- Author: Hanif Houston, Associate Director, Communications & Marketing for UC ANR's The VINE
Agriculture and the global food supply is threatened by a range of issues including drought, climate impacts, increasing business costs and labor scarcity. To forge solutions to these issues and more, on Oct. 18-22 nearly 1,000 attendees from 26 countries converged in Fresno for the inaugural FIRA - World Ag Robotics Forum to be held in the U.S. UC ANR's Verde Innovation Network for Entrepreneurship, or the VINE, co-sponsored the event.
Widely observed as a pivotal moment for agricultural technology and robotics in U.S. agriculture, the event was kicked off by California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross and moved into a packed agenda with panel discussions, lightning talks and pitches where automation company representatives, academics and growers had the opportunity to share their challenges, concerns and hopes for the future of autonomous farming. The event culminated at CSU Fresno with over a dozen companies offering in-the-field demonstrations (See link and field day).
Here are a few themes and takeaways the VINE team took away from this pioneering multi-day event.
Gaining On-Farm Use - Focus on end user needs and ease of use!
A major question speakers tackled was why more growers aren't yet integrating automation into their farms. Automation solutions exist and are being developed to help growers in nearly every aspect of running a farm — from planting, harvesting and weeding to addressing persistent labor shortages. Despite this, ag automation companies, both big and small, still face resistance from growers to adopting new technologies.
Part of the problem, Jeff Morrison of Grimmway Farms said during a panel on mechanization versus automation, is that companies pay more attention to their product than the needs of the grower. “Farmers want technology that fills a particular need,” he said. Anna Haldewang, the founder of InsightTRAC, agreed. “Don't be married to your product, be married to your customer.”
Chuck Baresich, president of the Haggerty Ag Robotics Company, emphasized the importance of creating automation solutions that are simple and intuitive to use. “For a manufacturer, the first thing I'd tell them is don't overcomplicate things,” he said. “Make sure your robot can drive straight, start with that.”
Panels also touched on the technical, business and regulatory challenges to automating agriculture. The agtech startup market is much younger than Silicon Valley, and we don't yet know the best route to establishing a successful business, Rob Trice of Better Food Ventures and The Mixing Bowl observed during a panel on robotic product development with key industry leaders, including Walt Duflock, vice president of innovation for Western Growers. That said, panelists identified three things that startups should do:
- Get prototypes into the field as quickly as possible to get performance data and get feedback, including from farmworkers, who may come up with multiple uses for the product.
- Be transparent about development to build partnerships with investors and growers. Partners understand that startups are a work-in-progress.
- Be ready to evolve and change your technology or your business to meet the customers' needs. Love the customer, not the tech.
AgTech, Labor and Farmworkers - Forging win-win opportunities
Hernan Hernandez of the California Farmworker Foundation acknowledges the labor concern, but also sees opportunity. “All of a sudden, you go from 100 individuals that are going to be able to harvest this season to now 10 that will harvest with a machine," he said. "But the way we look at it is as well, when we talk to farmworkers and engage them, and we look at data, there is also opportunity. We know a lot of the farmworkers want opportunities to further their skill sets.”
This sense of optimism about the future of the farmworker was shared by Gabe Youtsey, chief innovation officer of UC ANR, who moderated a panel on the future of agricultural work. “California as a whole has begun recognizing the importance of creating the next generation of ag workers,” he observed, “and schools and industry have both taken notice.” Indeed, California community colleges have begun working on new relevant programs that translate directly to jobs, and the federal government has allocated $10 million going directly to Central Valley agricultural education and workforce development programs.
What's next?
The gathering also served as a platform for launching new technology initiatives. Youtsey, in collaboration with our partners at UC Davis AI Institute for Food Systems, announced the 2023 Farm Robotics Challenge at FIRA USA 22! We look forward to co-hosting this event!
It is clear that automation and robotics will play an increasingly crucial role in agriculture. Not only in addressing the pronounced labor shortage in agriculture, but by creating new value creation opportunities related to resource efficiency, crop health, disease, harvesting and more.
Thanks to Partners and Sponsors
All of us at The VINE extend our heartfelt thanks to attendees, partners, sponsors and UC ANR's Program Support Unit who made this event possible.
Our partners include FIRA, Western Growers, University of California, Merced, California State University, Fresno and the Fresno-Merced Future of Food (F3) Innovation Initiative.
Industry sponsors include Bluewhite, Carbon Robotics, CNH Industrial, Far West Equipment Dealers Association, Grimmway Farms, Keithly-Williams Seeds Inc., Robotics Plus, VARTA AG, and Sonsray Machinery, LLC.
Stay in the Loop!
- Subscribe to the FIRA Newsletter HERE and keep tabs on the website for future events
- Interested in the 2023 Farm Robotics Challenge announced at FIRA, check out https://farmbot.ai
- Author: Jodi Azulai
ANR LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
Landing page| Webinar Recordings| Learning Resources
Do you have a webinar to present in any of these four learning strategies? Let us know by filling out this interest form!
Extension Methods & Delivery
Building Support
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Office, Team, & Personal Management
September – December 2022
Click here for session descriptions.
The Informatics and GIS (IGIS) Statewide Program is pleased to share their Fall 2022 Workshop Schedule. All workshops will be on Zoom and are free for the ANR community. Introductions to topics including:
ArcGIS Pro | ArcGIS Field Maps | Computing Agroclimate Metrics in R| Introduction to ArcGIS Story Maps
UCCE Program Development and Evaluation Capacity Building Trainings!
9-part series from Oct. 4-Dec. 6
Tuesdays 10 a.m.-noon
Click here for session descriptions.
Click here to register.
Join us for online interactive trainings to help you with planning and evaluating programs and projects! These trainings highlight UCCE examples.
Where is …? The new UCD Library website and redesigned resources
Nov. 3
3-4 p.m.
The UC Davis Library website was re-designed and brought up on Aug. 16, 2022. Learn about UC Davis Library resources and delivery services, VPN, and key research tools and strategies for specific disciplines. We will review/use the following redesigned guide during this workshop: https://guides.library.ucdavis.edu/uc-cooperative-extension. With Ruth Gustafson, UC Davis STEM Librarian & Erik Fausak, Veterinary Medicine Librarian.
Nov. 17
12-12:30 p.m.
The UC Davis Analytical Laboratory performs analyses on selected chemical constituents of soil, plant, water and waste water, and feed in support of agricultural and environmental research. Join Rani Youngman, director of AnLab, to learn about the basic testing offered by the lab, as well as new equipment and methods the lab has added in the past few years.
Zoom Meeting: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/5307501239?pwd=WDI3U2g5cXRvWUhVUlY3MitJWkVVUT09
Meeting ID: 530 750 1239 Phone +1 669 900 6833 US | Password: 4Collab
Applied Statistics for UC Researchers Recordings & Resources (Canvas archive)
The core target audience of this archived training: Cooperative Extension farm advisors.
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ANR Contracts & Grants (Landing page)
Our goal at the Office of Contracts and Grants is to provide principal investigators assistance with proposal preparation and with resources and expertise so that they may better understand contract and grant administration and successfully administer sponsored awards.
Learn how to bring funds into your program! Watch this Oct. 26 presentation with Emily Delk!
Disability Awareness in the Workplace (UC Davis virtual)
Dec. 14
8:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
Click here to register.
This course will increase your awareness of the lives and experiences of people with disabilities.
Nov. 29
8:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
Click here to register.
This class will explore the impact culture and social identities have on communication with the goal of expanding awareness about intercultural interactions. How we interact and communicate are greatly influenced by our culture and lived experiences. This course will use interactive exercises and group discussions are used to support the class material and instruction.
Conducting Culturally Inclusive Trainings (UC Davis virtual)
Feb. 9, 2023
8:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
Click here to register.
This course will give trainers the skills to conduct training courses that address the diverse needs of trainees, and ensure that the training content is accessible for all participants. Developing training programs that engage participants of varied cultural backgrounds, abilities, learning styles, reading levels, and other differences requires thoughtful attention to training design and delivery. The instructor will model culturally respectful training and provide valuable tools that novice and expert trainers alike can use.
Accessibility
WebAIM maintains a series of articles on accessibility. They cover most aspects of planning, assessing and implementing electronic accessibility. These articles are an excellent primer and reference about accessibility.
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Unlock Site Builder, Zoom, SEO, Analytics and Accessibility!
Stephen Dampier is hosting Open Office Hours for Training and Help on Site Builder, Zoom, HTML, CSS, SEO, Analytics, and Accessibility.
Tuesdays 1:30-2:30 p.m. Schedule a session! sdampier@ucanr.edu.
Nov. 14-18
ANR staff are eligible & welcome to attend!
UC Davis Learning and Development in Human Resources is hosting their first annual Career Development Week.
Just in time for National Career Development Month, Career Development Week runs Nov. 14-18.
This virtual conference will have an inspiring keynote speaker and panel, diverse workshop topics, and two networking events, with multiple events happening each day.
Visit our webpage to learn more about our week of programming and how to register. Advanced registration on Zoom is requested. This week is part of our general Career Development support. You can access all of our career development programming in one place on our Calendar page.We hope to see you at Career Development Week next month!
What are my benefits as a UC employee?
Nov. 3
10 - 10:45 a.m.
Join Jodi Rosenbaum to learn about:
New Employee? Welcome Kit on UCNet
Eligibility for Benefits
How/When can I make changes to my Benefits? FAQ's
Medical Benefits
Dental Plans
Vision Plan
Legal Plan
Disability, Life & Accident insurance
Dep. Care Flexible Spending
Zoom Meeting:?https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/5307501239?pwd=WDI3U2g5cXRvWUhVUlY3MitJWkVVUT09
Meeting ID: 530 750 1239 Phone +1 669 900 6833 US | Password: 4Collab
Image by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay
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- Author: Ricardo Vela
Day of the Dead, or el Día de los Muertos, is celebrated on Nov. 2. Mexicans from all religious and ethnic backgrounds celebrate Día de los Muertos, a holiday celebrating the reaffirmation of Indigenous life.
Calaveras Literarias, or Literary Skulls, are compositions of verse and rhymes, originally from Mexico. These are typically circulated in the days leading up to the Day of the Dead. They are fun, irreverent expressions that usually satirize a well-known person or event by playfully parodying the inevitable death of those involved.
UC ANR colleagues are invited to participate in a Literary Skull Contest. Have fun creating humorous rhymes and verses, reference current events, your friends, classes and more. Write a political critique or a social commentary.
"A good Literary Skull is ingenious, ironic, subtle, uses caricatures and has a certain rhyme and rhythm. They can be in English, Spanish or bilingual (Spanglish)," said Ricardo Vela, manager of News & Information Outreach in Spanish. "We will have $75, $50 and $25 Amazon gift card prizes for the best Literary Calaveras."
Linda Forbes wrote about her dentist:
My dentist
Every six months when I visit his chair
Enduring the pain and his critical stare
My dentist says there's a new problem tooth
And I question whether he's telling the truth
My insurance is bad, my dentist is rich
So I wanted to look at making a switch
Then one day I saw in the local paper
He had met La Muerta in a crazy caper
I think he might have been mentally ill
Since he tried to swallow his largest drill
Submit your Literary Skull to rvela@ucanr.edu by 5 p.m. Nov. 2.
- Author: Ryan Puckett
More than 50 attendees of the CDFA Fertilizer Research and Education Program/Western Plant Health Nutrient Management Conference in Visalia visited Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center on Oct. 25. The three-hour farm tour featured spectacular fall weather and informative talks by Kearney researchers and post-docs, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors and specialists, and U.S. Department of Agriculture collaborators. In addition to receiving three hours of continuing education credits, the tram riders soaked in the abundance of diverse crops and research at the station.
Chad Anders, a crop consultant with Dellavalle Lab in Fresno, appreciated the information presented by Brent Holtz, UCCE farm advisor and director for San Joaquin County, saying, “Whole orchard recycling, I have clients that are pondering whether or not to get into that.”
With good humor, Holtz engaged the audience with the design of the experiment and the resulting practical data: that orchard recycling (shredding and incorporating the old orchard into the soil prior to planting new orchards rather than burning or hauling away the wood) can save growers water and enable better use of nitrogen.
Agricultural entrepreneur Nick Cizek, who runs an automated performance testing business, was impressed by the talk on insect pests of the hemp crop given by Kadie Britt, post-doc researcher with Houston Wilson's entomology lab at Kearney. “That was cool to see research on a crop that has been generating so much buzz,” he said. With a Ph.D. in physics, Cizek was also attuned to the talks given by Daniele Zaccaria, UCCE water management specialist, on cover cropping in pistachio orchards, especially when terms and abbreviations such as “albedo,” “PAR” and “NIR” were sprinkled into the conversation.
Khaled Bali, interim KARE director and UCCE specialist, and Rachel Shellabarger, California Institute for Water Resources academic coordinator, described their FREP-funded project to improve nitrogen and irrigation management through on-farm consultations, demonstrations and training.
UCCE specialist Jackie Atim and UCCE specialist emeritus Bob Hutmacher described the sorghum research at Kearney and implications for drought-impacted farming. Adjacent to the sorghum plot, which had recently been sampled for biomass and chopped, the tour perused an unfamiliar kiwi orchard and an extremely rare tea planting, which is being evaluated by UC Davis chemistry professor Jacquelyn Gervay-Hague.
USDA-ARS agronomist Sultan Begna discussed plans for his trial that seeks to demonstrate the economic potential of intercropping alfalfa in young almond orchards at Kearney. This project is an example of several ongoing collaborations between Kearney academics and USDA-ARS scientists.
When our tour group stumbled upon UCCE specialist Peter Larbi astride his new tractor preparing for his air blast sprayer calibration training at Kearney on Nov. 4 and 18, he was gracious enough to inform the group about his research.
Other topics covered on the tour by Kearney research staff included groundwater recharge in alfalfa by Bali and project scientist Moneim Mohammed, Solbrio grapes and Sunpreme raisins by UCCE specialist Matthew Fidelibus, cover crops in pistachio orchards as a means to reduce navel orangeworm emergence from mummies on the orchard floor by UCCE specialist Houston Wilson, solar powered treatment of brackish water by UCCE specialist Daniele Zaccaria and staff research associate Luke Paloutzian, and the effects of soil bio-stimulants to reduce water stress in almonds was discussed by UCCE specialist Giulia Marino.
The attendees asked thoughtful questions, including many about crop water usage. The speakers made a lovely drive through Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center a unique and diverse educational experience.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
UC's Open Enrollment for 2023 benefits ends on Friday, Nov. 18, 2022, at 5 p.m.
UC will continue to offer the same benefit plans as this year for faculty and staff. However, there are some important changes next year — including new resources to support you, enhanced benefits, and changes in monthly premiums — so take the time to understand your options.
If you wish to continue the same benefit plans you currently have, no action is required, with the exception of Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) – you must enroll or re-enroll in your Health and/or Dependent Care FSA each year.
For more information, Take Control of Your Health highlights resources available for faculty, staff and retirees this year, including:
- UC's Open Enrollment website
- UC's Systemwide Benefits Fair
- ALEX (for faculty and staff)
- UCPath's Open Enrollment overview video
- Information sessions for retirees (offered by Health Care Facilitators)
En espanol at Tome control de su salud: La Apertura de Inscripción comienza el jueves, 27 de octubre.
Webinar: What are my benefits as a UC employee?
Nov. 3, 2022
10-10:45 a.m.
Join Jodi Rosenbaum to learn about:
- New Employee welcome kit on UCNet
- Eligibility for Benefits
- How/When can I make changes to my benefits? FAQs
- Medical Benefits
- Dental Plans
- Vision Plan
- Legal Plan
- Disability, Life & Accident insurance
- Dependent Care Flexible Spending
Zoom meeting: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/5307501239?pwd=WDI3U2g5cXRvWUhVUlY3MitJWkVVUT09
Meeting ID: 530 750 1239 Phone +1 669 900 6833 US | Password: 4Collab