ANR LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT  

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.

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.

Ruth Dahlquist-Willard, UC Cooperative Extension small farms advisor for Fresno County, discussed her team's moringa and lemongrass projects and how they are helping local growers and then answered a flurry of questions from her captive audience. “I learned about a new plant that I didn't know existed,” said Breanna Saint Pierre with the State Water Board. “Moringa is a very interesting crop.”

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.

 

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 

 

 

GivingTuesday is a global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of individuals to celebrate generosity worldwide. It falls on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

If you would like to participate in the campaign for donations for your project or program on Nov. 29, here's what you should do: 

1. Sign up for The Scoop enewsletter for resources and campaign announcements by emailing Emily Delk,director of annual giving and donor stewardship, at eddelk@ucanr.edu.
2. Register your group's participation: https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=39246
3. Use the Campaign-in-a-Box Toolkit that includes social media content, email templates, and branded graphics. You'll find the link in The Scoop!
4. Watch the #GivingTuesday webinar at https://youtu.be/p7TUomnmXcI.

Lastly, don't miss out on the prize challenges! There is a total of $70,000 available from generous donors for prizes and matching gifts!

• DONOR CHALLENGE: $10,000 up for grabs!
  We'll award a $500 prize to the 20 funds that have the greatest number of unique donors for GivingTuesday.
• DONATION CHALLENGE: $5,000 up for grabs!
  We'll award a $500 prize to the first 10 funds that secure an individual $500+ donation on GivingTuesday!
• IN-IT-TO-WIN-IT CHALLENGE: $5,000 up for grabs!
  We'll award a $500 prize to the 10 funds that raise the most on GivingTuesday!
• 4-H Match: $50,000 up for grabs!
  Donors to the California 4-H Foundation are offering $50K in a dollar-for-dollar match starting at midnight until funds are depleted. This is the most ever offered in an incentive pool, so 4-Hers be sure to take advantage!