Food brings everyone to the table. And this year, our virtual Ag Day celebration will bring everyone together to recognize the importance of American agriculture.
The program will include both live and pre-recorded segments with remarks from government leaders on the agriculture industry’s economic growth opportunities and how the future will be shaped by lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A representative from the collegiate Ag Day student program will share their experiences and participants will get to hear the winning Ag Day essay as well as view the winning Ag Day video essay. 2021’s Outstanding Young Farmers will also be recognized during the event.
“Hosting a virtual Ag Day event has led to some creative ways to celebrate American ag,” said Jenny Pickett, President. “The program will include informal thank you videos to farmers from individuals and companies in the industry so even though we can’t gather in person, it will still have a personal feel and energy to it.”
National Ag Day is organized by the Agriculture Council of America (ACA). ACA is a not-for-profit organization composed of leaders in the agricultural, food and fiber community, dedicating its efforts to increasing the public’s awareness of agriculture’s role in modern society.
Find more information on Ag Day and helpful tools for spreading the word about the importance of American agriculture at www.agday.org.
A recent poll of the Soil Health Academy’s (SHA) 2019 and 2020 school graduates indicates a majority are realizing resource and profitability improvements as they transition from chemically dependent conventional farming practices to soil health-improving regenerative practices.
The poll of more than 130 graduates reveals those improvements are even more pronounced among producers who have been implementing regenerative practices for more than a year.
For example, 56 percent of respondents who attended an SHA on-farm school in 2020 reported a decrease in the use of synthetic fertilizers, while more than three-quarters (76 percent) of graduates attending an SHA school in 2019 reported a decrease in use. Nearly a third of all SHA graduates indicated their synthetic fertilizer use decreased by more than 30 percent.
Similarly, 53 percent of 2020 graduates reported a decrease in the use of pesticides and herbicides, while 70 percent of 2019 graduates reported a decrease. A quarter (25 percent) of all graduates indicated their synthetic fertilizer use decreased by more than 30 percent.
Two thirds (66 percent) of 2020 graduates realized improvements in their soils’ water infiltration while 76 percent of 2019 graduates reported improvements. For graduates grazing livestock, 63 percent of 2020 graduates reported biomass increases, while 90 percent of 2019 graduates reported increases.
Input decreases, coupled with increases in cropping diversity, enterprise stacking, and direct-to-consumer marketing activities translated into increased per-acre net profits for 37 percent of 2020 graduates, while 60 percent of 2019 graduates reported increased profits. Of all SHA graduates, 15 percent indicated their net-acre profits had increased by more than 10 percent.
“The survey confirms that many producers experience financial and resource improvements early in their respective regenerative farming and ranching journeys, but those benefits increase the longer producers apply soil health-improving principles in their operations,” Brandt said. “The survey also reaffirms that education, understanding and technical support activities—like those provided by SHA—are key in improving positive regenerative farming outcomes.”
Almond Board of California —Insect pest management in almond and pistachio orchards largely focuses on reducing damage from navel orangeworm (NOW). Yet, after navel orangeworm, large bugs such as leaffooted bugs (LFBs) and stinkbugs are considered to be among the most damaging insects.
Leaffooted bug species of particular concern in the past have included Leptoglossus clypealis, Leptoglossus occidentalis, and Leptoglossus zonatus. Leptoglossus clypealis is occasionally noted to be numerous: In 2013, L. clypealis was a particularly abundant LFB in orchards; however, since that time, L. clypealis seems to be less common than another LFB, L. zonatus.
Recognizing and understanding the differences between these two LFB is key to effective management.
L. clypealis is shown on the left and L. zonatus on the right. Photo courtesy of Dr. Joyce.
L. zonatus is a larger LFB than L. clypealis and has longer mouthparts that allow it to feed on developing fruits longer into the growing season. Prior to 2013, L. zonatusdid not appear regularly in almonds in California, and it was not noted in University of California Integrated Pest Management manuals as being a pest of almonds – while this species was present in California, perhaps it was not particularly numerous. Since 2013, L. zonatus has frequently been observed in almonds during the growing season and at harvest, and now seems to occur more regularly in orchards than L. clypealis. It may be that the larger LFB L. zonatus is displacing L. clypealis.
From 2014-2016, researchers identified LFB collections in almond and pistachio orchards from Chico to Bakersfield as consisting of two species: L. clypealis and L. zonatus. A 2017 study by Dr. Andrea Joyce, an entomologist at the University of California, Merced, investigated population genetics of these two species and found that L. clypealiscollections have high genetic diversity and many genetic types (haplotypes). This suggests that these L. clypealiscollections from the Central Valley are within this insect’s native range. However, the insect collections of the other species, L. zonatus, consisted of two genetically divergent types, or strains. One L. zonatus strain was widespread, and occurred through the Central Valley from Chico to Bakersfield, and the second genetic type occurred in the central and southern San Joaquin Valley. Work to geographically map out where the two genetic types of L. zonatus occur is ongoing.
The presence of two strains of L. zonatus is important for insect pest management. It is highly likely that each insect strain is susceptible to different parasitoids, predators and pathogens. Two insect strains can also vary in their response to insecticides, as well as their attraction to pheromone lures.
Currently, pheromone attractants are being developed for this LFB. It is vital to determine if the same pheromone blend will equally attract the two strains of L. zonatus. Dr. Joyce and colleagues will continue research on the two strains of L. zonatus this year, comparing their biological parameters, examining whether the two strains are cross attracted in lab bioassays, and if they cross mate in the field. The hope is that any pheromones and attractants developed for L. zonatus can be used to manage both strains of this species. A monitoring tool such as a pheromone trap for these insects would be particularly useful in a grower’s IPM toolbox.
Growers can support researchers in determining the distribution of the two strains by collecting any LFBs they identify or notifying Dr. Joyce when large numbers of LFBs are observed. Growers may email Dr. Andrea Joyce if they sight LFBs or have questions about this pest at ajoyce2@ucmerced.edu.
Note: Additional Almond Board-funded research is being conducted by Dr. Jocelyn Millar to identify pheromones and related attractants for the two major LFB pests in California nut crops. These tools could potentially be utilized for monitoring or control of these species.
If your sprayer can deliver good spray coverage at hull split, with a little work it can deliver good bloom spray coverage faster and cheaper. How is this possible? With no leaves in the canopy, air movement is less restricted at bloom than hull split. Also, there is less surface area to cover at bloom than hull split so volume needed to cover the susceptible tissue per acre (Gallons per acre, GPA) are less at bloom than hull split.
How could this work? Assuming your hull split spray set up is for 100 GPA (or more) and 2 miles per hour (MPH), at bloom you can increase ground speed, GPA and reduce power to the sprayer (less tractor engine or sprayer engine RPMs). All this means less time and diesel burned per acre and more acres per tank with no change in pest control. The exact settings should be worked out on the farm, but here are some general guidelines to use before bloom starts. [I am assuming that anyone trying this has a good knowledge of sprayer calibration. For the sake of space in the newsletter, I will not go into all the calibration details. Check the Almond Production Manual for details or call me at 530.218.2359. We do need an airblast sprayer extension publication.]
-Increase speed and reduce RPMs. Reduce engine RPMs by 15-20% from full speed and shift up a gear or two so that tractor and sprayer speed is somewhere around 3-3.5 MPH. For a PTO sprayer delivering 540 PTO RPMs with engine RPM at 2200, the target is somewhere around 1800 RPM for the tractor engine. This is quickly checked with a GPS unit or a quick pass down a row in the orchard counting trees (2 MPH=176 ft/min, etc.).
-Check that there will be enough upward air movement at this new speed. Readjust as necessary. Put a length of PVC pipe with a 1.5-2’ long length of flagging tape tied on the end up through the tree so that the top of the pole is roughly 3-4 feet above the top of the tree. Run the sprayer down the row with the fan on, water in the tank but nozzles turned off. Check how much the flagging tape moves as the sprayer goes by the tree? (I use the video function on my phone to capture the flag movement as the sprayer goes by.) If the tape flutters out to 45-90o off the vertical, that is enough sprayer fan air movement to give good coverage. If the flagging kicks straight up, you can speed up more and try it again until the desired 45-90 o movement is reached.
*If you spray every-other-row (EOR) at bloom, check air movement through the tree (next section) very carefully to make sure spray gets all the way through the tree or don’t use the approach described in this article. Every-other-row spraying delivers acceptable disease control at pink bud, but ineffective on the far side of the tree from the sprayer after 40% bloom. Every row spraying gives the best possible coverage. If you do spray EOR, do it carefully.
-Figure out the flow rate you’ll use based on your new speed and the product’s recommended GPA. Use your new tractor speed and row spacing to figure out the acres per minute you’ll cover at that speed. Using the measured acres per minute and the gallons per acre you want to spray, calculate the gallons per minute (GPM) needed from the sprayer.If you are using an air shear/electrostatic sprayer (Lectroblast, Windmill, etc.) make sure the system pressure is set to that required by the manufacturer, set the flow rate on each side of the sprayer and you are ready
-Adjust your nozzles to favor upward movement at this new speed. The general rule is that roughly 70% of the sprayer output (GPM) should come out of the top half of the open nozzles. Because of faster ground speed, larger nozzles will be needed and/or swirl plates changed (45’s used instead of 25’s). Large nozzles (D8-12) are a better choice in my opinion as the obvious nozzle exit hole difference between a D6 and a D8 make it easier to use the right nozzle for the right job if you are using rollover nozzle bodies (Rears or Nelson) or 2-3 nozzles/vane (AirOFan). In the table at the bottom of the page is an example of how a set up might go for a sprayer with two nozzle options per location on the spray boom.
In the orchard, place the disc/cores on the nozzle bodies that point at the tree. You may need to skip a nozzle body or two along the spray boom to make sure the spray targets the tree. For example, the first (very top) nozzle body on many sprayers basically points straight up and the second body is inches away and slightly angled into the canopy. I usually skip the top one. Lower on the sprayer you may skip a nozzle site, turning off the nozzle body. The goal with fungicide spraying is to aim high; rainwater will recycle the fungicide down through the canopy if it’s placed up high.
-Make sure your actual flow rate matches your desired flow rate. Ground truth the sprayer output by filling it to overflowing with clean water, running it for a set amount of time (a minute or two minutes) and then refilling it with a hose attached to a flowmeter or buckets marked with gallons/quarts/pints. Calculate gallons per minute sprayed to use in the following equation to check your actual sprayer output and determine how much material to put in the spray tank:
-Double-check your coverage in the canopy. A final step in the calibration process is to check coverage with water sensitive paper either placed on poles or attached to the canopy.
If you are interested in this bloom sprayer set up concept and want some help with the setup, please give me a call 530.218.2359.— By Franz Niederholzer, UCCE Advisor, Colusa and Sutter/Yuba Counties
Example of nozzle selection and position on a standard airblast sprayer (Rears, AirOFan, Nelson, etc)
Knowing how much acreage of a crop has been planted is a very important factor in preparing to bring it to market, and the pistachio industry has recently invested in satellite imagery to get a better picture of how many acres of pistachios and bearing-pistachios are actually out there. The analysis has recently come in and revealed some interesting adjustments in the stats that growers should know about. Watch this brief interview with Richard Matoian, President of American Pistachio Growers, as he shares some of the results, and read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Trece for their industry support.
As California pistachio growers head into another season with insufficient rainfall, they are hoping at least that winter will have provided sufficient cold weather to meet the chill requirements their trees need in order to put on a solid crop. Watch this brief interview with Richard Matoian, President of American Pistachio Growers, as he shares where the industry is at to date, and what they can expect at this point for the 2021 crop. Read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Trece for their industry support.
Thanks to support from the Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation, California Farmland Trust (CFT) is embarking on a conservation fundraising campaign to protect Fiorini Ranch.
Located in Merced County, the 60-acre almond operation is owned and operated by a multi-generational farming family, the Fiorini’s. Currently operated by a third-generation family member, Randy Fiorini, the fourth and fifth generation family members are now engaged, and becoming more involved, continuing the family’s legacy. The Fiorini family reached out to the California Farmland Trust to ensure the land and their legacy will remain in agriculture, forever.
The California Farmland Trust has partnered with farmers for over 16 years to protect farmland from being subdivided and developed into homes and shopping centers, while contributing to agriculture’s unique role in climate benefits. “Working with the Fiorini family to ensure this land will provide food, open space and climate benefits is essential,” said Charlotte Mitchell, CFT Executive Director. The Fiorini family has adopted and embraced sustainable farming practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve the biodiversity of beneficial insects, and further reduce soil erosion.
In the coming months, CFT will be pursuing a grant that will provide some of the funding needed to purchase the development right and protect the land with an agricultural conservation easement. CFT is required to source matching funds when pursuing grant funding, which is where the Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation (Foundation) support is focused. In late 2020, the Foundation provided CFT with nearly half of the matching funds needed to meet this requirement. Funds from the Foundation will be leveraged by CFT to raise the remaining $85,000.
“The support from the Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation really made this project achievable,” shared Mitchell. “It’s difficult to obtain the match requirement needed for a grant and the Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation provided funding that will essentially double every other donation we receive for the project, helping us achieve the match requirement.”
The first step will be launching a campaign that leverages the Foundation’s $80,000 donation to raise the remaining $85,000 needed to obtain the match required. CFT will simultaneously pursue a grant for the remaining seventy-five percent needed to fund the easement. Once secured, the easement will ensure the farmland will never be subdivided and will no longer be subject to development pressures from nearby communities for housing or commercial development.
“Our family has farmed this land sustainably, and productively for over 100 years. It is threatened by the potential of urban development and our family wishes to preserve the ability to continue to contribute to our nations healthy food needs,” shared Randy Fiorini.
The California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, California Association of Winegrape Growers, LIVE, Long Island Sustainable Winegrowing, Oregon Wine, New York Wines, Washington State Wine, Washington Winegrowers and Wine Institute are co-hosting the 2nd U.S. Sustainable Winegrowing Summit on April 19-21, an all-virtual event.
Growers, vintners, association leaders, trade, and other industry professionals from around the globe will gather virtually to hear about the U.S.’s ever-increasing interest in sustainable winegrowing, get up close and personal with sustainable winegrowers in the field, and learn how they are adapting practices in the face of climate change. Attendees will gain insight into bringing this movement to their own wine regions, vineyards and wineries and learn how to distill these practices into unique messaging that resonates with consumers and trade while credibly communicating the U.S. wine industry’s commitment to a global audience.
The Summit will begin on April 19th (11:30 am–1:00 pm PST) with the “Explore U.S. Sustainable Wine Tasting & Seminar,” a unique opportunity to taste sustainably grown and produced wines from California, Oregon, New York and Washington featuring Evan Goldstein, MS (moderator) and vintners from the four partner states. (To taste along, a wine kit must be purchased in advance.)
On April 20th (10:00 am–12:00 pm PST), Food & Wine’s Executive Wine Editor Ray Isle will give a keynote address on sustainable winegrowing trends and observations on sustainable winegrowing, followed by a workshop on messaging sustainability to consumers and trade. In the afternoon (1:00–2:00 pm PST), participants will go on a virtual four-state sustainable vineyard and winery tour – no sunscreen or hat needed!
On the final day, April 21st (10:00 am–12:00 pm PST), the first session will be a panel focused on grower perspectives on climate change resiliency, moderated by San Francisco Chronicle’s Wine Critic, Esther Mobley. The second session will be a conversation between Julia Coney (Wine Journalist and Founder of Black Wine Professionals) and Elaine Chukan Brown (American Specialist for JancisRobinson.com and Co-Founder of Diversity in Wine Leadership Forum) about diversity, equity and inclusion, the social pillar of sustainability.
The 2021 Summit sponsors include American Vineyard Magazine, Certified Sustainable Protected Harvest, Napa Green and Master the World. Tasting sponsors are Ampelos Cellars, Bedell Cellars, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Hartford Family Winery, Stoller Family Estate and Wente Vineyards. Sponsorship opportunities are still available; for more information, contact info@sustainablewinegrowing.org.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced amendments to the federal marketing order regulating the handling of walnuts grown in California. These amendments authorize the California Walnut Board to provide credit for market promotion expenses paid by handlers against their annual assessments due under the program.
The amendments were approved in a referendum conducted Nov. 30 through Dec. 11, 2020. They were favored by 80.57% of the growers voting, representing 82.81% of the total volume of walnuts. To gain approval, the amendments needed support of at least two-thirds of the growers voting in the referendum or at least two-thirds of the volume of walnuts grown by those voting in the referendum. A final rule amending the marketing order will be published in the Federal Register.
USDA’s process for considering this change included an administrative hearing conducted April 20-21, 2020.
The board locally administers the marketing order that maintains minimum grade and size regulations for walnuts grown in California. The marketing order also authorizes promotion, and research and development projects. More information about the marketing order is available on the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) 984 California Walnut webpage, the AMS Marketing Orders and Agreements webpage, or by contacting the Marketing Order and Agreement Division at (202) 720-2491.
Authorized by the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, marketing orders are industry-driven programs that help producers and handlers achieve marketing success by leveraging their own funds to design and execute programs that they would not be able to do individually. AMS provides oversight to 29 fruit, vegetable, and specialty crop marketing orders and agreements, which helps ensure fiscal accountability and program integrity.
Whole orchard recycling is really catching more interest among farmers recently, particularly in the almond industry; and leading the charge in the research/outreach of this practice is UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor Brent Holtz. Watch this brief interview with Brent as he discusses benefits and considerations for implementing this practice in the orchard; and read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Trece for their industry support.
A recent poll of the Soil Health Academy’s (SHA) 2019 and 2020 school graduates indicates a majority are realizing resource and profitability improvements as they transition from chemically dependent conventional farming practices to soil health-improving regenerative practices.
