A PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF LABOR PRODUCTIVITY IN GRADING 

 AND PACKING MCINTOSH APPLES GROWN UNDER INTEGRATED PEST 



MANAGEMENT CONDITIONS 



Henry M. Bahn 

 Extension Specialist in Farm Management 

 Department of Food and Resource Economics 

 University o£ Massachusetts, Amherst 



In 1978 a pilot program o£ integrated management for apple 

 pests was initiated in Massachusetts. Developed by the Coopera- 

 tive Extension Service and Departments of Entomology and Plant 

 Pathology, the program was designed to reduce pesticide usage 

 while maintaining high quality fruit production. Selective pest 

 management may result in lower production costs for pesticides, 

 equipment and labor but may also result in higher grading and pack- 

 ing costs and less marketable fruit due to increased damage levels. 



The 1979 summary for the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) pro- 

 gram cited net benefits to the participating producers. It is un- 

 clear, however, whether changes in insect and disease damage levels 

 as a result of incorporating IPM growing methods will affect grading 

 and packing costs. Studies in Michigan, the Appalachian area, and 

 Washington State have all indicated that quality of fruit is a major 

 influence on grading and sorting costs. 



Because the hand packing method is specific to the Northeast, 

 a thorough packing cost analysis should be undertaken. V/e plan to 

 undertake such a study in Spring, 1980. Meanwhile, preliminary 

 applied study of the relationship between damaged fruit and grading/ 

 packing costs was completed in Spring, 1979. By monitoring and 

 comparing the actual packing time requirements for Mcintosh apples 

 grown under IPM and conventional practices, some measurement of 

 differences in labor productivity in grading and handling was est- 

 abl ished. 



Yields and size of fruit produced have not been found to be 

 significantly affected by growing under IPM methods. The major 

 difference between IPM and conventional practices is expected to 

 be in the quality of harvested fruit, i.e., levels of insect and 

 disease damage. For the Massachusetts IPM pilot study, comparative 

 data are not available for disease damage levels, but insect damage 

 was reduced from 4.721 in the controls to 2.64% in the IPM samples. 

 This reduction was not expected but it should be noted that this 

 finding is based on only one year's data and a relatively small 

 sample . 



Methods and Procedures 



To compare IPM versus conventional fruit packing costs and 

 labor productivity, several orchards which participated in the 1978 

 IPM pilot program were sampled during IPM and conventional packing 

 operations. The quantity of orchard run apples handled, culls 



