All Issues

Pine resin midges feed on fresh resin in wounds on Christmas trees. Though some growers perceive this as a problem, insecticide treatments are unwarranted — partly because they do not provide effective control, but mostly because consumers do not consider resin midge damage when they choose Christmas trees.

Trials in Ventura and Tulare counties now establish that skirt-pruning can significantly reduce Phytophthora brown rot damage to lemon fruit without harming fruit yields.

Researchers tested four chemicals for omnivorous looper control in avocado orchards. Of the three that proved effective, only two are currently registered for use on bearing avocados in California.

Several insecticides were evaluated for control of amorbia, a “worm” pest of avocados and citrus in California. Lannate was the only effective chemical that is currently registered for bearing avocados in California.

Including fat in the diet of dairy cows often results in a decrease in the concentrations of total protein and casein in milk. In this study, the addition of rumen-protected methionine and lysine to such a diet increased the total protein and casein contents of milk produced by lactating cows.

A new race of downy mildew is threatening spinach in several California and Texas growing areas. Two fungicides, metalaxyl and Aliett, may help control the disease.

Wages paid to hired workers make up the single largest production expense for California crop and livestock farmers, and they rose 11% between 1984 and 1988. Crop and livestock employment is becoming concentrated on fewer, larger farms, and labor contractor employment is becoming fragmented among smaller contractors.

Western flower thrips is an increasingly important pest of field and greenhouse crops. Biological control with predaceous mites may be a viable option when dealing with this difficult pest.

Replacing part of a dairy cow's alfalfa forage with cereal silage in early lactation did not alter milk production, but the cow's dry matter intake was reduced. The more mature the cereal was when harvested as hay, the less digestible it became. Cereal silage can be used successfully in lactation rations if harvested at an early maturity.

Measuring the efficiency of a subsurface irrigation drainage system is complicated by a number of factors, including the irrigation water's salinity, the soil's inherent salinity, and the degree to which saline drainwater migrates laterally in a shallow water table.

Fusarium wilt is widespread, and has caused severe losses to cantaloupe fields in the San Joaquin Valley. Researchers have bred resistant germplasm into orange-fleshed western shipping-type cantaloupes, and resistant F, hybrids are now available for commercial growers.

Six unions today cover 12,400 farmworker jobs on 258 California farms, a sharp decrease from the numbers of the early 1980s. Though they are the workers' certified bargaining representatives on 725 farms, unions are finding it harder to turn their election victories into contracts that will raise member wages.