Recently approved repellent could help protect crop
Farmers get help against cranes
By Kristopher Wenn
Herald Times Reporter
March 20, 2007
MANITOWOC — Larry Krepline will be ready for the sandhill cranes come planting season this spring.
Krepline, owner of Krepline Farms LLC in Reedsville, located a few miles northwest of the Collins Marsh State Wildlife Area, tried for years to protect his corn crop from the migratory cranes, which nest at the marsh and wander onto his farm fields to methodically pluck out his planted seeds. He even asked the state Department of Natural Resources for help.
"They gave us some pyrotechnics to shoot them, but the birds realized that it wasn't harmful and would come back in two to three weeks," said Krepline, who lost between 25 percent and 75 percent of his crop to cranes over the last six years. "We tried it because the seed was already in the ground and we couldn't do anything about it … could you stand there all day long shooting them with your cap gun?"
But Krepline had better results last year by using Avitec, a nonlethal repellent recently approved for temporary use again this year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Sandhill cranes have steadily recovered in numbers under the observation of conservationists, and to the consternation of farmers who have battled with the bird over corn crops.
The economic cost of lost corn crops due to the cranes could range from $28 million to $100 million, according to the International Crane Foundation (ICF), a conservation group based in Baraboo that helped with the development of Avitec.
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