That's the advice to susceptible wheat variety growers as a new product is approved to tackle the pest. Crops are vulnerable to attack by larvae from their eggs only from ear emergence to flowering and this season, with many well advanced, some southern ones may escape damage, says Mr Oakley. After promising to be a non-event after the long dry spell, field invasion has become possible after widespread heavy rain. About 10mm will encourage soillarvae to pupate and develop into adults,...

Record drought is taking a toll on crops, leaving farmers such as Webster wondering whether rain will return in time to save them. NEW HOPE - Jeff Webster scooped up a handful of soil from his cornfield and looked dejectedly at the parched, ruddy clump. Two months ago when planting hundreds of acres of corn, Webster and Frazier made a bet that corn futures prices - soaring from the biofuel craze - would remain high. Webster is among some 43,000 farmers statewide affected by one of the...

While most winter wheat is not quite ready for harvest, early damage from the April freeze has already pushed harvest back a few days. supplies of wheat dwindle due to lower than expected yields for winter wheat or a poor growing season for spring wheat, the loss of Ukrainian imports could have a dramatic impact on wheat ending stocks and hence prices later in the year. Both of these pieces of information were bullish for wheat prices on Wednesday with prices on the July wheat contract...

usDiggRedditYahooMyWebGoogleWhat's this? Print Email Farm subsidies: The pressures for change By LARRY MITCHELL - Staff Writer Article Launched:06/03/2007 12:15:58 PM PDT (Part 2 of two) One take on the controversy over farm subsidies can be seen in a recent Reader's Digest article titled "You Sow, They Reap: Why are your tax dollars lining the pockets of wealthy farm owners?" usDiggRedditYahooMyWebGoogleWhat's this? Print Email Farm subsidies: The pressures for change By LARRY MITCHELL -...

Growers could use an insecticide on the wheat seed, but that may not be economically justified as a routine practice, Shaner said. A good wheat crop would produce 35 kernels per head, Shaner said. Shortly after the new aphids start to feed on an infected plant, they acquire the virus and spread the infection as they move to healthy plants, he said. On a healthy well-formed wheat head, there should be roughly 16-18 spikelets, and each spikelet should have 2 kernels. Other symptoms are...