The UC Cooperative extension is pleased to invite growers and other folks from the California prune industry to come and attend the annual South Sacramento Valley Prune Meeting on February 27, 2024 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Sutter County Ag Dept. Meeting Room (142 Garden Hwy, Yuba City, CA). Topics will include: an IPM review, new approaches to prune thinning, prune grower regulatory update, managing fleabane and other problem weeds in prune orchards, how to utilize the weekly ET report for better irrigation, potassium and prune nutrition/fertility, and a California Prune Board Update. The meeting will conclude with lunch generously sponsored by the California Prune Board. The event is free to attend, but please RSVP for lunch HERE, and see the full agenda HERE. Continuing Education Credits have been requested. Contact Franz Niederholzer at fjniederholzer@ucdavis.edu for more information.
Tag: UC Cooperative Extension
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Cover Crops in Rice Field Demonstration, Feb. 29
UC Cooperative Extension will host a Healthy Soils Program field demonstration day on cover cropping in rice systems. The meeting will take place on Thursday, February 29th, from 9:30am to noon, on Staten Island in San Joaquin County (23319 N. Staten Island Road, Thornton). Presentations will describe field trials to evaluate winter cover cropping, incentive programs for growers, and weed management topics ahead of the 2024 growing season. There will also be an opportunity to view different cover crop species for performance. Attendance is free, and registration is not required. CCA continuing education credits will be offered (0.5 PM, 1.0 CM, 0.5 PD). The agenda is pasted below, and can be downloaded HERE.
9:30am Arrive at Staten Island grain silo to sign in
9:45am Depart to field location – Don’t be late!
10:00am Welcome and Introductions: Michelle Leinfelder-Miles, UCCE Delta Region
10:05am Winter Cover Cropping in Rice Systems – Field Demonstrations: Michelle Leinfelder-Miles, UCCE Delta Region
10:20am Cover Crop Variety Evaluations: Sara Rosenberg, UC Davis
10:35am A Grower’s Perspective on Cover Crops: Jerred Dixon, Conservation Farms and Ranches
10:55am Healthy Soils Program – Block Grant Pilot Program: Chris Kelley, CA Land Stewardship Institute
11:10am What’s New in Rice Weed Management: Whitney Brim-DeForest, UCCE Sutter/Yuba
11:25am Weedy Rice Updates: Whitney Brim-DeForest and Michelle Leinfelder-Miles, UCCE
11:40am Discussion, Viewing of Field Plots, Evaluation
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New UCCE Dairy Advisor for Tulare and Kern Counties
California Dairy Magazine is excited to announce Rubia Branco Lopes as the new UCCE Dairy Farm Advisor for Tulare and Kern Counties. Watch this brief introductory video to get to know Rubia better, and read more in California Dairy Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor afimilk for their industry support.
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New Technology to Quickly Assess Nitrogen Status of Grapevines
Want to speed up the grapevine nitrogen sampling and testing process in your vineyard? Watch this brief interview featuring Alireza Pourreza, an Associate Professor at UC Davis, who shares that it can now be done effectively using remote sensing from above the vineyard. Read more about it in American Vineyard Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor the U.S Department of Agriculture for their industry support.
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Rootstock Performance on Young and Mature Autumn King Grapevines
If you missed Grape Day at the Kearney Agricultural Research & Extension Center this year, be sure to watch this brief interview featuring Ashraf El Kereamy and Tian Tian from the UC Cooperative Extension, who reported their recent trial observations on the performance of both young and mature Autumn King table grapes on various rootstocks and read more about grape growing in the new Table Grape Tasks column of American Vineyard Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Thunder Creek Equipment for their industry support.
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UC Awards Brodt $2M to Advance Soil Health, Climate-Smart Farming Practices
To accelerate adoption of climate-smart farming practices, the University of California Office of the President has awarded nearly $2 million to a team of UC Cooperative Extension scientists and community partners working on a network of farm demonstration sites. The project will be led by Sonja Brodt, coordinator for agriculture and environment at the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program. This UC Agriculture and Natural Resources project is one of 38 funded with $83.1 million allocated to UC by the State of California for climate action research and innovation.
Scaling up soil health and other climate-smart agricultural practices to sequester carbon, increase water and nutrient use efficiency, and improve the resilience of farms to climate-related threats like drought and floods is a core pillar identified in California’s Natural and Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy.
Climate-smart agriculture is a systems-based approach that requires localized adaptation across the diverse soils, cropping systems, socioeconomic and cultural contexts throughout California.
Sonja Brodt “Our project will strengthen the nascent California Farm Demonstration Network for on-the-ground, regionally specific demonstration of a range of climate-smart practices,” said Brodt. “Regional farms will demonstrate practices such as cover cropping, reduced tillage, compost and mulch use, hedgerow planting, irrigation system optimization and more.”
The $1,999,524 project will pilot a participatory partnership extension model that allows farmers to learn from their peers to reduce adoption risks and adapt knowledge to an ever-changing environment, increasing the likelihood of farmer success and accelerating long-term uptake of complex, place-specific practices.
Building on the capacity of local trusted organizations, project collaborators will be organized in a hub-and-spoke network with three regional Farm Demonstration Hubs (Sacramento Valley, North Coast and Central Coast), a pilot Hmong/Mien Demonstration Hub, and a statewide Organic Demonstration Hub.
Collaborators at each hub will be responsible for identifying and nurturing farm demonstration sites, and conducting demonstration trials and farmer-to-farmer outreach activities. Centralized organization and capacity building will be provided by UC SAREP, UC Organic Agriculture Institute, the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, and the California Farm Demonstration Network Advisory Panel.
In addition to several UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists across the state, partners include the UC Hansen Research and Extension Center and the Rodale Institute California Organic Center, both in Ventura County, and the UC Climate Smart Agriculture Program. Eight Resource Conservation Districts will also be involved in leading Farm Demonstration Hubs.
Hope Zabronsky of the UC Climate Smart Agriculture Program shows the importance of soil structure at a cover cropping workshop. The project will also conduct soil health assessment activities to inform soil health and resilience monitoring protocols in future research and extension efforts. Since many existing soil health metrics were designed for agroecosystems in the Midwest and Eastern U.S., this project aims to lay the groundwork for research to adapt soil health metrics to the arid and Mediterranean climates of California.
“By utilizing relationships built between demonstration hub managers and demonstration farms across different cropping systems, we will gather quantitative and qualitative soil health data, information about growers’ management practices as well as their own perspectives of what they really need to know about their soils in order to better manage for climate resilience and mitigation,” said Brodt.
Ultimately, the project partners aim to establish an enduring on-farm extension and research system that will help thousands of farmers adopt climate-smart practices tailored to their farms.
Three other projects involving UC ANR researchers received California Climate Action Seed Grants and Matching Grants subawards:
- Development of a hydrogel that can work as a soil amendment to help small-scale vegetable farms conserve water led by UC San Diego associate professor Shengqiang Cai with Ruth Dahlquist-Willard, UC Cooperative Extension small farms advisor and interim director of UC SAREP; Mallika Nocco, UC Cooperative Extension specialist; and Matthew Gilbert, UC Davis professor of whole plant physiology. $297,979
- Development of a tool for predicting climate-water variation led by UC Irvine professor Isabella Velicogna with Tapan Pathak, UC Cooperative Extension specialist. $199,531
- A study of urban stream corridors led by UC Davis professor Gregory Pasternack with Igor Lacan, UC Cooperative Extension environmental horticulture and urban forestry advisor. $33,824
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources brings the power of UC to all 58 California counties. Through research and Cooperative Extension in agriculture, natural resources, nutrition, economic and youth development, our mission is to improve the lives of all Californians. Learn more at ucanr.edu.
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California Growers Face High Mildew Pressure, Delayed Grape Harvest
It’s been a while since California growers have experienced a wet year with a plentiful snowpack and water supply. Weather conditions this season, though, have pushed harvest back for most grape growers and powdery mildew pressure has been unusually high for growers that didn’t stay on their spray programs with just the right timing. Watch this brief interview with UCCE Viticulture Farm Advisor George Zhuang as he explains, and read more about it in American Vineyard Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Thunder Creek Equipment for their industry support.
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Cattleman’s Four Decades of UCCE Collaborations Advance Ranching Practices
Siskiyou County rancher Jack Cowley, 91, joyfully recalled the special Christmas gift that delighted his seven children in the 1960s. Cowley, then a practicing eye doctor in Sacramento, and his late wife Barbara surprised the children with a white quarterhorse, which they named Silver.
“That’s how it all started!” exclaimed Cowley, reflecting on the gift horse that would eventually lead to a 40-year collaboration with University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Silver was the impetus for his family’s involvement with the 4-H Youth Development Program, a part of UC ANR. Cowley also would later transition to a second career in cattle ranching, and collaborate with UC Cooperative Extension on research projects ranging from weed control to cow genetics.
“Jack has been an extremely committed supporter of UCCE,” said Grace Woodmansee, who became the UCCE livestock and natural resources advisor for Siskiyou County in 2021. “He has worked with UCCE extensively and contributed a lot of time and resources to supporting local and statewide projects.”
Lately Cowley and his son David have been working with Woodmansee and Gabriele Maier, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, on a cow deworming study.
Not only has Cowley allowed UCCE scientists to study his cattle over the years, he has been willing to personally share information with scientists and cattle producers across the country and internationally.
“It is important to foster exchange and linkages, said Dan Drake, UCCE farm advisor emeritus in Siskiyou County, who collaborated with Cowley for 30 years. “He went to so many meetings, especially with the early and uncharted areas of cattle genetics. Jack was on a first-name basis with the leaders from other states and the relationships were important in both directions. Frankly, I think many of those folks were jealous of the great cooperator we had in California.”
Cowley has turned most of the cattle operations over to his children, but he keeps a hand in the business. Breeding for better beef
After retiring from his Sacramento ophthalmology practice in the 1990s, Cowley settled in Montague in Siskiyou County, 246 miles north of the closest UC campus. There he met then-UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Steve Orloff and Drake. Orloff advised him on alfalfa production and pasture management while Drake offered counsel on animal health records, organizing breeding, animal nutrition and water issues.
Drake explained to ranchers that by selectively breeding cows based on genetics, they could improve the production and quality of beef so that it’s healthier for humans.
“My medical background helped me understand animal genetics,” Cowley said. “We can modify the genetics to improve the quality of the beef to make it more heart-healthy.”
In 2009, Drake introduced Cowley to UC Cooperative Extension specialist Alison Van Eenennaam, who studies animal genetics at UC Davis.
“I was looking to set up a research trial where we would follow cattle from the ranch all the way through to the Harris Ranch processing plant in the Central Valley,” said Van Eenennaam, who worked with Cowley on a three-year project.
Using DNA samples from Cowley’s cattle, they evaluated the data they received from processor Harris Ranch of the beef characteristics – such as tenderness — to compare the different breeds.
“I really thought I knew what I was doing and my cattle graded terribly,” Cowley said.
Since beginning the genetics project, his beef quality steadily improved.
“We’re now up to where all of our animals are graded anywhere from 20% to 40% Prime and the rest Choice,” said Cowley, adding that he stopped striving for higher grades because the buyer said there was a limited market for the more expensive meat.
Cowley takes pride in knowing breeding practices developed from the research he and UC Cooperative Extension conducted have been adopted globally by dairy producers and beef producers.
“The type of research we were doing there has eventually evolved to now we have these genomic tests that you can use that genetically predict the performance of animals,” Van Eenennaam said. “Nowadays people just take an ear tag and send it in and get their genetic prediction.”
Van Eenennaam credits Cowley for allowing research on his large herd. “Jack was very patient with things that take a long time. When researchers come onto your ranch, that could slow you down.”
She added, “Genetic improvement, of course, is a huge component of sustainability because the more efficient cattle are, the less feed they consume and the less time they take to finish, which ultimately lessens their environmental footprint.”
Grace Woodmansee, who became the UCCE livestock and natural resources advisor for Siskiyou County in 2021, sits with Cowley in his kitchen, which features chicken decorations collected by his late wife Barbara. Growing up in Utah
Looking back, Cowley marvels that he has been fortunate to do what he wanted to do in life.
“I was interested in ranching when I was probably seven or eight years of age,” said Cowley, who delivered the local Deseret Newspaper on horseback as a boy. “I grew up in Utah, you know, a little town in Utah called Holladay. It was not a ranching community.”
After serving four years in the Air Force during the Korean War, he returned to Utah to find the cute girl he met in first grade had graduated from college and was still single. He married Barbara in 1956. When he was accepted at George Washington University medical school, they drove with their three-week-old baby from Utah to Washington, D.C. He got a job in the Senate office building as an elevator operator working from 5 to 11 p.m., which enabled him to study, meet influential people and finish medical school without debt.
“I actually got to meet Khrushchev,” he said, recalling his encounter with the Soviet leader..
After finishing his ophthalmology residency at UCLA, Cowley established his practice in Sacramento and later taught a few classes at UC Davis Medical School.
Becoming a cattleman
One Saturday afternoon, after Silver the horse joined the family, Cowley and his oldest daughter, Kathryn, were driving in Placerville and saw a ranch for sale. He bought the 90 acres. For two summers, Barbara and the children lived at the ranch and Cowley joined them on weekends.
“Of course, I had to have a few cows to play with,” he said with a chuckle. “Basically, I thought I could make some money off of 50 cows.”
As his herd grew, he moved it to Corning, 50 miles south of Redding, and finally to the site in Montague that could accommodate several hundred head of cattle. “That’s when I really became interested in animal genetics,” Cowley said. “That was back when we had slide rules to do our calculations. It was pretty crude, but it was a start.”
In 1990, Cowley was honored as the California Beef Cattle Improvement Association’s Seedstock Producer of the year and, in 2007, was named Siskiyou County’s Cattleman of the Year. He has served as president of the Siskiyou County Cattlemen’s Association, on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, as well as on committees for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
“Jack spent countless hours traveling to the Midwest and other beef research institutions to share knowledge, learn more and plan for needed information,” said Drake, emeritus UCCE livestock advisor. This made for better Extension work, better research and recognition of UC Cooperative Extension work nationwide.”
In 2011, when Van Eenennaam and Drake presented their research at an international genomics conference, he joined them in Australia to learn from other researchers. They also visited Australian producers to learn their practices.
“We really rely on cooperators like Jack to enable our research to have translation to farmers and ranchers,” Van Eenennaam said.
In recent years, Cowley has handed the ranch reins over to his children David, Brian, Brent and Kathryn, who live in Siskiyou County.
David, who retired from a nearly 40-year career as a software engineer, plans to continue working with UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists.
“Any time you have questions, you can call and they’re more than happy to help you,” he said. — By Pamela Kan-Rice, UCANR
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources brings the power of UC to all 58 California counties. Through research and Cooperative Extension in agriculture, natural resources, nutrition, economic and youth development, our mission is to improve the lives of all Californians. Learn more at ucanr.edu and support our work at donate.ucanr.edu.
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Kern County Potato Variety Trial Field Day, June 21
The Annual UC Cooperative Extension and California Potato Research Advisory Board (CPRAB) Variety Trial Field Day is an opportunity to see tubers of potentially new varieties, how they performed this year, and how they performed compared to standard varieties. The event will take place on Wednesday, June 21 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Hart Memorial Park (8 miles northeast of downtown Bakersfield via Hwy 178 and Alfred Harrell Hwy). Entries include varieties from numerous USDA, state, and private breeding programs. This year’s entries include Russets, chippers, reds, yellows, and specialty types. Tubers will be shown as how they look straight from the field after being washed.
This is an opportunity to express your evaluations and recommendations about these varieties to University researchers, breeders, seed growers, and fellow growers.
LOCATION! The Potato Field Day will be held in the shade near the bank of the Kern River at HART PARK. It will be located on the east end of the park in Section 2, just off Alfred Harrell Highway. Please see map on back for directions to Hart Park. Snacks and refreshments will be available.
Potato Grower Meeting: You should be receiving a notice from the CPRAB for the annual potato grower’s dinner and informal meeting to be held the evening of the field day.
For further information contact:
Jaspreet Sidhu, Kern County Cooperative Extension, 661-304-8870 Nathan Sano, California Potato Research Advisory Board, 559-591-0436
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New Tool Calculates Crop Rotation Costs, Benefits for California Rice Growers
Due to severe water shortages, rice acres planted in California plummeted by 37% from 2021 to 2022, according to numbers released recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. But now, thanks to University of California researchers, growers have a new tool they could potentially use to cope with droughts and other environmental and socioeconomic changes.
A crop rotation calculator provides farmers in the Sacramento Valley – where 97% of California rice is grown – with projections on the economic impacts of transitioning their fields from rice into four less water-intensive crops: dry beans, safflower, sunflower or tomato.
The tool represents an initial attempt to address the dearth of research on rice crop rotation in California, while giving growers much-needed, science-backed data on whether the practice would make financial sense for their farms.
“I believe more rice growers could benefit from the many advantages of crop rotation, and this new tool is an excellent first step by the UC to help growers look into making such a transition,” said George Tibbitts, a Colusa County rice farmer.
Funded in part by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, through the Western Integrated Pest Management Center, the calculator is a collaborative effort of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, UC Integrated Pest Management and UC Davis to fill a major gap in rice research.
“I do think there are people who would have tried rotational crops in the past, but it’s just so unknown, we didn’t have anything we could give them and be like, ‘Hey, this is the recommended crop for your area,’” said Whitney Brim-DeForest, UC Cooperative Extension rice advisor. “This tool gives them some preliminary data they can use to make a more informed decision.”
Crop rotation a potential boon to growers, environment
UC Davis doctoral student Sara Rosenberg and Brim-DeForest, alongside other members of the UC rice research team, surveyed California rice growers in 2020 on their experiences with and perceptions of crop rotation. Although the practice is rare in the Sacramento Valley (only an estimated 10% of rice acreage is under rotation), some farmers reported benefits that could be crucial in a water-scarce future.
“From having conversations with growers who do rotate, one of the biggest benefits they describe is their flexibility in times of drought, where they can keep producing on their land when there isn’t enough water to grow rice,” said Rosenberg, noting that crop rotation could be one option in a “toolbox” of strategies that growers also use to manage fertilizer price shocks, herbicide resistance and other challenges.
Given the dearth of quantitative data on crop rotation in rice, more studies are needed on the practice in California, according to Whitney Brim-DeForest, UCCE rice advisor. Photo by Evett Kilmartin During the ongoing drought that caused about half of California’s rice acreage to go fallow in 2022, Tibbitts said his water district was only able to allocate 10% of his usual allotment.
“With such a limited supply, it would have been tough to grow even one field of rice,” he said. “But it was enough water so that we could rent two of our fields to a tomato grower – tomatoes under drip irrigation use much less water than a flooded field of rice. We were also able to grow one field of sunflowers, which doesn’t need any irrigation at all if you can plant the seeds into existing moisture in the early spring.”
While drought is one motivating factor to rotate crops, Tibbitts said that on principle he avoids planting all his acreage in rice and “not have all (his) eggs in one basket.”
“My primary motivation for rotating into and out of rice has been to help with weed and disease control,” he added. “Crop rotation is a primary tool of IPM (integrated pest management), and I feel it has helped me greatly over the years.”
According to Brim-DeForest, rotating cropping systems can allow for the use of different weed control tools, such as different herbicide modes of action, and different cultural controls such as tillage, reducing the chances of selecting for herbicide-resistant weeds – an increasingly pervasive issue in rice systems.
Rosenberg noted that, in some situations – and depending on the crops in rotation – the practice can also disrupt the life cycles of insects and diseases and potentially improve soil structure and increase nutrient cycling and uptake, which may lead to a reduction in inputs such as fertilizer.
More research on crop diversification needed in rice systems
The benefits of crop rotation for California rice growers are largely theoretical and anecdotal, however, so the UC rice team is looking to add evidence-based grounding through a variety of studies – from looking at long-term effects on soil health indicators to testing various cover crops (which may deliver some benefits of diversification, similar to those of rotation).
In addition to crop rotation in rice, researchers are also studying cover cropping, which may deliver some benefits of diversification, says UC Davis doctoral student Sara Rosenberg. “In California, there is no quantitative data on crop rotation in rice,” said Brim-DeForest. “You’d think after a hundred and some odd years (of UC agricultural research), all the research would have been done, but, no – there’s tons still to do.”
Through interviews with Sacramento Valley growers, researchers found that cost was frequently mentioned as a barrier to trying crop rotation, along with incompatible soil conditions and a lack of equipment, knowledge and experience.
To help clarify those economic uncertainties, the new calculator tool allows growers to enter baseline information specific to their circumstances – whether they rent or own their own land, whether they contract out the work to plant the rotational crop, and other factors. The calculator then generates potential costs and benefits of staying in rice versus rotating to dry beans, safflower, sunflower or tomato, during the first year and in an “average” year for those crops.
The upfront costs of rotation during “year one” can be daunting. Therefore, the tool only focuses on a short-term profitability perspective. Researchers are currently working on longer term modeling for crop rotation – incorporating the possibility of reduced herbicide use over time, and under different crop yield scenarios, for example – that could significantly change the growers’ calculus.
“You could actually be profitable in the long term, whereas this first, short glimpse is showing you a negative,” said Rosenberg.
In addition, thanks to collaboration with the UC IPM team, the rice rotation calculator is an evolving tool that will be continually improved based on user feedback and additional data. Brim-DeForest also said that it could be adapted to other cropping systems – for example, alfalfa going into another rotational crop.
The rice calculator tool can be found at: https://rice-rotation-calculator.ipm.ucanr.edu/.
Other contributors to the project include Bruce Linquist, Luis Espino, Ellen Bruno, Kassim Al-Khatib and Michelle Leinfelder-Miles of UCCE; Cameron Pittelkow of UC Davis; as well as UC IPM team members Chinh Lam, Tunyalee Martin and Hanna Zorlu; and the California rice growers and industry members who participated in the research. — By Mike Hsu, UCANR
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources brings the power of UC to all 58 California counties. Through research and Cooperative Extension in agriculture, natural resources, nutrition, economic and youth development, our mission is to improve the lives of all Californians. Learn more at ucanr.edu and support our work at donate.ucanr.edu.