Promoting Sustainable Production Agriculture in Oneida County through the Implementation and Evaluation of Tactical Agriculture Teams (TAg)

ReportAn IPM TAg Team program was conducted in Oneida County during the 2000 growing season with 6 participating farms located across the county. A scout visited 2 fields (alfalfa, corn) each week, providing the scouting results directly to the participants. Participants gathered weather information, which was collected on a weekly basis by the scout. The scout summarized the information each week and faxed the information to 36 local agribusinesses and area CCE and SWCD offices for them to pass on to their clients. The same information was posted on the CCE of Oneida County website and summarized into a phone message that could be accessed by anyone in the community 24 hours/day, any day of the week. One objective of the program was to amass valuable information about pest infestations, crop development, nutrient deficiencies and local weather conditions collected on area farms and make that valuable local information available and accessible to area field crop producers and agribusinesses. A second objective was to provide “hands-on” learning opportunities of field crop management and IPM principles for the participants to help them to optimize farm profitability while minimizing environmental risk. This was accomplished through biweekly meetings in farm fields of the participants through focused discussion of timely topics of field crop management issues