Paul Kassel,
crops field specialist
Situation
Farmers request unbiased information on pests, pesticide use, crop management
and soil fertility management. These requests often require a visit to the farm
or field to assess the question/problem.
Response
I make about 100 visits per season to assess individual problems. Some of these
visits serve to confirm what the farmer has observed or has been told from some
other professional. Other visits serve to explain a problem with little economic
impact. However, some visits can have a large impact because they involve insect
control recommendations, herbicide drift/sprayer contamination damage, or soil
fertility recommendations.
Impact
I sent one on one evaluations to 35 farmers where there was significant effort,
a need for documentation and/or potential economic impact from my farm visit.
Twenty eight evaluations were returned. The results of those 28 surveys that
were returned are as follows.
- Acres operated by the farmers where I made visits - 32,831 acres.
- Acres where my information had direct impact on the operator - 2,678 acres.
- Average impact from those farmers where my visit had direct impact - $30.32/acre.
- Total impact from the reported visits - $81,196.00.
Much of the impact came from soybean aphid and bean leaf beetle recommendations,
herbicide application mistakes and/or sprayer contamination. One person indicated
that, thanks to Paul I treated all soybean (acres) for aphids. That person showed
an economic impact of about $100 per acre on his soybean acres.
One individual indicated a high level of satisfaction with Extension reporting
that I use extension info a lot and appreciate the fact they are always there
and helpful. Another person replied that, we are pleased to have some who is
knowledgeable on (soybean) diseases and can identify the problem correctly.
Page last updated:
July 9, 2006
Page maintained by Linda Schultz, lschultz@iastate.edu
