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LinkedInPosts Tagged: Larry Godfrey
Stacey Rice's Stag Beetle T-Shirt Wins UC Davis Contest
Ever seen a stag beetle? You know, that curious-looking male beetle with mandibles that resemble deer antlers? Now you can not only see a stag beetle, you can wear one. In fact, four of them. Entomologist Stacey Lee Rice won the UC Davis Entomology Graduate Students Association's...
Entomologist Stacey Rice wearing her prize-winning t-shirt, "The Stag Beetles." In the background is Briggs Hall, home of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. This t-shirt and other insect-themed shirts are available from the Entomology Graduate Students' Association. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Researchers (from left) Larry Godfrey, Ian Grettenberger and Stacey Rice in the Godfrey lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Have a Rice Day! (Except for the Armyworms)
It's a day that rice growers look forward to. Bugs, not so much. Because they're targeted. Especially the fall armyworms. California's 2015 rice season indicated unprecedented levels of armyworms--the highest of the last 25 years, according to Extension entomologist Larry Godfrey of the UC...
Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, is a pest of rice. (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia: Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility)
UC ANR and San Joaquin Valley cotton growers join forces to prevent sticky cotton in 2015
“It's like having an embarrassing social disease,” Betancourt said. “We want to do better, and we need your help.”
Betancourt was appealing to UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and other experts who were gathered with him at the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association annual meeting in Visalia. UC ANR entomology specialist Larry Godfrey had begun the pest management session with a somber message. The whiteflies that cotton growers had been controlling reasonably well for more than 20 years was suddenly posing a tremendous challenge.
“I don't know what's up,” said Godfrey, who is housed in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at UC Davis. “It's a different critter.”
Betancourt attested to Godfrey's conclusions. He observed a few whiteflies in the field during the summer of 2013. It was a minor problem. In 2014, he decided to be more aggressive with monitoring and treating for the pest.
“I doubled down last year, but we had a bigger problem with whiteflies,” he said. “I thought, ‘This just can't happen!'”
Whiteflies feed on plant sap and then excrete honeydew. The sweet, sticky honeydew settles on open cotton bolls. If sticky cotton makes its way to spinning mills, it gums up the machinery. It's a scenario that mill managers won't soon forget.
Because of the San Joaquin Valley's long, dry growing season, cotton farmers have earned a reputation for high-quality, high value cotton, said Roger Isom, the CEO of the California Cotton Growers and Ginners Association. Sticky cotton is major concern.
“It happened in Arizona and almost destroyed the state's cotton industry,” Isom said. “Sticky cotton brings mills to a standstill. If they start getting sticky cotton, they'll decide to stop buying from the area where it came from. And once you have the stigma, it's extremely hard to overcome.”
Godfrey said the new biotype of sweet potato whitefly was first found in the San Joaquin Valley in July 1992. Certain areas required careful management, such as those closer to cities where it is warmer and the pest can spend the winter on ornamental plants. Farmers were able to deal with it.
“Then, in 2013 and 2014, populations of whitefly developed in other parts of the San Joaquin Valley, not only adjacent to cities. We don't know why or exactly what is going on,” Godfrey said.
Initially, pest control advisers suspected the whitefly was developing pesticide resistance. UC ANR research trials at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center in Five Points and the Shafter Research Station in Kern County showed that insecticides used at label rates were still able to knock down the pest.
“What we did notice was we had a lot more whitefly and we started seeing them earlier than normal,” Godfrey said. “It certainly makes it more expensive to grow cotton and, if not controlled, makes sticky cotton.”
What's worse, the reputation of cotton in a whole area is tarnished if one or two farmers mismanage the pest and their cotton gets into commercial channels.
“In my area, we have a problem right now and it's not just my problem,” Betancourt said. “Everybody who has whiteflies has to deal with them. We have a reputation to uphold.”
All the growers who send cotton to the same gin as Betancourt will be invited to meet with UC ANR scientists Godfrey and Pete Goodell, integrated pest management advisor, to strategize about whitefly control for 2015.
Godfrey said they will emphasize the importance of early management and treatment, sharing lessons learned in Arizona.
“The scientists there did a lot of really good work on quantifying an infestation and determining when to treat,” Godfrey said. “We are taking their recommendations and studying where we might need to make changes due to California growing conditions.”
Goodell said it is critically important for growers to take the threat of sticky cotton seriously.
“We can't reiterate enough, once you develop a poor reputation for sticky cotton, it sticks with you,” Goodell said.
An initiative to manage endemic and invasive pests and diseases is part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Strategic Vision 2025.
Additional resources:
Goodell webinar on Preventing Sticky Cotton.
Godfrey research report PDF attached below:
Management of late-season infestations of cotton aphids and sweet potato whiteflies (strain B) in Pima cotton in the San Joaquin Valley
Candy canes get their fresh peppermint flavor from farmers
Many people enjoy the cool and refreshing peppermint flavor without knowing there are ingenious farmers and agricultural researchers working year-round to produce the naturally spicy bite of this holiday icon. Candy canes get their distinctive taste from the oil secreted under the leaves of Mentha × piperita, the bright green herbaceous perennial herb known as peppermint.
Peppermint, a cross between spearmint and wintermint, is America’s most popular mint flavor. Peppermint oil is an important ingredient not just in candy; it is used in toothpaste, mouthwash, gum, pharmaceuticals and beauty products.
The majority of U.S. peppermint is cultivated in the Pacific Northwest, where summer days are warm and long and nights are cool, minimizing the presence of a chemical that imparts a bitter taste in the mint oil. In far northern California – near the University of California’s Intermountain Research and Extension Center in Siskiyou County, plus in Lassen County and in the Fall River Valley of Shasta County – the soil and climate are equally hospitable to mint production.
UC researchers have experimented with mint for more than 50 years, said Rob Wilson, UC Cooperative Extension advisor and director of the Intermountain REC. But it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that interest in commercially producing California peppermint took off. The 2010 peppermint acreage in northeast California was more than 3,500 acres and valued at about $7 million.
“Farmers are excited to have a new cropping choice like mint,” Wilson said, “especially given the fact that we have fewer choices than most areas of California because of our short growing season. Mint has given our farmers a new crop to add to their rotations.”
California peppermint oil producers have stiff competition. A significant quantity of peppermint oil is now produced in China and India. But U.S. growers see the opportunity to set their product apart by applying their agricultural skill to producing exceptionally high quality oil. To do so, the growers rely on research to inform their decisions on irrigation, fertilization and pest control. Extensive work on ideal mint management has been conducted in the Pacific Northwest, but there is a need for additional research to study mint production and economic viability under California conditions.
Peppermint is grown in a fashion similar to other field crops common in the intermountain region and can be harvested with some of the same equipment used for alfalfa and forages, Wilson said. Farmers plant certified verticillium wilt-free rootstock in the fall, and the peppermint stand produces a crop for about five years.
When mint has reached maturity, farmers swath the field like alfalfa and leave the plants to dry a few days before raking them into windrows. Using a forage harvester, the peppermint crop is chopped into small pieces and blown into tubs. At the distillery, steam is forced through the tubs to extract the oil.
“In harvest season, there’s a fragrant aroma of peppermint in the air,” Wilson said. “Even driving by a still along the highway, you immediately notice the smell.”
Peppermint begins bearing a crop the first year after the fall planting, producing 40 to 90 pounds of mint oil per acre. In subsequent years, the crop produces 60 to 120 pounds of oil per acre.
Wilson and Dan Marcum, UCCE advisor in Shasta and Lassen counties, developed a cost study for establishing and producing peppermint oil in the intermountain region. The UC study notes the importance of determining a market channel for the oil before the mint is planted. Annual contracts for the oils are generally negotiated in the winter for the following season at a fixed number of pounds at a set price. It is risky to grow the crop without a prearranged contract because on the spot market growers are competing with imported mint oil, which can be produced in areas where lower wages and limited regulations cut the production cost.
A major risk associated with peppermint farming, the study reported, is producing oil of poor quality, for which there is little or no demand. For example, weeds harvested with the mint lower the quality of oil. Pigweed and other broadleaf weeds contaminate the peppermint oil with a weedy flavor note. Plant stress caused by inadequate water or nitrogen or by insect damage can also reduce oil quality.
IREC has more than five acres of peppermint and a small peppermint still for studying production and evaluating the quality of oil. Wilson, along Intermountain REC superintendent Don Kirby, is using this acreage to compare irrigation, fertilization and harvest management strategies in order to maximize peppermint oil yield and oil quality under local soil and climatic conditions.
The IREC peppermint acreage is also used to study insect management. Among the pests that can reduce peppermint oil quality are spider mites and a recently introduced insect pest, mint root borer. These pests prompt significant pesticide use. Given the highly sensitive watersheds and environment of the intermountain area, wide usage of pesticides is considered problematic. Propargite and chlorpyrifos, the most commonly used pesticides for spider mite and mint root borer control, are under regulatory scrutiny.
In 2010, with funding from a California Department of Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant, Larry Godfrey, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Entomology at UC Davis, and Kris Tollerup, UC Davis post doctoral researcher, along with Marcum and Wilson, began investigating mint yield and quality response to spider mite infestation, spider mite management methods in mint, and reduced-risk insecticides for mint root borer management. In addition, a study is under way to determine if sex pheromone mating disruption is a plausible tactic against mint root borer, and whether adjusting the timing of the insecticide improve mint root borer control. These research projects will continue in 2013.
In the two-minute video below, Wilson explains how UC researchers use a mini peppermint oil still.
Rice pest problems were minimal in 2012
Godfrey reached that conclusion even though he trapped 10 times more rice water weevils in his control trials this season than in 2011, the article said.
Tadpole shrimp populations also were high this season and damage was evident. Godfrey believes they were excessive due to the winter dry period. It took longer for growers to flood fields due to the dry spring soil conditions and that contributed to the higher shrimp population.
Godfrey is testing insecticides Coragen and Belay to control these pests. Coragen is several years from registration. Belay is entangled in a honey bee kill issue so the state and federal governments are asking for more testing.
Godfrey was a presenter at a recent rice field day at the California Cooperative Rice Research Foundation, Inc., Rice Experiment Station. World demand for rice, the article said, will only grow more voracious.
