Probability of Cost-Effective Management of Soybean Aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in North America

Soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is one of the most damaging pests of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merrill, in the midwestern United States and Canada. We compared three soybean aphid management techniques in three midwestern states (Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota) for a 3-yr period (2005–2007). Management techniques included an untreated control, an insecticidal seed treatment, an insecticide fungicide tank-mix applied at flowering (i.e., a prophylactic treatment), and an integrated pest management (IPM) treatment (i.e., an insecticide applied based on a weekly scouting and an economic threshold). In 2005 and 2007, multiple locations experienced aphid population levels that exceeded the economic threshold, resulting in the application of the IPM treatment. Regardless of the timing of the application, all insecticide treatments reduced aphid populations compared with the untreated, and all treatments protected yield as compared with the untreated. Treatment efficacy and cost data were combined to compute the probability of a positive economic return. The IPM treatment had the highest probability of cost effectiveness, compared with the prophylactic tank-mix of fungicide and insecticide. The probability of surpassing the gain threshold was highest in the IPM treatment, regardless of the scouting cost assigned to the treatment (ranging from $0.00 to$19.76/ha). Our study further confirms that a single insecticide application can enhance the profitability of soybean production at risk of a soybean aphid outbreak if used within an IPM based system

Guía de buenas prácticas para establecimientos lecheros : material de referencia de la Red de BPA

Con el objetivo de concentrar varios esfuerzos aislados que se han llevado a cabo en el país, INTA, la Fac. Cs. Agropecuarias de la UNC y APROCAL han tenido la iniciativa de convocar a especialistas y representantes del sector lechero nacional para trabajar en el desarrollo de una guía de buenas prácticas en el tambo consensuada entre los diferentes representantes del sector lechero. Esta guía procura ser una propuesta de fácil interpretación para ser consultada permanentemente por parte de quienes trabajan y conducen los establecimientos lecheros para apoyarse en aspectos que hacen al aseguramiento de la calidad en el tambo. A través de esta se pretende brindar recomendaciones de Buenas Prácticas para maximizar la producción y la calidad de leche en sistemas productivos sustentables.EEA PergaminoFIL: Negri Rodriguez, Livia María. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Investigación Tecnología de Alimentos; Argentina. Asociación PRO Calidad de la Leche y sus Derivados (PROCAL); ArgentinaFil: Aimar, María Verónica. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias; Argentina. Asociación PRO Calidad de la Leche y sus Derivados (PROCAL); ArgentinaFil: Costamagna, Daniela. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela; ArgentinaFil: Callieri, Carlos. DeLaval Productor de Maquinaria Lechera y Agrícola; Argentina. Asociación PRO Calidad de la Leche y sus Derivados (PROCAL); ArgentinaFil: Herrero, María Alejandra. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Charlón, Verónica. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela; ArgentinaFil: Leiva, Antonio. Sancor; ArgentinaFil: Tentor, Gonzalo. Buenas Prácticas Agropecuarias (BPA); ArgentinaFil: Raciti, Julio. Manfrey Informatica; ArgentinaFil: Rampone, Alberto. Universidad Nacional de Villa María; ArgentinaFil: Chavez, Javier. Lactodiagnóstico Sur; ArgentinaFil: Gaggiotti, Mónica del Carmen. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela; ArgentinaFil: Boffa, Susana. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Paraná. Agencia de Extensión Rural La Paz. Oficina Técnica Hernandarias; ArgentinaFil: Mancuso, Walter. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Praraná; ArgentinaFil: Pautasso, Néstor. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Praraná; ArgentinaFil: Walter, Emilio. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela; ArgentinaFil: Moltoni, Luciana. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Investigación Ingeniería Rural; ArgentinaFil: Serrano, Pedro. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Pergamino. Agencia de Extensión Rural Coronel Brandsen; ArgentinaFil: Abdala, Alejandro. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela; ArgentinaFil: Gonzalez Pereyra, Ana Valeria. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; Argentina. Lactodiagnóstico Sur; ArgentinaFil: Sardi, Graciela. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; ArgentinaFil: Gigli, Isabel. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa; ArgentinaFil: Rodríguez, Julián. La Lacteo; ArgentinaFil: García, Karina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela; ArgentinaFil: Brunas, Lucas. García Hermanos; ArgentinaFil: Bontá, Marcos. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias; Argentina. Lactodiagnóstico Sur; Argentin

Crop pests and predators exhibit inconsistent responses to surrounding landscape composition

The idea that noncrop habitat enhances pest control and represents a win–win opportunity to conserve biodiversity and bolster yields has emerged as an agroecological paradigm. However, while noncrop habitat in landscapes surrounding farms sometimes benefits pest predators, natural enemy responses remain heterogeneous across studies and effects on pests are inconclusive. The observed heterogeneity in species responses to noncrop habitat may be biological in origin or could result from variation in how habitat and biocontrol are measured. Here, we use a pest-control database encompassing 132 studies and 6,759 sites worldwide to model natural enemy and pest abundances, predation rates, and crop damage as a function of landscape composition. Our results showed that although landscape composition explained significant variation within studies, pest and enemy abundances, predation rates, crop damage, and yields each exhibited different responses across studies, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing in landscapes with more noncrop habitat but overall showing no consistent trend. Thus, models that used landscape-composition variables to predict pest-control dynamics demonstrated little potential to explain variation across studies, though prediction did improve when comparing studies with similar crop and landscape features. Overall, our work shows that surrounding noncrop habitat does not consistently improve pest management, meaning habitat conservation may bolster production in some systems and depress yields in others. Future efforts to develop tools that inform farmers when habitat conservation truly represents a win–win would benefit from increased understanding of how landscape effects are modulated by local farm management and the biology of pests and their enemies

Incorporando responsabilidad social en la gestión empresarial

Paulatinamente la relación de la empresa con la sociedad ha ido evolucionando desde la filantropía hacia modelos de inversión social estratégica, en los que los recursos económicos se invierten en acciones sociales más ligadas al rubro de negocio y con un mayor impacto en la cuenta de resultados, hasta desembocar en modelos de gestión de la responsabilidad social que abordan actividades que tienen un impacto en la sociedad y que están intrínsecamente relacionadas con el negocio con todos los públicos interesados de la empresa. La adopción de la RSE implica redefinir la Visión, Misión y Valores de las organizaciones comprometidas a ser sustentables en términos de rentabilidad, satisfacción de los públicos internos y externos de la comunidad donde se desarrollan y gestión medioambiental. En tal sentido, las buenas prácticas de responsabilidad social empresarial se gestionan en los procesos de la cadena de valor tanto en las actividades primarias como a las de apoyo. La RSE es algo más que una serie de actividades o iniciativas aisladas basadas en el Marketing o las relaciones públicas o institucionales. Se trata más bien de un conjunto de políticas, prácticas y programas que se incorporan a todas las operaciones y procesos de toma de decisión empresariales. Incorporar la RSE significa poner en marcha un sistema de gestión con procedimientos, controles y documentos. El objetivo del trabajo es realizar un breve recorrido por la conceptualización de la RSE, dominios y temas principales y su implementación concreta en la gestión de las organizaciones.Fil: Costamagna, Alejandro. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Hankovits, Margarita. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina

Landscape scale pest management: Approaches for understanding habitat function

While IPM has traditionally focused on the field scale, two observations have triggered interest in developing IPM at larger spatial scales. First, mobile pests do not recognize field or farm boundaries. Second, some landscapes appear less prone to invertebrate pest infestations than others, suggesting that there are features that may be managed to create more pest suppressive landscapes. Landscape complexity has been shown to increase the ecosystem service of pest suppression, although the mechanisms responsible remain elusive. Using a range of approaches including survey, large-scale experimentation and GIS from two production systems, cotton-grain in the Darling Downs, and vegetables in the Lockyer Valley, QLD, we'll explore the link between surrounding habitats, pest and beneficial insect dynamics and pest suppression. In the cotton/ grain systems, we show that natural enemies (as well as some pest species) use native vegetation as reproduction habitat, move between native vegetation and crops, and colonize crops. We also show that some pest species are more strongly suppressed by natural enemies in crops near native vegetation than further away, and that native plants have higher predator : pest ratios compared to crops. In the vegetable system, we tested the effect of earliness of predator impacts on the suppression of pests in 19 vegetable landscapes that differ in landscape complexity. We found that predators have a significant impact on pests, but only some landscapes contributed predators early. Most of the variation in pest suppression was explained by the amount of Lucerne (alfalfa) around the focal fields up to 2 km. Lucerne was shown to be good habitat for predators, but high predator numbers explained most of the variation in high pest numbers in focal fields. This paradox demonstrates the challenge of managing for pests and pest control services at multiple spatial scales. We'll conclude by showing how these findings can contribute to guidelines for IPM at the field, farm and landscape scale

Appendix C. A table showing large- and small-size predators and parasitoids for different combinations of agricultural management system and predator manipulation treatments within the large field cages in the aphid population increase experiment at the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research site, Michigan, USA, 2003.

A table showing large- and small-size predators and parasitoids for different combinations of agricultural management system and predator manipulation treatments within the large field cages in the aphid population increase experiment at the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research site, Michigan, USA, 2003

Appendix D. A table showing longevity, fecundity, and intrinsic rate of increase of Aphis glycines reared on soybean produced under three different agricultural management systems in the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research site, Michigan, USA, during 2003.

A table showing longevity, fecundity, and intrinsic rate of increase of Aphis glycines reared on soybean produced under three different agricultural management systems in the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research site, Michigan, USA, during 2003

Appendix B. A table showing ANOVA results for fixed and random effects and slicing tests results of the effect of agricultural management system and predator manipulation treatments on Aphis glycines within large field cages at the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research site, Michigan, USA, 2003.

A table showing ANOVA results for fixed and random effects and slicing tests results of the effect of agricultural management system and predator manipulation treatments on Aphis glycines within large field cages at the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research site, Michigan, USA, 2003

Appendix E. A table showing MANOVA results for the effect of agricultural practices on the five more-abundant Aphis glycines foliar predators at the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research site, Michigan, USA, during 2003.

A table showing MANOVA results for the effect of agricultural practices on the five more-abundant Aphis glycines foliar predators at the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research site, Michigan, USA, during 2003