Plant & Pest Advisory

July 28, 2020 Rick VanVranken

USDA Farmers To Families Food Box Program – New Round Solicitation

Key Takeaway Points of USDA Farmer to Family Food Box Program

Listening in USDA’s webinar reveals major changes in this latest solicitation for the third round of the Farmers to Families Food Box Program. This time they only want multi-commodity ‘combination boxes’, i.e. produce plus meat/dairy plus optional eggs! — check out the specs on page 4 of the solicitation here – https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/FFFB_solicitationRound3.pdf). They are much […]

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Fruit, Vegetable Crops Tagged With: COVID-19, emergency relief, USDA

July 28, 2020 Michael Westendorf

Meet Cosmo, a bull calf designed to produce 75% male offspring

NEWS RELEASE 23-JUL-2020 (reposted from EurekAlert and AAAS) Scientists use CRISPR technology to insert sex-determining gene UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – DAVIS IMAGE: COSMO, A 110-POUND BULL CALF WAS BORN IN APRIL OF 2020 AT UC DAVIS. SCIENTISTS SUCCESSFULLY GENOME-EDITED HIM AS AN EMBRYO TO PRODUCE MORE MALE OFFSPRING. view more CREDIT: ALISON VAN EENENNAAM/UC DAVIS Scientists at the University […]

Filed Under: Field, Forage & Livestock

July 28, 2020 Rick VanVranken

Unsolicited Seeds From Foreign Sources

Several states are now reporting and you may have read or heard news reports of packets of seeds arriving in the mail from foreign shipping addresses that were not ordered. If you receive such a packet, DO NOT open or discard them. Rather, follow these directions from the NJ Dept of Agriculture: UPDATED NJDA ALERT (https://www.nj.gov/agriculture/news/hottopics/topics200727.html) […]

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Field, Forage & Livestock, Fruit, Landscape, Nursery, & Turf, Vegetable Crops Tagged With: APHIS, Immediate, imported, Invasive species, NJDA, seeds, USDA, weed seeds

July 23, 2020 Steven K. Rettke

Differentiating the Common Wood Borers of Ash Trees

It is understandable for arborists and landscapers to assume that Emerald Ash Borers (Agrilus planipennis) are the cause when they observe branch die-back of ash trees (Fraxinus genus). During the 21st century, this invasive Asian tree beetle borer has killed many 100’s of millions of ash tree species as it has spread across much of […]

Filed Under: Landscape, Nursery, & Turf, Nursery, Plant Diagnostic Lab

July 22, 2020 Rick VanVranken

NYCAMH/NEC Farmworker Needs Assessment Survey

The New York Center for Agricultural Medicine & Health/Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety in Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing based in Cooperstown, NY is conducting a farm worker health needs assessment to help them better address worker health and safety needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Filed Under: Commercial Ag Updates, Field, Forage & Livestock, Fruit, Landscape, Nursery, & Turf, Vegetable Crops Tagged With: agriculture employers, coronavirus, COVID-19, farm labor safety, Health, migrant farm labor

July 22, 2020 Kris Holmstrom and Joe Ingerson-Mahar

Vegetable IPM Update 7/22/20

Sweet Corn European corn borer (ECB) adults continue to be very low, and no map will appear in this edition. The highest nightly trap catches of ECB for the week ending 7/22/20 are as follows: Allamuchy 1 Crosswicks 1 Denville 1 Cinnaminson 1 Downer 1 Fall armyworm (FAW) larval infestations are light and widely […]

Filed Under: Organic Production, Vegetable Crops

USDA Farmers To Families Food Box Program – New Round Solicitation

Meet Cosmo, a bull calf designed to produce 75% male offspring

Unsolicited Seeds From Foreign Sources

Differentiating the Common Wood Borers of Ash Trees

NYCAMH/NEC Farmworker Needs Assessment Survey

Vegetable IPM Update 7/22/20

NJAES Event Calendar

Commercial Recommendations

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