The European corn borer is one of the most damaging insects in Iowa cornfields, causing more than $100 million in crop losses each year. In this project, the sex attractant pheromone of the European corn borer was used to obstruct the ability of the adult male moths to locate females for mating. In the first year, efforts focused on mating disruption in a small area, while in the second year dispensers were deployed on a larger scale and evaluated for efficacy.

Smother plants are specialized cover crops developed for their ability to suppress weeds and may provide an alternative, non-chemical method of weed control. The goal of this project was to define the characteristics and mechanics of establishing a successful spring-seeded smother plant system and to study and exploit the competitive interactions among weeds, smother plants, and the crop.

Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose), introduced to America from Japan for ornamental pur­poses 200 years ago, was promoted in Iowa during the mid-1930s as a "living fence" that would help to conserve soil and provide cover for wildlife. Multiflora rose has since natural­ized, and today some two million acres of Iowa land are infested with this pest, which renders pastures unusable (dense stands exist in coun­ ties south of a line from West Pottawattamie through Winneshiek, affecting the southeast­ern two-thirds of the state). Cattle avoid the prickly stems, and grass dies beneath its thick growth. Although tillage can control the weed, land in permanent pasture or under the Conser­vation Reserve Program is at risk for the spread of multiflora rose.

Rose rosette disease is lethal to multiflora rose, a noxious weed occurring in pastureland in most of Iowa. The potential use of rose rosette disease as a biocontrol agent can be enhanced by grafting infected shoots onto plants in established stands (i.e., augmentation). However, questions arose about whether the disease could be spread to ornamental roses. This study probes the identity of the causal agent for the disease in hopes of determining whether fears of transmission to ornamental roses were valid.

Terracing is a soil conservation practice that has been promoted throughout the Midwest since the days of the Dust Bowl era. The benefits for controlling soil erosion are well-documented, but the values to wildlife are much less clear. This study documented the numbers and species of birds and small mammals as well as the number of small mammal dens in southwest Iowa terraces.

This project was part of a larger five-year, multi-phase research and demonstration effort to study water quality and agricultural drainage wells (ADWs). The goal was to evaluate the use of constructed wetlands for treatment of subsurface drainage prior to release to groundwater through ADWs and to develop design and operation criteria for these treatment wetlands.

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is a local food system in which farmers provide fresh food, fiber, and related products directly to the consumers in their area. The Field to Family Community Food Project began in 1997 and was intended to support the Magic Beanstalk CSA project by forming partnerships with other local organizations such as churches, social service organizations, Iowa State University, and other community groups.

Results from on-farm trials were analyzed to develop guidelines that will help farmers evaluate and improve their manure-N management, including utilizing swine manure as a cost-effective substitute for commercial fertilizer. The experimental methods included use of the late-spring test for soil nitrate and the end-of-season test for cornstalk nitrate to measure N availability at each research site.

Iowa farm operators were surveyed to learn what type and level of compensation they paid to full-time employees in 1997. The average total compensation paid was $26, 914, of which 79 percent consisted of cash wages.Benefits accounted for 18 percent of the compensation, and bonuses and wages in kind amounted to 3 percent.Housing and insurance plans were the most significant benefits provided

Selected herbs are known to naturally possess antibacterial and other characteristics that could be useful in animal protein production. Inclusion of these herbs in animal feeds as alternative growth promotion and efficiency stimulants may be able to address some of the current concerns about the possibility of significant antibiotic-resistant bacteria development that stems from drugs currently used at subtherapeutic levels in animal production. Several herbs were tested for their ability to aid animal growth rates and feed efficiency without giving rise to antibiotic-resistant microbes.