October 30, 2024

Pest Management Solutions for Specialty Crops and Specialty Uses

The following is a recap of news and updates released by

The IR-4 Project during the month of October.

LATEST NEWS

This year, IR-4 took a major step in fully implementing electronic field data books (eFDBs) for its field trials. Emerging from the Path Forward 2.0, a blueprint of strategies to streamline IR-4’s operations, a plan was developed to create a customized electronic system to replace the paper field data books that have been standard for IR-4.

IR-4 is proud of the team spearheading this project and of the researchers who have worked hard to learn and implement a new system. The greatest lesson out of the process is that we can’t do anything alone—that working together and supporting teammates through any kind of change is the way forward. 

Learn more in our latest news story by Raven Baez.

IR-4 Executive Director Jerry Baron Featured on Podcast

In case you missed it, IR-4 Executive Director Jerry Baron was featured in a two-part interview on the "I See Dead Plants" podcast, presented by the Crop Protection Network and hosted by plant pathologist Ed Zaworski. The two IR-4-focused episodes aired on October 2 and October 9. Find both episodes here.

Thanks for a Productive NRPM/PMC Week

Last week, we hosted colleagues from across the country at IR-4 Headquarters for a week of National Research Planning and Project Management Committee Meetings. Thank you all for coming together and contributing thoughtfully to these discussions and planning sessions.

Find tentative/scheduled trials for next year and more on the Food Crops Database Search Options page under "Current Year." The 2025 season is shaping up to be another impactful one in service of our specialty crop stakeholders.

A highlight of our week was posing with North Carolina State University mascot, Ms. Wuf, at Wednesday's joint meeting!

EVENT UPDATES

Dates Announced for 2025 Industry Technology Session and Food Use Workshop

This month, we announced dates for the 2025 Industry Technology Session and Food Use Workshop. IR-4 will also host our biennial Environmental Horticulture Workshop in 2025; our team is working to solidify details and we look forward to sharing more soon!

The 2025 Industry Technology Session will be held virtually (via Zoom) on Thursday, February 20. We anticipate a schedule of 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, but the exact timing is subject to change. This annual event invites companies to present updates on products already in IR-4 research, as well as new technologies designed to meet the pest management needs of specialty crop producers.

We have shifted the Industry Technology Session (ITS) to occur earlier in the year (February rather than July) to better accommodate stakeholders' busy summer schedules and allow more time before the Project Clearance Request submission deadline of July 1, 2025.

The ITS is a precursor to the 2025 Food Use Workshop. Technologies discussed during the next ITS are eligible for IR-4 research in 2026. Find the presentations from the 2024 Industry Technology Session here.

We will continue to add information and resources to the ITS event page as our team finalizes the details. We hope you'll join us in February!

The 2025 Food Use Workshop will take place September 9-11 in Denver, Colorado. Research priorities for residue, product performance, and integrated solutions studies for 2026 will be identified during this workshop. A virtual attendance option will be available.

We will update the Food Use Workshop web page continually as the event approaches, so we recommend bookmarking it for future reference. We'll send reminders via newsletter, too, so please encourage your colleagues to sign up for these announcements. Registration, hotel booking, and a tentative agenda will come in early 2025.

We hope to see you in Denver (or virtually) in September!

Join Us as a 2025 Event Sponsor

Sponsors make IR-4's events possible and help us deliver on our grower-focused mission. Are you interested in joining IR-4 as an event sponsor for 2025? We welcome your partnership! Please reach out to ir-4_project@ncsu.edu for more information.

Special thanks to Gowan for being the first industry partner to come on board as a 2025 sponsor. Will your company join us and Gowan?

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Weed Science Opportunity at Michigan State University

Join IR-4's North Central Region as an Assistant Professor focused on weed science at Michigan State University:

The Department of Horticulture in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University invites applications for a full-time 12-month tenure-system Assistant Professor position (with a 50% Research, 40% Extension, and 10% Teaching assignment) to lead an internationally recognized, innovative and competitively funded research and extension program in weed science and ecology to support Michigan’s fruit and vegetable industries.  The position start date is anticipated to be August 16, 2025. The successful candidate will be responsible for developing a collaborative research and extension program focused on weed science, management and agroecology. 

Learn more and apply through the MSU job posting.

RESEARCH UPDATES

Food Crops

The following tolerance successes were added to the IR-4 website in October. Find other tolerance successes under Food Crop Successes & Stories.

• Saflufenacil (Federal Register date: September 9, 2024)

Environmental Horticulture

Do you enjoy filling fall containers with violas and pansies? Read up on pansies—their characteristics and pest issues, as well as IR-4's work on them—in the Environmental Horticulture Program's 2019 crop vignette by Cristi Palmer.

— Stay tuned for more in November —

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This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2022-79111-38469 with substantial cooperation and support from the State Agricultural Experiment Stations, USDA-ARS and USDA-FAS. In accordance with Federal Law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability.