Farm Food Safety: Farm Irrigation Waters, Animals, Previous Land Use

Part 9 of Preparing Your Farm Food Safety Plan

- Meredith Melendez and Wes Kline

This is the ninth article in a series dedicated to preparing a farm food safety plan. Remember you may not need a third party audit; it depends on who is purchasing your produce.  However, everyone should have a food safety plan.

The farm review is an overview of how you minimize the chance of contamination through irrigation waters, wild animals and past land use.  This can be as simple as three paragraphs, one focusing on irrigation waters, the next on wild animal activity on the farm and the last on the previous use of the land.  The following items should be included:

Irrigation waters

-          What is the source(s) of irrigation water used on the farm?

-          How do you irrigate your crops with these waters?

-          How often, when and what, do you test irrigation waters for to determine possible contaminants?

Beet armyworm increase in pheromone trap

We have seen a sharp, 8-fold increase in the number of beet armyworm moths (Spodoptera exigua) caught in the Hammonton area in the past couple of days.  Moth counts in other areas remain low, but this demonstrates how patchy insect populations may be and this patchiness is probably enhanced by the storm cells moving across the state.  Beet armyworm is a migratory pest and is brought in on weather fronts, especially from those coming in from the south and west.

Beet armyworm is a general plant feeder but seems to prefer solanaceous crops, especially peppers.  With a past history of insecticide resistance/tolerance, farmers must be vigilant not to let the populations build up in the field.







Joe Ingerson-Mahar