®Bird Shield
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Biodegradable Bird Repellents for Agriculture, Industry and the Garden. Off The Wires, News & Views.
Vol. 1, No. 6. November, 2009.
Chile
Leonard Askham, our CEO, has just returned from Chile where he visited cherry, blueberry and table grape growers. This is what he learnt.
First, every customer is important and every customer had a story to tell.
Chilean growers have been using Bird Shield ® since 2004 when it was first introduced into the country by Arysta LifeScience Chile, SA. Each year they, and their customers, have doubled their use.
Birds are a major problem. Each of the farms visited, from the northern region to the southern extremities of this belt, are surrounded by either the Andes or Coastal Mountains covered with scrub trees and shrubs rich in wildlife. As the crops mature birds flock out of the dry hills to the lush vineyards, orchards and fields moving from one to another as the crops ripen. Like growers throughout the world they have used every mechanical, electrical, pyrotechnic and human device known to mankind to rid themselves of the problem, all with little or no success.
Approximately 88,000 acres of table grapes, 22,000 acres of cherries, and 11,000 acres of blueberries are under production in the country. Each of the growers estimated that up until Bird Shield ® became available they lost between 12% and 15% of their crops each year. What the birds didn’t destroy they damaged and this fruit became a source of insect and disease infestation points that further decreased the value of their crops.
The growers are very innovative. Climatic conditions, as in all parts of the world, dictate how Bird Shield ® is used. Chile is no exception. In some regions where it is mild the repellent is used once at the beginning of the season.
In other regions, where the temperatures soar well past 90 0 in the bright sunlight, the repellent is applied weekly through the end of harvest. One table grape grower experienced three years of decreasing efficacy, he initially had treated 55 acres, then 660 acres and finally 1,100 acres. The Arysta field team investigated and found that the spray volatilized too quickly in the heat and failed to reach the plants. Now his crews spray throughout the night and the repellent effectively protects the fruit. Under these conditions the growers with vast acreages begin spraying in the evening and continue throughout the night when the temperatures are cooler so that more repellent reaches the crop.
Practices vary from grower to grower even within the same region. Some growers are finding that only one application is needed to move the birds out of the vineyards for a month or until the end of harvest. Others are using the repellent every week. The only difference – given the same varieties, topography, weather and growing practices – is philosophy. Some are willing to accept some loss while others will not tolerate any. All of the growers, however, use Bird Shield ® as an integral part of their management strategies. The growers know that the birds will attack. The best defense, they have found, is an inexpensive early application of the repellent.
Pesticides are generally applied with low volume and electrostatic sprayers. Water volumes vary from 15 gal/ac using the former to 10 gal/ac using the latter. None of the growers changed the configuration, size or spacing of their nozzles once they were set for the season. The amount of Bird Shield ® used per acre ranged from 0.33 gal to 0.75 gal.
Like any tool, Bird Shield ® has been adapted to fit their needs. Using the US label as a guide, Chilean growers have developed strategies, application rates and timing to fit their specific conditions. If Bird Shield ® didn’t work it would not have been used, nor would it continue to be used, with such success. The export values of these crops are too great for an alternative.
Working with Arysta LifeScience Chile, SA and their field team was very interesting. By the end of each day the teams were telling the growers the same thing that they had heard from the previous growers without having to translate the conversation. Later, in a discussion with the general manager, he said that the team did not fully understand what they had been selling, only that it worked. Now they knew how and why.
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