Adam Schreurs wins the Environmental Award for Excellence at AusVeg Convention
Adam Schreurs has just received the Environmental Award for Excellence at the National Vegetable Industry Convention in Queensland. Adam was instrumental in making a shift to IPM from a conventional approach based on insecticides about 16 years ago. IPM Technologies helped Adam to develop an effective IPM strategy which significantly reduced reliance on pesticides. Not only the number and frequency of insecticides have been reduced but the type of insecticides has also changed to using selective rather than broad-spectrum products.
IPM Technologies is proud to have played a part in helping Adam to achieve this award which is presented by the Vegetable Industry (AusVeg) to acknowledge excellence.
Following is an extract from “Controlling Invertebrate Pests in Agriculture” by Paul Horne and Jessica Page (2012).
J & J.M. Schreurs [now Schreurs and Sons] are the largest producers of celery in Australia planting about 5 ha of celery per week, and harvesting around 20,000 boxes per week.
Production of celery on this farm for over a decade has relied on IPM. This is because a previous reliance on pesticides failed and IPM has been proven. Control of caterpillars and aphids that vector viruses were initially the key pests to be dealt with but chewing pests such as vegetable weevil, lightbrown apple moth and cutworm are also equally important at certain times. Basically, all of these pests needed to be dealt with within an IPM strategy and it has been achieved.
The new (IPM) approach worked well on the target pests, although learning about what were the real pests and how and when to deal with them took a while to learn, and there were losses at each step as each separate pest was identified and methods to deal with it were developed. Pests that had never before been experienced (because they had been killed by broad-spectrum insecticides targeting primary pests) suddenly needed to be dealt with as the selective methods of dealing with the primary pests did not control the secondary pests. Each pest has been dealt with but it was only the collaboration between the Schreurs and IPM Technologies P/L that has allowed the full range of pests to be identified and dealt with.
The use of an IPM approach on all of their farms has meant significant changes in how and when insecticides are applied. Insecticides are now selected and used only as required and this has meant that far fewer insecticides are used than before an IPM approach was adopted. Now any insecticide application, and what is selected if any, is decided on the basis of monitoring. The monitoring and decision-making now includes the level of biological control, the impact of cultural controls and also the available chemical options.
Now there is an awareness that beneficial species can achieve better control and that pesticide applications need to be carefully targeted.sed only as required and this has meant that far fewer insecticides are used than before an IPM approach was adopted. Now any insecticide application, and what is selected if any, is decided on the basis of monitoring. The monitoring and decision-making now includes the level of biological control, the impact of cultural controls and also the available chemical options.
