DANVILLE — Corn growers in Indiana continually have concerns about an infestation of earworm and Western bean cutworm, but Syngenta might have the answer with its recently launched Agrisure Viptera 3111 trait.
Mark Lawson, a Danville farmer who is also a Syngenta area agronomist, said he has seen great results from using the product. He gave a plot tour of his farm last week for anyone interested.
”What Viptera does is give us control of 14 different insects that we reallyhaven’t had control of before,” Lawson said. “We have some options, but we haven’t really hadcontrol over them in the past.”
Not controlling the insects can be hazardous for farmers, Lawson said.
”Three kernels an ear, in that kind of a population, is a bushel an acre,” Lawson said. “You don’t have to lose very many kernels and you have a significant yield loss. It’s not like you’re finding ears of corn lying on the ground, but you’ve lost a significant amount. Each of these insects either reduce the stands or they take a few kernels off of each ear ... (The insects) come in at different growth stages of the plant, but they are basically a problemall season long. It’s all over the country and in various stages, but the biggest problem is right herein the heart of the corn belt.”
To put the problem into perspective, Lawson used taxes as an analogy. He said that the county tax, state tax, and federal tax each take a portion of your income. Most people can deal with any one of them without a problem, but when you put them together, they take a large portion of your money.
He said that all of the insects together are taking about $1 billion per year out of the farm income.
”We have to find a way to feed nine billion people somehow in the next 30 to 40 years,” Lawson said. “We’re not going to do this with a hoe and a sharp stick. We need to have the technology and ways to produce more food for more people. It involves preserving our resources and responsible environmental protection.”
Lawson said using the Syngenta trait could be quite useful for Hendricks Countyfarmers.
”HendricksCountyhas become more of an urban county now,” he said. “This can reduce the amount of pesticides on the ground.”
Lawson’s farm has been in his family since 1950, when his father purchased it from Butler University. When they came to the location, the conditions were tough and the ground was pretty much depleted, he said, adding that it’s been exciting to see the progress that has been made.
”This farm has kind of been an example of what’s happened in American agriculture over the last 50 or 60 years,” Lawson said. “There’s more to come and what I enjoy is getting to see some of the things that are coming. This trait thing has come on and it has enabled us to do a better job of soil conservation. We have reduced soil erosion by something like 40 percent in the last 20 years.”
How the Viptera works is using what is called a crystal, or Cry, protein. These are incorporated into the cell structure of the plant and when the insect takes a bite out of the plant, the protein attaches to a specific spot in the stomach of the insect. Vegetative Insecticidal Protein (VIP) is a version of this that began 18 years ago. When ingested, Viptera ruptures the stomach of the insect.
Lawson said Viptera works quickly and he hasn’t seen much damage.
He said fields that had earworms present will yield 14.3 bushels per acre more with Viptera.
”One of the things that I am quite pleased about in being a Syngenta employee has to do with them having a big picture view of the world and what we’re all about,”said Lawson, who has been with the company for 23 years. “This is that what we and our customers dois so important. We’ve got to feed a lot of people in a short period of time.”
ryan.palencer@flyergroup.com
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