Agriculture

To accelerate adoption of climate-smart farming practices, the University of California Office of the President has awarded nearly $2 million to a team of UC Cooperative Extension scientists and community partners working on a network of farm demonstration sites.

Oblique streaktail hoverflies zip from bloom to bloom wearing a wasp costume to avoid getting eaten. But it's all for show they don't even have stingers! Their fierce maggots, on the other hand, devour hundreds of insect pests. As they gorge, they help keep orange trees safe from disease.

Walnut scale (Figure 1A) is an important economic pest of walnuts in California. High populations of walnut scale may affect tree vigor as well as predispose trees to diseases caused by several plant pathogenic fungi.

Hear that buzz? National Honey Bee Day is Saturday, Aug. 19 and you're invited to join this oh-so-sweet celebration! Launched in 2009, National Honey Bee Day takes place on the third Saturday of August. The event originated when a small group of beekeepers petitioned the U.S.

They look as if they belong in a circus or in a cartoon. Long dangly legs, elongated body, and long, four-segmented antennae topped with a small club. But there they were, stilt bugs, foraging on evening primrose at dawn in our "living laboratory"--a pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif.

My name is Giuliano Galdi, and I am the new UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Agronomy and Weed Management Advisor located in Merced County, and also with responsibilities in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties. In San Joaquin county, my primary responsibility will be in weed management.

Growers are said to be one of the most surveyed groups in the US. This is understandable as only around 2% of Americans work in agriculture and there is an intrinsic lack of understanding of what is needed to help growers develop their operations.

The Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Program is hosting three free training workshops for field crew supervisors and farm labor contractors in San Diego, Ventura and Tulare counties this month.

I recently went looking for our copies of Walter Ebeling's book on pests of subtropical tree crops. It was created over 40 years ago, but is still a great reference for past pests and those that still pop up with less frequency than avocado thrips and persea mite do today.

Preliminary grain and forage yield results for our fall-planted common wheat, triticale, durum wheat and barley trials are now available on the UC Small Grains Research and Information Center website: https://smallgrains.ucdavis.