Browse Weeds, Diseases and Pests Stories - Page 17

A La Nina weather pattern is providing warmer winter temperatures for Georgia residents, sparking farmers’ concerns about potential plant diseases at the start of production season in early spring.

Black-eyed peas have long been a symbol of New Year’s luck in the American South, but black-eyed pea farmers aren’t feeling that fortunate this year.

For decades, farmers who have embraced conservation production have seen increased soil health, reduced irrigation demands and lowered economic risk. For the past 17 years, Georgia farmers interested in adopting new conservation practices for their farms – including those looking to swap best practices with other conservation tillers – have gathered at Georgia’s annual Conservation Production Systems Training Conference.

Georgia peanut growers are experiencing problematic leaf spot diseases this year due to susceptible varieties and weakening fungicide treatments, according to Albert Culbreath and Tim Brenneman, plant pathologists at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus.

World-renowned researcher Stanley Culpepper, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension weed scientist on the UGA Tifton Campus, will receive the 2016 regional Excellence in Extension Award from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU).

A University of Georgia graduate student is using early stage chicken embryos to monitor the progression of the Zika virus. By collecting data on how the virus affects brain development, researchers at UGA can pinpoint the best treatments to stop or slow the progression of early-stage microcephaly, a rare birth defect linked to the Zika virus.

While drivers spend extra time in the car in search of fuel during the recent gasoline shortage, farmers are dealing with a more long-term shortage — a low supply of hay for their livestock.

Georgia farmers are never surprised to see fall armyworms munching on their precious corn, sorghum and forage hay crops. They just hope for a low number of armyworms. This year’s population of the tiny destroyers, described as an “Armageddon-type outbreak” by University of Georgia entomologist David Buntin, is far from low.

Locked in museums across the world, millions of insect specimens tell the story of the world’s climatic shifts, animals on the move and changing fauna.

A pesticide collection event has been scheduled for Friday, Sept. 30, at the Cordele State Farmers Market. This event will be held from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.