Progressive Crop Consultant

Why buy fertilizer when you have it fresh and homegrown? Ordering imported synthetic fertilizer yields sticker shock for a lot of farmers lately. In recent years, the global fertilizer market has been volatile due to various trade disruptions. A mid-June report tracked the urea N fertilizer price at $731/ton, down from a reeling $850/ton a month prior, still approximately $100/ton higher than the five-year average.

Hairy fleabane and horseweed (marestail) are two problematic broadleaf weeds commonly found in California orchards and belong to the Conyza genus. Both species typically emerge during the fall and winter and bolt in the spring. Once bolted, they become difficult to control because plants can regrow after mowing and are less susceptible to post-emergence herbicides.

Practical Ways PCAs and Consultants Are Using Drone Imagery and Predictive Tools to Prioritize Scouting and Refine Recommendations Pest scouting has always been limited by time and the size of the operations we manage. I have blocks spread across different properties, each at its own stage and with its own history. Traditional scouting and trap checks provide solid information, but they offer only snapshots. Between visits, pest pressure can build in one area while remaining low in another.

Crop By July 31, 2026 10 min read Modern high-yield production systems require timely, in-season nutritional monitoring.

Every season starts the same way: with a plan. Every season, somewhere between bloom and harvest, the plan meets reality. A pest shows up in a block where it’s never been a problem. A material you’ve trusted for a decade starts losing ground to resistance. Water allocations tighten. A regulation changes midseason. A grower calls with a question that wasn’t in anyone’s playbook a year ago. This is the job.

Understanding Insecticide Performance Characteristics Is Critical to Making Biological Insecticides Work in Modern Pest Management Systems Understanding Biopesticide Performance: Why Biological Insecticides Require a Different Management Mindset Since the 1940s, insect pest management has relied on chemistries that were broad-spectrum, fast-acting, long-lasting and relatively inexpensive.

There’s a moment every crop consultant knows. The field has been walked, the pressure has been weighed, the grower is waiting, and it all comes down to your name on a recommendation. That signature is easy to take for granted from the outside. But you know what it carries. A grower’s season. A family’s livelihood. Decisions made in dust and heat, often with incomplete information and no time to spare.

Olive fruit fly (OFF) pressure remains high in California’s olive oil and table olive production, with growers facing continued challenges from limited control options and increasing insecticide resistance. During a recent UC Ag Experts Talk webinar, UC IPM Area Advisor Sudan Gyawaly discussed olive fruit fly and soft scale biology, ecology, monitoring and management in California olives.

St. Helena, CA — July 1, 2026 — VineView marks its silver anniversary as the partner of choice for California’s wine grape growers. For 25 years, the company has worked alongside viticulturists and vineyard managers, providing precision aerial imagery and data analytics that transform how growers care for their vineyards.

California’s pesticide use reporting system offers one of the most comprehensive looks at agricultural pesticide use in the nation. It offers insight into how growers and pest control advisers are adapting to changing regulations, economics and pest pressures. The latest data available from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, or DPR, covering 2023 pesticide applications, shows fumigant use continued to trend downward while remaining an essential tool for many California crops.