One year's seeding: a seedbank approach to sustainable weed management

One year's seeding: a seedbank approach to sustainable weed management

Summary

The extension bulletin “Integrated Weed Management ‘One Year’s Seeding…’” resulting from a collaborative effort of researchers, extension specialists, and producers was released in February 2005 to fulfill the lack of information available on sustainable weed management. Since that time 1,122 copies of the bulletin have been sold and several workshops have been held to present the information from the bulletin to farmers in Michigan and Illinois. Thus far, the information we have collected from the farmers indicates that the meetings are increasing their knowledge of the diversity of weed management techniques that could be used on their farms.

Objectives/Performance Targets

This project addresses the lack of practical information on sustainable weed management by engaging farmers and land-grant professionals in a continuous improvement process. A decision support manual for ecological weed management (Integrated Weed Management: One year's seeding... E-2931 Michigan State University Extension bulletin) will be presented to farmers, farmers will be asked to use and evaluate the manual, and the manual will be revised according to farmer feedback.

In the short-term, over 400 producers and extension agents will learn to use a practical manual for sustainable weed seedbank management at workshops in MI, IN, OH, IA, MN, and WI. The manual will help farmers manage the whole weed life cycle, rather than focus on the seedling stage only.

In the intermediate-term, up to 70 producer-evaluators (PE's) in five states will use the manual to help them manage weeds on their farms and record impacts on their operations. Over 50% of the PE's will diversify their approach to weed management as a result of using the manual. Eight on-farm trials will explore new management options for reducing weed seedbanks through sustainable practices. At least 30 PE's will evaluate on-farm trials and share results of their own field-tests. Feedback from producer workshops and PE's who use the manual on their own farms, in addition to results of on-farm trials, will be used to improve the first edition of the Integrated Weed Management Guide.

In the long term, this project will give farmers practical alternatives to over-reliance on herbicide resistant crops and chemically intensive post emergence weed control. The rapid loss of hard-won farmer knowledge of integrated weed management will be slowed, or even reversed, as farmers are engaged in the process of making practical knowledge available for their neighbors and for future farmers. Stronger partnerships between farmers and university personnel will be formed, with better correspondence between farmer needs and researcher activities, resulting in a sustainable agriculture that gains its strength from both human relationships and scientific understanding.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Listed below are the meeting locations, dates, and attendance for 2005 for the workshops held covering the “Integrated Weed Management ‘One Year’s Seeding…’” extension bulletin.

Meeting Location Meeting Date Attendance
Branch Co., MI 02.21.05 49
Clinton Co., MI 03.03.05 28
Gratiot Co., MI 02.01.05 13
Kalamazoo Co., MI 01.28.05 170
Lapeer Co., MI 03.16.05 35
Monmouth, IL 08.17.05 65
Ottawa Co., MI 03.02.05 5
Sanilac Co., MI 03.03.05 25
Tuscola Co., MI 12.20.04 125
Total 515

With attendance of 515 people to our workshops we have exceeded our original short term goal of reaching 400 farmers and extension agents. Evaluations, filled out at the end of 4 of the workshops in 2005, revealed that overall attendees rated their increase in overall knowledge and understanding of weeds at ~3.7 on a scale of 1 to 5 (1= none, 5= a lot). When asked about the likelihood that the information they learned would change the way they managed weeds the average rating was a ~3.6 on a scale of 1 to 5 (1=none, 5= a lot). Based on this feedback and the verbal communications of the farmers at the other workshops, the meetings are proving effective. Currently, we are holding further meetings to introduce the guide to more farmers in MI, IL, MN, and WI.

To meet our intermediate project goal, we are in the process of sending out evaluations for the bulletin to interested meeting attendees to collect information on improvements that can be made to the second edition that will be released in 2007. We are also in the process of recruiting farmers for the on-farm trials.

The workshops held thus far have set us up to meet our long term objective of increasing farmer awareness of alternative methods of weed control. We are also creating a bond between the grower and researcher communities. We anticipate that the information collected from the bulletin evaluations we are sending out will also help us meet the long term goal of focusing research on farmers needs.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

So far this bulletin and the workshops accompanying it have increased farmer’s awareness of sustainable weed control options. Further information we are gathering from our evaluations of the bulletin will help determine if the information presented is affecting farmer weed control methods in the North Central region.