Abstract

TracApple and TracGrape software enable fruit farmers to easily maintain and report accurate crop protection records vital to their market edge when increasingly competitive global markets demand detailed pesticide records and product traceability critical to their integrated pest management practices, especially when faced with pest or disease control failures and severe outbreaks.

Issue

Fruit farmers face increasing need to produce crop protection and production records on demand. Pesticide records are required by the Environmental Protection Agency Worker Protection Standard (EPA-WPS), the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), processors, marketers, etc. and each has a different reporting form, required either by law or to market the crop. This necessitates that farmers fill out several different forms when marketing their crop, making record-keeping an unnecessarily burdensome task. In an expanding and increasingly competitive global market, farmers with the ability to produce detailed crop production records, including pesticide spray records, will have a competitive edge. As more consumers actively seek products with eco-labels, those grown without pesticides, those produced in an environmentally sound manner, or those produced under sustainable practices, the onus will be on the farmer, processor, and marketer to show auditors that such practices were indeed used. Furthermore, accurate crop protection and production records are critically important to the farmer, particularly when pest or disease control failures or severe outbreaks occur. Computerized records would allow farmers to easily search and judge pest management practices in light of such pest control failures or severe pest pressure.

Response

The apple farmers requested that record-keeping software be developed to generate the various pesticide spray record forms required by processors, buyers, and brokers, to aid in their record-keeping and market access requirements. The grape juice processors requested that similar software be developed for their grape farmers. Funds were secured from several sources to support software development in Microsoft Excel, a common spreadsheet program. In 2003, TracApple software was released for beta testing and in 2004 TracGrape software was released. A software license agreement was prepared and the software was copyrighted by Cornell University. Canandaigua Wine distributed 165 copies of the software to grape farmers they have contracts with. Each year the software is revised with pesticide registration updates and software improvements. Farmers using Trac software enter their data once and it automatically fills out the report forms of all the major apple and grape processors and buyers in the Northeast. Very simply, the user fills in the blanks on data entry worksheets. Trac software has drop-down lists for pesticides and pests, saving time and preventing typographical errors. The software also generates drop-down lists specific to the user's farm business. When a pesticide trade name is selected from the drop down list the program automatically fills in the EPA registration number, restricted entry interval, pre-harvest interval, and calculates the earliest harvest date.

Impact

The apple farmers requested that record-keeping software be developed to generate the various pesticide spray record forms required by processors, buyers, and brokers, to aid in their record-keeping and market access requirements. The grape juice processors requested that similar software be developed for their grape farmers. Funds were secured from several sources to support software development in Microsoft Excel, a common spreadsheet program. In 2003, TracApple software was released for beta testing and in 2004 TracGrape software was released. A software license agreement was prepared and the software was copyrighted by Cornell University. Canandaigua Wine distributed 165 copies of the software to grape farmers they have contracts with. Each year the software is revised with pesticide registration updates and software improvements. Farmers using Trac software enter their data once and it automatically fills out the report forms of all the major apple and grape processors and buyers in the Northeast. Very simply, the user fills in the blanks on data entry worksheets. Trac software has dropdown lists for pesticides and pests, saving time and preventing typographical errors. The software also generates dropdown lists specific to the user's farm business. When a pesticide trade name is selected from the dropdown list, the program automatically fills in the EPA registration number, restricted entry interval, pre-harvest interval, and calculates the earliest harvest date.

Funding Sources

• Private (e.g., commodity groups, foundations, companies)
• State or Municipal (e.g., NYSDAM)
• Other USDA (e.g., Water Quality, Special Grants, NRI)

Collaborators

• Cornell Cooperative Extension (Lake Ontario Fruit Program, Hudson Valley Commercial Fruit Program, Northeastern New York Commercial Fruit Program, Lake Erie Regional Grape Program, Finger Lakes Grape Program, Suffolk County Cornell Cooperative Extension)
• Department of Entomology, Geneva
• Department of Plant Pathology, Geneva
• Department of Horticultural Sciences, Geneva
• Cornell Pesticide Management Education Program
• Communication Services, Geneva
• LaBarge Media
• Cornell Information Technologies
• Cornell Research Foundation
• Office of University Counsel, Cornell
• Apple Processors and Storages (Motts Inc., Yonder Farms Fruit Distributors, Birds Eye Foods, Bucolo Cold Storage, Champlain Valley Apple Storage, Pavero, Ultimate Juice, Beechnut, Knouse Foods)
• Grape Juice Processors (Canandaigua Wine, Cliffstar Corporation and Westfield Maid, National Grape Cooperative, Carriage House Co., Inc., Growers Cooperative Grape Juice Co., Meier's Wine Cellars, Inc., Mogen David Wine Co.)

Key Personnel

• Juliet E. Carroll, New York State Integrated Pest Management Program, Cornell
• Judith A. Nedrow, New York State Integrated Pest Management Program, Cornell University
• Cheryl N. TenEyck, New York State Integrated Pest Management Program, Cornell University, Geneva, New York
• Timothy H. Weigle, New York State Integrated Pest Management Program, Cornell University, Vineyard Laboratory, Fredonia, New York