January 30, 2015
CapitalPress.com
5
Farm rolls out welcome mat for insects
Clay and Josie Erskine use habitat to
support pollinators, other ‘good’ bugs
Capital Press
BOISE, Idaho — Clay and
Josie Erskine have taken a di-
lapidated alfalfa field and, in
five years, turned it into one of
the area’s most diversified or-
ganic operations.
One of the keys to their
accomplishments at Peaceful
Belly Farm has been incorpo-
rating a variety of habitats that
provide food and shelter for
pollinators and other beneficial
insects.
That has included augment-
ing a riparian area with willow
trees and other plants, plant-
ing native bunch grasses and
clover on roads within the 60
acres and planting perennials
in a hedgerow and brassicas
for flowering.
They also leave a portion
of some crops unharvested to
support pollinators.
The result has been a pro-
liferation of native pollinators
that provide free services and
beneficial insects that prey on
crop pests, said Josie Erskine,
39.
“We had a really bad prob-
lem when we started farming
here with pests such as carrot
rust fly and leaf miner,” she
said. “This year I haven’t seen
any signs of carrot rust fly and
I’ve seen very little signs of
leaf miner. It shows me that
it’s working.”
Clay Erskine, 40, said
their decision to make an
effort to cultivate bene-
ficial insects was a gut
instinct that paid off.
“I just had an intuitive
sense about it,” he said. “Ev-
erything we can do to promote
beneficial insects to take care
of the bad bugs, and promote
the native pollinators more,
just makes sense for the benefit
of our whole operation.”
He said the difference from
when the couple started farm-
ing here five years ago is sig-
nificant.
“The abundance of differ-
ent species we now have here
is amazing (and) the bad bugs
have gotten less and less,” he
said.
The Northwest Center for
Alternatives to Pesticides and
the Xerces Society teamed up
for a recent field day that high-
lighted what Peaceful Belly
Clay and Josie Erskine
Operation: Peaceful Belly Farm, 60-
acre organic operation
Location: Dry Valley area north of
Boise, Idaho
Family: Two daughters, 12 and 3
Education: Clay has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Boise
State University and Josie majored in music and theater at BSU
Born: Josie was born in Pocatello, Idaho; Clay in Glacier National
Park, Mont.
Online: http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/nrcs-
technote_plantsintermtnwest.pdf
http: //www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/PollinatorHabi-
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Clay and Josie Erskine stand with their 3-year-old daughter in front
of habitat on their Peaceful Belly farm that is designed to feed and
support pollinators and other beneficial insects. They say the ben-
eficial insects have helped them turn what used to be a dilapidated
alfalfa field into a thriving organic farm.
Farm has done to enhance pol-
linators and beneficial insects.
Jessa Kay Cruz, senior pol-
linator conservation specialist
for Xerces, said she is im-
pressed by what the Erskines
are doing.
“(They’re) taking a whole-
farm approach to this,” she
said. “(They’re) looking at
what’s happening both in
(their) fields as well as what’s
happening on the perimeter of
(their) farm.”
She said while these prac-
tices were largely developed
on small organic farms, larger
conventional farms are incor-
porating them.
Nestled against the foothills
in the Dry Creek Valley north
of Boise, Peaceful Belly Farm
produces 180 types of vegeta-
bles as well as herbs, flowers,
berries and pasture-fed chick-
ens. Clay Erskine estimates
the farm also grows more than
2,200 varieties of vegetable
seeds.
“It’s pretty diverse on the
Researcher pioneers
variable-rate fumigation
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
PARMA, Idaho — A re-
searcher based in southwestern
Idaho is pioneering the concept
of variable-rate fumigation to
control nematodes in multiple
crops.
Unlike conventional tech-
niques, in which entire fields
are uniformly fumigated, vari-
able-rate fumigation involves
testing soil in 1- or 2-acre grids
and then applying fumigants
only where they’re needed.
“That allows the grower to
take out the hot spots and not
overuse fumigants in a particu-
lar field,” says Harry Kreeft, a
nematologist and plant patholo-
gist with Western Laboratories.
“It just doesn’t make sense to
put a treatment on an area where
you don’t have a problem.”
The concept involves treat-
ing each grid as an individual
field, he says.
Several soil samples are tak-
en within each grid and an anal-
ysis produces a map of nema-
tode hot spots.
He likens the concept to re-
moving a wart on your thumb.
“You don’t get chemothera-
py; you just remove the wart,”
he says. “That’s how you can
look at variable-rate fumiga-
tion. You take out the hot spots,
the cancers, in the field. You
don’t nuke the whole field.”
Kreeft, 50, was born and ed-
ucated in the Netherlands and
moved to the United States in
1996 to attend the University of
Idaho for two years. He went to
work for Western Laboratories
in 1998 and shortly after began
pioneering the idea of applying
fumigants in varying rates.
Kreeft says variable-rate fu-
migation is a growing trend and
one of the driving factors is a
shortage of Telone II, a soil fu-
migant used to control all major
species of nematodes in vege-
table, field and nursery crops,
fruit and nut trees and grapes.
“There’s just not enough
to go around, so growers are
looking for alternatives and the
variable-rate idea just fits per-
fectly,” he said.
Kreeft says the approach
Western
Innovator
Harry Kreeft
Position: Nematologist, plant
pathologist with
Western
Laboratories
Age: 50
Born: The
Netherlands
Professional: Master’s
degrees in nematology and
plant pathology from Wagen-
ingen University, Netherlands
Family: Single, two adult
children
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Harry Kreeft, a nematologist and plant pathologist, is shown
at his workplace at Western Laboratories. He helped pioneer
variable-rate fumigation.
often reduces fumigation by
about 40 percent and as much
as 75 percent in some fields.
Fumigation costs about $340
an acre.
“If you can save $340 an
acre on 75 percent of your field,
that’s a lot of money,” he says.
“That’s a new pickup.”
Kreeft is helping Western
Laboratories perform site-spe-
cific management of nema-
todes for multiple crops — in-
cluding potatoes, onions, hops,
apple orchards and grapes — in
Idaho, Colorado, Oregon and
Washington.
Western Laboratories own-
er John Taberna, who hired
Kreeft, said beneficial microor-
ganisms are not as severely set
back when variable-rate fumi-
gation is used.
“Their recovery rate is
much faster with variable-rate
than it is with a one-size-fits-all
approach,” he said.
Taberna said many farmers
are still reluctant to try the vari-
able-rate approach despite the
cost savings.
“The farmers are so scared
of sticking their neck out be-
cause they’re so used to treat-
ing everything and the crop
advisors are afraid to advise the
farmers to do it, too, because
their neck is stuck out also,” he
said.
tatAssessment.pdf
http: //www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/pollina-
tor-three-steps_fact_sheet2.pdf
extreme level,” he said.
Josie Erskine describes the
operation as an old-fashioned
truck farm plopped in the 21st
century. Besides providing
food to 160 families through
a Community Supported Ag-
riculture program, the farm
also sells to the Boise Farmers’
Market, Boise Co-op, Whole
Foods and local restaurants.
The farm also takes orders
online through Idaho’s Bounty,
which distributes food from lo-
cal farms throughout the area.
“They’ve got quite an in-
novative farm,” said North-
west Center for Alternatives
to Pesticides Director Jenni-
fer Miller.
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