Good Fruit Grower

March 1

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38 MARCH 1, 2015 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com Honeycrisp growers in Washington say they lost $28 million to birds in one year. by Richard Lehnert A fter three years of studying the problem of bird damage in tree fruits and grapes in Washington, Michigan, California, New York, and Oregon, researchers haven't found any magic solutions, but they have reached some interesting conclusions. One is that bird damage, in terms of the volume of fruit eaten or otherwise ruined, remains pretty much the same year to year. Bird numbers are fairly constant and they need to eat about the same amount every year. But the percentage of damage will vary depending on how big the crop is. Growers may not notice the damage as much in years of big crops. But in years of small crops, the birds can strip orchards and vineyards of most of the fruit. Growers certainly noticed this in Michigan and New York in 2012, the year big freezes wiped out most of the crop. The remaining small amount of wild and cultivated fruit barely fed the birds. Dr. Catherine Lindell, a zoologist from Michigan State University, is the leader of a Specialty Crop Research Initiative funded at $2 million in 2011. The project includes 21 researchers at six institutions. For the last three years, she has reported results of their work during the Northwest Michigan Orchard and Vineyard Show. Growers around Traverse City endure bird damage, and several cooperated closely with Lindell and her colleagues in their study. In 2012, the first year of data collection, a frightening picture emerged as birds creamed off 25 percent of the sweet cherry crop in some blocks in New York and up to 20 percent of the tart cherries on some blocks in Michigan. But those were very short crops, often left unharvested, so growers mostly ignored the bird damage. In the big crop year just past, damage was very low, she said, in all the crops they studied—tart cherries, sweet cherries, Honeycrisp apples, blueberries, and wine grapes. Damage reached 3 percent in the most pressured sweet cherry blocks and up to 5 percent in similar Honeycrisp blocks, but mostly damage was less than 1 percent. Researchers from Michigan State University, Cornell University in New York, Washington State University, Oregon State University, the USDA National Wildlife Research Center in Colorado, and Trinity Western University in British Columbia conducted the studies. They worked closely with growers. They did a damage survey of 1,590 orchards and set up study blocks on 50 growers' orchards and vineyards. Details about the proj- ect and the participants, and their findings, are on the website birddamagetofruitcrops.info. At that website, you can, for example, see pictures of the most common nuisance birds and listen to their calls, recorded by the Michigan State University Avian Vocalization Center. While some of the fruit eaters are the much-unloved European starlings, American crows, and ring-billed gulls, they also included songbirds, such as robins and cedar waxwings, and geese. Shooting As part of the study, consumers were asked if they would pay more for fruit if growers used bird management techniques other than shooting. Consumers seemed more Birds are eating into PROFITS Get the Chinook FAN BLADE ADVANTAGE! TRITON V-10 TRITON 5.4 PROPANE FUEL INJECTION IVECO NEF 6.7 DIESEL 2921 Sutherland Park Drive Yakima, WA 98903-1891 ENGINEERING RELIABILITY & PERFORMANCE I've been doing business with H.F. Hauff Company since 1978. They engineer their products with a farmer's needs in mind and have tre- mendous integrity. I like the fact that they stay in touch with their growers. • Victair Sprayers are reliable and built to use for a long time. Application windows can be short and you just can't afford to have down time. Any necessary repairs are simple to make. • Wind machines are my insurance plan. In today's world, you cannot afford to lose a crop. If you save just a quarter of a crop, you have paid for the machines. • No under-prop dead-air zone The way other props are designed, they don't push air down around the tower like the Chinook blade. • The Chinook puts out 30% more air, so you can stretch the towers out farther or get more air movement • 30% savings in fuel, it's huge! Chinook wind machines use less fuel because the machines are more efficient. BILL HENRI NAMPA, CALIFORNIA 509-248-0318 fax 509-248-0914 hfhauff@gmail.com www.hfhauff.com TOLL FREE 855-855-0318 COURTESY OF REBECCA MAY A Michigan research team erected kestrel boxes in a cherry orchard in 2012. Researchers say the predatory birds can make a difference in integrated pest management of insects, rodents, and fruit-eating birds.

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