Techniques for Managing Cover Crops Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:23:00 -0500
Read the
magazine
story to find out more.
Rolling machines
designed by ARS researchers may be the fastest way for farmers to prepare
fields with cover crops for planting. Click the image for more information
about it.
Researchers roll out the
rye to reign in weeds
Conservation tillage has
immediate benefits
Lower CO2 loss in fall
tillage
Managing Cover Crops with Rolling and Crimping Techniques
By Laura
McGinnis September 3, 2008
Rolling hay, rye and other cover crops could be the fastest way for
some farmers to prepare their fields for planting. That's thanks to rolling
machines--developed by Agricultural Research
Service (ARS) scientists--that can quickly flatten mature, high-biomass
cover crops such as rye.
Each roller consists of a long cylinder adorned with a series of
thick, blunt, steel crimping bars, each about one-quarter-inch thick. As a
standard tractor pulls the roller over the field, pressure from the bars
flattens and damages the cover crop without cutting or uprooting it. Within
three weeks, the rolled cover crop dries out, forming a mat of dead biomass
into which farmers can plant cash crops.
Since 2001, ARS has been conducting research to find the best crimping
roller design for conditions in the southeastern United States, and the
benefits from this research are gaining recognition.
ARS scientists
Ted
Kornecki and
Randy
Raper and their colleagues at the agency's
National
Soil Dynamics Laboratory (NSDL) in Auburn, Ala., compared three different
roller designs. The first roller has a traditional design with long, straight,
horizontal bars. The second has diagonal bars that curve around the roller. The
third has a smooth drum attached to a crimping bar that mashes the rye as the
machine moves forward.
NSDL scientists, who developed the curved-bar and crimping roller
designs, found that all three models killed enough rye--90 percent or more--to
enable farmers to begin planting cash crops in the field within three weeks.
The crimping-bar roller yielded the best results.
The scientists also found that the curved-bar and the crimping rollers
provided smoother rides than the traditional straight-bar roller. Future
studies will help scientists maximize the efficiency and comfort of these
machines.
The one-pass process saves money, reduces soil erosion and runoff,
helps control weeds, conserves water in the soil and decreases or eliminates
the need for herbicides.
Read more
about the research in the September 2008 issue of Agricultural Research
magazine.
ARS is a scientific research agency of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
ARS Researchers Search for Casuarina Biological Control Agents Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:48:00 -0500
Read the magazine
story to find out more.
Invasive Australian Pine, Casuarina
equisetifolia. Photo courtesy of Forest & Kim Starr, U.S. Geological
Survey, Bugwood.org.
Foreign herbivores may be
key to curbing invasive weeds
Alternate methods of
whitefly control
Groundbreaking for new
biological control lab
ARS Researchers Search for Casuarina Biological Control Agents
By
Alfredo Flores
September 2 , 2008
Australia's Outback and remote coastlines are home to insects that could be key biocontrols for a highly invasive weed threatening coastal areas of the United States, according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators.
ARS entomologist Greg Wheeler and his ARS and university colleagues are touring the Outback and Australia's coastal areas in search of biological control agents for the highly invasive Casuarina species commonly called Australian pine.
This weed is infiltrating U.S. coastal areas, especially in south Florida, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Known for its rapid growth and dense coverage, Australian pine inhibits the growth of native plants.
The Australian pine problem includes three Casuarina species--C. equisetifolia (referred to in Australia as “coastal she-oak”), C. glauca (“swamp she-oak,” and arguably as big or a bigger problem than C. equisetifolia) and C. cunninghamiana (“river she-oak”).
In the past few years, the Australian members of the team--Matthew Purcell and Bradley Brown, researchers at the ARS Australian Biological Control Laboratory in Indooroopilly, Queensland, and Gary Taylor from the University of Adelaide, Australia--conducted five separate trips throughout Australia. Purcell, Brown, Taylor and John Gaskin, research leader of the ARS Pest Management Research Unit in Sidney, Mont., collectively comprise a Casuarina research team.
Wheeler served as the lead scientist for the project, coordinating the funding, surveys and plant-DNA testing. From a bounty of some 300 wasps, weevils, stem-borers, sap-suckers, seed-eaters and more, the scientists have narrowed the field of potential control agents to about 12 candidates.
Not only do these top candidates attack C. equisetifolia, but many also attack C. glauca and C. cunninghamiana. Among the top finds were the seed-feeding wasp Bootanelleus orientalis, which is host-specific to Australian pine, and the defoliator moth Zauclophora pelodes.
These insects are still undergoing testing by Purcell and colleagues in Australia to determine their suitability for use as biological control agents in the United States. Insects that decrease Casuarina reproduction and spread are being given the most attention.
Read more about the research in the September 2008 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
ARS is a scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Diptera Database Developed Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:23:00 -0500
Mexican fruit flies are just
one of the species in the order Diptera, one of the four largest groups of
living organisms on Earth. Click the image for more information about
it.
Fruit fly diversity is in
the details
Fruit fly study provides
insight into bee immune system
Virulent hessian flies
renew attack on U.S. wheat
Database Documents Names for More Than 150,000
Diptera Species By Ann Perry August 29,
2008
Distinguishing between insect pests and partners starts with an
ironclad identification. So Agricultural
Research Service (ARS) entomologist
Chris
Thompson headed up efforts to accurately identify and name almost 157,000
flies, gnats, maggots, midges, mosquitoes and related species in the order
Diptera.
Diptera is one of the four largest groups of living organisms on
Earth, and its members are critical components in virtually all non-marine
ecosystems. Carl Linnaeus, who devised the scientific classification system
still in use today, compiled the first index of Diptera species names in 1758.
But even though an average of 800 new Diptera names are proposed every year,
the nomenclature has not been comprehensively updated since 1805.
Thompson works at the
ARS
Systematic Entomology Laboratory in Washington, D.C. For this research, he
partnered with Neal Evenhuis, an entomologist at the
Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii;
Thomas Pape, an entomologist at the Natural History Museum of Denmark;
and Adrian Pont, an entomologist at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History
in Oxford, England.
The group assembled the tenth edition of the Biosystematic Database of
World Diptera (BDWD). This massive index contains nomenclature data for 156,599
living and extinct Diptera species in 154 families and 11,671
generaaround 10 percent of the known biodiversity in the world today.
The BDWD, which is available at www.diptera.org, has two components. The
Nomenclator allows users to check names, confirm species status, and obtain
information about type, family classification and sources for all names in the
collection. The Species database is being designed to answer queries about
different species, including their distribution, biological associates and
economic importance.
The BDWD provides a framework for organizing and integrating current
and future data that is accessible by researchers around the globe. Scientists
can obtain a wealth of information that will help them fine-tune Dipteras
evolutionary tree and track the migration, increase and decline of
economically-important Diptera species worldwide.
The team presented their research at the 20th International Congress
of Zoology in Paris, France, in August.
ARS is a scientific research agency of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
USDA - National Agricultural Statistics Service Reports
Crop Progress NASS releases Crop Progress and Condition Estimates... Broiler Hatchery Broiler-Type Eggs Set In 19 Selected States Down 4 Percent. Broiler Chicks Placed Down 3 Percent.... Dairy Products Prices Cheddar Cheese prices received for US 40 pound Blocks averaged $1.84 per pound for the week ending September 27.... Dairy Products Total cheese output (excluding cottage cheese) was 821 million pounds, 3.0 percent
above August 2007 and 1.0 percent above July 2008.... Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin NASS releases Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin... Broiler Hatchery Broiler-Type Eggs Set In 19 Selected States Down 11 Percent. Broiler Chicks Placed Down 3 Percent....
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