- Author: Trina Kleist
- Contributor: Mike Hsu
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Linquist, Al-Khatib and teams discuss new varieties, pests, possibilities
New varieties of rice that offer more effective weed control with less herbicide were showcased by UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences researchers at the recent Rice Field Day north of Yuba City in California's Central Valley. Amid the West's ongoing drought, green rice with heads full of grain stood tall and lush in some test plots, while dry, brown stubble poked up in others. Department researchers discussed the impact of letting ricelands go fallow, including potential for pest control and ways to conserve soil moisture.
Rice grows in fields flooded with water, but this third year of drought has forced the state's farmers to leave fallow half of the approximately 500,000 acres typically dedicated to the grain, said Bruce Linquist, a professor of Cooperative Extension. That's up from 93,000 acres fallowed in 2021, according to figures from the state Department of Food and Agriculture. That year, California rice farmers saw more than $905 million in rice sales, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Climate change, caused largely by people's use of fossil fuels, is making droughts more common and more severe in the American West and around the world.
Among other projects, Linquist and team are exploring the impacts of letting fields go fallow and whether farmers can go without tilling in the following season. By not tilling, farmers can conserve moisture in the ground, reduce tillage costs and plant sooner, the researchers have found. Other experiments comparing the use of nitrogen fertilizer and the possibilities for conserving water will continue next year, Linquist added.
Video -- With rice growers seeing thousands of acres go idle due to drought, UC Davis Cooperative Extension Specialist Bruce Linquist are conducting research to help them navigate this water scarce environment.
New herbicides tested to reduce resistant weeds
TVE29 is one of several new herbicides being tested in response. Developed by FMC Corp., based in Philadelphia, the herbicide has proven effective in the field for controlling a range of resistant weeds, said Kassim Al-Khatib, the Melvin D. Androus Endowed Professor for Weed Science.
“It's probably the best herbicide we've ever tested,” Al-Khatib added. The product is going through the process of approval for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and it could become available to growers in a few years, he said.
Researchers also found TVE29 and other new herbicides work effectively in combination with existing products, with variations depending on local conditions. Al-Khatib encouraged the growers present during Field Day to apply herbicides at the right time for each product, and to use different herbicides in the course of the growing season, to avoid breeding herbicide-resistant weeds.
Handout -- Details of the herbicide trials can be found in the handout given to Field Day participants.
Video -- Weed Science professor Kassim Al-Khatib explains challenges of weed control in rice and herbicide resistance, before discussing efficacy of various herbicide programs in trials.
Lovely aroma, long grains, armyworms and more
Other researchers covered a wide variety of topics, including new varieties of basmati, jasmine, sushi, long- and short-grain, risotto and Calrose rice; control of weedy red rice, rice seed midge, tadpole shrimp, armyworm, stem rot, blast and other problems; and using wireless smart technology to detect problems in storage.
Video -- UC Cooperative Extension Advisor Whitney Brim-DeForest explains weedy rice and shares that results are coming next year on experiments at Davis looking at fallowing vs. managed fallowing to control this damaging weed for rice.
Video -- Illustrating different types of weedy rice
The Rice Field Day program (PDF) offers details of these and more research projects.
Related links
Find more information and resources about rice research in California at the UC Agronomy and Research Information Center for rice.
Media resource: Trina Kleist [tkleist@ucdavis.edu, (530) 754-6148 or (530) 601-6846]
Original source: UC Davis Dept. of Plant Sciences website
Thanks to Mike Hsu and UC ANR for providing the videos.
- Author: Trina Kleist
- Posted by: Gale Perez
'Herbicide Injury" tutorial builds on popular website
A cartoon character that looks suspiciously like a Department of Plant Sciences professor leads an animated, online tutorial that recently won a 2022 Gold Award from the Association for Communication Excellence. UC Davis weed experts Kassim Al-Khatib and Brad Hanson worked with the University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program to create “Diagnosing Herbicide Injury,” which debuted in October 2021 on Extension Foundation Campus.
The free, self-guided course explains how herbicides may – or may not – be the culprits behind plant maladies. The cartoon guide walks viewers through interactive slides describing common herbicide-related problems, their diagnoses and solutions; short quizzes solidify the viewer's knowledge at the end of each module. The course fulfills continuing education credits for several institutions; those who complete the course can get a certificate for a small fee.
“This project builds on previous work in which I developed an interactive website to help people investigating herbicide injury symptoms,” said Al-Khatib, the Melvin D. Androus Endowed Professor for Weed Science. The website, built in 2015 by programmer Chinh Lam of UC's Integrated Pest Management program, offers 1,500 photographs showing herbicide injuries in more than 150 crop and ornamental plants. Such problems often are caused by incorrect application, drift and carry-over from a previous crop. Visitors can look for information by crop, herbicide, chemistry, mode of action and how symptoms appear. Each year, Al-Khatib adds hundreds of new images.
“As Extension weed scientists, we often get questions about herbicide injury,” added Hanson, a professor of UC Cooperative Extension. “If you suspect an herbicide and want to find out what the injury symptoms look like, this is a really useful website.”
Al-Khatib's site proved widely popular in the agricultural community. That lead to a handful of in-person short courses the two professors offered through the UC Weed Research and Information Center, focusing on symptoms that appear in the field.
Separately, beginning in 2016, the information technology people at UC IPM were starting to put their collection of in-person courses online. They were experimenting with different formats to make online learning more attractive, said team member Petr Kosina, who developed the award-winning video. “My vision was, we needed to make the online courses more interactive, more entertaining and more engaging,” said Kosina, a plant biologist with a degree in instructional design.
Video course has ‘thousands' of potential viewers
The gold-winning video is among more than two dozen courses the UC IPM team has put online in recent years. Other team members involved in the course's development were Kimberly Steinmann, Cheryl Reynolds and Tunyalee Martin.
Programmer Chinh Lam, left, of UC's Integrated Pest Management program, built the original website about herbicide injuries. Petr Kosina, center, and Tunyalee Martin are part of the UC IPM technology team that created the gold-winning video, based on the website's information.
The video's purpose is to help people distinguish herbicide-caused injuries from those caused by dozens of other potential factors, including insects, diseases, fertilizers, poor nutrition and environmental stressors such as drought. The course describes common patterns of herbicide injury and how to use laboratory analysis to confirm potential culprits. Its audience: growers, pest control advisers, sales representatives for chemical companies, field investigators and insurance adjusters who need guidance gathering information. Nearly 170 people finished the course in 2021, and more than 80 had enrolled by mid-2022, Kosina said. "There are several thousand potential learners in California alone," Martin wrote in the award application.
The animated, cartoon guide is a stock image that Kosina doctored to riff off of Hanson's beard and rectangular glasses; Hanson also narrates. The character brings a human element to the video and puts viewers at ease. Research shows that a cartoonish approach to a topic can improve adult viewers' response when they might see the material as intimidating or dry.
Viewers, indeed, have become fans. Here are a few comments from people who have taken the online course:
- “The avatar is a kick.”
- “I do not care for cartoons, but Brad's ‘character' was great! And his manner of speaking was great – grade A+.”
- “The use of several different types of multi-media concepts combined with the methodical and well-thought-out delivery of technical information really helps keep the online participant engaged.”
The course has been approved for continuing education units by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, the Certified Crop Adviser program of the American Society of Agronomy, and the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
RELATED LINKS: Watch a short video by the UC IPM team that describes the course, how they approached the design and addressed accessibility and diversity.
Media Resources: Trina Kleist, tkleist@ucdavis.edu, (530) 754-6148 or (530) 601-6846.
Original source: UCD Department of Plant Sciences News. July 26, 2022
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Mohamed joins Kearney to research alfalfa irrigation
Abdelmoneim “Moneim” Mohamed joined UC ANR as project scientist – alfalfa irrigation management Feb. 1.
Mohamed will be working with Khaled Bali conducting research to identify the best irrigation management practices on alfalfa to enhance water use productivity while minimizing environmental impacts. The project focuses on crop growth and agronomic performance as affected by irrigation management, salinity and other factors.
Prior to joining UC ANR, Mohamed was an agricultural scientist for the Tropical Research and Education Center at the University of Florida. His previous work focused on modeling and optimizing the performance of moving sprinkler irrigation. He has also studied precision and automated irrigation.
After receiving his Ph.D. at Washington State University, Mohamed was an irrigation engineer for WSU Skagit County Extension Center working with extension agents and growers on improved irrigation practices, irrigation systems efficiency evaluation, and crop water use efficiency.
Mohamed earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering from Zagazig University, Egypt, a master's degree in land and water resources management: irrigated agriculture from IAMB, Italy, and a doctorate in biological and agricultural engineering from Washington State University.
Mohamed is based at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center and can be reached at amohamed@ucanr.edu and (509) 781-4129 and on Twitter @moneim_z.
Brim-DeForest receives outstanding paper award
The Weed Science Society of America honored Whitney Brim-DeForest, UCCE rice and wild rice advisor for Sutter, Yuba, Placer and Sacramento counties, with its award for Outstanding Paper: Weed Science.
The award-winning paper, Phenotypic Diversity of Weedy Rice (Oryza sativa f. spontanea) Biotypes Found in California and Implications for Management is co-authored by Elizabeth Karn, biologist in U.S. EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs and former ANR staff research associate; Teresa De Leon, Short Grains Rice Plant Breeder for the California Rice Experiment Station and former UC Davis postdoc research scholar; Luis Espino, UCCE rice farming systems advisor for Butte and Glenn counties and UCCE director for Butte County; and Kassim Al-Khatib, UC Davis Melvin D. Androus Endowed Professor for Weed Science and Director of the UC Weed Information Center.
Over the past four years, Brim-DeForest, who holds the UC ANR Presidential Endowed Fellowship in California Rice, has focused her research on weedy rice, an emerging and important pest in California rice systems. In a relatively short amount of time, she and her team have conducted extensive research on California weedy rice including its genetics, identification, competition with cultivars, emergence, herbicide susceptibility, and even drone mapping.
The award was presented during the organization's virtual annual meeting Feb. 15.
DPR honors Spray Application Pest Management Alliance Team
In a ceremony on Feb. 18, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation presented a 2020 IPM Achievement Award to UC Spray Application Pest Management Alliance Team – El Dorado County for their achievements in reducing risk from pesticide use.
The Spray Application Pest Management Alliance Team, which includes industry and UC ANR members, is led by Lynn Wunderlich, UCCE farm advisor for the Central Sierra. The team aims to minimize the incidence of agricultural pesticide drift and reduce the risk of pesticide illness though training. The team developed an air blast sprayer calibration training program to increase pesticide applicators' adoption of best practices when using air blast sprayers. The training program is interactive and offers practical experience in key training topics.
“The highly effective training and the extensive outreach completed by the team make the Spray Application Pest Management Alliance Team an excellent recipient of an IPM Achievement Award,” wrote the person nominating the team.
The Spray Application Pest Management Alliance Team includes
- Wunderlich, UCCE farm advisor, Central Sierra
- Franz Niederholzer, co-principal investigator and farm advisor, UCCE Yuba, Sutter, Butte counties
- Maria Alfaro, community educator specialist, UC Statewide IPM Program
- Catherine Bilheimer, California Department of Pesticide Regulation grant manager
- Lisa Blecker, Pesticide Safety Education Program coordinator, UC Statewide IPM Program
- Stephanie Bolton, communications & sustainable winegrowing director, Lodi Winegrape Commission
- Matt Bozzo, chair, Yuba-Sutter Spray Safe; farm manager, Golden Gate Hop Ranch, Yuba City
- Luis Espino, UCCE rice farming systems advisor, Colusa, Glenn, Yolo counties
- Ken Giles, professor, UC Davis Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department
- Gwen-Alyn Hoheisel, Washington State University regional extension specialist
- Petr Kosina, Content Development Supervisor, UC Statewide IPM Program
- Peter Larbi, UCCE spray application specialist, Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center
- Ray Lucas, former videographer UC ANR Communication Services
- Tunyalee Martin, associate director for communication, UC Statewide IPM Program
- Louie Mendoza, Butte County agricultural commissioner
- Cheryl Reynolds, instructional designer, UC Statewide IPM Program.
- John Roncoroni, UCCE weed science farm advisor emeritus, North Coast
- Marcie Skelton, Glenn County agricultural commissioner
- Rhonda Smith, UCCE viticulture advisor emeritus, Sonoma County.
- Matt Strmiska, former Adaptiv CEO.
- Emily Symmes, former Area IPM advisor, Colusa, Glenn, Sutter-Yuba, Tehama counties
Cheryl Wilen, emeritus IPM advisor, was a technical advisor to All Kids Academy Head Start, Inc. in San Diego County, which received an IPM Achievement Award for its exemplary pest management program at 14 child care centers. This nonprofit organization's IPM program focuses on strong communication, careful monitoring, and active prevention to manage pests. AKA Head Start, Inc. partners with experts to find the most effective, lower-risk options to protect children in its care from pests and pesticide risk.
“One thing that they did that influenced me to nominate them is that they not only did a lot of IPM policy and implementation work in the school, they also provide information and resources to the parents/guardians to extend IPM information for their homes as well,” wrote the person who nominated the project.
Moncloa to guide Maine 4-H through intercultural competence program
Fe Moncloa, UCCE 4-H youth development advisor in Santa Clara County, has been named the 2021 Visiting Libra Diversity Professor at the University of Maine from January through June.
Through a virtual appointment, Moncloa will guide University of Maine Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Development staff through the development and implementation of an intercultural competence professional development program. This project is part of a larger effort to increase the ability of University of Maine Cooperative Extension to foster inclusivity, diversity and access, particularly the statewide UMaine 4-H program. This project will serve as a template to expand diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to other UMaine departments.
“In addition, my UMaine partners will lead four weekly Learning Circles to unpack intercultural communication,” Moncloa said. “I will teach an intercultural conflict styles workshop for all 4-H professionals in partnership with UMaine and will present a seminar to graduate students.”
Moncloa is on sabbatical through Sept. 30, 2021.
- Author: John Stumbos
Weeds are a pervasive and expensive problem in California. They can choke waterways, crowd out native species on rangeland, and rob farmers of crop yields. According to the California Invasive Plant Council, the annual cost of invasive plant work in California is at least $82 million.
The University of California has robust educational resources to help those engaged in the battle, and this summer UC Davis and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources personnel are offering a trio of programs to help in the effort.
Weed Day: July 7, 2016
The 60th annual Weed Day will be held at UC Davis on July 7 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The program gets under way in the Buehler Alumni Center.
Weed Day will be of interest to pest control advisers, chemical company cooperators, faculty, students and regulatory officials. It is an opportunity to learn about the latest research and to visit current weed-control field trials. The event begins with a bus tour to the research plots. Following lunch, staff and students will present information on projects that are either not in-season or located too far off campus for viewing.
“We have tomatoes, walnuts, and almonds, as well as aquatic research results, and a weed identification quiz,” said professor and UC Cooperative Extension specialist Kassim Al-Khatib, chair of this year's event. “We'll be hearing about control of medusahead, management in grapes, a new herbicide for rice, and many studies on herbicide resistance issues.”
For additional information and to register.
Diagnosing Herbicide Symptoms: July 8, 2016
The Weed Research and Information Center at UC Davis is offering a new course, Diagnosing Herbicide Symptoms, on July 8 at the Bowley Plant Science Teaching Center.
This program will be of interest to pest control advisers, chemical companies, field investigators and insurance adjusters. The course focuses on how an herbicide injury situation can arise, what information can help diagnose herbicide problems during field investigations, and what tools are available.
Topics include herbicide modes of action, symptom development, recovery from herbicide injury, economic damage, and other areas. Instruction takes place in a lecture, field visit, and hands-on demonstrations. Course instructors include UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) specialists Kassim Al-Khatib and Brad Hanson, UCCE farm advisor John Roncoroni, and Napa County Agricultural Commissioner Greg Clark.
For additional information and to register.
Aquatic Weed School: Sept. 7–8, 2016
The Aquatic Weed School will be held Sept. 7–8 at the Bowley Plant Science Teaching Center.
This intensive course is designed for those involved in consulting, research and management of aquatic weed systems throughout the western United States. Topics include ecological classification and impacts of aquatic weeds, biology of aquatic weeds, physical and chemical characteristics of aquatic ecosystems, regulatory issues, developing an aquatic management plan, aquatic weed identification, equipment demonstration, adjuvants and surfactants for aquatic systems, pest prevention for aquatic weeds, physical and mechanical control methods, biological control, chemical and non-chemical control, and a case study of a complex management plan.
For additional information and to register.
Need more information? Contact Gale Pérez with the UC Weed Research and Information Center, (530) 752-1748, gperez@ucdavis.edu.
Kassim Al-Khatib, who has been the UC IPM director since 2009, is transitioning to a UC Cooperative Extension specialist position located in the Department of Plant Sciences in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis. This move will allow him to focus on his research in weed management.
Wilen is also leader of the Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases (EIPD) strategic initiative. Based in San Diego, she will continue to serve as the area integrated pest management advisor for the turf, ornamental and nursery industries in Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties. Last summer, Wilen served as acting director for the IPM program while Al-Khatib was on sabbatical leave on a Fulbright Scholarship in Turkey.
Barbara Allen-Diaz
Vice President
Bill Frost
Associate Vice President
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