Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (RHD) is a fatal disease caused by a calicivirus that affects only rabbits. USDA considers RHD a foreign animal disease and has recently detected the Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus Serotype 2 (RHDV2) in North America. RHDV2 is not known to pose health risks to humans, livestock, or pets other than rabbits. The first detected case of RHDV2 was in Washington state in February 2018. Ohio saw a case in September 2018 and again in Washington in July 2019.
Cedar-apple rust is a common plant disease caused by the fungal pathogen Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae. It infects members of the Rosaceae and Cupressaceae families, primarily apple, crabapple, eastern redcedar, and other juniper species. Cedar-apple rust is a widespread disease across the continental U.S. and is a common issue for apple producers due to the prevalence of redcedar and juniper as ornamental plants in landscapes.
Strategic planning is the ability to act early to avoid challenges in the future when they become harder to manage. Strategic planning offers the opportunity to make decisions that follow a vision. It also creates a path for planning and increases options for influencing improvements. This process is similar to community stakeholders who examine ways of increasing economic gains for communities and their residents.
Whether it is through an ongoing, community-based Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) program or specific community needs-assessment, Cooperative Extension professionals maintain an awareness of community needs and draw on the research-based tools and resources available through the land-grant university system. This fact sheet provides an overview of specialized BRE approaches and programs available through Cooperative Extension.
In the soft red winter wheat growing regions of the eastern U.S., mid-winter warm temperatures accelerated wheat development, exposing wheat that transitioned to reproductive stages to cold temperatures during the late spring. Wheat plants can be damaged by frost (low temperatures cause damage but do not result in fully frozen tissue), freezing of the plant tissue, or a combination of both. The magnitude of freeze damage depends on: 1) temperature 2) duration of temperature 3 ) wheat growth stage.
Bed bugs have been well documented as pests since the 17th century, but evidence of their association with humans is found in archeological sites dating back nearly 3,500 years. They were introduced to the United States by the early colonists. Bed bugs were common in the United States prior to World War II, after which time widespread use of synthetic insecticides such as DDT greatly reduced their numbers.
Essential Components of non-GMO Weed Management
Plant non-GMO soybeans in fields with a history of several years of crop rotation and effective weed control that has prevented weed seed return to the soil and reduced weed populations.
Maintain a rotation where non-GMO soybeans are planted every four years, with two years of corn and one year of traited soybeans in between, or other crops as appropriate for the farm operation.
Applying pesticides requires a high level of skill and knowledge. Increases in the size and complexity of sprayers over the years require even more attention to efficiency, efficacy, and safety. Although each crop requires a slightly different approach to the application of pesticides, some general principles apply to almost all spraying situations.
The key to making data valuable to a farm is storing it in a location where it can be used (i.e., “actioned”) to generate information. Ensuring it can be shared with trusted advisors and others who can analyze it to develop recommendations and new insights into the farm operation will maximize the data’s value.
Farm Data
Data is nothing new to agriculture and, specifically, farming operations. Historically, hand-written notes have represented the data used by farmers to evaluate their operation and yield. With the arrival of precision agriculture (PA) in the early 1990s, however, farmers began using technology to collect site-specific, electronic data. As PA technology has evolved, internet connectivity and cloud technology have enhanced the access and portability of data collected on farm machinery and through mobile applications.
