Rats have taken an unusual interest in the specialty crop capital of the nation. Many attribute the cause to the pest multiplying unchecked in orchards and vineyards in the Central Valley that have been abandoned due to water restrictions and economic challenges. This becomes a real problem when the rats move into neighboring farms in active production, tearing up driplines, feeding on crops and damaging trees. Growers are in a state of emergency and have limited tools for managing this pest.Malcolm Media Editor-in-Chief Matthew Malcolm met with UCCE Wildlife Specialist Roger Baldwin at the California Association of Pest Control Adviser’s annual conference to gain answers on how to knock down populations effectively and keep the pest at bay.Watch this brief interview and learn more by attending Baldwin’s presentation on rat control at the Grape, Nut & Tree Fruit Expo at the Fresno Fairgrounds on Nov. 14 (register to attend at agexpo.biz).
Davis, Calif., (February 23, 2018) – Hedgerows enhance wildlife abundance and diversity around farmland without contributing to food safety problems in field crops, according to a new study published by a team of University of California researchers. The UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and UC Davis study documented that field edge plantings around farms are generally too narrow relative to the surrounding landscape to be a source of rodents and foodborne pathogens.
“This study is particularly pertinent right now when FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is calling for farmers to co-manage wildlife and agriculture, instead of clear cutting wild habitat around their crops,” said co-author Rachael Long, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor in the Sacramento Valley. “Our paper provides support for this ruling, showing that the presence of hedgerows does increase wildlife diversity, but does not increase wildlife intrusion into the fields and, more importantly, does not increase the prevalence of animals carrying foodborne pathogens.”
This is good news for hedgerows, rows of shrubs, trees, grasses and flowers that are planted on field edges. The plants bordering crop fields provide habitat and floral resources for beneficial insects, such as bees and natural enemies, that help with pollination and biocontrol of pests in adjacent crops. Hedgerows also help enhance biodiversity – especially for insect-eating birds – help reduce wind and soil erosion, and protect water quality.
The two-year study in Sacramento Valley walnut orchards and processing tomato fields was led by Long and Roger Baldwin, UC Cooperative Extension vertebrate pest control specialist at UC Davis, former graduate student Laurel Sellers, the Western Center for Food Safety at UC Davis’s Michele Jay-Russell, Xunde Lib and Edward R. Atwill, and Richard M. Engeman of USDA National Wildlife Research Center.
The study, titled “Impact of field-edge habitat on mammalian wildlife abundance, distribution, and vectored foodborne pathogens in adjacent crops,” was published in the February 2018 Crop Protection (Sellers et al. 2018).
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Winter migratory birds like to eat the lovely red berries of toyon.
This journal article supports a growing body of literature suggesting that plantings along the edge of fields do not substantially attract wildlife species that intrude on fields and transfer foodborne pathogens. For example, in a 2015 study, UC Davis researchers found more food pathogens when wildlife habitat was reduced on farms. This may be attributed to the vegetation filtering pathogens, a better breakdown of pathogens in diverse environments, and that removing vegetation may not deter wildlife from entering farm fields.
Relative to the larger crop acreage, hedgerows and similar field-edge habitats are generally too linear and small to serve as a significant source of rodents to damage nearby crops. However, cottontail rabbits favor hedgerows, and can sometimes cause damage to adjacent seedling crops.
“Overall, we found risk of crop loss or contamination of foodborne pathogens in crops bordered by hedgerows wasn’t significant in our study in the Sacramento Valley, although potential damage could vary by the sta ge and type of crop and wildlife species present,” Long said. She will be presenting this work at the 28th Vertebrate Pest Control Conference, which will be held in Rohnert Park Feb. 26 to March 1.
Hedgerows, the plants bordering this field of processing tomatoes, provide habitat and floral resources for beneficial insects that help pollinate crops and provide natural control of pests.
Do you have voles present in the field? If so they can cause an average of 11% damage in alfalfa, a percentage that can’t be ignored. But how do you manage these pests. Watch this brief video interview with UC Wildlife specialist Roger Baldwin as he answers the question, and read more in California Dairy Magazine.
With the early season rains and floods, many growers have wondered what kind of impact that might have had on rodent populations on the farm, and want to know how to manage them moving forward. Check out California Ag Network’s video interview with Wildlife Specialist Roger Baldwin from UC Davis to find the answers.
