During 1998-2003, we used populations of the solitary bee Osmia lignaria Say to pollinate a commercial sweet cherry orchard in northern Utah. Bee densities released each year ranged from 1290 to 1857 females/ha, with approximately twice as many males. Female progeny produced each year were greater than parental populations released, except in 2003, when nesting was poor due to bird predation. D...

Root-lesion nematodes (primarily Pratylenchus penetrans) were monitored in two marigold cultivars (Tagetes tenuifolia cv. Nemakill and cv. Nemanon), annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum cv. Lemtal), red clover (Trifolium pratense cv. Florex), and soybean (Glycine max cv. Proteus), and in the following potato (Solanum tuberosum cv. Superior) crop during three growth sequences. Meadow fescue (Fest...

The potential effects of future climate change were investigated, corresponding to a doubling of atmospheric CO2 from 350 to 700 ppm, on agricultural production of four different cropping systems at two Italian locations, Modena and Foggia. Climate change scenarios, derived from two general circulation models (GCMs), were used as weather input to a soil-plant growth simulator, CropSyst. This mo...

Agriculture today places great strains on biodiversity, soils, water and the atmosphere, and these strains will be exacerbated if current trends in population growth, meat and energy consumption, and food waste continue. Thus, farming systems that are both highly productive and minimize environmental harms are critically needed. How organic agriculture may contribute to world food production ha...

Herbicide-resistant weeds are challenging for producers to control in crop fields. This study explores the potential of cover crops reduce weed pressure and improve soil health. Cover that had good canopy development, including grasses such as ryegrass wheat, best control. Soybean yields were similar all crops, though there was a trend towards lower brassica Graza radish forage collards. Soybea...

Comparison of average crop yields with reported record yields has shown that major crops exhibit annual average yields three- to seven-fold lower than record yields because of unfavorable environments. The current study investigated the enhancement of pollen heat tolerance through expressing an Arabidopsis thaliana heat shock protein 101 (AtHSP101) that is not normally expressed in pollen but r...

Cropland diversity has diminished with the advent of mechanized agriculture. In some cases, a single crop is grown year after year in the same field. The lack of diversity in crops rotated in a field has allowed pests to build up, reduced yields, and in some cases increased soil erosion and reduced soil quality. Recognizing these problems, efforts are underway in many farming regions to add mor...

Fibrous green crops can be separated by mechanical methods into two fractions: a highquality fibrous feedstuff for ruminants and a liquid rich in protein, sugars and minerals for non-ruminants. The yields of crude protein (CP) (nitrogenx6.~5) which can be obtained from grasses and legume crops are substantially greater than for other methods of crop or animal production (Davys, 1973) (Table I),...

Crop rotation is an effective tactic for soybean cyst nematode (SCN) management. In the North Central region of the USA, corn is almost exclusively used as a nonhost rotation crop with soybean. This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of crops common to or having potential use in the North Central region as rotation crops for managing SCN. Sixteen potential rotation crops and SCN...

The United States produces 41% of the world's corn and 38% of the world's soybeans. These crops comprise two of the four largest sources of caloric energy produced and are thus critical for world food supply. We pair a panel of county-level yields for these two crops, plus cotton (a warmer-weather crop), with a new fine-scale weather dataset that incorporates the whole distribution of temperatu...