UC Weed Science (weed control, management, ecology, and minutia)

Abstract: Cheatgrass and its cousin, red brome, are exotic annual grasses that have invaded and altered ecosystem dynamics in more than 41 million acres of desert shrublands between the Rockies and the Cascade-Sierra chain.

I recently ran across a report published by Crop Life International (a federation of plant science industry companies) on the cost of getting a "biotech" crop variety to market.

The development of improved cultivation technology for row crop production has been an active area of research, and has made significant progress in recent years. Currently, standard cultivation removes weeds from the majority of the bed using sweeps, knives, coulters and blades.

For the past 12 years, county-based Weed Management Areas (WMA) have organized and collaborated to detect, map and treat invasive weeds around the state.

Last Thursday (July 19th) was the 56th annual UC Weed Day at the Davis campus. We had a really good turnout again this year with just under 150 participants including weed science researchers, students, farmers, land managers, pest consultants, and government agency people in attendance.