Here's information on the Medusahead and Barb Goat Grass Forum that will be held on November 5, 2013, at the UC Sierra Foothill Research & Extension Center (SFREC) in Browns Valley, CA. THIS IS A FREE EVENT to discuss the research and management strategies of medusahead and barb goatgrass. Researchers,  university faculty, conservation professionals, or other land managers interested in these invasive rangeland species are encouraged to attend.

More details are on the SFREC blog post and registration is available through the SFREC website.

With apologies to Deborah Rabinowitz. (Seven Forms of Rarity, 1981)

There are many different ways of being a pest. Some of the easiest ways are to use large bulldozers next to an office building, or have a computer virus send spam to every person on earth with an email address. How classifying pests relates to weed management is relatively straightforward.

What I specifically mean is how many different types of weeds are there? Not the individual species but the general ways of being a weed. There are surprisingly only a few ways a weed can be a pest. There are infinite details (similar to being infinitely pestered) to add to the general framework that in sum makes every species unique. The...

Cover crops have been/are being used as organic mulches in crop production systems in order to increase soil organic matter, improve soil structure, conserve water and reduce erosion. Cover crops can also suppress weeds by serving as a physical barrier to seedling emergence, inhibiting seed germination via reduced light transmittance, through the release of allelopathic chemicals, and by preventing herbicide loss. 

Attached is a video from the University of Georgia describing how to mange and roll rye (not ryegrass) for Palmer amaranth control in a cotton conservation-tillage system. Although much of the information (i.e. herbicide recommendations) may seem specific to the eastern coastal plain, the clip does provide a...