COLLEGE STATION — A new fungal disease on sorghum in Texas may be easily identified and its spread limited through information found on two new fact sheets available from the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. “Ergot of Sorghum: Disease Threat to the Texas Sorghum Industry” and “Sorghum Ergot: Field Identification” are being released this week to…
WESLACO — Scientists at the Texas A&M Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Weslaco say the fungus that ruined most of this year’s melon crop probably won’t return. Not with the vengeance it had this year, anyway. The culprit, responsible for an economic loss of up to $66 million and some 2,000 jobs, is gummy…
BUSHLAND — Starting this year, two agricultural engineers at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service Conservation and Production Agricultural Research Laboratory are gathering data to compare the efficiency of low-energy precision (LEPA) and low-elevation spray (LESA) application devices with the more common overhead spray heads. “The 1996-97 wheat year is the first leg in this study, so…
BUSHLAND When a farmer looks at a clump of good Panhandle soil, what’s in the dirt isn’t readily evident to the eye, says Dr. Charles Rush, pathologist with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station here. For Rush, the action starts at the molecular level where particulate matter and life forms include the pathogens which cause disease….
DALLAS — The results of a three-year study of landscape run-off water at Texas A&M’s Dallas Research and Extension Center will be the focal point of a water quality conference set for July 9 at the North Dallas facility. Dr. James Reinert, Dallas researcher and director of the project, will conduct tours of micro-landscapes to…
BUSHLAND – Researchers at USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Agriculture Laboratory are looking for ways to save every ounce of water needed to grow crops, whether it is applied or received as rainfall. “The work involves water runoff from low energy precision application (LEPA) irrigation systems, where it is being measured from both diked and undiked…
COLLEGE STATION — Researchers at Texas A&M and in New York have found a key to protecting plants from rice blast, the major disease affecting rice worldwide. “This work represents a new approach to fighting rice blast,” said Dr. Daniel Ebbole, assistant professor of plant pathology and microbiology at Texas A&M University and a researcher…
BURNET — Rabies in coyotes and gray foxes haven’t been choked out yet in Texas, but the noose is tightening, thanks to a third successful year in a cooperative state program. The Texas Animal Damage Control Service, working with other government agencies, helped lead an aerial assault that spread baited rabies vaccine over 41,000 square…
COLLEGE STATION — A new and potentially devastating grain sorghum disease in the United States has both long- and short-term ramifications equally critical to the industry. At issue is how to protect this year’s crop from the spread of sorghum ergot (ERR-got), which swept across the entire South American continent in less than two years,…
COLLEGE STATION — An imaginary box full of surprises has been delivered to the World Wide Web, and visitors are urged to take the items on a fantasy vacation to mark National Agriculture Week: Texas Style. “My Agri-Spring Break,” is an interactive story designed to teach the public more about the state’s No. 2 industry….
