Whatcom Ag Monthly

Breeding for heat tolerance is a crucial approach to beat the heat and overcome the challenges of high temperatures in agriculture. The heat tolerance of caneberry cultivars varies due to their genetics. In the Pacific Northwest, Michael Hardigan, a research geneticist at the United States Department of Agriculture in Corvallis and Wendy Hoashi-Erhardt, program lead for small fruit plant breeding at the Washington State University’s Puyallup Research and Extension Center, are exploring this aspect of breeding to develop more heat-tolerant varieties.

Please join Oregon State University at this full-day stakeholder workshop including regulatory agencies, conservation groups, and agricultural producers to explore workable solutions for pesticides and endangered species protection in PNW agriculture.

Authors Laura Johnson, Lisa Wasko DeVetter, and Elaine Evans recently published a guide that covers the use of queen excluders, how to protect colony health during pollination, and colony disposal after pollination to better inform decision making by growers using commercial bumble bee colonies.