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Crop protection strategy helping farmers handle pests and environmental challenges

Crop Protection: Thinking Several Moves Ahead

Modern Agriculture

Staying Ahead of the Game

Farming and crop protection are like playing a game of chess with the elements. Farmers make their opening moves, and nature always has a countermove. Weather events, insects, weeds, and diseases combine in ever-changing ways, requiring a commitment to long-term, strategic thinking. 

Even with all the crop protection tools available to farmers around the world, as many as 40 percent of global crops are lost to pests every year. Without those tools, those losses could double. 

Farmers make their opening moves, and
Nature always has a countermove.

[unex_ce_article_full_width_photo layer-name="Full width image 1" img="3046" image-filename="Full-Width-Overlay_Chess.jpg" id="content_ejd1es25v" post_id="2088"] <h4><span style="color:#FFFFFF;">Farmers make their opening moves, and<br />Nature always has a countermove.</span></h4> [/ce_article_full_width_photo]

Persistence in the Face of Long Odds

When farmers plant each year, there is no guarantee of their crops surviving or thriving. Working toward a successful harvest requires extensive planning, a variety of tools, and a little bit of help from nature.

However, sometimes nature doesn’t cooperate. Extreme weather events often have a dual impact on crops–they can destroy them outright, and they can contribute to infestations of insects, weeds, and diseases.

With this in mind, farmers tend to plan for three types of situations. They can make decisions with prevention of a certain outcome in mind. They can choose to build up the resilience of their crops to specific challenges. And if neither of those work, they put themselves in a position to react in the quickest, most precise manner when problems arise.

[unex_ce_article_half_width_text_and_image layer-name="Corn Image" mobile_image="3047" mobile_image_filename="Chess_Board_Corn_b_Artboard-22.jpg" caption="" image_location="image-right" id="content_pqro5ia5m" post_id="2088"] <p>When farmers plant each year, there is no guarantee of their crops surviving or thriving. Working toward a successful harvest requires extensive planning, a variety of tools, and a little bit of help from nature.</p><p>However, sometimes nature doesn’t cooperate. Extreme weather events often have a dual impact on crops–they can destroy them outright, and they can contribute to infestations of insects, weeds, and diseases.</p><p>With this in mind, farmers tend to plan for three types of situations. They can make decisions with prevention of a certain outcome in mind. They can choose to build up the resilience of their crops to specific challenges. And if neither of those work, they put themselves in a position to react in the quickest, most precise manner when problems arise.</p> [/ce_article_half_width_text_and_image]

Thinking Several Moves Ahead

Like good chess players, farmers are always thinking ahead, anticipating events long before they might happen. They often make decisions in March with an August result in mind, or decisions in September with the following April in mind. Let’s consider three example scenarios where farmers use strategic thinking on their operations. One focuses on prevention, one on resilience, and one on reaction.

Prevention: Row Spacing for Weed Control

Weeds compete with crops for sunlight, nutrients, and water, causing problems on farms across the world. Farmers have a variety of weed control tools. They often use herbicides1 to remove weeds that accumulate over the winter, in preparation for planting. While this is effective at removing above ground weeds, it is still possible that weeds could germinate during the growing season. One common reason for this is insufficient rainfall, which can reduce the effectiveness of the herbicide.

Many farmers are painfully aware that adequate rainfall is never a guarantee, which means weeds can still emerge later in the season. As a result, they often use other preventative measures in addition to herbicides and tillage. One example is modifying the distance between their rows. Decreasing this distance means that as the plant grows, it reaches canopy (the point at which leaves from neighboring plants touch) more quickly. Like a chess player cutting off an opponent, this canopy prevents sunlight from reaching any weeds that may have sprouted during the growing season.

[unex_ce_article_half_width_text_and_image layer-name="Row Spacing" mobile_image="2222" mobile_image_filename="Chess_Rook_Row-Spacing_Artboard-23.jpg" caption="" image_location="image-left" id="content_s5282qk3w" post_id="2088"]
Prevention: Row Spacing for Weed Control

Weeds compete with crops for sunlight, nutrients, and water, causing problems on farms across the world. Farmers have a variety of weed control tools. They often use herbicides to remove weeds that accumulate over the winter, in preparation for planting. While this is effective at removing above ground weeds, it is still possible that weeds could germinate during the growing season. One common reason for this is insufficient rainfall, which can reduce the effectiveness of the herbicide.

Many farmers are painfully aware that adequate rainfall is never a guarantee, which means weeds can still emerge later in the season. As a result, they often use other preventative measures in addition to herbicides and tillage. One example is modifying the distance between their rows. Decreasing this distance means that as the plant grows, it reaches canopy (the point at which leaves from neighboring plants touch) more quickly. Like a chess player cutting off an opponent, this canopy prevents sunlight from reaching any weeds that may have sprouted during the growing season. 

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Resilience: Cover Crops and Weather Events

Farmers plant cover crops for a variety of reasons. Grasses like cereal rye reduce soil erosion, tubers like tillage radishes reduce soil compaction, and legumes like crimson clover add fertility.

In recent years, farmers across the U.S. have also learned that cover crops can help fields bounce back in the face of extreme weather events during the growing season. This is because they increase the water holding capacity of the soil. During heavy rain, the soil can absorb more water, meaning less of it pools above ground. And during prolonged periods of drought, the soil has more water stored from previous rainfall. Sometimes, the wisest chess move is to wait out the storm, protecting your most valuable pieces for the next opportunity.

[unex_ce_article_half_width_text_and_image layer-name="Covercrops" mobile_image="2202" mobile_image_filename="Chess_Covercrops_c.jpg" caption="" image_location="image-right" id="content_iet9401zf" post_id="2088"]
Resilience: Cover Crops and Weather Events

Farmers plant cover crops for a variety of reasons. Grasses like cereal rye reduce soil erosion, tubers like tillage radishes reduce soil compaction, and legumes like crimson clover add fertility. 

In recent years, farmers across the U.S. have also learned that cover crops can help fields bounce back in the face of extreme weather events during the growing season. This is because they increase the water holding capacity of the soil. During heavy rain, the soil can absorb more water, meaning less of it pools above ground. And during prolonged periods of drought, the soil has more water stored from previous rainfall. Sometimes, the wisest chess move is to wait out the storm, protecting your most valuable pieces for the next opportunity. 
 

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Reaction: Crop Rotation for Weed Management

Tillage–turning the soil to prepare ground for planting–has long been an effective weed control technique. However, over the past 20 years, a large number of farmers have adopted no-till practices, which help reduce erosion and improve soil health. These farmers frequently pair their use of no-till with herbicide-resistant seeds, which allows the farmers to control weeds with herbicides that don’t damage the crops.

However, sometimes environmental conditions like humidity or lack of rainfall can impact the effectiveness of herbicide. One way farmers can react to an herbicide becoming less effective is to employ crop rotation–alternating crops every other season. Switching crops allows farmers to switch modes of action–the collection of tools they use for weed and pest control. Combined with a variety of other approaches, crop rotation can play an important role in suppressing weeds.

[unex_ce_article_half_width_text_and_image layer-name="No-Till" mobile_image="2220" mobile_image_filename="Chess_Knight_no-till_b_Artboard-23.jpg" caption="" image_location="image-left" id="content_pnfo6blna" post_id="2088"]
Reaction: Crop Rotation for Weed Management

Tillage–turning the soil to prepare ground for planting–has long been an effective weed control technique. However, over the past 20 years, a large number of farmers have adopted no-till practices, which help reduce erosion and improve soil health. These farmers frequently pair their use of no-till with herbicide-resistant seeds, which allows the farmers to control weeds with herbicides that don’t damage the crops. 

However, sometimes environmental conditions like humidity or lack of rainfall can impact the effectiveness of herbicide. One way farmers can react to an herbicide becoming less effective is to employ crop rotation–alternating crops every other season. Switching crops allows farmers to switch modes of action–the collection of tools they use for weed and pest control. Combined with a variety of other approaches, crop rotation can play an important role in suppressing weeds. 

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Farmers Hoping to Feed a Growing Population Will Need To Continue Thinking Three or Four Moves Ahead.

[unex_ce_article_full_width_photo layer-name="Farmers Hoping Image" img="3048" image-filename="Full-Width-Overlay_Chess-2-2.jpg" id="content_8svgwquvj" post_id="2088"] <h4><span style="color:#FFFFFF;">Farmers Hoping to Feed a Growing Population Will Need To Continue Thinking Three or Four Moves Ahead.</span></h4> [/ce_article_full_width_photo]

Playing the Long Game

Just like in a competitive game of chess, the interplay between farmers and nature can sometimes end in a draw. For the farmer, that could mean using a variety of costly tools and practices, not to mention the time involved, to achieve a successful harvest. While the harvest is the ultimate goal, farmers also need to be profitable year over year to ensure the sustainability of their operations. At times, nature places a check on those operations, in the form of added crop protection measures. 

Modern agriculture as an industry is dedicated to providing farmers around the world with the most advanced tools and practices to protect their crops from threats. In a changing global climate, farmers hoping to feed a growing population will need to continue thinking three or four moves ahead. 

 

 

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