SUSTAINABLE PEST MANAGMENT Integrated Pest Management (IPM) refers to an increasingly popular approach for managing insect pests. It combines biological, cultural and chemical controls for sustainable pest management.
CASE STUDY
Premium Fresh Tasmania is a family owned and operated business producing high quality fresh vegetables for domestic and export markets. Located in Forth, they grow, harvest, pack and export a range of produce. Their major crops are carrots and onions with about 300ha of each crop grown between Forest and Cressy, primarily by contracted growers. On a smaller scale they also produce brussels sprouts, swedes, shallots and echalions in their own right. Over the 2011/12 season, Premium Fresh trialled an IPM approach for managing insect pests in their brussels sprout crops. Agricultural Manager Jason McNeil has been involved in various IPM extension projects over the past few years and believes IPM is the way forward. “I’ve always been involved and interested in sustainable farming and IPM is obviously a way of moving in that direction and reducing chemical use, which will become more and more of an issue in agriculture, particularly for our company. Our main markets are the supermarkets and they will likely be the ones that drive the change in a way, but I guess if we understand it and have started to implement it, then it will work in our favour.” Jason received support and advice in planning the IPM program from Dr. Paul Horne and Jessica Page from IPM technologies. Their experience in implementing successful IPM programs particularly in brassica’s led Jason to select Brussels sprouts as the trial crop. “It probably was the easiest crop due to Paul and Jessie’s experience, but that also gave us the confidence that we could do it successfully.”
“..I’ve always been involved and interested in sustainable farming and IPM is obviously a way of moving in that direction and reducing chemical use…”
The major pests of brassicas in Tasmania include the White cabbage butterfly (WCB), Diamondback moth (DBM) and aphids. The larvae of the WCB and DBM feed on older and newly forming leaves creating small holes. As they continue to feed and the leaf grows, the holes become much larger and reduce plant productivity. The aphids suck the plant sap causing leaf distortion and poor growth. They can also hide in crevices of the sprouts making them unmarketable even if no damage is caused. Effective control of these pests can be achieved by using beneficial insects, however insecticides are often necessary. It is important to monitor the levels of the pests as well as beneficial activity to determine the need for chemical control. Jason received assistance in monitoring from Serve-Ag and through this learnt the practicalities of monitoring and identifying pests and beneficials at different life stages. There are a good range of IPM friendly chemicals to control these pests, however for the best outcome they need to be accurately applied. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) used to control the caterpillars for example is effective only on small caterpillars. This means Jason needed to be able to identify the eggs prior to hatching to be able to target the chemical early in the insect lifecycle.
Premium Fresh Agricultural Manager Jason McNeil