A news story this month stopped me in my tracks. As reported by The New York Times, tens of billions of cicadas, called Brood X, is set to emerge any day now across the Eastern U.S. Aside from the biblical connotations of swarms of locusts, the thought is mind-boggling: these creatures went underground in 2004, 17 years ago! Also known as the Great Eastern Brood, the cicadas will emerge in 18 mostly Mid-Atlantic states, when the soil warms to about 64 degrees. Their emergence is anticipated to have three epicenters: the Washington, DC, area, Indiana, and Knoxville, TN. As soon as they finish feeding and laying eggs on woody perennials (including grapevines) during their four to six weeks of life above ground, their nymph-state offspring will burrow into the soil to become the Class of 2038, 17 years from now.

Just think, in 2004, George W. Bush was President. Facebook was launched. And the foundational idea for NGRA—that by working together, industry stakeholders could develop a process for catalyzing research that would mutually benefit our stakeholders and academic research institutions—was shared at a meeting in August 2003, a little over 17 years ago.

No matter how much the pandemic has changed our perception of the passage of time, 17 years is still a long time. Or is it?

Eight years before those Brood 2038 cicadas emerge, by 2030, the U.S. is pledged to have cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half, based on 2005 levels, to slow climate change. When you think of a monumental goal like that—or how the lost year 2020 passed in the blink of an eye—the years seem like no time at all.

With grapes ranking as the largest fruit crop in the U.S., and the U.S. being the fourth largest producer of grapes in the world, the grape and wine industry could have a large part to play in carbon sequestration. Rightfully, then, it’s something NGRA’s Natural Resources and Environment Research Theme Committee is exploring. It’s a testament to our founding principal of collaboration on game-changing research for our industry…and perhaps for the planet.

So if it’s warm enough in your neck of the woods, grab a grape product and sit outside and listen. If there are cicadas singing, raise your glass to them. They—and we—have a lot of work to do and so little time!

Photo by Linda Thomas-Fowler, taken in Oak Hill, VA, on May 23, 2004,

This Monday, May 3, NGRA is pleased to launch our new New-Scientist Engagement Series! This first meeting is themed "Sensors, Pests and Diseases,” and features:

These events are designed to introduce NGRA members and interested industry stakeholders to newer scientists (and/or newer work) supporting grape-related research programs and projects. The events provide an opportunity for two-way dialogue between national stakeholders and selected scientists, to learn about the work the scientists are doing, and provide industry members an opportunity to give feedback and input on program goals and industry needs. The events are free. Click to learn more and register to attend, and meet some of the new faces leading research into the future!

Registration is now open for the virtual ASEV-NGRA Precision Viticulture Symposium! For members of NGRA and the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV), discounted tickets are $75 per person, now through June 15. And at $125 for non-members, they're still a steal, thanks to funding from USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Register now!

The one-day, day-long conference proceedings will be held on Monday, June 21, 2021, in advance of the ASEV National Conference. Our joint symposium will focus on research developments in the precision management aspects of pests and diseases, crop estimation and decision support systems, and vine management, and will offer grower best practices in applying precision techniques. It will feature 22 speakers from around the world, including keynote presentations by Rob Bramley of Australia's CSIRO, who is widely considered the father of precision viticulture, and Nick Dokoozlian of E. & J. Gallo Winery, the largest family-owned winery in the world. View the virtual agenda now, and check back as we finetune speaker topics in May.

It was smooth sailing at the confirmation hearing on April 22 for Dr. Jewel Bronaugh, President Biden’s nominee for Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Dr. Bronaugh has served as Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) since May 2018. Upon confirmation by the U.S. Senate, she will become the first African American Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. In her opening statement at the hearing, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, remarked on Dr. Bronaugh’s “impressive and wide-ranging agricultural background,” including “extensive experience in agricultural research, which is fundamental to the success of American agriculture” as dean of the College of Agriculture at Virginia State University.

This month, the USDA announced the availability of more than $330 million to help agricultural producers and organizations in the food supply chain recover from the financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. The funding is part of the USDA’s Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative launched in March, and includes $169.9 million for the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) to fund innovative projects designed to support the expanding specialty crop food sector and explore new market opportunities for U.S. food and agricultural products. The total includes:

Anna Katharine Mansfield, an enologist known for her work in elevating the success of New York State’s craft beverage industry, has been appointed Associate Director of Cornell AgriTech, effective July 1. She will join Director Jan Nyrop in leading the Geneva, NY, campus while the current Associate Director, Larry Smart, will return full-time to his role as Professor of Horticulture. Congratulations, Anna Katharine!

San José State University in fall 2020 established the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center (WIRC), the largest of its kind in the U.S. The Center’s purpose is to serve as the leading institution in California, providing leading-edge knowledge on wildfire science and management. Its five faculty members and new technologies address research areas spanning the physical and social science aspects of wildfire, including fire weather, fire and smoke modeling and forecasting, fire behavior monitoring and modeling, wildfire management and policy, climate change and wildfire risk, fire ecology and STEM fire education and workforce development. As the Center's Director Craig Clements recently told the San Francisco Chronicle, indications point to a grim fire season in California in 2021.

The new Midwest Fruit Pest Management Guide is now available for free electronic download or purchase in print. Published this spring, the guide was developed by the Midwest Fruit Workers Group, including contributors from 10 universities, led by Janna Beckerman of Purdue, and combines two longtime guides familiar to midwestern growers: the annual Midwest Small Fruit and Grape Spray Guide and the annual Midwest Tree Fruit Spray Guide. Print copies are available from the Purdue Extension Education Store for $15 each, or boxes of 10 for $135.

What are the major grapevine diseases in New York State? What changes have occurred in fungicide labeling that affect New York growers? How can your management program fend off disease pressure at different growth stages? These are some of the questions Dr. Kaitlin (Katie) Gold addresses in her first Annual Grape Disease Control Update article for Spring 2021 as Principal Investigator at the Grape Sensing, Pathology, and Extension at Cornell, or GrapeSPEC. Hear Katie discuss her lab’s work live this Monday, May 3, as part of our New-Scientist Engagement Series.

The American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) is seeking candidates for a Technical Program Director (TPD). The TPD is a volunteer position appointed by the Board of Directors for a three-year term, and is responsible for guiding ASEV’s Technical Program Committee on the development of technical projects such as symposia, workshops, seminars, webinars and sessions for the National Conference. Candidates must have a strong interest in fostering a technical program platform that disseminates both fundamental and applied research to the professional wine and grape industry. Apply by May 3, 2021.

The Department of Plant Pathology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis is recruiting a Director for Foundation Plant Services (FPS). The Director will have administrative and management oversight of all FPS activities, including management of the crop programs and supporting laboratory, greenhouse and field activities, academic and staff personnel, and program development and budget. The position requires extensive knowledge of all the scientific components of maintaining virus-tested plant collections and first-hand experience working with national and international clean plant centers and the industries they serve, including grape. Apply by May 6, 2021, to ensure full consideration by the hiring committee.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture seeks a Research Coordinator to monitor, guide, facilitate and maintain progress with the Pierce's Disease/Glassy-winged Sharpshooter's research funding program. Apply by May 14, 2021.

In 2019, a national survey of 252 U.S. grape growers from 20 states assessed knowledge perception of fungicide resistance management, application of that knowledge to vineyard practices, and knowledge acquisition sources. Overall, respondents demonstrated clear understanding of resistance management practices. Extension agents are growers’ top resource for guidance on fungicide efficacy and resistance management. Now, industry and experts must work to ensure that fungicide stewardship is consistently practiced, and that educational efforts target newer growers and growers with smaller vineyards, and frontline workers, all of whom self-identified as less confident in their knowledge of fungicide resistance.

The grape industry members who responded to this survey recognized fungicide resistance as a serious to devastating problem for the grape industry nationwide (68%), and a moderate to devastating problem in their own operations (55%). They were moderately familiar with the acronym FRAC (Fungicide Resistance Action Committee), with nearly 75% indicating they could identify the FRAC code of a fungicide.

Nationally, 70% of the respondents considered themselves moderately to extremely competent in designing a fungicide program that adheres to fungicide resistance management principles. They felt moderately competent they could design a fungicide program that adhered to resistance management principles. They ranked practices that include rotating fungicides of different FRAC codes, avoiding multiple sequential applications of the same trade name or FRAC code, tank mixing with different FRAC codes, using multisite products in a spray program, routine sprayer maintenance and calibration, and good canopy management as very to extremely important in managing fungicide resistance; whereas practices such as rotating between trade names and tank mixing different trade names ranked slightly important.

The specific distribution of responses was influenced by the respondent’s job role, duration of industry experience, and their farming operation size. In all areas of knowledge covered by the survey—familiarity with FRAC and its codes, ability to design a fungicide program that adheres to resistance principles, etc.—viticulturists and crop consultants were more likely to indicate greater familiarity with fungicide resistance concepts and management practices. Those who have been in the industry for five years or fewer (20% of respondents) indicated less familiarity and lower competence. Participants from smaller operations (fewer than 50 acres; more than 48% of survey respondents) indicated lower competence at designing a fungicide program compared to those at moderate (50 to 200 acres) or large (more than 500 acres) operations.

Growers’ responses to the survey demonstrate a sophisticated level of understanding of the nuances of designing a fungicide program that adheres to resistance management principles, such as avoiding sequentially using fungicides with the same mechanism. That knowledge—assuming it is rigorously and consistently practiced—represents a solid foundation to build on.

Across all demographics, university extension services were the single most common source of information for fungicide efficacy and use (34%), as well as fungicide stewardship (38%) information. The survey suggests that future educational efforts should be aimed at improving practices for fungicide resistance stewardship and should align with the knowledge-base and demographic factors of the target audience—particularly their job role, experience and size of operation.

For example, the survey indicates that basic educational efforts on fungicide program design that adhere to resistance management principles should be targeted toward those who have been in the industry for fewer than five years, and those who classify themselves as laborers (who do not make on-farm decisions), because both groups felt less competent at this task than the national average. Targeting these groups will provide educational backgrounds for individuals who will continue on in the industry, and for those who are typically involved in the final stage of fungicide program delivery (i.e., laborers) who might be better able to identify a mistake before a product is applied to the vineyard. Additional demographic targets for educational efforts could be owners (e.g., those who delegate on-site management responsibilities), and those who own or manage fewer than 50 acres because both groups ranked lower in their fungicide spray program design competency. And tailoring messaging to specifically focus on the challenges faced by smaller operations could have significant national reach.

However, the role of industry members’ peer network, and interactions with consultants should not be ignored. Combined, peers and consultants constitute 35% of the information sources on fungicide use and efficacy, and 38% for fungicide stewardship. This provides an opportunity for extension personnel to capitalize on the strength of the informal colleague network as a community-based learning tool to promote practice adoption among industry member groups. And maybe it provides some incentive for growers to be good fungicide-resistance role models for their neighbors!

This article was excerpted from the original paper, “Assessing the United States Grape Industry’s Understanding of Fungicide Resistance Mitigation Practices,” published with open access in the April 2021 edition of the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture. 

The Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG) program is made available by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and administered by State Departments of Agriculture. If you’ve ever wished you could have an overview of all deadlines by state, you’re in luck. NGRA is now monitoring these dates and posting them ongoingly to our spreadsheet of SCBG deadlines. Download it now! (Only two states have block grant deadlines in May: Alabama and Kansas.)

USDA-ARS this month announced the theme for its ARSX2021 Challenge: Harvest for a Healthier Future. The agency seeks transformative ideas that will help achieve a resilient and sustainable food system—particularly those that reduce greenhouse gases arising from agricultural activities. The two-phase challenge will award up to three teams $100,000 each to demonstrate proof of concept for their ideas. The submission period opens May 4, 2021.

This new priority area within USDA-NIFA’s AFRI program supports projects that provide effective, translatable and scalable approaches to address climate change through regional partnerships including USDA Climate Hubs and Extension. Extension and Integrated Extension/Education proposals will be accepted and funded up to $1,500,000 per project for 3-5 years. Deadline to apply is December 15, 2021. More information is available on page 71 of the FY21 AFRI RFA. In addition, AFRI will be hosting an introductory webinar with national program leaders on May 13, 2021. Register here.

Twenty Sonoma County Winegrowers participated in a pilot Climate Adaptation Certification program created by the California Land Stewardship Institute, demonstrating that, by using farming practices that affect greenhouse gases and carbon sequestration, up to 2,184 metric tons of CO2 equivalents can be removed annually from the atmosphere.

Best definition of regenerative agriculture we've seen: "At its core, (it) focuses on rebuilding, restoring and supporting the organic matter that composes health soils," Modern Farmer reports. "It involves three pillars—soil health, animal welfare and social fairness—and takes a holistic approach to increasing biodiversity and resiliency, enriching soils and improving ecosystems and the health of a farm and its surrounding community." And a growing number of American vineyards have been dipping a toe in the regenerative trend.

Regulatory agencies are getting on board with gene editing, and transparency may help consumers embrace it, too. "Gene editing is a powerful breeding tool that can speed new traits into crops, no doubt," writes this Farm Progress reporter. "However, the consumer can have no doubts about the work being done."

Phylloxera's story—and billion-dollar impact—spans the world's most prominent wine-growing regions. And it now includes a foliar variety that, on infected vines, "if your eyes are good, you might be able to pick out by (a) faint, golden glow."

Grapevine Shaking for Botrytis Control

In late 2019, scientists from USDA-ARS, Pacific Biosciences and Penn State published the genome of the spotted lanternfly—critical info for management and control of this invasive pest. Notably, this was the first time all of the DNA required to generate a whole genome sequence was taken from a single specimen, plucked from the wild.

Find these stories and more, published daily, on NGRA's Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Enoforum USA

May 27, 2021  

Michelle Moyer, Washington State University and David Gadoury, Cornell University

Find all upcoming events on the NGRA website.