OCR Text |
Show Fly Control In Alfalfa Urged The first step in alfalfa seed chalcid fly control should be taken tak-en now. Chaff from last year's alfalfa seed thrashing operations should be fed to dry livestock and non-dairy animals within the next few weeks, pointed out Dr. G. F. Knowlton, extension entomologist of the Utah State Agricultural college. Effective control of the alfalfa al-falfa seed chalid is a community problem. All growers in an area should adopt control practices if full control benefit is to be obtained. Growers should consider the advisability of raising all first, or all second crop seed, in any one seed area. It is always well to eliminate volunteer alfalfa plants, which grow along ditch banks, roadsides, etc., which otherwise would be breeding chalcids to infest the commercial commer-cial seed crop. First crop seed provides a longer breeding period per-iod for the seed chalcid each season than does the second crop .seed. I Growers should do such things as they can to reduce shattering and seed wastage in the field. Efficient cutting, raking and threshing equipment should be used carefully to reduce seed loss during harvesting operations. opera-tions. Always feed, burn, or compost com-post alfalfa and clover chaff stacks before May 1. Never plant uncleaned seed, nor screenings, the entomologist emphasized. Cultivation of seed fields, when performed in the fall, buries many seeds so that they rot. This results in reduced chalcid emergence, Professor C. J. Sorenson, of the Utah Agricultural Agri-cultural Experiment station, found. |