Orchard Air Blast Sprayers - Tips and Techniques
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Education For
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CURES Update - January 2000
The Sulfur Task Force
The Sulfur Task Force has retained CURES to create a dusting sulfur stewardship program in California. Dusting sulfur is widely used in the state on grapes and row crops. Increasing complaints about sulfur drift in recent years prompted the CA Department of Pesticide Regulation in November to ask sulfur registrants to modify sulfur labels to address drift. CURES’ will create a stewardship booklet describing best management practices for distribution with a revised product label. A slide show for applicator training sessions will also be produced. The Sulfur Task Force is made up of the manufacturers and distributors of sulfur who operate in California.
Support Continues to Build for CURES Stewardship Programs
The following have recently contributed to CURES programs: Bank of America; California Almond Board; Dow AgroSciences; John Kautz Farms; Mid-Valley Ag Services; Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment (RISE); Western Crop Protection Association (WCPA); and Western Farm Service. This funding will help CURES fulfill its mission of creating programs and distributing materials that promote stewardship of pesticides. Our audience is farmers, crop consultants, urban homeowners and other user groups. WCPA provided seed money to get CURES up and running. Now it’s up to supporters of stewardship to keep it going.
CURES held an important first meeting in its effort to build a water quality protection coalition that includes companies applying pest control products in Newport Bay watershed of Orange County, CA. This watershed is the first in the country where TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) standards will be set for the pest control products diazinon and chlorpyrifos. A TMDL includes mitigation measures aimed at users should levels exceed a certain standard. In attendance were a number of major pest control applicators, distributors, trade associations serving the industry and the Orange County Farm Bureau. As part of an outreach effort agreed to by the group, CURES will distribute stewardship materials developed with funding from RISE to pest control companies, landscape and park maintenance applicators, and urban homeowners in the region. A second meeting of the group is being organized for late February.
CURES Water Quality Protection Proposals
CURES water quality protection proposals submitted and up for review: grant requests to USDA EQIP program (Environmental Quality Incentive Program); the San Francisco Foundation; and the Great Valley Center Legaci grants. The proposals are based on a program for CA farmers and Pest Control Advisors (PCA) to earn continuing education credits from a study guide, video and a self-administered test on protecting surface water quality from crop protection chemicals. If funded, the materials will be available from Agriculture Commissioners, Extension Offices, ag chemical retailers, Natural Resources Conservation Services and participating commodity organizations. Also in the proposal is a slide show on the surface water quality issue for use by commodity groups and other organizations.
Funding Needs
San Joaquin Valley Deputy County Ag Commissioners requested 15,000 copies of CURES water quality guidebooklets: about $6000 in funding is needed to fill that order! Another request just in for 1000 air blast sprayer stewardship guidebooklets for Hood River, OR fruit growers.
News Shorts
More than 200 growers and PCAs heard Parry Klassen give a CURES orchard airblast drift presentation for Yuba County Cooperative Extension...His next presentations are to Pesticide Applicator Professional Assn. events: 1-25-00 in Salinas, CA; 3-6-00 in Sacramento.
Join the CURES Stewardship Effort
Want to join the CURES stewardship bandwagon and contribute to this worthy effort? Support our programs in either agriculture or urban areas: it’s good for the environment and your company or organization. For more information, contact Len Richardson at 925-687-1662 or lrichardson@farmprogress.com or Parry Klassen at 559-325-9855 or parry@curesworks.org or contact CURES directly.
For information on CURES, contact Parry Klassen: parry@curesworks.org.
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