The First Steps of IPM

Did you see what I saw?

The first cornerstone of good integrated pest management (IPM) is the use of scouting for pests. Whether we are talking mice, weeds or even flies it is very important to determine just what you have and how many. By doing this on a routine basis you can measure how effective your pest control program is running. Without scouting, you are running like a car down the road without a speedometer. You know you are moving - but you don't know how fast.

When making a change to a pest control program, be sure to scout after allowing the program change to fully run. This change then will be measured against past performance. If done on a routine basis scouting will map your progress through time with hopefully good results.

Heat Stress - Signs of trouble ahead

Watch and Learn

When we are experiencing fast onset hot weather we need to be more reactive than reactive in poultry housing. Birds usually show two stages of panting from slow open mouthed breathing to a heavy, labored pant. Keying on this is very important as energy expended on keeping cool by the birds is sacrificing production. output.

To counteract hot weather, provide the optimal environment for evaporative cooling and feed birds in cooler portions of the day. The heat of metabolism from feeding may exacerbate an already bad situation. You may want to map temps in the hottest portion of the house to pre-cool these areas before heat builds up in the house.

Making Molehills out of Mountains

Be reasonable – Do it my way

It is now becoming all too common now in the country. Someone telling you that you can’t grow food in the way you were most accustomed to. Noise, Odors, Zoning and animal welfare issues are now restricting some producers from producing local food that’s cheaper for all of us. Farmers do need to step forward and explain what they are doing with their neighbors so they will once again be “one with nature”. They will also need to police themselves against bad actors in the field that are not working towards the goal of using the best management to produce good economical food for all of us. Best management practices (bmp’s) are good for all of us. We need to be shining examples for all around us. They are watcing!

One group that I have discovered recently was The Good Egg Project. This included video segments with the farmers explaining different aspects of the production cycle.