with the additional fiat that they cannot go over 250 words.

Here's the latest.  Hope you enjoy the twist.

 

The two men, the President and the Russian Ambassador, had met more than a hundred times; some meetings documented, most not.  This was the first time ever in Hawaii.   “Never,” the ambassador mused, “Has he been this way with me.  Something is seriously wrong.”

“Mr. Ambassador,” the President stormed. 

“No arm around the shoulder, no affectionate questions about my family?”

“I have issued an executive order providing me authority to respond to your cyber activity in undermining our election processes and institutions.  Be warned.  I will use that authority immediately.”

The ambassador blanched.  This was serious indeed.

“Tomorrow I will announce sanctions against the GRU and the FSB, against a number of your countrymen, and against the companies we both know supported your cyber operations seeking to influence our elections.  We will also expel a number of Russian nationals and will require you to cease operations immediately at two of your compounds.”  

“But Mr. President…”

“Don’t Mr. President me,” the POTUS interrupted.  “You forced me into this.  I’ve never seen such incompetence in my life.  How could your people have allowed themselves to be found out?  I was told your people were the best, that they knew how to influence an election quietly, that success was inevitable, that no one could possibly detect your activities.  Now I’m forced into this.  A monumental failure!  What happened?”

“We are as puzzled as you are, Mr. President.  It all worked so well in California!  Why there and nowhere else?  Is California so different?” 

If You're In Ag You Depend On Bees

One Of The Most Enjoyable Articles I've Worked On Recently

Why Bees Are Your Business

The grower’s most important “employees” on the farm may be the its best-kept secret, and quite possibly someone they will never meet… the beekeeper.

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Jack Petree April 4, 2017

COURTESY OF ROBERT NILES, THE BEE INFORMED PARTNERSHIP

In 2017 it’s likely more growers have become more dependent on the success of the nation’s beekeeping industry than ever. Today, loss of habitat, a plethora of diseases not prevalent in the past, new kinds of bee predators and economic realities have conspired to create potential pollinator shortages throughout the United States; these are shortages serious enough some believe the food security of the nation could be threatened.

How beekeepers and growers respond to the threats their bees face now and in the future may impact the face of American agriculture for decades to come. According to the National Honey Board, about 125,000 beekeepers maintain colonies in the United States with the “vast majority” of those beekeepers being “hobbyists” keeping less than 25 hives. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data indicates just 2,000 commercial beekeepers (300 or more colonies) are in operation today.

In Skagit County, Washington, in the Cascade foothills about 80 miles north of Seattle, Seth Smith and Bruce Bowen are two of those commercial beekeepers the nation depends on for pollination services as well as for honey and other bee-based products. Smith and Bowen have a loose employee/partnership relationship; Smith works for Bowen as an employee and owns several hundred colonies of his own.

“Bruce has been in the business for most of 40 years and knows more about bees than anyone I know,” Smith said. “Bruce sometimes calls his business ‘A hobby gone wrong,’ and sometimes I understand exactly what he means. I started what was also supposed to be just a hobby with two hives in 2008. Those two quickly became 10 hives then I went to work for Bruce. Somehow we eventually ended up with about 2,000 colonies between us.”

Pollinators under attack

According to Smith, the current president of the Skagit Valley Beekeepers Association, the business of beekeeping is strikingly different in 2017 than it was 40 years ago when Bowen began tending hives. The work of a beekeeper is more intense and requires a broader range of skills and knowledge than it used to because the world has become a very dangerous place for bees in recent decades. Smith points to his own operation as an example.

“We used to send about 1,200 hives to the California almond orchards,” he said. “Last year we had bad foraging weather when the bees really needed to be out making honey. On top of the bad weather we were hit badly by mites. As a result, this year Bruce is sending only about 300 colonies and I’ll be sending about 160. That represents a huge hit in our income for the year. It’s tough to make a living when that happens.” The balance of the two men’s colonies either did not survive the winter or was too weakened to be useful in California.

The mites Smith refers to are a honeybee-specific parasite, the varroa destructor, that made its way to the United States from overseas in the late 1980s. The destructor label is apt; the mite penetrates the bee’s outer body and sucks the bee’s blood. Bees that aren’t directly killed are left vulnerable to disease. The mite has been a suspect in at least having a hand in colony collapse disorder and is directly implicated in the death and destruction of billions of bees and tens of thousands of hives nationwide. According to the Bee Informed Partnership, a research organization funded by the USDA and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, hive losses in the United States exceeded 40 percent in 2015 and 2016 with winter losses well above what might have been expected historically.

California almonds drive business

The number of colonies sent to California is important for beekeepers and for California’s almond growers. For most commercial beekeepers the year revolves around February when California’s 800,000-plus acres of almonds begin to bloom. Almond trees must be insect pollinated so, each year, according to a 2014 report on the U.S. beekeeping industry published by Montesano, about 1.6 million of the nation’s 2.6 million honeybee colonies are put to work pollinating almond orchards; trucks bearing bees arrive from Florida, the Northeast and from nearly everywhere else in the nation.

To the almond growers a lack of bees can mean a stunted crop. To beekeepers, the California almond season is vital because hives rent out for 500 to 600 percent more than they can be rented for nearly any other crop for the rest of the year; a significant part of the entire year’s total income for a beekeeper comes when the California almond trees bloom.

As important as the California season is to his income, Smith said the need for bees in California represents good and bad news for commercial beekeepers. Hive rental rates several times higher than rental rates for other crops needing pollination for the bulk of the year are great, he said but that opportunity comes with a downside; bees are subjected to a lot of stress in California.

“Almonds don’t have much nectar so the bees have to be sent to California with enough nourishment to get them through the season,” he said. “They don’t make honey pollinating the almond orchards so they either have to have enough nourishment to take them through the season or they have to be fed and that means additional cost.”

“Also, while the bees are in California, they are out of our hands, (and) we can’t take care of them the way we’d like to,” Smith said. “They are exposed to other bees so the healthy colony we sent down can come back infested with mites and other bee predators or they may have been exposed to insecticides and have died. The travel itself is stressful and, on top of all that, a lot of hive theft takes place so it’s possible we’ll never see some of our hives again.”

A bee’s life post-almond bloom varies depending on the focus of the beekeeper. Many, if not most, of the larger commercial operations “follow the bloom” after the almonds are done so by the end of the pollination season a colony may have been transported to several locations separated by hundreds or even thousands of miles. “They go from almonds to fruits trees or, in our area, blueberries and then raspberries, wherever there is a need for commercial pollination,” Smith said.” Some beekeepers bring hives home and rent them out to growers in the local area.

In past years Smith has chosen to concentrate on honey production rather than following the bloom but even that path, he said, may be closed to him this year. “I’ve got about 300 hives alive up here,” he said. “I’m going to deemphasize the honey and work on allowing those colonies to grow without pressure. Once a hive is healthy it is necessary to split the colony into two hives to prevent swarming. By winter we should have been able to build our inventory back up with several hundred healthy colonies ready to go again next year.”

The pollination team

Growers, Smith said, can play an important role in maintaining the bee health so necessary to healthy populations of bees ready and able to pollinate; don’t forget, no bees, no crop.

Bees thrive on diversity, Smith said, suggesting that growers look at diversity in their choice of crops. “Tens of thousands of contiguous acres all planted in a single crop are not welcoming to bees,” he said. “There might be plenty of forage while that single crop is blooming but what happens next? To the bees it’s like a desert with nothing to eat or drink. You will attract more bees and produce better crops if you provide for some diversity. When one crop stops blooming, another comes on with a bloom. It’s better for the bees and it’s better for the grower.”

Even a simple step, Smith said, can have a significantly positive impact on bee populations and health. “Let your dandelions bloom as long as you can,” he said. “They provide everything a bee needs so as long as they aren’t hurting your crop let the bees enjoy them.”

Growers also need to do everything possible to work with their chemical company, beekeepers and local Extension experts to safely use insecticides, fungicides and other “cides.” The California Almond Board publication, Honeybee Best Management Practices for California Almonds provides extensive advice regarding how to coexist with the honeybee without which there would be no large-scale almond industry.

The best practices outlined in the Almond Board document translate to nearly any crop as it stresses communication between beekeepers, Extension experts and growers at every stage of the pollination process, careful use of chemicals when necessary, and, whenever possible, providing alternative foraging opportunities as the almond bloom draws to a close.

Pollinators help those who help themselves

Growers can also do themselves a favor in protecting and or enhancing profitability of future crops by providing habitat and other amenities for home-grown pollinators, especially alternative pollinators like bumblebees sweat bees and even hummingbirds. Providing for pollinators can be done with little or no extra effort but to great effect. Managing land for alternative pollinators also means the bees you depend on for major pollination can thrive and leave your farm alive and well, ready to come back next year.

Two publications available online from the USDA-supported Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) organization, “Cover Cropping for Pollinators and Beneficial Insects” and “Managing Alternative Pollinators” are well worth a grower’s time as each publication discusses ways to enhance on-farm pollination efforts.

For the vast majority of especially fruit and vegetable growers in the United States, healthy bees and other pollinators are as fundamental to success as soil management, pest management and other management needs. The grower looking toward a successful future will certainly begin to consider the beekeeper to be one of the most important “employees” he or she has never me

Raising The Bar On Sustainability

 Here's a recent piece from Growing, a national ag publication for commercial crop growers.  Took a lot of research but it's also fun   ( It's also the reason I don't get as many books written as I want to) until the deadline is on top of you and you have to quit trying to roust up more information and get the thing written.

Little Hammers Approach: The Future of Crop Protection

Evolution of crop protection is moving quickly. Here’s how some researchers raise the bar.

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The science and practice of crop protection are seeing revolutionary change in the second decade of the 21st century. The change is driven by farmers’ need to operate profitably despite often challenging circumstances, and by consumer demands that product quality not only be top flight but that products be grown “responsibly,” with an eye to the environmental, social, regulatory and economic impacts implicit in the growing of foodstuffs and other agricultural offerings.

Today, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), seen by some only a decade or two ago as experimental and a risky strategy to implement, has become a standard for crop protection for many, if not most, growers. Now, researchers are working to expand the knowledge necessary to the next step in the future of crop protection with an approach one U.S. Department of Agriculture-supported entity, the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program terms a “whole-farm” or “wield many little hammers” strategy. This approach to pest control is based on “recognizing the importance of many tactics rather than just one deceptively easy fix” to control insects, weeds and diseases.

The whole-farm strategy is based on research demonstrating growers utilizing the whole arsenal of approaches to pest control, especially biological controls, in devising their crop protection approaches are able to optimize their ability to best achieve the delicate balance between profitability, product quality, product quantity and all other inputs and outputs that, as a whole, determine the level of success a grower might seek.

The beneficial impacts of the little hammers approach to pest control, according to SARE’s publication “A Whole Farm Approach To Managing Pests,” come because crop protection game plans are strengthened when various individual strategies are used together; the risk of crop failure is lessened because the burden of crop protection is distributed, the rate at which pests adapt/evolve resistance to a given pest management tactic is reduced, potential environmental impacts (excess runoff, reductions in the populations of beneficial predators, etc.) are minimized, operating costs are reduced, and profitability is enhanced by minimizing the need for purchased inputs.

Increased attention to biological and cultural controls as mainstays for crop protection with chemical and other inputs in a backup role is not really as revolutionary as it might seem to be to some. According to one entomologist, “We’re seeing a growing body of interest in biological controls today; but the basic approaches are hundreds of years old. We’re just learning a lot more about subtle tweaks to simple strategies that can help us reduce the need to rely too heavily on some inputs.”

Perimeter trap cropping is an example of the kinds of “subtle tweaks to simple strategies” researchers noted. Work published by University of Connecticut Extension specialists in 2002 with review undertaken in 2012 examined the positive effects the technique can achieve including, for farmers, improved profitability, improved yield and improved quality.

Crimson clover planted as a cover crop attracts pollinators and other beneficial insects, fixes nitrogen in the soil, and helps prevent erosion.

Insects go for the gusto

Insects are no different than people in some ways, particularly when it comes to appetite. Offer a pest something delicious to eat in place of something that’s just OK, and the bug will go for delicious. A trap crop is a plant species, variety or “…a different growth stage of the same species of the main crop” that is more attractive to a pest than the main crop is.

According researchers at the University of Connecticut’s IPM study “Perimeter Trap Cropping Works,” perimeter trap cropping (PTC) “involves planting the attractive plant species so that it completely encircles the main crop, like fortress walls.

“PTC functions by concentrating and or killing the pest in the border area, while reducing pest numbers and disease spread on the unsprayed cash crop in the center and by preserving natural enemies. The effectiveness of this trap crop technique can often be improved by adding other perimeter defenses like biological, mechanical, cultural or chemical control tactics (that is, border sprays), or with pest attractants and repellants.

“The perimeter orientation of the trap crop and defenses improves efficacy because the barrier intercepts the pest migration regardless of the direction of attack, rather than trying to get the pest to move to where you want it to go. The technique may not always eliminate the pest completely, but it can substantially reduce their populations on the main crop. In recent years, PTC has dramatically increased the efficacy of trap cropping on a variety of crops.”

Demonstrating the effectiveness of PTC’s researchers reported in its study, “researchers in Florida were able to keep the diamondback moth from reaching action thresholds in nine commercial cabbage fields by surrounding them with two rows of collards. Sixty percent of the nearby control fields without collards exceeded thresholds. Insecticide use was reduced by 56 percent.”

In Connecticut itself, the study stated, “bell peppers surrounded by the trap crop produced at least 98 percent pest-free fruit at harvest, compared with all-bell plots, which had 15 percent of the fruit infested. Commercial farmers using PTC harvested 99.99 percent clean fruit, experienced the best pest control in the history of the farms and had better pest control than farms that had used well-timed, full-field sprays. They reduced their insecticide use on peppers by up to 89 percent.”

Trap cropping is just one of the “many little hammers,” being investigated by researchers concerned with expanding the natural or biological controls for controlling crop pests. The modern grower has thousands of options to choose from, many of which are nearly cost free.

In broad brush strokes, the various little hammers available to the grower include cultural, biological and mechanical controls; chemical approaches; physical barriers and more.

Growing rye between vineyard rows in Monterey County, California helps suppress weeds by producing a substance that inhibits weed germination and, attracts beneficial insects like lady bugs.

Hundreds of little hammers

The modern grower has hundreds of choices regarding implementing a crop protection game plan. The best choices are determined by the nature of the crop to be protected, the soil, landscape and weather conditions prevalent in an area, and the nature of the predators likely to attack the crop at various times in the growth cycle.

No two fields are alike and not all crop control approaches are appropriate to every crop. Perimeter trap cropping, for example, has limited effectiveness if insects are flying or drifting in from the air but, for every predator there is a defense; the key to successful crop protection is finding the best mix of “little hammers” for the individual crop and even the individual field.

Fortunately, nearly every grower has easy access to cutting edge research on crop protection through the extension programs established by land grant colleges and universities, data and information available through the USDA and the research organizations like SARE funded by USDA, and the internet puts all that information only key strokes away. Hundreds of articles on nearly any aspect of crop control are available. In today’s economic climate, the grower making best use of those information sources has a leg up on the competition.

Cotton growing with a cover crop mix of rye and crimson clover. The clover adds nitrogen to the soil while the rye attracts beneficial insects.

Customer’s always right

In nearly every economic sector imaginable, customers’ preferences and profitability are inextricably linked; the field of agriculture is no exception. Consumers today are demonstrating ever-growing interest in how food is grown.

Foods grown using ecological principles are in high demand, and that demand is being demonstrated by companies like NORPAC Foods in Oregon, a 200-plus growers’ cooperative. The cooperative processes 600 million pounds of food grown on its member’s 40,000 acres of Willamette Valley farms each year.

NORPAC requires its member farms to sign on to an independently audited nine-point program for sustainability that includes addressing recycling, water use and reuse, habitat conservation and other approaches to crop control and sustainable agriculture.

In 2017, the many-little-hammers approach is not only being widely adopted, but it is also becoming an economic necessity for farmers seeking to responsibly improve bottom lines.