{"id":72375,"date":"2016-08-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-research-aims-to-help-keep-sweet-corn-eating-birds-from-farmers-fields\/"},"modified":"2023-01-23T20:38:05","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T20:38:05","slug":"uri-research-aims-to-help-keep-sweet-corn-eating-birds-from-farmers-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2016\/08\/uri-research-aims-to-help-keep-sweet-corn-eating-birds-from-farmers-fields\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 research aims to help keep sweet corn-eating birds from farmers\u2019 fields"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 August 29, 2016 \u2013 Large flocks of starlings and blackbirds are voracious consumers of sweet corn, costing local farmers as much as $800 per acre in lost product. And this year is turning out to be a particularly bad year for bird damage.<\/p>\n

But the most effective and economical strategy farmers have used to scare the birds away \u2013 propane-powered cannons that make a loud booming sound at random intervals \u2013 are not especially popular with neighbors, many of whom complain about the noise. So the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management asked a 溏心vlog免费B站 researcher to investigate alternatives.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Brown, a 溏心vlog免费B站 professor of plant sciences and an expert on growing vegetables, said the problem of bird damage in commercial corn fields is a serious one.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlocking birds can cause an enormous amount of damage to sweet corn,\u201d she said. \u201cThey get in there and shred the husks and eat the kernels, and then the farmers can\u2019t sell it. Some birds have even figured out that if they follow the picking crews, they\u2019ll get the best corn at the best time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to propane cannons, some farmers have tried tying reflective tape or balloons throughout their fields to frighten the birds or used spray-on bird repellents. But neither is cost effective.<\/p>\n

So Brown began by investigating a practice called topping, which some advocates claim is effective. The practice involves cutting off the top of the plant after it sheds its pollen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is that it stops the birds from damaging the corn because it significantly reduces the amount of cover they have in the fields,\u201d Brown explained. \u201cSo instead of having five or six leaves over the bird while it\u2019s sitting on an ear and eating, there\u2019s only one. It supposedly makes the birds more vulnerable to hawks and other predators, reducing damage to the corn.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t appear to be the answer farmers were hoping. While Brown has little data suggesting that the practice is effective at reducing damage, her studies found that it reduces the yield of corn from each acre while requiring a great deal of labor \u2013 or a very expensive and specialized tractor \u2013 to implement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat added cost and reduced yield, which also means a reduced income, means it\u2019s not worthwhile,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An ear of corn in 溏心vlog免费B站’s cornfield that has been pecked by birds.(Photo by Nora Lewis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next Brown turned to the use of green lasers in place of cannons to scare the birds. She built a prototype using a commercial laser pointer for less than $200 that she hooked to a digital module and programmed to shine the light beam across the field in different patterns. So far, it seems to be working, and it doesn\u2019t harm the birds.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirds are much more sensitive to green light than we are,\u201d she said. \u201cSo even if you can\u2019t see the light beam, the birds can. And birds are particularly sensitive to moving light. Their chief predator comes after them from above. So when they see that flash of light, the birds wonder whether it\u2019s just a flash of light or a hawk. They don\u2019t want to stick around to find out, so they clear out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some commercial growers of sweet corn in Rhode Island have purchased high-powered laser systems for as much as $2,600 that can cover an area of 15 acres, and Brown said they are happy with the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still trying to get data on how effectively it keeps the birds away, but it looks promising,\u201d Brown said. \u201cOne of the hard parts of getting data is that the growers want to protect all of their corn, so getting them to do a control plot with no protection is difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

She plans to conduct one more year of tests using a green laser to confirm the results of this year\u2019s preliminary study.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never heard of anyone using a laser before late last summer, so this has been our first preliminary study,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHopefully next year we\u2019ll be able to say that we\u2019ve solved the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 August 29, 2016 \u2013 Large flocks of starlings and blackbirds are voracious consumers of sweet corn, costing local farmers as much as $800 per acre in lost product. And this year is turning out to be a particularly bad year for bird damage. But the most effective and economical strategy farmers have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-72375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82769,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72375\/revisions\/82769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}