Farming and Agriculture

At first blush, the warmer average winter temperatures brought on by climate change would seem to be a boon for New York's grape growers and winemakers. But warmer autumns and more "false" springs are disrupting the signals grapevines rely on to gain cold hardiness for the winter and blossom effectively... Read more

Over the last three decades, South Texas cattle producer Bob McCan has discovered more about his rangeland and pasture conditions from analyzing manure than any academic paper or ranch consultation could provide.... Read more

A smoke sensor developed by La Trobe University academics that has the potential to save hundreds of millions of dollars in lost wine production is in the process of being rolled out across the wine industry, with monitors now being used to track the impact of bushfires ravaging the Grampians.... Read more

A study has identified a wheat nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeat (NLR) gene pair, RXL and Pm5e, that confers resistance to the devastating wheat powdery mildew disease.... Read more

As climate change accelerates, plants face mounting pressure to adapt to shifting ecosystems and environmental conditions. This challenge is especially urgent for crops—plants resilient to drought and heat are essential to secure food supply in an unpredictable future. Fortunately, plants can adapt remarkably well to diverse environments and climates: Arabidopsis... Read more

Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) and the Prince of Songkla University in Thailand have demonstrated that wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bats not only travel great distances, but also hunt at impressive altitudes of up to 1,600 meters—the altitude at which many planthoppers fly, which are dreaded... Read more

Greg Herbruck knew 6.5 million of his birds needed to die, and fast. But the CEO of Herbruck's Poultry Ranch wasn't sure how the family egg producer (one of the largest in the U.S., in business for over three generations) was going to get through it, financially or emotionally. One... Read more

A research team led by plant virus expert Dr. Björn Krenz from the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH in Braunschweig, Germany has investigated chickpeas grown in Germany for plant virus infections. For the first time, researchers have confirmed that this superfood is infected with various... Read more

Biodiversity is under threat worldwide. While the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) estimated in 2019 that 1 million out of 8 million species are threatened with extinction, more recent studies put the figure at twice as high: 2 million animal and plant species are therefore on... Read more

An innovative resource designed to streamline and improve decision-making in agricultural and natural resources production and management is now available to a wide range of users—including policymakers, land and water managers, farmers, researchers and extension agents across the nation.... Read more

Each morning Indian farmer R Murali opens an app on his phone to check if his pomegranate trees need watering, fertilizer or are at risk from pests.... Read more

Fish welfare is, of course, a critical topic in salmon farming. It is therefore important to see the fish as individuals, rather than just a group. Researchers have used camera technology combined with artificial intelligence to monitor and analyze the breathing rates of individual fish.... Read more

There's a longstanding attitude in many farming communities that trees and agriculture don't mix. But agroforestry—the intentional integration of trees and shrubs in agricultural systems, such as planting trees as windbreaks, integrating trees on pastures, or growing tree crops intercropped with annual crops—can provide a multitude of benefits to both... Read more

A corn plant knows how to find water in soil with the very tips of its roots, but some varieties, including many used for breeding high-yielding corn in the U.S., appear to have lost a portion of that ability, according to a Stanford-led study. With climate change increasing droughts, the... Read more

Vanilla is vital to the livelihoods of farmers in Madagascar, where the globally popular dessert ingredient is the country's No. 1 export. A fun, thought-provoking game designed by a team of scientists and played by Malagasy vanilla farmers reveals the challenges of payment programs that incentivize forest conservation in the... Read more