2019
Impact and Potential Control Measures for Vole Populations in No-Till Soybean Fields YEAR 1
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Contributor/Checkoff:
Kentucky Soybean Promotion Board
Category:
Sustainable Production
Keywords:
Biotic stressCrop protectionField management Pest
Parent Project:
This is the first year of this project.
Lead Principal Investigator:
Matthew Springer, University of Kentucky
Co-Principal Investigators:
Project Code:
Contributing Organization (Checkoff):
Kentucky Soybean Promotion Board
$37,870
Institution Funded:
University of Kentucky
$37,870
Brief Project Summary:

Cover crops have been implemented to help decrease loss of soil to erosion, improve soil quality, and act as a part of an integrated weed management strategy. Adoption rates have been high across the country but not without new problems arising for some producers. The act of planting crops and having vegetation present during winter months has created quality vole habitat within cover cropped fields. Unfortunately, little is understood about the extent of damage caused by voles or any techniques to limit or control vole populations within soybean fields. This issue is mostly related to restrictions associated with rodenticide application within production fields. An integrated pest management...

Unique Keywords:
#insects and pests
Information And Results
Project Deliverables

Objective 1: Survey soybean producers and fields across the state to estimate the amount of vole damage on soybean production and if there are certain types of cover crops that inherently have lower vole populations than average.
Results from surveys should help us understand the overall impact voles are having on soybean production within the main regions of Kentucky. Information on vole-caused replanting, loss in production, and occurrence of vole issues by acreage will all help us determine the severity of the vole issue. Preliminarily determining the role of different cover crops and how they correlate to vole damage will help inform future research in regards to selecting the types of cover crops to plant. This information may be an initial way for producers to help reduce vole populations and issues as we do not have any information related to this option at this time.

Objective 2: Evaluate three different pre-planting “burn down” application periods and their effect on vole populations and subsequent damage rates to emerging soybeans.
Previous research has shown “burn down” timing to be important for vole control within soybean fields (Hines 1993). Testing different timings of burn down while monitoring vole populations and movement related to cover crop vegetation will help us determine the importance of this potential vole control method. The results from this object will guide future recommendations to producers along with any needs for further research to help solve the vole problem for producers.

Objective 3: Determine how the three pre-planting burn down treatments affect weed populations and communities that may influence soybean production.
Results from this objective will help determine if there a decrease in weed control benefits from cover crops due to the different burn down treatments. We need to ensure that any methods used to control vole damage are not countered by a potential proliferation of weeds and poor soybean establishment.

Final Project Results

The United Soybean Research Retention policy will display final reports with the project once completed but working files will be purged after three years. And financial information after seven years. All pertinent information is in the final report or if you want more information, please contact the project lead at your state soybean organization or principal investigator listed on the project.