Chemical ploughing

PROGRESS in the field of chemical weed control has been spectacular in recent years. One field that is attracting interest is the idea of replacing cultivation with chemical sprays

Spraying Grows Up

Spraying to control weed and insect pests has grown from babyhood to manhood in about 5 years. Chemical sprays are the ace in the hole a farmer has at his disposal

Chemical cultivation : its place in crop planting

PROGRESS in the field of chemical weed control has been spectacular in recent years. Despite the cut-back in expenditure on herbicides, the idea of replacing cultivation with chemical sprays is attracting great interest

Use of a Monitoring System to Evaluate Pesticide Efficacy and Residual Activity Against Two Pine Root Weevils, \u3ci\u3eHylobius Pales\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3ePachylobius Picivorus\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), in Christmas Tree Farms

Hylobius pales, the pales weevil, and Pachylobius picivorus, the pitch-eating weevil, comprise part of a weevil complex which affects plantation pine production in the Lake States. Common control practices on Christmas tree farms include calendar applications of persistent insecticides. The resulting environmental risks could be minimized by repeating applications only when needed. A sampling method using ethanol-and turpentine-baited pitfall traps was used here to assess the efficacy and monitor persistence of chemical sprays. Trap catch in lindane-treated field plots and untreated controls were compared over two years. Unsprayed controls had significantly higher weevil populations than treated plots. Spray efficacy continued for three years following tion. Weevil population growth in relation to insecticide efficacy and degradation is discussed

Biological Characteristics That Make The Lesser Peachtree Borer (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) a Pest on Peach Trees

The lesser peachtree borer, Synanthedon pictipes, is a native insect with well distributed hosts near peach orchards, which has high mobility between sylvatic and domestic hosts. It is able to take advantage of the susceptibility of the peach tree to periodic freeze injury and disease cankers. The moth stage is present through most of the growing season and effectively conceals the eggs singly at the most favorable sites for larval success

Halogeton A Sheep Killing Plant

The article is regarding a poisonous plant to sheep. This weed was not common to North Dakota, but with increased transportation, it's spread was made easier. The author describes the weed, its it's coverage in the U.S and poisoning by such. Yearly chemical sprays to grazing areas appeared to be effective in addressing this toxic weed

Elevating crop disease resistance with cloned genes

Essentially all plant species exhibit heritable genetic variation for resistance to a variety of plant diseases caused by fungi, bacteria, oomycetes or viruses. Disease losses in crop monocultures are already significant, and would be greater but for applications of disease-controlling agrichemicals. For sustainable intensification of crop production, we argue that disease control should as far as possible be achieved using genetics rather than using costly recurrent chemical sprays. The latter imply CO2 emissions from diesel fuel and potential soil compaction from tractor journeys. Great progress has been made in the past 25 years in our understanding of the molecular basis of plant disease resistance mechanisms, and of how pathogens circumvent them. These insights can inform more sophisticated approaches to elevating disease resistance in crops that help us tip the evolutionary balance in favour of the crop and away from the pathogen. We illustrate this theme with an account of a genetically modified (GM) blight-resistant potato trial in Norwich, using the Rpi-vnt1.1 gene isolated from a wild relative of potato, Solanum venturii, and introduced by GM methods into the potato variety Desiree

Potential economic gains from using forage legumes in organic livestock systems in northern Europe

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference of the Colloquium of Organic Researchers (COR). Forage legumes, with their ability to fix nitrogen biologically, seem especially attractive for organic livestock production. In an attempt to assess their true potential, this study draws on a four-year trial conducted at 12 sites in northern Europe with four different forage legumes. One third of the sites were managed as organic systems, with the harvested forage being fed as silage to dairy cows. Based on the trial results, an economic assessment has been made of the potential of forage legumes to improve the competitive edge of organic dairy systems, relative to conventional grass-based ones. Although the results suggest that the organic milk price premium plays a major role in determining the comparative profitability of organic dairy systems, the use of forage legumes also gives a significant cost advantage to organic production