SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Pesticides remain an integral part of North Dakota agricultural production. Most agricultural producers used pesticides on major crops, but limited pesticide use occurred on alfalfa, hay, pasture, or CRP (Tables 6-21). For example, of the acreage in alfalfa, hay, pasture, or CRP in 1996, 6% was treated with herbicide and 1.7% treated with insecticide, in 1992, 9.3% was treated with herbicide and 0.2% treated with insecticide, and in 1989, 7.2% and 0.5%, respectively. In contrast, of the acreage in wheat, barley, corn, sunflower, soybean, dry bean, potato, and sugarbeet, herbicides were applied an average of 1.67 times per acre, 7.7% of the acres were insecticide treated and 7.9% were fungicide treated in 1996 compared to herbicides 1.55 times per acre, 6.2% of the acres were insecticide treated and 5.2% were fungicide treated in 1992, and 1.47 times, 12.3%, and 3.2%, respectively in 1989.

Environment continues to impact pesticide use. In 1996, wet spring conditions delayed planting, and hot, dry conditions caused erratic crop emergence and stressed conditions at early plant growth. Weather conditions later in the season increased wheat diseases, insect infestations, and increased late and early blight in potato.

The number of herbicide formulations used on agricultural land increased in 1996 (Tables 22A). Several new herbicides were released between 1992 and 1996, but due to the cost of herbicide reregistration, many older herbicides were canceled. The number of insecticide formulations remained similar from 1989 to 1996 (Tables 23A, 23B, 23C ). The number of fungicides has remained constant at 14 from 1992 to 1996 (Tables 24A, 24B).

More acres were treated with herbicides than with other pesticides in 1996, approximately 20 times more than insecticides and 30 times more than fungicides (Table 1A). As in 1989, wheat was grown on the most acreage and accounted for the greatest herbicide use. Sunflower had the most acreage treated with insecticides and wheat continued to have the largest acreage treated with fungicide.

Seed treatment is commonly used by North Dakota producers (Table 1A). Of the major crops, flax and soybean seed were least frequently treated, while most all the corn, sunflower and sugarbeet seed was treated, but not on farm. Of the total crop acreage planted with treated seed 59.8% was on-farm treated.

Small grain, dry bean, potato and sugarbeet production and use of pesticides on these crops were greatest in the Northeast district (Table 3). The Central and Southeast district had the greatest concentration and use of herbicides on sunflower and corn, respectively. The East central and Southeast districts had the greatest concentration and greatest use of pesticides on soybean.

Pesticides are mostly applied once and by the farm operator using ground equipment (Tables 22A-25E).

Farm operators may have used alternative procedures and methods for pest control more than indicated. Weeds may not have been included as pests therefore, responses included applications primarily for insects and diseases. Fourteen alternative procedures and methods were used by farm operators in crop production for pest control. Crop rotation, variety selection, and reduced tillage were used by the majority of farm operators that reported usage of alternative procedures and methods. Summer fallow and row crop cultivation were used by slightly less than half, and the remaining procedures were used only to a limited extent. Decision aids of field monitoring, economic thresholds, growth staging, and weather forecasting were used by a majority of farm operators in pest management. However, prediction models and IPM techniques were used by less than 28% of farm managers. Organic farming was limited in any part of the state with only 135,000 acres reported farmed organically.

 This site was last updated on November 14, 2002