- Author: Steve Orloff
- Posted by: Gale Perez
From the Alfalfa & Forage News blog :: Feb. 18, 2013
Dodder is a troublesome annual parasitic weed that infests alfalfa fields. Initial infestations are usually caused by sowing dodder infested seed (a good reason to purchase Certified seed) and by “sheeping off” fields with sheep that came from an infested field. Perhaps no weed problem is worse than an alfalfa field heavily infested with dodder. As a parasite, it lives at the expense of the alfalfa plant and literally sucks the vigor and life out of the plant. If left uncontrolled it can actually kill the alfalfa plant. It emerges as a rootless shoot and must...
- Author: Michelle Leinfelder-Miles
- Posted by: Gale Perez
From the Alfalfa & Forage News blog :: Oct. 25, 2013
Written by Michelle Leinfelder-Miles
At the Alfalfa and Forage Meeting held at the Kearney Agricultural Center in September, we provided a demonstration of the co-existence of Roundup Ready® (RR) and conventional alfalfa hay fields. The demonstration took place between two hay fields – one of them RR and the other conventional – that were in their third year of production and separated only by a one-lane dirt...
- Author: Brad Hanson
Today, instead of posting something about weed control and herbicide resistance in orchards and vineyards, I thought I'd go out on a limb and discuss weed management and herbicide resistance in... alfalfa! (Yes, it gets a little wild around the holidays at UC Weed Science...)
Anyway, while working on some articles for an upcoming volume of the California Weed Science Society Journal (CWSSJ), I was reminded of a really nice UCANR publication "Avoiding Weed Shifts and Weed Resistance in Roundup Ready Alfalfa Systems" by S....
- Author: Steve Orloff
Many growers have good intentions when it comes to controlling weeds in seedling alfalfa but often fields end up being treated beyond the optimum window. Proper application timing is critical for successful weed control in seedling alfalfa. Not only do weeds reduce the nutritional quality of the alfalfa and reduce alfalfa vigor, but weeds in seedling alfalfa can affect stand density potentially resulting in reduced alfalfa yield over the life of the stand. When herbicides are applied late, weed control can be improved somewhat by increasing the herbicide rate, but that is costly and often increases the potential for alfalfa injury.
In order to get the “most bang for your buck”, treat seedling alfalfa...
- Author: Jeannette Warnert
- Posted by: Gale Perez
During the 2000s, organic milk production was one of the fastest growing segments of organic agriculture in the United States, according to a USDA Economic Research Service publication Characteristics, Costs, and Issues for Organic Dairy Farming. In 2008, about 3 percent of the nation's cows were managed organically.
Among the conditions necessary for a cow to produce organic milk, she must eat only organic feed or browse on organic pasture for at least the previous 36 months. However, dairy producers have found that producing or sourcing organic feed – which must be grown without synthetic fertilizers, insecticides or herbicides – is...