As the alfalfa hay harvest season wraps up and we get in gear to attend the November 2017 Western Alfalfa and Forage Symposium in Reno, NV, we're making the presentations and handouts from the 2017 Kearney Alfalfa and Forage Field Day available.

Click here to select presentations and handouts to download.

The Alfalfa and Forage Field Day was held this year on September 20, 2017, at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center (KAREC) in Parlier, CA. Activities during the half-day event included a tram tour of ongoing forage research projects followed by a few hours of classroom style presentations by UC Farm...

Last year many forage sorghum fields were heavily infested and damaged by Sugarcane Aphid (SCA) (Figure 1) – Melanaphis sacchari – feeding. Most calls came in around early July of 2016 with reports of aphids that were not well controlled using broad spectrum materials such as malathion, chlorpyrifos, or dimethoate. This triggered investigations which confirmed the invasion of the new species of aphid to California.

Based on field research and extension material from the US states in the South and Southwest, some basic guidelines for spotting, scouting, and treating SCA can be outlined for potential best management practices in our CA forage sorghum production system.

Identification:...

PCA's and field scouts, be on the lookout with your hand lenses this late fall for flea beetles in recently emerged small grains that are planted near forage sorghum fields. Check sorghum fields as well for these beetles if there are plants still standing and you expect a small grain crop to come up soon within that field or adjacent to it. Weeds may also be a transitional host for the beetle, so good weed control between crops and along field edges is important. The adult beetles are very small (1-3 mm long), are various in color patterns depending on the species, have enlarged hind leg femurs (upper part of hind leg), actively crawl on sorghum and small grains leaves, and will readily jump like a flea when disturbed. Still, the most...

Mark your calendar for Thursday September 5^th and plan to join fellow growers, PCAs, and seed and chemical company reps at our annual Alfalfa and Forage Field Day. Registration begins at 7:30 AM and trams will depart for the field portion of the meeting promptly at 7:50 AM.

In the field, participants will learn about alfalfa variety selection as a tool for managing pests and diseases, using alfalfa-grains rotations to get the most from nitrogen fixation, and how Roundup Ready® and conventional alfalfa hay fields coexist. Three presentations covering nitrogen utilization, variety selection, and irrigation strategies for sorghum are also scheduled.

Once the field visits are finished, we will...