Agriculture

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Molecular geneticist-physiologist Joanna Chiu, chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology
Entomology & Nematology News: Article

Joanna Chiu: New Chair of UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology

July 1, 2023
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Molecular geneticist-physiologist Joanna Chiu, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is the newly appointed chair of the department, serving a five-year term effective July 1, 2023. She succeeds Steve Nadler, the department chair since Jan. 1, 2016.
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Diversified Hanford, CA farmer, Eddie Sajian is featured in upcoming documentary video on innovative reduced disturbance production
Conservation Agriculture: Article

Documentary video on no-tillage in California being prepared

July 1, 2023
By Jeffrey P Mitchell
Documentary video on no-tillage in California being prepared July 1, 2023 A video documentary featuring five of the CA and AZ farmers who have been part of the USDA NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant project, "No-till network for California," is in the final stages of production and will be released...
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Slide of soil health test kit materials given to network farmer participants CIG NRCS State No-till 2022
Conservation Agriculture: Article

Soil health monitoring conducted at SJV reduced disturbance and cover cropped fields!

July 1, 2023
By Jeffrey P Mitchell
Soil health monitoring conducted at SJV reduced disturbance and cover cropped fields! As part of the USDA NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant, Creating a no-till network in California, extensive baseline soil sampling has now been done at several San Joaquin Valley farms that are employing the soil h...
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A caterpillar featured on the Bug Squad blog's pictorial series that won an international award. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Communicators Win International Awards

June 30, 2023
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Congrats to the University of California recipients of awards from the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE), an international association of communicators, educators and information technologists who focus on communicating research-based information.
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Capture Woolf cutter February 2, 2022

Strip-till cover crop tomato crop trialed in Huron, CA, February 2, 2022

June 30, 2023
By Jeffrey P Mitchell
Strip-till cover crop tomato crop trialed in Huron, CA, February 2, 2022 A unique - dare we say - "never before attempted in the region," effort to precede strip-tilled tomatoes with a mowed vigorous winter cover crop was conducted in one of the fieldsofWoolf Enterprises, a major tomato and other ro...
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fire ant holes
Topics in Subtropics: Article

New Avocado Pest

June 28, 2023
By Ben A Faber
Red imported fire ant (RIFA), Solenopsis invicta, has been reported as a pest in Florida where the fire ants girdle young citrus trees (Diepenbrock) https://crec.ifas.ufl.edu/media/crecifasufledu/extension/extension-publications/2021/2021_jan_fireant.
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"Open up!" A honey bee attempts to enter a California golden poppy. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Sorry, Bee, I'm Closed for Bees-Ness

June 22, 2023
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
A honey bee heads for a patch of California golden poppies. She finds a blossom she likes. Bee: "Hey, Goldie Locks, I'm here to collect some nectar and pollen." Goldie Locks: "You're what?" Bee: "I want to collect some of your nectar and pollen.
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Remnants of the 40 bee colonies destroyed when a truck driver, under cover of darkness, deliberately drove over them last week in Winters. They belonged to Caroline Yelle, owner of Pope Valley Queens.

Who Deliberately Runs Over Bee Hives?

June 21, 2023
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Sometimes you hear about bored teenagers trashing bee hives by deliberately throwing rocks at them or gleefully tipping them over. But a truck driver who deliberately plows through a bee yard on private property and crushes 40 colonies? That's unreal.
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