For decades, whenever farmers in the Everglades Agricultural Area needed help figuring out what fertilizers to use in their fields, they turned to the University of Florida’s Everglades Research and Education Center for soil testing and lab work. This month, an expansion and improvements are being unveiled.
William Thatcher, an active emeritus UF/IFAS faculty member, is considered one of the world’s leading experts in animal reproduction. He played a key role in establishing links between the intake of fatty acids by dairy cows and their effects on improving reproduction.
Curricula resources are available to freely download at http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/education.
Many people live in subdivisions with storm water ponds, which collect water from the neighborhood and help keep pollutants such as fertilizers, pesticides and pet waste from getting into the broader environment. Now, UF/IFAS researchers and Extension faculty have devised strategies to help homeowners limit their pollution contribution.
The next time a storm tears up your yard, let an expert assess the damage to any trees. A study from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences shows that homeowners perceive the risk of a damaged tree differently than trained professionals.
Sandra Wilson came to Gainesville after 15 years as an environmental horticulture faculty member at the UF/IFAS Indian River Research and Education Center. Wilson was ready for her next career step. Not only had she taught many courses and published more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles while moving up the faculty ranks, she had taken leadership courses.
University of Florida Agricultural Economist Fritz Roka and his team from UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences are leading training programs all over the state, beginning Oct. 7, to help farm labor contractors, crew leaders, drivers and office staff become better at managing crews of farm workers and keeping them safe.
“Participants will walk away with knowledge of how to establish, manage and market fruits and vegetables in Central Florida,” said Orange County Extension Director Richard Tyson, one of the event’s organizers. “They will also obtain a better understanding of local food systems.”
Asian guava orchards can bring nine times the profit as mango and avocado, all staples of South Florida’s agricultural sector, a new University of Florida study shows. But Edward “Gilly” Evans, a UF/IFAS associate professor of food and resource economics, cautioned that guava is a niche market that can easily be oversupplied.
In between seasons of corn, peanut, and cotton, North Florida farmers were interested in growing a rotation crop that could withstand the wilting heat of summer and be harvested by machine.
Instead of freezing unwanted crested floatinghearts and bringing them to a local landfill, many homeowners toss them into canals, said Lyn Gettys, an assistant professor of agronomy with the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. For about a year, Gettys has been compiling data to quantify the seriousness that crested floatingheart poses for canals. Crested floatinghearts reproduce mostly by way of ramets, an asexual form of multiplying. Gettys is trying to find out how many “babies” a single plant can make.
With deer hunting season under way in the state, University of Florida Extension Agent Derek Barber has some tips for North Florida hunters on planting the right forages in food plots to help attract deer and wild turkey.
Most recreational anglers who target deep-water reef fish in Florida recognize barotrauma symptoms, and University of Florida researchers think they can teach the other 30 percent to help save the fish. By doing so, anglers would play a key role in sustaining the state’s valuable fisheries.
He and members of his team are helping to take photographs of and catalogue 2.3 million microfungi specimens for a worldwide database of mushrooms, truffles, molds and mildews, among other types of fungi. The National Science Foundation recently awarded the team more than $200,000 for their efforts.
Nan-Yao Su, who invented the Sentricon® system for termite colony elimination, will join such famous inventors as Robert Cade, who devised Gatorade, and Thomas Edison when the hall of fame inducts him Oct. 2.
“It was refreshing to see young consumers being interested in purchasing fruit and peaches in particular,” said Mercy Olmstead, assistant professor in horticultural sciences and lead author of the study. “Most of the breeding efforts here at UF have been directed toward peaches with non-melting, firmer texture, so having the younger generation prefer crisp, firm peaches was exciting.”
Today, UF/IFAS’s Extension program, with offices in all 67 counties, has expanded well beyond farming, ranching and homemaking. It helps Floridians address issues concerning natural resources, health and nutrition, and youth development, among many other areas.
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers have taken a big step toward breeding tastier blueberries with a three-year study that examined the traits consumers desire. Now they have specific breeding targets to improve flavor.
Laboratory tests show that polymer molecules impregnated with imidacloprid use 200 times less of the insecticide, yet still kill as many insects that carry the devastating citrus greening bacterium.
The forum is free and open to the public and is being held in the union’s grand ballroom from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Andrew Koeser, who has helped design a tree risk-management app and is co-writing tree identification books, has been named as a co-recipient of the International Society of Arboriculture’s Early Career Scientist Award. The app project is designed to give cities an easy and efficient means of taking inventory and assessing the safety of their trees. Should a severe storm hit, the data collected will help managers more quickly estimate debris levels for cleanup.
South Florida is on the front lines in the war against invasive reptiles and amphibians because its warm climate makes it a place where they like to live, a new University of Florida study shows. Using computer models and data showing where reptiles live in Florida, UF/IFAS scientists predicted where they could find non-native species in the future. They found that as temperatures climb, areas grow more vulnerable to invasions by exotic reptiles. Conversely, they found that extreme cold temperatures protect against invasion.
About 1.52 million people worked full- or part-time in Florida’s agriculture, natural resources and food industries in 2013, an 8.7 percent increase in jobs over 2012, according to a new UF/IFAS economic report.
Grandin gained international fame when an HBO movie was made about her life. She is giving a free public lecture Sept. 24.
More than 140 species of reptiles and amphibians have been introduced in Florida, with more than 50 breeding here. “South Florida is particularly susceptible to non-native invasions as a result of its subtropical climate, island-like geography, major ports of entry for plants and animals, thriving trade in exotic pets and occasional hurricanes, which increase the risk of escapes,” said Frank Mazzotti, professor of wildlife ecology and conservation at the UF/IFAS Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center.
Nuessly has worked at the Everglades research center since 1989. Before being named interim director, he served for two years as associate director for the center, which is part of UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
With tropical storm season in full swing, it’s a great time to think about flood insurance. A new feature on the Florida Sea Grant website puts you a mouse click way from information to help you understand flood insurance, why it’s important, whether you’re required to have it and how to get it.
Phil Koehler sees his students as the reason he’s being inducted into the Pest Management Professional Hall of Fame. Koehler has provided opportunities for students, many of whom have stayed in entomology, and specifically pest management. Some will attend his hall of fame induction in Nashville, Tennessee, in October, an honor Koehler appreciates.
While this pathogen is not new to Florida, this is the first report of it infecting the wild date palm. The good news is that you can prevent the spread of F. oxysporum f. sp. canariensis most of the time by sterilizing pruning tools prior to pruning or by using a new pruning tool.
The funds are paying for projects to enable innovative biological research and foster collaborations using data from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), a groundbreaking, continent-wide observatory that allows scientists to systematically study the Earth's biosphere.
Eric J. Jokela, a professor of silviculture – managing and producing better forests -- and forest nutrition will receive the Barrington Moore Memorial Award in Biological Science by the Society of American Foresters (SAF). Since 1955, this annual award recognizes “distinguished individual research in any branch of the biological sciences that has resulted in substantial advances in forestry."
The University of Florida will re-allocate a donation intended to improve the public’s understanding of science after public threats to the researcher.
A new study published in the journal, Urban Ecosystems, shows that frogs have begun to use manmade ponds to their benefit.
Asian tiger mosquitoes can drive down yellow fever mosquito populations when the female chooses the wrong male with which to mate, UF/IFAS scientists say. Both insects transmit chikungunya and dengue, dangerous diseases affecting millions of people worldwide.
With the laurel wilt pathogen threatening the Florida avocado industry, a UF/IFAS tropical fruit scientist will lend his expertise at the September meeting in Lima, Peru. The avocado industry, which is estimated to have a $100 million dollar a year impact on Florida's economy, is in real danger, the scientist says.
Animals, including dogs and horses, can contract pythiosis from swimming spores. About 10 cases of humans getting sick from this disease have also been reported in the U.S.
A 20-year plan to dramatically reduce phosphorus levels of agricultural water entering the Florida Everglades is working.
Post-doctoral Researcher Yun-Ya Yang, working with Associate Professor Gurpal Toor, studied areas along rural and urban parts of the Alafia River, in Hillsborough County, near Tampa. They found 17 pharmaceuticals. But they say these types of chemicals are not confined to the Alafia River or urban-area rivers in Florida.
With the start of another school year, a University of Florida expert warns of a head-scratching problem ─ lice.
Visitors to the site can find 104 publications supporting the ratings in the guide and can conduct queries of the rootstock information. The information and tools let you make informed citrus rootstock selections for your groves.
One scientist will examine how to reduce mammary cell growth so he and his colleagues can develop strategies to limit the negative impact of heat stress on cows that are late in pregnancy and not producing milk. The other will try to determine if fetus and calf development differs between Bos indicus and Bos taurus cattle when faced with nutritional restrictions in early gestation. He wants to see how that affects subsequent cattle performance.
Muthusami Kumaran takes his students to India each summer in a cultural exchange program. They learn about nonprofit leadership, organization and management, while he gives lectures and consults.
Biological control of pests, weeds, plants and animals gives “the best hope to providing lasting, environmentally sound and socially acceptable pest management,” according to a new book edited by two UF/IFAS scientists.
University of Florida researchers devised a “machine vision system,” to count citrus fruit that has dropped early,which will save time and money.
A new University of Florida scientist is trying to find an insect that will eat the fly that’s damaging such fruit as strawberries and blueberries in the Sunshine State. Such a finding would be critical in Florida, where the strawberry harvest brought in $267 million in 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
UF/IFAS researchers continue to study ways to nip the virus in the bud and monitor its spread. Researchers at the UF/IFAS Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory in Vero Beach track rainfall, groundwater levels, mosquito abundance, wild bird populations and virus transmission to animals including horses and sentinel chickens. Researchers use these data to track the virus transmission between mosquitoes and wild birds, noting when mosquito infection rates reach the levels that can infect humans. They document background on West Nile virus in Florida in a new article in the Journal of Medical Entomology.
As thousands of college students across America return to school for the fall, a UF/IFAS financial expert has quick, simple advice: Read the apartment lease. To some, reviewing the lease may seem obvious; to others, it may seem onerous. But it’s time well spent, said Michael Gutter, an associate professor of family financial management and associate dean of Extension at UF/IFAS.
The Florida legislature recently allocated $2 million a year for the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences to study Hemorrhagic disease, a virus which affects deer and can cross over into cattle.
A UF/IFAS plant pathologist calls the finding a "game-changer" for the ornamental plant. But now, growers know the disease is out there and can make necessary adjustments, using fungicides for disease management.
Homeowners can answer six questions, and contractors will know whether and how willing they are to install energy efficient upgrades. Heating and cooling make up 54 percent of American households’ utility bills, a primary concern for Randy Cantrell, a UF/IFAS assistant professor and Extension specialist in housing and community development. For some people, their monthly energy bill comes as sticker shock. But we all react differently when we open the envelope, and Cantrell calls that response “botheredness.”
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