Ongoing research

The CASI (Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation) Center announced the first of its 2016 innovator awards in a recognition ceremony in Madera on the 16th of August.

The Economist reports that Hungarian biologists have trained rabbits to preferentially eat common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), an invasive plant (and a native to North America). http://www.economist.

Biological control of Phytophthora cinnamomi in avocadothrough the use of mulches was identified by an Australian grower and later described as the "Ashburner Method" by Broadbent and Baker. The technique uses large amounts of organic matter as a mulch along with a source of calcium.

In California, a general requirement of plant species used for revegetation and restoration projects is its classification as a native species. However, the high cost of native plant materials is one of the dominant obstacles to effective revegetation nationwide.

"Science is full of surprises." Bruce Hammock, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology who holds a joint appointment with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, is fond of saying that in his many talks. "Science is full of surprises.

A call from a small grower, surprised at the sudden decline of the avocado trees. It must be a disease was the grower's thought. Well driving up to the site, there were numerous trees with canopies indicating drought stress. In fact most of the trees looked like they had had the water turned off.

They're pretty in pink. Well, not just pink. All other colors, too. It's National Honey Bee Day on Saturday, Aug. 20. That's when we officially celebrate the honey bee, Apis mellifera, which the European colonists brought to the Jamestown colony in Virginia in 1622.

It doesn't get more real. Yolo County Farm Advisor and children's book author Rachael Freeman Long remembers telling her son stories about an adventuresome, kind-hearted, wildlife-loving boy named Jack and three of his friends--a bat named Pinta, a coyote named Sonny and a crow named Midas.

University of California Cooperative Extension Wild Pig Survey UC Cooperative Extension wants to hear from San Benito, Monterey, and Santa Cruz county ranchers and farmers about your experience with wild pigs.

At a recent meeting the question came up about the fate of nitrogen fertilizer applied through the irrigation system.