- Author: Steve Orloff
Alfalfa is an excellent competitor with weeds. In fact, there is no better weed control method than a dense stand of alfalfa. However, even with a good stand, some weeds can get a foothold and infest the crop reducing its marketability. Most growers have an effective program to control winter annual weeds with a dormant season herbicide application. When it comes to summer annual weeds, grasses, such as green and yellow foxtail and barnyardgrass (also called watergrass), have historically been the most troublesome. While these weeds continue to be a major issue, there also appears to be an increase in pigweeds (both redroot and Palmer amaranth) in many areas of the state including the Central Valley, Intermountain Region and High...
- Author: Michelle Leinfelder-Miles
Last month, I made a couple farm calls in the Delta to help with questions regarding soil, water, salinity, and compaction. The first was to an alfalfa field along the Sacramento River, near Rio Vista. The growers had been monitoring the Department of Water Resources salinity data for the river from a station near their intake. The salinity of the water was fluctuating heavily with the tide. The electrical conductivity (EC) was sometimes higher than 5 dS/m, or 3200 ppm, but other times it was lower than 0.5 dS/m, or 320 ppm. The growers use sprinkler irrigation, and they were worried that irrigating with this water would harm the alfalfa crop, or worse,...
- Author: Shannon C. Mueller
I copied this article from our Fresno County Farm Bureau newsletter. I wasn't aware of this resource and thought I'd share.
For many years, Farm Service Agency's (FSA) Hay Net website,
- Author: Daniel H Putnam
Folks, it's easy to be cynical about our democracy and the gridlock in Washington – but at some level we know our government is only as good as we are as citizens.
Case in point: whether APHIS (The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) should approve the de-regulation of a new Genetically-Engineered (GE) trait in alfalfa. This trait is currently in field testing, and should be released in 2016.
Now pending your comment. Due June 30.
Low Lignin Alfalfa may have the potential for higher quality,as well as more flexibility in harvest scheduling.
YOU are the alfalfa people, and should have the greatest interest in this...
- Author: Daniel H Putnam
Each day it's important to value the folks around you.
This week, Dr. Larry Teuber passed away after a long courageous battle with cancer. Larry started as an Assistant Professor in at UC Davis on December 7, 1977 and his appointment continued until his last day. He had his boots on. He was the alfalfa breeder and geneticist for alfalfa at UC Davis, and director of the California Crop Improvement Association.
Larry was instrumental in contributing to the plant breeding of alfalfa, having released numerous key non-dormant alfalfa germplasm sources which have been used by private companies, and, more recently, several widely-grown alfalfa varieties: UC Impalo WF and UC...