New Jersey producers are about to get a taste of IPM offered by private
consultants instead of through Cooperative Extension. This year 74 sweet-corn
growers have the opportunity to participate in private-sector IPM programs.
Brubaker Agronomic Consulting Service will contract with sweet-corn growers
in all central and southern counties south of Mercer and Monmouth. McConnell
Agronomies will be available in the southernmost counties of the state.
Producers will continue to pay a scouting fee, and the expectation is that
they will continue to reduce pesticide sprays by 25 percent.
Easing into the private sector has been a long-term goal of New Jersey's
sweet corn program, which began in 1972 with 12 participants. Until this
year, two program associates and 10 seasonal scouts have been responsible
for reading blacklight traps and using economic thresholds for such pests
as corn earworm, European corn borer, fall armyworm, sap beetles, corn smut,
and corn rust.
One reason for the transition is that the new consultants share an IPM
philosophy.
Don Prostak, coordinator of the New Jersey IPM Program, says, "This
shift will allow our Extension people time to do research on thresholds
and develop IPM for other crops. Our goal is that some day, standard
agricultural
practices and IPM will be one and the same."
State IPM Coordinator, Technical
Regional IPM Chair
Donald Prostak
Rutgers University; Department of Entomology
P.O. Box 231, Cook College
New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0231
908-032-7229; prostak@aesop.rutgers.edu
return to IPM in the Northeast Region 1996 Report, Table
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