Conservation agriculture news

CASI Hosts Esteemed Guests at Five Points NRI Project Site!

February 22, 2018

Three distinguished guests visited the long-standing CASI NRI Project in Five Points on February 22 and saw first-hand how the no-till and cover cropped soils have dramatically changed since the study was started in 1999.  Dr. Angus Wright, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Studies at California State University, Sacramento, Tom Willey, retired organic farmer at T & D Willey Farms in Madera, CA, and Roberto Botelho, conservation agriculture researcher in Sao Paolo state in Brazil, met with CASI's Jeff Mitchell at the site on a splendidly sunny day in the San Joaquin Valley.  The visitors examined the cover crop mixtures that have been growing during the winter and also dug shovels-full of soil to examine how it has visibly changed under the long-term no-till and cover crop management that has been implemented at the site.  Dr. Wright is a noted researcher and author several books on agriculture including Nature's Matrix and the Death of Ramon Gonzales:  The Modern Agricultural Dilemma.   He gave a guest lecture in Mitchell's PLS111 Agronomy course last fall in Davis and also a seminar the night before at Fresno City College to a large crowd.  We were honored to have these wonderful guests visit our NRI Project site in Five Points.

 

Wrap up for WAE 2018 in Tulare!

We had a good year at the World Ag Expo last week in Tulare.

Special thanks go out to all the folks including Brook Gale, Brenna Aegerter, Jessica Chiartas, Roberto Botelho, Monte Bottens, Ladi Asgill, Matt Rossow, Jesse Sanchez, Scott Park, Michael Janes, Jeannette Warnert, Rick Cesena, who stopped by and who gave good service to our display site. 

A video of some of this year's activities can be seen at  https://youtu.be/SpiCpIjpRp0

All the best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2017 CASI Farmer Innovator Recognition of Michael McRee of Chowchilla, CA

In a recent meeting of San Joaquin Valley NRCS and Resource Conservation Districts leaders held at the Wool Growers' Restaurant in Los Banos, CA, the 2017 Conservation Agriculture Farmer Innovator Award was presented to Chowchilla, CA farmer, Michael McRee.

Mike McRee has been extremely willing to share his experiences with others and has graciously hosted numerous public field days at his dairy farm over the years.   

Additional information about McRee may be found at the CASI Workgroup website at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ct/?story=90&showall=yes

 

 

 

 

Televideo conference session between Dr. Dwayne Beck and UC Davis PLS111 Agronomy class

The following link is for a video of a televideo conference session that took place on November 14, 2017 between Dr. Dwayne Beck, Director of the Dakota Lakes Research Farm of South Dakota State University, and the PLS111 agronomy students at the University of California, Davis.

https://videocenter.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/videos/video/372/

In the roughly one-hour-and-twenty-minute video, Dr. Beck describes some of the thinking and innovation that led to many of the transformational changes in agricultural production systems that have taken place in his region over the past thirty of so years.  He also shares with the students aspects of his own thinking related to how we are all going to need to be very proactive with our own efforts to develop improved performance production systems and he encourages us to look at things from a truly long-term perspective.

This video captures many of the critically-important insights and ways of looking at production systems that Dr. Beck is so well known for and the PLS111 class was most grateful to him for his thinking.

New UC Davis Irrigation Professor, Dr. Isaya Kisekka, visits CASI Long-term NRI Project Field

Dr. Isaya Kisekka, a brand new professor of Hydrology at the University of California, Davis, took time to come down to the longstanding CASI NRI Project field during a tour of San Joaquin Valley sites and visits with people on September 21^st.  Dr. Kisekka is a recently-appointed professor and agricultural engineer who hails most recently from Kansas State University where he was also a professor.  Before that, he received his PhD degree from the University of Florida. 

At KSU he worked on many of the sorts of things he looks forward to contributing in his new position with UC Davis, namely strategies for sustaining crop production under increasingly water-short conditions.  CASI member and veteran UCCE Irrigation, Soils and Cotton Advisor, Dan Munk, coordinated Isaya's tour and took him to many sites of local interest.  We look forward to many very productive interactions with Isaya in the future.

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