IRM

I will be working on Insect Resistance Management with farmers this week so the blog may be a little slow for a few days! Remember that IRM stands for Insect Resistance Management. Knowledge of a seed's traits is important when you purchase and plant seed. Refuges of non geneticically modified seed is important to keep the traits working properly. It is the seedsman and farmers responsibility to understand these traits and plant the refuge within the recommendations.

IRM audits are rather easy to complete if you follow the recommendations. Most farmers don't have a problem but some don't read the recommendations or improvise on their own. This is why audits are done to see if there is understanding from the seed company to the farmer actually planting the seed.

I encourage you to pull out your seed purchase records and your field maps to make sure you understand the refuge requirements and have followed the recommendations. If you do, seed audits are easy to complete. If not, you can do a better job next year of selecting the traits you need at a price you feel you can afford and plant the recommended refuge.

RIB or Refuse in a Bag corn is not perfect as farmers found out this year. With the cold spring, some farmers found that the refuge seed in the bag did not emerge like the rest of the seed or perhaps did not emerge at all in some cases. If you are such a case, I hope you have or will notify your seed dealer to let him see what happened and report it to his higher ups.

Together, we can do a better job and keep these traits as needed and planned for.

Ed