Weed Control Topic of Feb. 5 Range Webinar

Jan 28, 2015

Kay Ledbetter

Best management practices for weed control will be the topic of a Feb. 5 webinar by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service ecosystem science and management unit.

“To Spray or Not to Spray” is next in the Texas Range Webinar Series, scheduled on the first Thursday of each month from noon to 1 p.m., said Pete Flores, webinar coordinator in Corpus Christi.

“Weeds are a common problem among landowners and can be managed with some best management practices,” said Dr. Vanessa Corriher-Olson, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service forage specialist in Overton.

“This presentation will include discussion on effective weed control with weed identification, proper timing and herbicide selection,” she said. “Sandbur control with the use of products such as Pastora, a post-emergent, will also be discussed.”

This webinar and others in the series can be accessed at http://naturalresourcewebinars.tamu.edu.

Participants seeking Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education units must pay a $10 fee on the website. For all others, there is no fee, Flores said. Licensed agricultural private pesticide applicators participating in this webinar can earn one integrated pest management unit.

For more information on the webinars, contact Flores at Pete.Flores@ag.tamu.edu .

Source:agrilife.org

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.