Ag Metrics Group Winter 2023 Newsletter

We’re ready for the 2023 research season!

2023 is shaping up to be the largest data generation season on record across the West, Midwest, and Southeast US. The last few years under Covid have brought new pest outbreaks in key cropping systems coupled with an industrywide pent-up demand for R&D data for product developers and growers alike. In response, our company has doubled down on our core capabilities to give our clients the insights they need to accomplish product development goals and drive new value for our farmers.
The world has reset–leaving an opening for biology to move in new ways. Over the last three years, we have witnessed significant crop losses across our farming regions. This includes a serious new Thrips / INS Virus / Pythium “Pest Complex” on lettuce in the Salinas Valley of California, explosive Tar Spot outbreaks in the Midwest, and strawberry crop losses from newly introduced Neopestalotiopsis in Florida. These and other agronomic challenges surfaced during Covid and have kept us busy working to understand their epidemiology and uncover new opportunities for control.

Frank Sances, President

To meet this demand, Ag Metrics Group has significantly increased facilities, professional staff, and methods development to offer an expanded portfolio of experimentation for our sponsors. Research capabilities added this year include five new climate-controlled greenhouses for California and Florida. In Michigan, we built 4,800 sq. ft. of new Entomology and Nematology laboratories, surrounded by 80 additional acres of premium irrigated farmland. All told, Ag Metrics Group has grown to 12 science laboratories, 70 full-time staff, and several hundred acres of company-owned farms in key agricultural regions of the American West, Midwest, and Southeast. Our client base includes most all ag-product manufacturers, many regional grower cooperatives, and governmental agencies that include state universities and the USDA.
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Now more than ever, we recognize the critical impact data-driven product development has on our industry. These solutions enable growers to respond to new challenges and opportunities with confidence in the stewardship of their land. Privatized science is the key to rapid and robust biological insights to demonstrate value in a dynamic and diverse set of pest and environmental applications into the future. We look forward to our continued partnership with our clients and wish you all a very successful year.

Frank

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Ag Metrics Group Provides “First Report of Neopestalotiopsis rosae Causing Crown and Root Rot of Strawberry in California”

American Phytopathological Society of America (APS)
Dan Lawrence 1, Greg Brittain 1, Balaji Aglave 2, Frank Sances 3
1 Pacific Ag Research, 2 Florida Ag Research, 3 Ag Metrics Group
 
Following these authors’ research in Central Florida strawberry plantings in late 2019, they found this devastating fungus again in Salinas, California, on newly transplanted strawberries in the winter of 2021. Since their original Florida research, the fungus is now well established throughout the Southeast and has become the key pest for this crop early season. This subsequent finding in California is the first scientific proof that it has moved westward into other US strawberry producing areas, and has the potential to cause crop losses to growers in that region.

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Turf & Ornamental Capabilities Expanded Companywide in 2023

The turfgrass and ornamental plant industries demand excellence in performance and safety from pest management and plant health products. This past year, we added specialized staff and test systems that include hoop-house and field plantings of turf varieties for year-round product efficacy and phytotoxicity testing.

Experimentation on ornamentals includes flowering and foliage plant species, succulents, and landscape plants, including trees and vines. When needed, Plant Pathology and Entomology labs support all T&O trials with challenge organisms to facilitate trial success.

California Adds 5,400 sq. ft. of Greenhouses

To accommodate increased need for greenhouse space for experimentation, the Central Coast greenhouse facilities grew by 30% in 2022, bringing the total controlled environment research area to 15,000 sq. ft. Greenhouses include small, medium, and large individual structures to isolate experiments for individual sponsors or to manage temperatures more closely for special test protocols, sensitive host plants or pest species. One greenhouse is dedicated to research on hydroponics, while others are high enough for tall test plants such as grape vines, hot house tomatoes, or trees. In support of the greenhouse test system is a full-time Horticulturalist managing several greenhouse and science technicians.

New San Joaquin Valley Field-Lab at Our Five Points Station

In 2022, we remodeled 1,200 ft2 of administrative offices, opened a new 2,500 ft2 climate-controlled field lab, and installed additional fruit, nut, and vine plantings. We added more microscopy, a walk-in cooler, a post-harvest drying unit, and a deep well with a new reservoir for sustainable water at this site going forward. The past year we purchased more off-site equipment including a new tow vehicle, support trucks, and another mobile orchard sprayer platform for off-site trials. Together with a new research biologist, these assets comprise a well-equipped and staffed Central Valley research campus with a wide geographic radius of field activities for product development needs.

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Michigan Ag Research Expansion in Final Stage of Completion

To advance our goal to provide the best possible administration and science campus at Albion, Michigan Ag Research is now in the final stages of construction of a 4,800 ft2 building that will include:

• Specialized and general entomology bioassay lab
• Nematology soil extraction and microscopy rooms
• Expansion of the Plant Pathology lab
• Low humidity storage rooms for electronics and sensors
• Equipment shop for year-round maintenance of tractors and implements

In addition to the new laboratory facilities, 80 acres of irrigated farm land were added, bringing the total station size to 200 acres.

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Publicly Funded Research:
Soil Solarization Proof of Concept

Frank Sances presenting at the Florida Strawberry Grower Association & UF/IFAS Tailgate on January 11, 2023

​Summary: Management of soil borne pests on commercial Florida strawberry farms has long been a challenge to growers. In recent years, this has been particularly difficult with regulatory pressures on the use of remaining chemical soil fumigants and the costs associated with their use. Also, while still in its infancy, organic strawberry production in Florida has been established by several shippers to try to meet the demand for this strawberry market segment.

To provide growers with alternative non-fumigant soil pest management techniques, this project builds on previous work from these and other researchers with an on-site demonstration of Soil Solarization and Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation for the 2023 grower outreach event by our collaborative groups.

Findings were presented at the Florida Strawberry Grower Association & UF/IFAS Tailgate on January 11, 2023.
QR Code to see the Poster for the study:

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Post Hurricanes, Florida Ag Research
Adds More Greenhouse Space

After cleaning up from two hurricanes (repairing and rebuilding) 40,000 sq. ft. of greenhouse and shadehouses, Florida Ag Research added 5,000 sq. ft. of climate-controlled greenhouses and 7,500 sq. ft. of shadehouses. Within two weeks of Hurricane Ian’s passage we were back in business, thanks to employee crews from Florida Ag Research and California colleagues from Pacific Ag Research!

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Charlie Boone Promoted to Station Manager at Florida Ag Research

Charlie Boone

Charlie Boone continues in his supervisory role overseeing the Company’s land and labor resources for East Tampa and Dover sites. As an Environmental Horticulturist, Charlie is particularly well-suited to run our research facility since he grew up on a commercial nursery farm just a few miles from the Florida Ag Research offices. Currently Charlie’s crew manages research greenhouses and shadehouses for our science laboratories experimentation, plus the USDA Quarantine facility.

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