Building Towards a Brighter Future
By Eric Sfiligoj, Editor, CropLife
For several years now, there has been a growing interest in biologicals. Growers across the country have experimented with and implemented these types of pest controls/plant stimulants in their operations.
“Like everybody else, we have been looking at biologicals for our business,” says Brent Wallner, Vice President of Dealer Support at BRANDT Consolidated, an ag retailer based in Springfield, IL. “We are actively trying to put some marketing and research into those.”
“Some farmers are constantly looking for something on the cutting edge,” observes Ron Geis, Market Development Specialist at Corteva Agriscience, about the desire to utilize biopesticides. He points out, however, that the larger segment of these growers have tended to do business within the fruit/tree nut and specialty crop sectors of agriculture.
But in the row crop category, the penetration of biopesticides has been less than stellar. In fact, according to a 2023 survey of ag retailers by CropLife® magazine, biopesticides severely lag behind other biologicals such as biofertilizers and biostimulants in terms of market usage. Based on the survey data, biofertilizers have increased their market share among row crop growers from 30% in 2018 to 50% in 2023. Likewise, biostimulants usage has grown from 60% to 73% over this same timeframe. However, for biopesticides, the usage rates have dropped, from 31% in 2018 to just 19% in 2023.
Why has this been the case with row crop growers? According to Geis, part of the reason likely ties back to the expectations growers have regarding crop protection products.
“We haven’t found many biopesticide products that will perform in a consistent manner year-over-year.” – Harlan Asmus, Co-Owner of Asmus Farm Supply, Rake, IA.
“We as an industry have grown up in a world of chemistry,” he says. “An acceptable level of control for traditional chemicals has been between 90% and 95%. Sometimes, we’ve even had 100% control in some weed cases. Biopesticides have not achieved that level of performance. For these, acceptable control rates are between the 70% and 80% level. Many growers aren’t willing to accept that level.”
Ag retailers echo this view. “We have multiple vendors coming through the door that claim their biopesticide products will perform in a consistent manner,” says Harlan Asmus, Co-Owner of Asmus Farm Supply, Rake, IA. “We haven’t found many biopesticide products that will perform in a consistent manner year-over-year.”
G. Chris Weed, Specialist – Adjuvants for KOVA Fertilizer Inc., West Chester, OH, also points to product performance for how his company decides on which biopesticides to support.
“We use what I call a premise,” Weed says. “The premise is a retailer, or a grower, has an amount he will spend in this product arena. He wants a recommendation from KOVA based on the products where we have seen consistent performance and a good return on investment. We are, and have evaluated products, from companies in the U.S. and all over the world. We move forward with these products that perform and eliminate those that do not perform.”
The Advantages of Biopesticides
Despite these limitations, Corteva’s Geis says biopesticides do offer several potential benefits to row crop growers — in particular, their ability to help manage resistance. In fact, according to statistics from USDA, more than 165 million acres of cropland across the country contained more than 200 different species of resistant weeds.
In addition, biopesticides also offer the benefit of being more selective in targeting pests, Geis says.
“Biopesticides are really exciting,” he says. “We can’t talk about a field pest without talking about resistance — be it weeds, insects, or diseases. Repeated use of something will lead to resistance. Utilizing biopesticides instead can vastly expand the availability of products that can give growers additional modes of action and add to the longevity of existing products by mixing things up.”
In addition, biopesticides also offer the benefit of being more selective in targeting pests, Geis says. “Take corn earworm, for instance,” he says. “Corn earworm is a serious pest because when it takes one bite out of a kernel, it ruins it. A biopesticide geared to control corn earworm would only control corn earworm, so any beneficial insects on the same plant won’t be harmed.”
Although this kind of market vetting and education of row crop growers is helpful, Corteva’s Geis believes the future potential for biopesticides lies in what control measures they can offer. “Biopesticides have got to attack the No. 1 concerns of row crop growers,” he says.
Finally in terms of biopesticides’ benefits to growers, there’s the speed factor. “It often takes more than a decade to bring a new traditional crop protection product to the market,” Geis says. “But the approval process for biopesticides is much, much faster — maybe a year or two. This is definitely a positive that new biopesticides can use to their advantage.”
To this end, several ag retailers are actively trying to promote biopesticide use to their grower-customers. “We have a 300-plus acre research farm to test these kinds of products and identify the ones that can bring real value to the farmers,” says John D. Allen, Vice President of Agronomic Services at BRANDT. “Traditional, growers of fruit trees and specialty crops have been more receptive to these, but we want to get row crop growers to realize these best values, too.”
For example, resistant weeds such as waterhemp in the Midwest and Palmer amaranth in the Mid-South/Midwest have infested millions of acres of farmland. Insects such as corn rootworm cause an estimated $1 billion in yield loss each year. And crop diseases such as tar spot are rapidly expanding across all portions of the Central U.S.
According to Geis, these are the kinds of field pests row crop growers are looking for help to control. “Show these farmers a biopesticide that attacks these things, and you will build more market use,” he says. “Right now, the franchise among biopesticides for these pests is weak. However, when it is found, bringing it to market should be much easier than it would be for a traditional crop protection product. Then you will see the usage rates increase quite quickly, I imagine.”
