Organic growers may have decisions to make after grasshoppers chomped their way through prairie fields this summer.
A survey of 51 Saskatchewan organic farmers found they all expect production and financial losses because of grasshopper damage, and the destruction is greater than last year.
“The grasshoppers of 2023 may be the final nail in the coffin of my organic farming career,” said one survey respondent.
Two respondents said they had already dropped organic certification on some land, and one had given it up completely.
But 12 more were considering reducing their certified acres on some land, and five on all their organic land.
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Grasshopper control on organic land is limited. The survey found 22 percent of respondents had tried some form of allowed control.
“The Nolo bait was one that was quite popular and effective-ish, from what we heard, but unfortunately their factory burned down and they have no plan of rebuilding the factory, so accessing that solution is going to be problematic in Canada,” Carlson said.
Other options include sugar and molasses mixes, diatomaceous earth and soil solutions to increase BRIX levels. BRIX stands for balling relative intensity index, which is the sugar content of an aqueous solution. Plants with low BRIX levels are not getting enough nutrition from their roots.
