Apr 17, 2015CPS donates crop protection products to MSU
Crop Production Services has donated $3,000 worth of fungicide and adjuvant products to Michigan State University (MSU), a donation made in conjunction with the Michigan Tree Fruit Commission.
The donation – 25 30-pound bags of Roper fungicide and two cases each of the adjuvants Choice and LI 700 – was made at the CPS office in Sparta, Michigan. The products will be used at the research orchards near MSU’s main campus in East Lansing, where MSU Professor George Sundin studies diseases like apple scab and fire blight on about 12 acres of apple and cherry trees. Some of the donated product will be used in experiments, some to maintain the orchards from year to year, he said.
“This is very critical for us,” Sundin said. “Fungicides are very expensive, and this will really help us out quite a bit.”
CPS made the donation in partnership with the tree fruit commission, which was established last year to help MSU maintain the infrastructure of its fruit research stations. More donations are coming, said Allyn Anthony, executive secretary of the Michigan State Horticultural Society and one of the executives who manage the commission.
The commission is another tool in the hands of Michigan fruit growers to help MSU, which benefits the industry with its fruit research programs, said Jim Engelsma, a CPS crop consultant and tree fruit commission board member.