French Creek flows from southwest New York state about 117 miles to the Allegheny River at Franklin, Pennsylvania. It is the most species-rich stream in Pennsylvania and is nationally recognized for its biodiversity, with more than 80 species of fish and 29 species of freshwater mussels. Four of the mussels in French Creek are listed under the Endangered Species Act: ...
Give your mower a tune-up Replacing your spark plug is the first step in preparing your lawn mower for spring. Lawn mower spark plugs are inexpensive, so don’t clean or reuse old ones. It’s recommended to replace your lawn mower’s spark plug once a season. Consult your owner’s manual to ensure you purchase the correct replacement plug for your mower. Next, you’ll wan...
Researchers have found a way to express pigment-producing enzymes from bacteria in the petals of a white rose, tinting the flowers blue. They report their results in ACS Synthetic Biology. Although blue roses do not exist in nature, florists can produce blue-hued flowers by placing cut roses in dye. Also, in a painstaking 20-year effort, biotechnologists made a “blue ...
That creates a lawn with weak roots, which make grass more vulnerable to disease and compromising its ability to withstand harsh weather, such as summer heat. The buildup of thatch, which is a matted layer of grass clippings and other organic debris that collects on the top of the soil, is one indicator that a lawn could benefit from aeration, a process in which the s...
If weather cooperates, first cutting is usually the highest quality, and it also makes up about 40% of the overall yield in a 4-cut system. The question is, do you want to cut it early to get the highest quality or wait a bit longer to harvest more quantity? BETTER QUALITY = MORE MILK “For dairy cows, I want to have very high-quality forage due to milk production, ...
Greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector are expected to increase over the next few years, as frequency of air travel continues to rise. While these contributions of greenhouse gas are significant, they can be dramatically reduced with industry adoption and incorporation of biofuel. Researchers in Canada have partnered with NASA to produce studies demonstr...
Williams and White SMARTGuides, powered by the SAWSense performance monitoring system accurately measures, in real time, the performance of the saw when in the cut for both circular and band saws. This patented technology provides real-time feedback of saw performance, enabling the mill of the monitor the effect of varying sawing parameters. Real time feedback on saw per...
In many cases a potential customer may notice that one quote for a UV product may come in at a significantly higher cost than that of another. Good news, right? Lowest bid wins! Well, perhaps the company that provided the lowest bid wins, but the real loser may be the customer. In the UV treatment industry, as in many others, it is the hidden or unknown factors that c...
UBC Ph.D. candidate Vahid Nasir will present on what sawmills can expect from the research findings at OptiSaw – the one-day education forum for those driving the future of sawmilling. Hosted by CFI magazine, OptiSaw is returning to Richmond, B.C., to hold an information-packed event on June 13. Don’t wait to sign up. The forum is limited to an exclusive audience o...
Every year, there’s a kind of a dance that goes on in farm country. The landowner-renter conversation about continuing to work together is a standard for the industry, but this is no longer a market of handshakes and implied agreements. The ag land market is evolving — and if Corbett Tull has his way, his company will be part of that new future. Tull, who had his firs...
Dr Good is Director of Research at The Conservation Fund’s Freshwater Institute in West Virginia, USA. The Freshwater Institute is international partner of CtrlAQUA along with the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and is a pioneer in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) research in North America. Close research collaboration The Freshwater institute has a long h...
Farmer Core leverages the new AutoSync feature, which automatically syncs guidance lines, field names, boundaries, landmarks and operator information across Trimble Ag Software and Trimble displays using the Precision-IQ field application. Precision-IQ is used to collect and manage data from in-field activities. By reducing human error and eliminating the need to manuall...
The world of crop fungicides has exploded in the past 13 years. And the market continues to rise as farmers find that crop diseases are the latest yield-robbers in their fields. In a media event that offered a little tongue-in-cheek mystery, BASF unveiled a new tool that farmers will get access to for the 2020 season. Having a little fun with the idea, media got “reda...
The abolition of plastic bags was only the beginning for REWE Group. The company has set itself the goal of completely eliminating unnecessary packaging from its shelves, without risking a faster spoilage or violating the legally required declarations of products. A new invention is now to replace outer packaging and labels in organic fruit and vegetables: avocados and s...
“In Wisconsin we like to be in the field by April 25, and once we get two weeks out from that date, people start thinking about changing the maturities on the corn silage,” says Kathleen Emery a nutritionist with Mycogen Seeds. While it’s too early to determine which varieties to plant, it’s not too early to ensure you have what you need on-hand to survive harvest. ...
I’ve done hundreds of interviews over the past dozen years of my career, except this time, I was the one being interviewed. I had applied for a communications job at Iowa State University, and I learned earlier this month that I was successful. On April 1, I will begin my new role as a communications specialist with Iowa State Extension, working from the main campus, ...
All three dairy farms also earned statewide DHI Elite awards for all three components — milk, butterfat and protein — for 2018 production numbers in the top 5 percent of the state herds on test. Lowmiller Farms received the top herd award for milk production, with an average of 32,668 pounds on 149 head. The Holstein herd also averaged 1,211 pounds of fat and 969 poun...
GT USA Wilmington, the U.S. arm of Gulftainer, one of the world’s largest, privately owned, independent ports and logistics companies, purchased the new equipment, which includes nine 41-ton Rubber Tired Gantry cranes and three 45-ton Reach Stackers, according to a news release. “This equipment forms the first part of $100 million to be invested in the first year of a...
The Mouse Blocker is designed to prevent damage in stored machinery such as combines and foragers, where belts, electrics and wiring often fall foul of nesting rodents. It works by releasing an ultra-high-frequency noise that is inaudible to humans but the equivalent of a jackhammer to mice. Acoustic pressure is rated at 85dB.Power is taken from the vehicle’s 12v batt...
The global network of fresh produce growers, distributors and marketers includes the Wenatchee company, a wholesaler, shipper and broker of deciduous and tropical fruit. “As the exotic category continues to be of high interest to consumers, we are pleased to offer flavorful, fun-to-eat kiwiberries in convenient clamshell packaging,” Jason Bushong, Giumarra Wenatchee d...
Annuals are any plant that grows from seed to flow in one growing season and then dies. Typically, gardeners will purchase annuals in the spring with the expectation they will die in the fall. While they might not be as much work as perennials due to their brief lifespans, gardeners still want to enjoy their brilliant blooms without a ton of extra work. Accomplishing thi...
I often heard my mother express concerns about the lack of ways to protect our crops from drought, pests and diseases. I wanted to help my mother but was too young to understand what the solution might be. In my undergraduate genetics class, I completed a term paper on the domestication of maize. I was surprised to discover that ancestral maize did not produce the ty...
New restrictions apply to all current and future dicamba products includes Engenia, Fexapan and Xtendimax. Changes include: No in-crop applications of dicamba from May 26 to Oct. 31 A ½ mile buffer required around non-dicamba crops One-mile buffers near university and USDA research stations, certified organic crops and commercially grown specialty crops between A...
The report, which documents industry stewardship and sustainability quantifies fertilizer manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers’ performance record on environmental, economic and social indicators. The report also documents the fertilizer industry’s contribution to meeting the following United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals: zero hunger; clean water and sanita...
One of these is the Enlist soybean, with resistance to glyphosate, glufosinate, and 2,4-D. As of this writing, full approval for the Enlist soybean is still being held up by the Philippines (because they can apparently). The other is the LL-GT27 soybean, which has resistance to glyphosate, glufosinate, and isoxaflutole (Balance). There is no label for use of isoxaf...
From 2003 to 2015, the research team applied either manure or inorganic fertilizer to field plots growing corn and soybeans. They used low, medium and high manure levels, and medium and high inorganic fertilizer levels. They also had a control treatment of no soil additives to provide a comparison. In the summer of 2015, they collected soil samples at a variety of dep...
According to Matt Gould of Rice Dairy, initial reports from their customers included words like “catastrophic” and “extreme” when it came to describing the impact the snow had on their open lot dairies. “We heard anecdotes from farmers ranging from losses totaling 100 cows to thousands,” he said. “We also heard some milk was dumped because of logistical issues durin...
Background: Peter Zeihan grew up in Marshalltown, Iowa. His career has included stints with the U.S. State Department in Australia, the Washington, D.C., think tank community and Stratfor, a private intelligence company. In 2012, he formed his own analytical firm, Zeihan on Geopolitics. He is the author of two books: “The Accidental Superpower” and “The Absent Superpowe...
To help shape the future of Australia’s food and fibre industries AgriFutures Australia has created evokeAG, an international technology event to be held on February 19 and 20 in Melbourne to bring the world’s brightest agriculture and technology minds together. “Both Australia and New Zealand have the right ingredients to play on the world stage in food and farm for ...
The joint petition was filed on Feb. 6 by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), Livestock Marketing Association (LMA), American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), American Beekeeping Federation, American Honey Producers Association, and National Aquaculture Association. The groups sent the petition to the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safet...
Are you familiar with the Nutrition Coalition? If not, make the acquaintance of the researchers and scientists who formed that organization to provide a credible response to the relentless drumbeat of vegetarianism-for-all as the preferred dietary pathway for the health of humanity and the survival of the planet. Not that there’s anything wrong with choosing a veget...
Each webinar will focus on a specific commodity group: Spotted Lanternfly Basics for Hops, Berry and Vegetable Growers, Feb. 26, 10 a.m. Spotted Lanternfly Basics for Grape and Apple Industries, Feb. 26, 1 p.m. Spotted Lanternfly Basics for Christmas Tree Growers, March 4, 10 a.m. Spotted Lanternfly Basics for Nursery, Greenhouse and Landscape Industries, March 4, ...
AFBF will use the goals as a guide for strategic planning and grassroots activity throughout 2019. The five top issues are as follows: Build relationships with the 116th Congress to educate and work with members of Congress, with support from Farm Bureau’s grassroots leaders and lobbying programs, to promote policies that benefit farmers, ranchers and rural communitie...
Miller Lite and Coors Light were called out by Bud Light during several Super Bowl commercials in its “Dilly Dilly” series of advertisements. The commercials got an immediate reaction from farmers and beer drinkers through social media, much of it being negative to Bud Light’s tactics. MillerCoors, owner of the two light beers using corn syrup, responded to Anheuser...
One plus is that the new farm bill includes an improved insurance program that farmers pay for to help them when the gap between milk prices and feed prices reach a certain level. But the program was delayed by the 35-day partial government shutdown. While the shutdown is now over, the Farm Services Agency still has to write the rules for the margin program. “The go...
The Mushroom Council and American Mushroom Institute share a small, single-story brick office a 10-minute drive from the official Mushroom Capital of the World, a.k.a., Kennett Square, where the fungi has a $1.1 billion impact on the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The charming, old-timey town center marks the 50-square-mile region that produces about 60% of U.S.-grown...
