A soy farmer from Iowa had the opportunity to share ASA’s message and his own personal story on the value of neonicotinoids to soybean production last week.

ASA Chairman Ray Gaesser, Corning, Iowa, presented at the 8th annual Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Symposium in Salt Lake City, Utah. Gaesser was invited to speak at the week-long event by Syngenta. He joined five other speakers who shared their personal experiences with researchers, government agencies, non-governmental organizations and media from around across the globe in a break-out session attended by 65 people.

“Neonic seed treatments help us manage bean leaf beetles on our farm,” said Gaesser, who has had leaf beetles on his farm since 1994. “We found that that if we could control the over wintering beetles before they laid their eggs, we could manage them pretty well all season. Neonicotinoid seed treatment for our soybean seeds gives us very good season long management of our bean leaf beetle problem, not only managing the leaf and pod feeding that they do but also minimizing the soybean mosaic and pod mottle virus that they spread throughout the soybean plants through their feeding.”

Gaesser added that the breakout session team also felt that it was important for the audience to hear that 98 percent of U.S. farms are family farms and use IPM techniques to determine best management practice. They don’t just randomly use pesticides

Only 30 percent of U.S. soybean seeds are treated with neonicotinoids—but they are vital to soybean production.

During the symposium, John Haynes, a farmer from the United Kingdom, shared that since the ban on neonicotinoid use, he has had significant pressure and damage to his oilseed rape crop from flea beetles. He estimated a need to spray six times to control the flea beetles without neonic seed treatment.

Paul Mitchell, Wisconsin Ag applied economics, pointed out that without neonicotinoids, pyrethroid use would need to triple; organophosphate use would almost triple; and U.S. application cost would increase $157 million.

Mitchell added the total neonic value in the US. $4.3 billion and there are essentially no non-neonicotinoid seed treatment options for soybeans or wheat.

Gaesser said the audience raised questions regarding studies on the potential of insect resistance and how farmers use IPM in their decision process.