California Ag Network

Category: News

  • USDA California Crop/Weather Report

    Sacramento, Calif., (June 20, 2017) – A departing upper-level trough early in the week left cooler air across parts of the State with a few lingering showers on Monday. Rainfall was mostly limited to Monday across the far northeastern corner of the State near Alturas, which received just over half an inch of rain on Monday.  A few isolated sprinkles moistened parts of the central and northern Sierras on Monday, as well. This quickly gave way to a building mid-level ridge over the southwestern United States, which brought dry air and hot conditions to much of the State.

    Temperatures rose dramatically last week, with very hot temperatures across nearly all parts of the State except perhaps the coastal northern areas. Very warm temperatures helped accelerate snowmelt in the mountains. Both Mt. Whitney in the south and Mt. Shasta in the north were still snowcapped on their peaks, with Mt. Shasta expected to remain so for some time. Snowcover elsewhere is now limited to a band about 40 miles wide between Tahoe and the Sequoia National Forest, at elevations above 8,000 feet. There was still eight feet of snowcover at these locations, with the area just north of Yosemite still estimated at six feet of snowcover.

    Temperature highs were in the 50s to 60s along the coast, 60s to 80s in the mountains, 90s to 100s in the valley, and 90s to 110s in the desert. The temperature lows were in the 40s to 50s in the mountains, 50s to 60s along the coast, 50s to 70s in the valley, and 60s to 80s in the desert.

    Silage corn planting was completed. Fields were being prepared and planted with summer beans, Sudan grass, and silage sorghum. Wheat harvest for grain was approaching completion. Small grains such as oats and barley were being cut and baled, or harvested for grain. Alfalfa fields were making excellent progress and being irrigated, cut, and baled. Corn planting continued and earlier planted fields were growing well, with some developing tassels. Cotton was being irrigated and growing well.

    Peaches, nectarines, apricots, and plums continue to be harvested. Some orchard floors were lined with reflective plastic to improve color prior to harvest. Grapevines continued to have leaves removed to allow for improved air circulation and light around the developing bunches to improve color. Kiwi fruit were thinned. Cherry harvest was wrapping up for the season. Navel orange harvest was nearly complete. Valencia orange harvest continued.  Grapefruit harvest was drawing to a close. Old citrus trees were being pulled to make way for new citrus varieties. Since bloom was complete for seedless tangerines, removal of the protective netting began.

    Weed control in almond orchards was ongoing. Pistachio, walnut, and almond orchards were irrigated and fertilized. Mechanical and chemical weed control operations continued in nut orchards.

    In Colusa County, row crops such as tomatoes were growing at a fast pace.  In San Joaquin County, tomatoes and sweet corn were growing well.  Summer vegetables were harvested and offered for sale at local Farmer’s markets.  Field ground preparation and planting of crops continued.  In Fresno County, tomatoes were kept fresh by continual irrigation.  Red onions, carrots, and peppers were harvested.  Onions for seed were irrigated.  In Tulare County, summer vegetables were harvested and shipped domestically.  Italian squash, peppers, and cucumbers were harvested.  Eggplant and tomatoes continued to grow and mature.  In Imperial County, spring melons and sweet corn were harvested.  Some growers reported exceptional yields.  Dehydrated onions were harvested and shipped out of the valley for processing.  Large insect activity was reported in onion fields.

    As the summer heat dries out the grasses and forbs, range and dryland pasture forage quality began to deteriorate. Foothill range and valley dryland pasture was in fair to very poor condition. Some cattle were moved to higher elevation range. Sheep grazed on retired pasture and dormant alfalfa. Bees were active in vegetable fields.

  • Raising sheep and goats for fun and profit

    Davis, Calif., (June 20, 2017) – A 4-H sheep or goat project has something in common with ranchers raising animals for a living. In both cases, one objective is profit.

    “Profit is not a dirty word,” said Dan Macon, UC Cooperative Extension assistant specialist in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. “How many of you are using fair animals to save for college or buy a car? You’re in business.”

    More than 100 participants – mostly 4-H members and their families – took part in the UC Cooperative Extension Sheep and Goat Workshop.

    Macon spoke at a Sheep and Goat Workshop in Hollister for 4-H members, FFA students and local sheep and goat producers, organized by UC Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resources advisor Devii Rao. About 30 of the workshop participants represented the industry, 70 were young producers and family.

    Macon discussed the direct and indirect costs of rearing animals, the optimal timing for breeding so lambs and kids will be weaned when grass is naturally abundant, and tactics for protecting sheep from predators.

    “I call this, ‘Big dogs, hot fences and fast sheep,’” Macon said. “Someday I’m going to write a country song with that title.”

    The big dogs are guardian animals that are not socialized to humans, but rather kept with sheep from the time they are tiny puppies. Donkeys and llamas can be effective guardians if the predators are coyotes and dogs.

    UCCE advisor Roger Ingram covered the opportunity to manage rangeland with a flock of sheep or herd of goats. The concept is “targeted grazing.”

    “Think of yourselves as grass and brush farmers with four-legged combines to harvest,” Ingram said.

    He advised animal caregivers to learn to identify plants, as some are good for the animals, and some are not. For example, poison hemlock and milk weed are problem plants for certain animals.

    Ten-year-old 4-H member Cody Watson attended the workshop with his grandmother Susan Gardner.

    “Raising animals teaches responsibility and accountability,” Gardner said. “The kids learn where food comes from.”

    Raising animals is fun, and teaches children responsibility and accountability.

    Gardner was a 4-H member as a child, but when her children were growing up, she didn’t have the income for property to house animals.

    This isn’t a problem for 4-H youth in San Benito County. A 4-H barn sits close to downtown where kids can keep animals in exchange for working on the facility’s upkeep. That’s where 4-H member Marisa Tobia keeps her lambs and swine.

    “It’s fun,” Tobia said. “I’m there with all my friends.”

  • USDA Program Helps Nonprofits Innovate New Certification for Bee-Friendly Farms

    Washington, D. C., (June 20, 2017) – A new certification program enables agricultural producers to let consumers know they are farming in ways that benefit bees. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation partnered with Oregon Tilth to develop and launch the Bee Better Certified program.

    “Bee Better Certified is working with conservation-minded farmers to meet a growing interest from consumers to know how their food choices impact bees,” said Xerces Executive Director Scott Hoffman Black. “Many species of bees have suffered declines over the years, but by creating habitat and reducing pesticide use, Bee Better is generating meaningful change on working farms, helping to preserve crop pollinators and the valuable services they provide to farmers.”

    After piloting the program with 13 farmers over the past few months, Xerces and Oregon Tilth are now opening it to farmers nationwide. The program focuses on integrating flower-rich habitat on farms in order to provide food and nesting sites for native bees, honey bees and other pollinators. It also helps farmers reduce or eliminate use of pesticides known to cause harm to bees.

    Oregon Tilth assesses and certifies farms based on the amount and quality of habitat created as well as the incorporation of pest management strategies aimed at protecting crop pollinators.

    “When Xerces approached us as a possible partner, it seemed like a great fit,” said Oregon Tilth Certification Director Connie Karr. “We knew our missions were aligned, and we could bring our certification expertise alongside their technical expertise in invertebrates to develop this standard together. It’s important to make sure a new set of standards is credible, valuable and achievable. By working together, we could achieve all those things.”

    The project received a $350,000 Conservation Innovation Grant in 2016 from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) which Xerces matched to develop and test the first-of-its-kind program. The Conservation Innovation Grant program aims to drive public-private innovation to support next-generation conservation efforts.

    On the grounds of the Vice President’s residence last week, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue declared June 19-25 National Pollinator Week to draw attention to the plight of pollinators whose numbers are in decline.

    As part of USDA’s commitment, NRCS works with conservation partners like Xerces to help farmers plan and implement conservation practices that benefit bees and other pollinators. NRCS offers more than three dozen conservation activities that farmers can use to integrate bee habitat amid working lands and to use pesticides wisely. Several of the farmers who piloted Bee Better Certified have worked with NRCS to make conservation improvements on their land.

  • New Farm Advisor Introduction

    Sacramento, Calif., (June 19, 2017) – We are pleased to present Luke K. Milliron, as the UCCE Farm Advisor Butte, Glenn, and Tehama Counties.

    I am ecstatic to be working as the UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) orchard systems Farm Advisor for Butte, Glenn, and Tehama Counties. I am based out of the Butte County Cooperative Extension Office in Oroville. I grew up in Chico and studied Crop Science at Butte College and Chico State. While attending Chico State, I worked as a Student Assistant to Tree Crop Farm Advisor Bill Krueger, out of the Glenn County Cooperative Extension office.

    In 2013 I left Chico to pursue a Master of Science degree in Horticulture and Agronomy at UC Davis. While at UC Davis in the midst of drought in California, I studied the measurement of almond tree water stress during dormancy. In 2015, I was selected as the UCCE Horticulture Intern, an internship program funded by the Almond Board of California and the California Dried Plum Board aimed at training the next generation for UC Cooperative Extension. In this internship I worked on UC field trials in Sutter, Yuba and Colusa County almond and prune orchards with Farm Advisor Franz Niederholzer.

    I have most recently been working as an Agronomy Technician at Dellavalle Laboratory, Inc. in Davis. At Dellavalle, I worked for the past year to assist growers with analytic crop nutrient management through soil and plant tissue sampling and irrigation management support in almond, walnut, grapevine and processing tomato systems. At each step in my journey I have greatly enjoyed working with growers and other agriculture professionals. I am humbled and very excited to work as your almond farm advisor. I encourage you to contact me by sending me an e-mail at lkmilliron@ucanr.edu, giving me a call at (530) 538-7201 or stopping by the office at 2279-B Del Oro Avenue in Oroville.

  • Better Soil Boosts Farm Profit And Benefits The Planet

    Davis, Calif., (June 19, 2017) – Healthy soil does much more than hold plants upright on the surface of the earth. It is a mix of mineral bits and old plant particles teeming with microbes to form a mysterious and complex web of life scientists are just beginning to understand.

    While scientists use high technology to study heathy soil – painstakingly counting soil worms and bugs, sequencing the DNA of soil bacteria, for example – some farmers know intuitively whether the soil is healthy just by walking on it.

    Scott Park is a first-generation Meridian, Calif., farmer. “When I step on a field and it feels like a road, something is wrong,” he said. “If it feels like a marshmallow or sponge, that’s good.”

    Park shared his farming experiences with 200 farmers, industry representatives, University of California Cooperative Extension scientists, Fresno State students, news media and others during a half-day UC workshop at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center in Five Points.

    “The last 31 years I’ve been on a mission of building soil,” Park said. “I discovered it by accident and I’ve made lots of mistakes. But yields trend upwards every year on every crop. Being sensitive to building soil, I’m making a lot of money. And if I’m doing something for the earth, all the better.”

    Park said he adds 10 to 15 tons per acre of biomass to his farm every year. He’s using less fertilizer, up to 20 percent less water, and even experimenting on the farm by growing a commercial crop with just four inputs: cover crops, water, seed and sun.

    “We got high-yielding, good-quality crops,” Park said. “Nobody was more shocked than I am that I got a good crop.”

     

    Researchers are now using the scientific method to figure out the root causes of these empirical observations.

    “There’s a lot going on in soil,” said Radomir Schmidt, a UC Davis soil microbiologist who spoke at the soil health field day.

    A teaspoon of soil has a billion bacteria and six miles of fungal hyphae, the filaments that branch out through the soil from fungi, Schmidt said. The microbes’ interaction with living plant roots, the larger pores left by decomposing vegetation and tunneling worms and insects create a system that confers resilience to unforeseen challenges – such as pest pressure, torrential rainfall and plant diseases.

    The field day was held under a tent pitched adjacent to an 18-year research trial at the 320-acre facility. The trial compares four farming systems side by side:

    • Conventional system, with annual soil tillage and no cover crops.
    • Conservation agriculture, with no tilling whatsoever and annual winter cover crops.
    • No-till without the cover crop.
    • Conventional tilling with a cover crop.

    “Take a look over my shoulder to see the difference,” said Jeff Mitchell, UC Cooperative Extension specialist and the study leader. “We’ve found the cover crops and no-till reduce water needs, cut dust, and lower costs. And there may be more benefits than we realized.”

    For example, a graduate student counted the worms, bugs, beetles and other microfauna in soil samples from each of the treatments. There were double the amount in the no-till, cover crop plots compared to the conventional farming system.

    UC Cooperative Extension specialist Sloan Rice found that cover crops promote water retention in the soil after rainfall. There is very little water evaporation from the soil surface and water transportation from the cover crop plants in the winter, so little water is lost. Cover crops also promote more water infiltration below three feet.

    “Cover crops for sustainable water management is particularly important considering the water supply availability and its cost,” Rice said.

    Healthy soil management also shows promise in confronting global climate change by sequestering carbon in the soil, rather than depleting it.

    Manager of Sano Farms in Firebaugh, Jesse Sanchez, was a speaker at the field day. He wasn’t surprised by the overflow crowd.

    “Farmers are more and more curious. They see some of us using cover crops, and they want to learn more,” Sanchez said. “There has been a swell of interest. I have a tremendous number of visitors every year.”

    For more information about soil building, see the UC Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation website at http://casi.ucanr.edu.

  • Navel Orange Worm Update

    Sacramento, Calif., (June 19, 2017) – Navel orange worm is the key pest in almond. Nut feeding by this pest directly reduces yield and grower income. For example, 1% damage* in a 2500 kernel lb/acre crop = 25 kernel lb/acre loss (and $62.5/acre at a price of $2.50/lb). Also, NOW damage is frequently contaminated with highly toxic fungus aflatoxin, which is carried by the pest. Certain major almond markets have an extremely low tolerance for aflatoxin.

    What should growers think about when planning for NOW management at hull split and harvest, particularly when egg and/or pheromone traps are largely empty in the spring?

    • NOW adults can fly a quarter of a mile. When hull splits starts in your orchard, your nuts can become vulnerable to moths from your neighbor’s orchard, if they are a quarter of a mile away, or less.
    • Time your hull split spray(s) based on crop sensitivity (hull split), not trap counts – especially in low pressure years. When NOW pressures are low, egg traps don’t always attract females for egg laying when flights begin – especially when there are thousands of splitting real nuts as competition.

    Here are some general reminders for NOW control as harvest approaches:

    • Harvest at 100% hull split. Shake your trees once the nuts have reached 100% hull split. NOW populations build with every generation (see graph below) and NOW females lay fewer eggs on harvested nuts than those nuts still in the trees. So get the nuts on the ground as soon as they are ready. For pictures and description of 100% hull split, see: http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/C003/m003fchullsplit.html.
    • If you spray, spray early. Newer, soft pesticides used for NOW control last a long time and work well on eggs and small worms. Research by Dr. Frank Zalom, UC Davis Entomology Department, suggests that effective pesticide residual is in this order (roughly): Intrepid® 4 weeks > Altacor® 3 weeks > pyrethroids (Brigade®, etc.) 2 weeks. Consult with your PCA and consider spraying early, so eggs are laid on treated surfaces. This may mean starting to spray as blanks are beginning to split – depending on how long it takes you to get across the orchard. Why spray early when pressure is low? The longer you can keep the NOW population low, the lower the pressure will be later in the season when pollinators (Monterey, etc.) are splitting.
      Spray carefully. Field research results from Dr. Joel Siegel (USDA) and Ken Giles (UC Davis) have repeatedly shown that slower sprayer ground speed (2 MPH) and higher spray volume (150-200 gpa vs 100 gpa) delivers the best possible NOW control. Also, spraying when the humidity is higher (roughly 10 PM to 10 AM) means less spray evaporation and better coverage. Need to move faster? Consider using an additional sprayer instead of driving too fast and getting less control (lease/borrow?). If better spray timing could reduce damage by 0.5% (0.25% on your grade sheets*) in a 2500 kernel lb/acre orchard, that’s $31.25/acre/year back in your pocket before any quality incentives.

  • Downy Mildew Devastates Vegetable Crops in Southern California

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    At the CAPCA Spring Summit in Temecula, growers and crop consultants gathered to discuss issues with pest & disease management, and how to resolve them. This year was especially rough on southern desert vegetable growers for downy mildew, as many were not prepared for all the rain we received earlier this year. Watch this brief video with UC Plant Pathologist Alexander Putnam as he explains the situation this year and how to go about managing downy mildew in the field moving forward. Read more about it in Vegetables West Magazine.

  • Late Spring Vineyard Management Decisions with Greg Pennyroyal

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    Temecula Vineyard Manager Greg Pennyroyal was featured in the May issue of American Vineyard Magazine, and we hoped you enjoyed reading his story. Now check out his video interview here to see what’s going on right now in the vineyard and what he is doing to protect his grapes to ensure a quality crop this year.

  • Ag Council of California Works to Ensure Buy American Provision

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    Emily Rooney, President of the Ag Council of California recently spoke at the annual Almond Alliance Convention, sharing their organization’s efforts to defend California Agriculture in Sacramento. One of their recent successes has been working with Dr. Pan on the Buy American Provision to ensure that school lunches are not coming from commodities produced outside of the country when they are locally grown in California. Watch her video interview with California Ag Network here to learn more.

  • Nut Harvest Safety Seminar in Hanford, July 19

    Hanford, Calif. — As local farmers continue to diversify and plant an increasing number of nut crops, the Kings and Tulare County Farm Bureaus, along with State Fund, American Pistachio Growers and UCCE, are hosting the third annual nut harvest safety seminar.

    Scheduled for Wednesday, July 19 at the Kings Fairgrounds in Hanford, this free training is directed toward nut commodity harvest equipment operators, crews and farm employees, in conjunction with farm managers/supervisors and growers. Harvest equipment for walnuts, almonds and pistachios will be included and safety materials will be provided.

    Presentations will be made in both English and Spanish, with participants rotating between various sessions on nut harvest safety. Sessions will include presentations by the CHP on rules of the road to observe when pulling trailers and equipment, Cal-OSHA on avoiding heat stress, and State Compensation Insurance Fund will discuss the safe operation of nut harvest farm equipment.

    John Ellis, Kings County Farm Bureau board member and seminar chairman, said that the event will provide valuable information to the growing number of area nut farmers.

    “We recognize that our members are producing an ever-increasing acreage of nut crops, so we’re dedicating staff and our board of directors’ time to organize this program to be helpful and informative to our membership,” Ellis said. “The seminar has been so well received during the past two summers that we want to continue offering it.”

    Those interested in registering for this free seminar should call the Tulare County Farm Bureau at (559) 732-8301 by Friday, July 14. Day-of registration will be held at 7:30 a.m. During that time, staff from the United Way and Family Healthcare Network will be on hand to provide free health screening for participants. The training begins at 8 a.m. and ends at 1:30 p.m. Lunch will be provided, and participants will receive a certification of completion at the seminar’s conclusion.

    For more information, please call the Kings County Farm Bureau office at (559) 584-3557.

    About Kings County Farm Bureau
    Kings County Farm Bureau is a non-profit advocacy organization that represents approximately 800 members of the agricultural community. More information is available at www.kcfb.org.