- Author: Saoimanu Sope
UCCE advisors provide free training to nursery and greenhouse staff
Working as an irrigator seems straightforward at first: if you're not watering plants by hand, you're building and managing systems that can do the watering. What could be complex about a job like this?
University of California Cooperative Extension advisors Bruno Pitton and Gerardo “Gerry” Spinelli can tell you – or better yet, show you.
Pitton and Spinelli, members of the UC Nursery and Floriculture Alliance, offer a one-day technical training in irrigation best-management practices for irrigators working with containerized nursery plants. The comprehensive curriculum – developed with input from two focus groups of California nursery and greenhouse managers – aims to improve irrigation efficiency, reduce water consumption and improve plant health.
Thanks to funding from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, nursery and greenhouse managers in California can request this training for free and advisors like Pitton and Spinelli will travel to conduct the training on-site.
The complexities of irrigation incorporate concepts like evapotranspiration, salinity, irrigation uniformity, capillarity, pressure and flow rate. Spinelli, UCCE production horticulture advisor for San Diego County, said that irrigators have a critical role in the industry because of all the things they must consider to do their job well.
“Our goal is to support irrigators and help them become more confident decision-makers and experts in the field,” said Pitton, UCCE environmental horticulture advisor for Placer and Nevada counties.
Interactive sessions reveal nuances of irrigation
The training consists of a presentation on fundamental concepts for managing irrigation in container plant production and hands-on demonstrations. “In the nursery industry, where precise irrigation is crucial for the health and productivity of our crops, having access to expert knowledge is invaluable,” said Mauricio de Almeida, general manager of Burchell Nursery in Fresno County. “The training's practical demonstrations and real-world examples made the concepts easy to grasp, allowing our team to implement the strategies immediately.”
For one of the demonstrations, the advisors used sponges to model soil saturation when water is applied. Ana, an irrigator at Burchell Nursery, appreciated the step-by-step explanations, which helped her better understand how water pressure differs in drip irrigation, sprinklers and watering by hand. Doing this out in the field, as an example of how irrigation audits occur, was extremely helpful for attendees.
Francisco “Frank” Anguiano, production manager of Boething Treeland Farms in Ventura County, observed his team of irrigators as they learned how to measure distribution uniformity with water collected from sprinklers. “This training isn't just about irrigation and plant management. It's also about savings, both water and costs. Who doesn't want to save money and use less water?” Anguiano said.
Reducing the barriers to learning
Many of the irrigators attending these trainings gained their skills and knowledge from life experience rather than a college education, explained Peter van Horenbeeck, vice president of Boething Treeland Farms. “It's important that my irrigators learn from external experts, but it's more important that they can relate to them. And that's what Gerry was able to do,” van Horenbeeck added.
Regarding content and delivery, and referencing what he learned from the focus groups, Pitton wanted the trainings to be easy to understand and engaging. For example, scientists use the term “matric potential” to describe how soil particles hold water against gravity, which is the same as capillary rise. “We demonstrate this concept with a paper towel held vertically and dipped into a beaker of dyed water that it absorbs,” said Pitton.
Many of the irrigators in attendance agreed that hands-on activities and visual aids were instrumental to their learning. Charli, another irrigator at Burchell Nursery, shared that the in-field examples and hosting the training in Spanish kept them engaged.To address language barriers, Spinelli has been conducting trainings in Spanish – a common request from many nurseries with eager participants.
Maintaining state regulations and partnerships
Although the technical aspects of irrigation management are key elements of the training, regulatory compliance is also addressed. Recognizing the finite availability of water and the environmental impact of pollution, the advisors highlight irrigation and fertilizer management and runoff prevention as critical components of compliance.
Under Ag Order 4.0 administered by California's Water Resources Control Board, growers must comply with stricter policies regulating nitrogen use. As irrigators learn from the training, better control of irrigation can certainly make a difference.
Deanna van Klaveren, chief operating officer and co-owner of Generation Growers in Stanislaus County, said the most valuable aspect of the training was learning on-site and completing an audit on her own systems. “It is so much more impactful to have trainings like this on-site where our staff can learn and then go out into the nursery and actually put it into practice while the presenters/experts are there,” van Klaveren said.
Pitton and Spinelli described the partnership between UC Cooperative Extension and CDFA as “symbiotic” given the technical and educational capacity of UCCE advisors who conduct research and extension.
“It's a great example of how the two institutions can collaborate successfully. Californians are the ones who win because they get a service for free,” added Spinelli. “And it's rewarding for us to see so much interest in what we, as advisors, do.”
If you are a nursery or greenhouse operator and would like to request the Irrigation Best Management Practices training, please contact the UCCE advisor assigned to the region that corresponds with your nursery location below.
Northern California
- Jessie Godfrey, UCCE environmental horticulture and water resources management advisor, jmgodfrey@ucanr.edu
Central Coast (Santa Cruz County to Ventura County)
- Emma Volk, UCCE production horticulture advisor, evolk@ucanr.edu
San Joaquin Valley
- Chris Shogren, UCCE environmental horticulture advisor, cjshogren@ucanr.edu
Southern California
- Grant Johnson, UCCE urban agriculture technology advisor, gejohnson@ucanr.edu
Spanish Trainings Only
- Gerry Spinelli, UCCE production horticulture advisor, gspinelli@ucanr.edu
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
UCCE advisors, UCCE specialists and academics coordinators are invited to attend a training workshop on conducting a needs assessment.
Vikram Koundinya, UCCE evaluation specialist in the Department of Human Ecology (Community and Regional Development) at UC Davis; Chris Greer, IPM area advisor in UCCE San Luis Obispo County; and Katherine Webb-Martinez, associate director of UC ANR Program Planning and Evaluation are hosting training workshops in two locations – Davis and Parlier.
Friday, Sept. 7, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the UC ANR Building, 2801 Second Street, Davis
Featuring roundtable discussion sharing UCCE examples with
- Betsy Karle, area dairy advisor & county director, Glenn County
- Susie Kocher, forestry/natural resources advisor, Central Sierra and El Dorado counties
- Steven Worker, 4-H youth development advisor, Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties
Friday, Sept. 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, 9240 South Riverbend Ave., Parlier
Featuring roundtable discussion sharing UCCE examples with
- Ramiro Lobo, small farms and agricultural economics advisor, San Diego County
- Fadzayi Mashiri, livestock and natural resources advisor, Mariposa and Merced counties
- Deepa Srivastava, nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor, Tulare and Kings counties
The interactive training will help answer questions such as: What exactly is expected for a needs assessment? What is the benefit? When should I do this? How often should I do this? How do I use the information to design my program?
It will include basic, practical how-to steps, approaches, methods and how to write clear and concise questions.
Participants will engage in a roundtable discussion with UCCE advisors, who will share their needs assessment experiences and lessons learned.
Participants will gain...
- understanding of position description needs-assessment expectation
- understanding of the what, how, when of needs assessments
- understanding of and practice writing good questions
- awareness of UC ANR needs assessment examples and resources
- a draft needs assessment plan
Register at https://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=25314.
For more information, contact Katherine Webb-Martinez, Katherine.webb-martinez@ucop.edu, (510) 987-0029.
Are you interested in Extension in urban areas and ready to improve your knowledge, skills and results? Have you heard about the Leadership in the City online course?
This comprehensive professional development program will help you learn about leadership, networks, innovation and management – all within the unique urban Extension context. The online program will prepare you, as an Extension professional, to be relevant locally, responsive statewide and recognized nationally.
The program was developed based on a foundation of entrepreneurial theory and urban Extension practice and will build upon existing leadership experiences, management training and Extension professional development.
You will learn from experienced leaders; apply what you learn in your city, region, or state; engage in critical thinking and creative problem solving; and participate in online collaborative learning. Each of the monthly competency-based modules incorporates interactive digital delivery and the flipped classroom model for active learning and engagement.
The investment in the program is $500 plus a commitment to work hard and have fun investing 8 to 14 hours per month. The 10-month online course begins August 3. As a member of the Western Center for Metropolitan Extension & Research you can take advantage of a $100 discount off the registration cost (Discount code EITC18-WEST). Space is limited.
This course is led by Julie Fox, associate professor and associate chair of the Department of Extension at The Ohio State University Extension.
Complete details and registration can be found at https://cityextension.osu.edu/leadership. The deadline for registration is June 29.
Want a resource to share with your supervisor as you seek approval for the training? Click here to download a letter you can modify and use.
- Author: Jodi Azulai
Be an active participant in your performance review discussion. It will empower you and shows that you care about your work and your development.
To prepare, review your:
- Job description
- Objectives set for the review period
- Any documentation, notes, status reports you have drafted or even a self-assessment
Continue reading here.
Check out the ANR Learning and Development website to explore learning resources, training topics, and career planning tools. Use the career planning tools to:
- Learn the difference between skills and competencies
- Identify UC Core Competencies
- Fill out a self-assessment to contemplate your skill strengths and skill gaps
SiteBuilder Training
The CSIT Web Development team is bringing several SiteBuilder training sessions to several locations:
- Monday, May 7, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. in Davis
- Thursday, May 17, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at Hopland (FULL)
- Thursday, May 24, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at Kearney
The classes are designed for ANR people in need of proficiency in creating and maintaining websites.
Learning topics:
- The basics to get up and running with SiteBuilder
- Best practices in web design
- Search engine optimization
- Employing images
- Social media integration
- Web accessibility
- Introduction to new designs and functionalities of the future SiteBuilder platform
Register at http://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=24549. A training location may be added in Southern California.
Register for the New Employee Administrative Orientation
Wednesday, May 23, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
UC ANR Building, 2801 Second Street, Davis, CA 95618
Learn more and register here.
Who should attend: All UC ANR employees (academics, staff and affiliated staff on campuses, counties and RECs) who have not participated in an administrative orientation in the past. Priority will be given to those hired by ANR within the past year.
- Learn about ANR's vision and mission
- Learn about ANR structure and individual programs and units
- Interact with ANR leadership and directors
- Meet and network with new colleagues from around the state
- Get answers to burning questions about health benefits, AggieTravel, and more!
You bring the coffee, tea, or beverage and we will bring you the first virtual WebANR Café Thursday on May 17 at noon: Planning makes Perfect: Best Practices for Engaging Webinars.
During this webinar, Brook Gamble, community educator specialist with the California Naturalist Program, and Steven Worker, 4-H academic advisor will help you:
- Improve your understanding of the critical steps for preparation, implementation, and post webinar follow-up
- Introduce ZOOM capabilities
- Introduce tricks of the trade to keeping webinar participants engaged and not checking their e-mail
Join us at:
https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/963167636
(646) 558-8656 or + (669) 900-6833
Webinar ID: 963 167 636
WebANRs will be recorded and linked to the WebANR Café Thursday page.
Use Your Subscription to Corporate Executive Board Learning & Development
As a UCANR employee you have automatic membership to a top-notch professional development resource. Interested in cultivating your career to the next level of performance? If yes, check out Corporate Executive Board (CEB) Learning & Development. It takes seconds to register or reset a password and participate in webinars, download job aids and participate in discussion forums.
Here is a quick list of a few CEB resources:
Resources for All Employees – Develop yourself as a high-performing employee, not only effective at your tasks, but also as someone who contributes to others' performance and uses others' contributions to improve your own performance.
On-the-Job Activity Builder – Use this interactive tool to build employee development plans with recommended on-the-job learning activities, based on the competencies you select.
Manager Guide: Holding Effective Career Discussions – Guide your direct reports through identifying and progressing toward their career aspirations.
Manager Excellence Resource Center – Find manager development and employee development resources at this online portal (separate from the L&D member website).
Developing the people management capabilities of our leaders is a priority for the University of California. In support of this mission, Systemwide Talent Management will launch the University of California People Management Conference in August at UCLA Luskin Conference Center in Los Angeles.
A networking reception will be held on Aug. 1, 2017, with the conference to follow Aug. 2-3, 2017.
Eligibility for participation requires completion of one of the following:
- UC Systemwide People Management Series and Certificate
- Management Development Program
- UC-CORO Systemwide Leadership Collaborative
Conference topics include:
- Human Resources & Management Practices
- Leadership & General Management
- Change Management
- Coaching
- Talent Management
- Employee Relations
- Financial Management
- Labor Relations
- Compensation
A limited number of guest rooms are reserved at the Luskin Conference Center for a group rate of $239 per night, which you can secure using a promo code included in your registration confirmation email.
Registration is $350. Cancellations before June 1, 2017, will be fully refunded. For more information about the conference, visit https://pmc.ucop.edu.
