Deer mating season (rutting has started), so deer are on the move. Hunters need to be aware of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD); a fatal, infectious disease affecting the nervous system of deer. It is caused by misfolded proteins called prions. It spreads through direct animal contact, contaminated environments, and bodily fluids, and animals can shed prions for years before showing symptoms like weight loss, poor coordination, and drooping ears. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) recommends not consuming meat from CWD-positive animals and taking precautions like wearing gloves and avoiding brain tissue when handling deer carcasses. CWD has been found in Northwest Ohio. Major hot spot are Wyandot, Marion, and Hardin Counties but many surrounding counties are also affected with confirmed cases in Allen and Morrow Counties. Not all deer are tested, so since the deer population is mobile and far ranging, it could easily be spreading. CWD is very similar to other prion diseases t...

  New research from Virginia Tech University shows that small insects called springtails (Collembola species) help farmers fight herbicide resistant weed species in the soil. These tiny wingless insects are about the size of small rice kernel. They live in soil residue and feed on weed seed. There are more than 6,500 species of springtail (Collembola species) world-wide. Results vary by weed seed species depending upon the thickness of the seed coat.  Two Virginia Tech researchers (Jernigan & Sonoskie) found that in a 4-week greenhouse study, springtails reduced weed biomass by 23%. Unfortunately, at first the springtail affected weed seed seemed to increase weed germination for the first two weeks followed by a dramatic reduction in the last two weeks. The researchers think the springtails increased weed seed germination initially by breaking open the seed coat so that the weed seed could germinate faster. In the last two weeks, the germination was drastically reduced, pr...

Farmers first used cultivation to mechanically kill weeds. Hand hoeing, pulling weeds, then horse and tractor driven cultivators. Then they started using chemicals starting with 2-4D to chemically kill broad leaf weeds. New chemicals were developed and then came along glyphosate (Roundup) which became the most popular herbicide, especially when the glyphosate resistant gene was introduced into many crops. But like all new innovations, sooner or later they are replaced due to limitations.   Cultivation disturbed the soil and took a lot of fuel and time. Every time you disturb soil, you replant weed seed and you lose carbon in the form of soil organic matter. There can be as many as several hundred thousand weed seeds per square yard in soil. This weed seed can remain viable for a few years, a decade, or even longer. Weed seed with thicker coats and buried deep with tillage survive longer than those left on the soil surface with no-till. On the chemical herbicides, herbicide resistan...