New York Farm Viability Institute Website Press Releases 

PRESS RELEASE: August 3, 2006

Contact: Dr. Julie R. Kikkert, Cornell Cooperative Extension, 585-394-3977 x404;
R. David Smith, New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc., 315-453-3823

NYFVI-Funded Cabbage Project Evaluates Weed Management Strategies

Syracuse, NY -- Weeds, and the diseases and pests that weeds harbor, can cost cabbage growers thousands of dollars in lost produce sales. Funding from the New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc. (NYFVI), a team of vegetable specialists and eight farmers are offering New York’s vegetable growers hope of better weed, insect and disease management, and the resulting improved farm profitability. New York State is the second-largest cabbage grower in the U.S.

More than 400 farms across New York State grow cabbage and/or other cruciferous vegetables - broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbage, kale, collards, turnips and mustard greens. The value of New York’s cabbage crop – second largest in the U.S. - has ranged from $40 million to $80 million in the past five years. Fresh market cabbage in New York is valued at $6,730 per acre (NYS Agricultural Statistics) – that is, $6,730 per acre for an undamaged crop.

“Weeds compete with the vegetables, reduce quality and interfere with harvesting. They also harbor disease and insects that can overwinter and affect the next year’s crop,” says project leader Dr. Julie R. Kikkert, a vegetable specialist with the Cornell Cooperative Extension Vegetable Program in Western New York.
Cabbage is the second largest crop for grower Jim Agle of Henry W. Agle & Sons, Inc. in Western New York. Agle harvests cabbage from July through September and markets his produce through the Eden Valley Growers Co-op.
“The cabbage market was up in 2005. Instead of $4.50 a box, we sold for $6 to $9 per box. Prices were up last year, but yield was down due to heat. We certainly do not need to lose more of the crop to weeds,” he says.
Throughout this year, under Kikkert’s direction, Agle’s fields are being scouted for the types of weeds he controls with a combination of herbicides, cultivation and hand-weeding. In 2007, Agle will plant side-by-side field trials to evaluate the effectiveness and cost of using various control methods. Herbicides are often not as effective as growers would like, leaving them to handweeding at a cost of $50-$300/acre/year.

The first stage of this NYFVI-funded project has been to identify the types and effectiveness of weed management practices currently used by cruciferous vegetable growers across New York State. Cornell University Horticulture Professor Dr. Robin R. Bellinder designed a survey sent to growers statewide.

“The diversity, density and extent of cruciferous weeds on New York farms has never been quantified,” Kikkert says. “The best means of pest and disease control is often a three- to five-year cessation of growing the cruciferous vegetables, but that is not practical and the weeds left to grow along field borders remain a reservoir of such scourges as black rot and club root disease, swede midge and cabbage maggots.”

In 2005, plant pathologist Dr. Christine D. Smart at Cornell’s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva isolated from cabbage and cruciferous weeds the bacterium that causes black rot. One cabbage grower estimates that he lost $60,000 to black rot disease in his 2004 crop. Weeds collected by researchers during a pre-planting field weed survey on the eight participating farms are now being analyzed to determine they harbor black rot disease.

Vegetable specialist Christine A. Hoepting with Cornell Cooperative Extension Vegetable Program of Western New York, says, “Many growers do not recognize all of the weed species that can damage a cabbage crop, especially the cruciferous weed species that may harbor several diseases and insects harmful to cabbage. These weeds can easily be overlooked because they are often not as tall as other weeds and seldom does anyone consider the weeds along field edges.”

Hoepting is developing outreach programming to help growers recognize cruciferous weeds at various stages of growth. In the second year of the project, the growers will compare management options in side-by-side strip trials.

A hallmark of NYFVI-funded projects is responding to grower-identified needs and opportunities. The New York State Cabbage Research and Development Board has identified as weed management, black rot disease and swede midge pest control as research priorities. Board Chairman David Martin of Martin Farms, Inc., Brockport, says, “Although the work that Cornell University has done at Geneva and in Ithaca over the past ten years has brought us a long way in weed control, we now need to evaluate various control options for cost and management effectiveness.”

Through the current and 2007 growing seasons, the NYFVI-funded researchers and growers will correlate the costs of control methods with crop yield and economic return per acre. The project outcome will be an economic assessment tool that will help growers select the most cost-effective weed management option for their farm business.

Growers interested in participating in a 30-minute survey about the types of weed controls in use in New York State should contact Julie Kikkert at 585-394-3977x404 or jrk2@cornell.edu.
The farmer-driven, not-for-profit New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc. enhances and sustains the vitality of the State’s farm industry and rural economy by granting funds for applied research, demonstration, extension, and technical assistance projects. Projects must directly benefit the agricultural and horticultural producers at the farm enterprise level, across farms of all sizes and commodity areas. For more information, contact the New York Farm Viability Institute, 159 Dwight Park Circle, Suite 104, Syracuse, NY 13209, 315-453-3823, www.nyfarmviability.org