Month: March 2022

Farm Stress Management Workshops

Emily Zobel on

University of Maryland Extension will host a series of Farm Stress Management  Workshops for Agriculture Service Providers. 

This workshop is designed for Agriculture Service Providers to equip them with the skills and  knowledge to support farms and farm families in times of distress. The University of Maryland  Extension Farm Stress Management Team will train service providers to identify signs of  distress, develop skills to communicate with those experiencing stress, and provide resources  both locally and nationally. Financial and regulatory topics will also be discussed as they are  often contributors to stress on the farm. 

Upcoming Trainings (All hosted from 9:30 AM – 2:30 PM): 

  • Southern MD (UMD Extension, Calvert County) : April 5, 2022. 30 Duke Street, #103, Prince Frederick, MD 20678
  • Lower Shore (University of Maryland Eastern Shore) : April 6, 2022. Hensen Center – 11868 Academic Oval, Princess Anne, MD 21853
  • Central MD (UMD Extension, Montgomery County) : April 7, 2022. 18410 Muncaster Rd, Derwood, MD 20855
  • Western MD (UMD Extension, Washington County) : April 13, 2022. 7303 Sharpsburg Pike, Boonsboro, MD 21713
  • MidShore (Chesapeake College) : April 14, 2022. Higher Education Center – 1000 College Circle Wye Mills, MD 21679

For more information contact Shannon Dill, Extension Educator, University of Maryland  Extension (410-822-1244 / sdill@umd.edu). To register visit  

https://fsagservice2022.eventbrite.com. The program is open to all. If you need special  accommodations please contact the organizers two weeks prior to the event. For more  information on the Farm Stress Management Education Project visit  

www.go.umd.edu/farmfamily.  

This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture,  U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and  Education program under sub award number ENE20-160-34268.

Mowing: a casually thought of integrated weed management tool

Emily Zobel on

By Cerruti R2 Hooks$ and Dwayne Joseph*
$Professor and Extension Specialist, *Post-Doctoral Fellow, CMNS, Department of Entomology,

Mowing is a relatively inexpensive form of mechanical weed control that can reduce the use of tillage, herbicide and manual weeding. It may serve as an alternative to herbicide and cultivation or part of an integrated approach. However, mowing to manage weeds has not been well studied compared to other IWM tools and is more popular in habitats with perennial stands of vegetation. Consequently, limited information is available on mowing use in crops. As such, it is not adaptable to numerous cropping systems; and partially for this reason, it is used mainly for aesthetic reasons and preventing seed production in perennial stands of vegetation neighboring cropland. Still, research has shown that mowing can be used jointly with other weed management tools such as applying herbicides, cover cropping and growing competitive crops. Mowing may also be used to successfully manage perennial weeds by removing the aboveground plant parts and consequently reducing food reserves in their storage organs. This, however, may take multiple years and the integration of other weed management tactics. Some research has found that combining mowing with herbicides enhances perennial weed control. Still, there are advantages and disadvantages of using mowing as a weed management tool. Mowing generally does not have any negative environmental effects. However, many weeds especially those that grow close to the ground such as buckhorn plantain are naturally tolerant of mowing. As with any IWM program, it is important to “keep weeds guessing” by utilizing different management tactics; and mowing is no exception to this rule. For example, repeated use of mowing as a single weed management tactic may result in a selection pressure or shift to weed species or genotypes that can reproduce even if repeatedly mowed. These species may overtime become more difficult to manage. As such, in those situations where mowing is practical, one should consider making it part of an overall IWM program.  Financial support for the publication of this article is via USDA NIFA EIPM grant award numbers 2021-70006-35384 and NESARE – Research for Novel Approaches (LNE20-406R).

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