Educator Maire Ullrich, who consults on vegetable crops for Cornell Cooperative Extension, and farmer Jeff Kubecka of Kirkville, N.Y., have both won Excellence in IPM Awards from the New York State Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program at Cornell University.

Ullrich and Kubecka received their awards Feb. 13 at the New York State Fruit and Vegetable Expo in Syracuse, N.Y.

Ullrich works with about 80 vegetable growers in Orange County, known for its highly productive "black dirt" -- about 12,000 acres of soil, most of it still in farmland. One day, Ullrich may consult with a grower who is having trouble with black mold; another day she may hold a workshop for growers, showing that drainage ditches seeded with certain grasses actually don't, as once thought, provide a hiding place for tiny, destructive thrips insects, but instead help prevent erosion.

With each consultation, Ullrich teaches IPM methods that stress integrated, low-impact ways of managing pests. Growers who become research partners help her test and refine the best and safest ways to deal with pests in a real-world, profit-driven setting.

Kubecka first risked a field of sweet corn in 1995 while trying a new way of dealing with pests; he worried that if he didn't spray and got even one wormy ear of corn, a distributor might call a competitor.

"We went to harvest on that field and didn't have to spray once," Kubecka recalls. "I couldn't believe it ... But it worked, and that sealed the deal for me." Kubecka harvests about 16,000 bushels of sweet corn each year, along with various other vegetables on his 200-acre farm.

Kubecka's IPM methods include using pheromone traps and scouting for pests, crop rotation, soil sampling and cover crops, and setting up an on-farm weather station. By using IPM methods, most years Kubecka is able to cut pesticide use on sweet corn by 50 to 65 percent. He also contributes to an IPM network that alerts growers across the Northeast to where the pests are and when it's time to scout fields.