John LaRose Jr. John LaRose Jr.
shared this 2 article 5 years ago
Topics: Agriculture Global, Beekeeping, Gardening, World Population, Pollinators, Education,

Bumblebees’ Self-Image Gets Them through Tight Spots

Sridhar Ravi was outdoors with his colleagues on a summer day in Germany when a group of bumblebees grabbed his attention. As the bees made their way from flower to flower, they skillfully flew between obstacles, dodging branches and shrubs. These actions seemed to require a complex awareness of one's physical body in relation to one’s environment that had only been proven to exist in animals with large brains.  To examine this, a team of researchers at Australia’s University of New South Wales, Canberra, led by Ravi, set up a hive of bumblebees inside their laboratory. The bees could come and go via a tunnel, which could be partially blocked with an adjustable barrier. Ravi and his team made the gap progressively smaller over time, and observed how the bees’ reactions changed. The study , published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , found the bumblebees measured the gap by flying side-to-side to scan it. When the gap became narrower than their wingspan, the bees took a longer time to scan the opening. And then they did something remarkable: they turned their bodies to fly through sideways . Some of the bees’ bodies did bump the sides of the narrowed opening—but every one of the 400 recorded flights through the gap was a success. “Over thousands of years nature has coded insects with some amazing attributes,” Ravi says. “Our challenge now is to see how we can take this and apply similar coding to future robotic systems, enhancing their performance in the natural world.”

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MATTHEW OEHMICHEN MATTHEW OEHMICHEN
shared this 2 article 5 years ago

Interseeding cover crops isnt just about getting green on top; to make an impact it takes more than that. In light of a lot of videos out there talking about cover crops, I make sure to tell you the whole story and what we all need to be looking for. #wisconsinfarmerstrong #protectingthebigeaupleine

https://youtu.be/3qEVU1lF9rI

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MATTHEW OEHMICHEN MATTHEW OEHMICHEN
shared this 2 article 5 years ago

Jason Cavadini is Asst. Superintendent at the UW Ag Research station in Stratford, WIS and heads all the research plots there. The last several years we have been working together though my company Short Lane and our farmerled watershed group EPPIC. In this presentation he showcases the impact interseeded cover crops have on corn silage quality, 60in row corn, analyzing landscape management systems, and using alternative forages...which i had the luck to help him with (well, collecting samples , lol)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqLwDKPK...

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JAMES MSASA JAMES MSASA
shared this 2 article 5 years ago
Topics: Corn/Maize, Commodities, Agriculture Global,

Farmer's Co-operatives in Southern Highlands zone.

VIBINJO COOPERATIVE LTD presenting their Strategic Plan for 2021.

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Nancy Kavazanjian Nancy Kavazanjian
shared this 2 article 5 years ago
Topics: Agriculture US, Fruit, Sustainability,

Check out this cranberry farm

2020 New England Leopold Conservation Award

Linda Rinta & The Rinta Family Farm West Wareham, Massachusetts Like Aldo Leopold, Linda Rinta sees herself as a “sand farmer.” She’s a berry farmer and beek...

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TOPIC(S): Corn/Maize, Irrigation, Water,

11/10/2020 SOURCE: www.ecowatch.com

Farmers Are Depleting the Ogallala Aquifer Because the Government Pays Them to Do So

Amending federal farm credit rates could also slow the treadmill. Generous terms promote borrowing for irrigation equipment; to pay that debt, borrowers farm more land. Offering lower rates for equipment that reduces water use and withholding loans for standard, wasteful equipment could nudge farmers toward conservation.The most powerful tool is the tax code. Currently, farmers receive deductions for declining groundwater levels and can write off depreciation on irrigation equipment. Replacing these perks with a tax credit for stabilizing groundwater and substituting a depreciation schedule favoring more efficient irrigation equipment could provide strong incentives to conserve water.

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