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Impact Report

For plan Commercial Vegetable Production
Date January 6, 2010, 8:55 pm
For Objective Short-term Show short-term objectives
Impact Report -Conducted the fifth annual ‘Sustainable Agriculture Workshop’ in Las Cruces, NM on December 9, 2008 with the cooperation of Jeff Anderson, County Extension Agent and sponsored by WSARE. The program was developed to introduce and enforce concepts in integrated pest management, a key educational need for agricultural professionals as indicated by the 2004 WSARE survey of New Mexico. -Conducted the Chile Field Day in Pearce, AZ on September 25, 2009. Coordinated the educational program, including speakers from NMSU, Univ. of AZ, and Texas A&M. This event increased awareness of the New Mexican chile industry, and also served to showcase chile field research projects. -Conducted the NM Chile Conference on Feb 8, 2008. Served as co-chair and assisted in coordination of topics and speakers. -Chaired and coordinated the Chile Mechanization Working group. This committee is composed of chile breeders, growers, industry reps, and agricultural engineers. The group continues to collaborate and plan research towards the successful mechanization of green, red, and cayenne chile peppers. -Coordinated the red chile and paprika breeding program. Continued efforts to breed high yielding, highly pigmented chile varieties suitable for machine harvest. This long-term program increases profitability for chile growers in the state by providing higher yield and quality red chile varieties. Machine harvest adaptation will increase competitiveness for growers in the state, and reduce the labor requirements for production. -Conducted chloropicrin fumigation trials to investigate possible tools for increasing chile yields in the southwest. The project was carried out in cooperation with Mark Uchanski, growers, and with support from the Chile Yield Initiative group in Pearce, AZ and Deming, NM. Trials in Pearce were replicated comparisons of Pic Plus and PicChlor60, both at high and low concentrations along with untreated control plots. The Deming trial was an observational test with a high rate of Tri-Clor EC versus untreated in a drip irrigated field. Worked with the NMDA to obtain an experimental use permit for the Tri-Clor EC (NM-EUP-09-002). -Coordinated a series of observational trials around the southwest of different mechanical harvesters in green chile to gauge relative efficiency of various machine types. Chile growers and industry representatives were invited to attend the demonstrations. Harvester machines included the Elite Creager-type (Willcox, AZ), the Pik Rite w/ Texas head (Portales, NM), the Yung-Etgar inclined helix (Las Cruces, NM) and the Massey finger-type (Deming, NM). -Conducted a green chile mechanical harvest trial to determine preferred plant-type and variety for use in mechanical harvest. The test was conducted at the Leyendecker Plant Science Research Center and was run in cooperation with agricultural engineers at the USDA-ARS Cotton Ginning Laboratory. Five different green chile varieties were evaluated for plant and fruit attributes and relative mechanically harvested yield and quality. Made special arrangements to borrow the Yung-Etgar harvester machine from Shane Franzoy.