California Ag Network

Tag: UC

  • UC Launches Drought Video Series Feb. 2

    Oakland, Calif., (February 8, 2018) – Because periodic droughts will always be a part of life in California, the UC California Institute for Water Resources (CIWR) produced a series of videos to maintain drought awareness and planning, even in years when water is more abundant.

    The first of the three videos premieres Feb. 2 on the UCTV Sustainable California channel. Subsequent videos will be launched March 2 and April 6. View the trailer here.

    The videos are inspired by a collection of 19 drought tips produced by CIWR in collaboration with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers during the drought of 2010-16. The tips cover a broad spectrum of California crops, from alfalfa to walnuts. Topics also include salt management, use of graywater in urban landscapes, and the use of shallow groundwater for crop production. Three topics – alfalfa, almonds and citrus – are featured in the three-episode CIWR video series.

    The drought tips collection and the drought tip videos were sponsored by the California Department of Water Resources. Following is the schedule for the video releases:

    Friday, Feb. 2: Drought strategies for alfalfa

    UC Cooperative Extension alfalfa specialist Dan Putnam wrote the drought tip ‘Drought Strategies for Alfalfa,’ on which the first video in the series is based. The video is on the UCTV Sustainable California channel, http://www.uctv.tv/sustainable-cal/.

    The CIWR drought tip series opens with Cannon Michael of Bowles Farming in Los Banos. The alfalfa grower works with UCCE specialist Dan Putnam. “There’s a lot of misunderstanding about alfalfa as a crop,” Michael said. “It does take water to grow it, as with anything, but you get multiple harvests of it every year.”

    Friday, March 2: Drought management for California almonds

    The second episode features almond producer Raj of Meena farms. He works with David Doll, UCCE advisor in Merced County. “One positive of this drought,” Meena said, “is that it has forced us all to be more efficient in how we use our water.”

    Friday, April 6: Irrigating citrus with limited water

    The series finale features Lisa Brenneis of Churchill-Brenneis Orchard in the Ojai Valley of Ventura County. She worked with UCCE advisor Ben Faber to install a new water-efficient irrigation system. “Irrigation is the only job we really have to do,” Brenneis said, “and we have to get it as right as we can.”

    For a complete list of drought tips, see http://ucanr.edu/drought-tips.

  • UC Helps Cattle Ranchers Estimate Costs and Returns of Beef Production

    Sacramento, Calif., (July 18, 2017) – The cattle industry in California has undergone dramatic changes over the last few decades. International competition and opportunities, new regulatory requirements, fluctuating feed costs, changing consumer demand, economies of scale and competing land uses all affect the bottomline in cattle ranching. Ranchers have experienced increasing production costs while revenue has not kept pace with costs.

    To help ranchers make business decisions, new cost studies for beef cattle production have been released by UC ANR Agricultural Issues Center and UC Cooperative Extension.

    Sample costs and returns for beef cattle production in the northern Sacramento Valley are presented in these studies. The studies are titled “Sample Costs for Beef Cattle, Cow–Calf Production,” “Sample Costs for Beef Cattle, Yearling/Stocker Production” and “Sample Costs for Beef Cattle, Finished on Grass.”

    “These studies are useful to new and experienced ranchers, lenders and other agribusiness companies, as well as government officials, researcher and students who want to know basics of ranch practices and the costs and returns that can be expected for a well-managed operation,” said Daniel Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center. “The studies show ranges of net returns under alternative price scenarios to help indicate sensitivity of returns to cattle market conditions.”

    The analyses are based on a hypothetical well-managed ranching operation using practices common to the northern Sacramento Valley. The three studies are based on a herd of 300 cows and bred heifers, 60 yearling heifers and 15 bulls. An 11 percent cull rate is applied to the herd. An 89 percent calf crop with three percent mortality before weaning is assumed.

    All rangeland and pasture is rented per animal unit month. Ranging analysis tables show net revenue over a range of prices. The costs, materials and operations shown in this study will not apply to all ranches. Ranchers, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors, and other agricultural associates provided input and reviewed the methods and findings of the study.

    Free copies of these studies and other sample cost of production studies for additional commodities are also available. To download the cost studies, visit the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics website at https://coststudies.ucdavis.edu.

    The cost studies program is funded by the UC Agricultural Issues Center and UC Cooperative Extension, both of which are part of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

    For more information or an explanation of the calculations used in the studies, contact Donald Stewart at the Agricultural Issues Center at (530) 752-4651 or destewart@ucdavis.edu; Larry Forero, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor for  Shasta and Trinity counties, at lcforero@ucanr.edu, or Jeff Stackhouse, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor for Humboldt and Del Norte counties, at jwstackhouse@ucanr.edu.