Agriculture

It is both a blessing and a curse that alfalfa in California's Central Valley essentially grows all winter long. Although we can get very high early yields, if conditions are too wet, the fields look pretty ragged after a winter which saw rains in excess of 130% of normal.

We're now seeing the aftermath of this long rainy season. The heavier than normal rain has given us velvety green hills carpeted with an abundance of wildflowers. But we cannot overlook the other less pretty things that benefit from a wet winter lots of weeds and insects.

It will literally be a bugfest Saturday, April 13 at Briggs Hall and the Bohart Museum of Entomology during the 105th annual campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day.

It just wouldn't be a picnic without bugs. Briggs Hall, home of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will turn into a bugfest during the 105th annual UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 13. Think cockroach races, maggot art, and bee and ant displays, to name a few.

You don't have to travel the world to see insects. You can see them at the Bohart Museum of Entomology during the campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day, set Saturday, April 13. The theme is "Will Travel for Bugs: The Bohart Museum of Entomology's Collections From Around the World.

Reprint of UC Delivers article Frost damage persistently limits the production of many important crops and costs California agriculture up to $1 billion annually.

Abutilon theophrasti (commonly known as velvetleaf) is a summer-emerging, annual, broad-leaf weed native to Asia.

I realized this morning that it's been some time (nearly a year, in fact) since I posted an update on my progress with our youngest livestock guardian dog, Elko.

Lauren Hale is the new Research Soil Scientist at the USDA-ARS San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center in Fresno. I knew Lauren from her PhD research at UCR under David Crowley. Her thesis explored the use of biochar as a shelter for beneficial soil microbes.

Two of Kearney's researchers, Jeff Dahlberg and Khaled Bali joined Dan Putnam of UC Davis in a trip to Pakistan to talk with Pakistani researchers, academics, and farmers about forage production.