SEGMENT: CHANGES IN ENVIRONMENT & PESTS
Stephen Black>ISM Interviews A-L>ISM Interviews A-L, Segment 4
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- RETIREMENT
- He came back to work but not live on the farm after retirement. Wife still works near St. Louis. It's fun to work the farm, live the tradition.
- CHANGES IN ENVIRONMENT
- Shows a map of early 1800s vegetation in Greene County. Farms corn and soybeans now. When he was growing up, there were hedgerows everywhere. They are all gone. Cropping patterns are changed. Livestock is gone - land too valuable. Years ago, fields in fall were all plowed up. Now its all stalks and debris, less plowing.
- PESTS
- Back in the 50s, you got army worms and sprayed from the air. If you rotated crops, had fewer insects. Worse today. In the last five years, we use triple stack corn is genetically modified that are resistant to corn borers and root worms. Round-Up ready corn allows weed control after planting. Never had damage from Japanese beetles and soybean aphids.
