On Feb. 19, San Joaquin Valley grape growers are invited to discuss the latest UC research on mechanical pruning, trunk disease and rootstocks with UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists in Fresno. Growers will also get to observe a field demonstration of grapevines being mechanically pruned.

“We have been hearing from California grape growers that they are having a hard time finding enough workers to maintain their vineyards and increasing labor cost starts challenging grape-farming economic sustainability so we are studying the use of machines to reduce the number of people needed to perform tasks such as pruning,” said George Zhuang, UC Cooperative Extension viticulture advisor for Fresno County. 

Gabriel Torres, UC Cooperative Extension viticulture advisor for Tulare and Kings counties, will discuss plant diseases that may result from trunk injuries and pruning wounds from the machinery. 

Karl Lund, UC Cooperative Extension viticulture advisor for Mariposa, Merced and Madera counties, will discuss how to select rootstock for a vineyard that will be mechanically managed. 

“Because the canopy architecture and yield characteristics from mechanically pruned vines are much different from hand-pruned vines, the water and fertilizer requirements of mechanically pruned vines can be quite different,” Zhuang said. “Therefore, performance of different rootstocks under mechanical pruning system is critical to achieve both yield and fruit quality targets of grape production in the San Joaquin Valley.”

Kaan Kurtural, UC Cooperative Extension viticulture specialist in the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology, will go over the basic principles of mechanical pruning of wine grape vines.

From 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists will meet with growers in a Golden State Vintners vineyard at 7409 W Central Ave in Fresno.  

“We will discuss current grape issues and the future of viticulture in the valley,” Zhuang said.

The meeting, which is being co-hosted by UC Cooperative Extension and San Joaquin Valley Winegrowers Association, is free. For more information, contact Zhuang at gzhuang@ucanr.edu or (559) 241-7506.

Beginning farmers are invited to attend a series of workshops to learn how to raise pastured and free-range poultry from UC Cooperative Extension specialists, poultry farmers and other experts. The first five workshops are three-hour long evening courses (4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. PST) in January and February 2019. In addition to typical in-person workshops, the training will be available as online webinars to accommodate people nationwide who are unable travel to Davis.

“These workshops are designed for farmers who are interested in learning about all aspects of commercial pastured/free range poultry including diseases, husbandry, pasture management, marketing and welfare,” said Maurice Pitesky, UC Cooperative Extension poultry specialist in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. “We are incorporating roundtable discussions with farmers so we can discuss challenges and opportunities for free-range and pastured farmers.”

The workshops cost $15 per day for in-person workshops and $5 per day for the webinars. For participants who register for all five in-person workshops, the fee is discounted to $60. 

Each of the three-hour workshops cover a different aspect of beginning pastured and free-range poultry farming and include talks from various experts. Light refreshments will be provided for participants attending at the UC Davis campus.

If you are unable to join in person, consider signing up for the webinar version of the course for $5 per day. You will be provided a link to join and participate in real time via Zoom video conference.

For more information and to register for the workshops, visit http://ucanr.edu/beginpoultryfarmworkshop2019.

The training is supported by the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Extension's USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program grant.

Glenda Humiston has always been involved in rural issues from her days growing up on a cattle ranch to her current efforts to connect rural communities to more resources as University of California vice president for agriculture and natural resources.

In recognition of her contributions to sustain California as a place to create and thrive and to bestow to future generations, Humiston will be presented the 2018 California Steward Leader Award by California Forward and the California Stewardship Network at the California Economic Summit in Santa Rosa on Nov. 16. She currently serves on the 2018 Economic Summit Steering Committee and is the Action Team co-lead for Working Landscapes and co-chair of Elevate Rural California.

“I was really involved in the 1990s in trying to figure out how agriculture and environmental interests find common ground, as well as building bridges between rural and urban sectors,” Humiston said. ”In the 2000s, I started focusing on economic development and sustainability. In my current job, I'm bringing all of those together around the reality that sustainability truly has to be a triple bottom line. We've got to develop ways for people, the planet and prosperity to all thrive and enhance the synergies between them.”

She has been involved with the California Economic Summit from the beginning, chairing the Access to Capital Action Team at the first Summit in 2012. To raise awareness of innovative options for financing projects, she founded and chaired the California Financial Opportunities Roundtable and was instrumental in producing the Access to Capital Guidebook, a widely used resource for small business owners, policymakers and financial institutions.

Humiston served as deputy undersecretary for natural resources and environment at USDA from 1998 to 2001 under President Clinton. She then managed the Sustainable Development Institute at the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development in South Africa and the 2006 World Water Forum in Mexico City. In 2009, Humiston was appointed by President Obama to serve as the California State Director at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Rural Development.

Working landscapes a significant sector of the economy

Adam Livingston of the Sequoia Riverlands Trust applauded Humiston for making rural California a priority. “Glenda has an instrumental role, not just in the Working Landscapes Group, but the fact that Working Landscapes are even being considered as a significant sector of the economy.”

He added, “The fact that rural issues are on the agenda, the fact that we're talking about ecosystem services and the contributions that Working Landscapes can make in terms of meeting the Economic Summit's million-acre feet of water goal, Glenda has done a tremendous amount to make that possible.”

Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore agreed. “Glenda is a powerful and relentless advocate for triple bottom line prosperity. She has championed and delivered in every position I have seen her in. As one of the Co-chairs/Steering Committee for the Economic Summit, she has ensured that working landscapes remains a driver for rural prosperity.”

“Glenda embodies what CA Forward and the California Stewardship Network are all about: empowering regional hubs to own their own future,” added Gore, who served with Humiston at the U.S. Department of Agriculture as presidential appointees under President Obama.

Her work on rural issues continues. “Our Ecosystems Services Team has done a fantastic job in highlighting the opportunities for ecosystem services to be a powerful policy instrument as well as a compensation instrument for landowners to ensure that the many benefits from ecosystem services are available to the general public,” Humiston said. She added that recommendations from last year's Summit may be included in upcoming legislation.

Biomass, rural broadband and water infrastructure

As co-chair of Elevate Rural California, she is working on three main areas: biomass, rural broadband and water infrastructure. “We identified those issues at last year's Summit and worked this year to identify where the opportunities were as well as options to pursue.  We're bringing that information to the Summit this year to get people to really rally around those three issues and move forward working on implementation.”

To support these initiatives, Humiston is working to enhance economic development efforts throughout the state by ensuring that the research and resources of the University of California are delivered to every single community in the state. UC Cooperative Extension is in 70 communities and serves all 58 counties; its mission is to conduct research and extend knowledge that supports food security, healthy environments, science literacy, youth development and economic success in a global economy.   

Humiston, who joined the university in 2015 and clearly loves her work, said, “I love the mission of the programs I oversee for the University of California. This work is critical as we seek solutions to the challenges we all face: climate change, invasive species, changing workforce demands, water management and more.” 

Vision based on partnerships

Her vision is really based on partnerships. “I also see great opportunity for increased collaboration between UC, CSU and the Community Colleges," she said. "Working together we can offer more robust support for innovation, regional industry clusters, new business opportunities and other aspects of local economic development; we can bring a lot of resources to the table. Working with the California Economic Summit allows us to leverage the resources of various regional initiatives as well as other sectors; this helps all the Summit's efforts to be more successful.” 

As for the award, Humiston is humbled. “It's quite heart-warming to be selected by people I respect for something like that and certainly to be in the company of people who have won it in past years,” she said.

Previous recipients of the California Steward Leader Award include former California State Senator Becky Morgan, California Emerging Technology Fund's Sunne McPeak and Van Ton-Quinlivan, vice chancellor of the California Community Colleges.

Humiston will receive the award on Friday, Nov. 16, at the annual gathering of the California Economic Summit in Santa Rosa.

 

California Secretary of Agriculture Karen Ross and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources vice president Glenda Humiston signed a memorandum of understanding in Sacramento Oct. 26 to initiate a new partnership to advance climate-smart agriculture in California.

This partnership will provide $1.1 million to hire 10 UC Cooperative Extension community education specialists who will be deployed to 10 counties statewide to assist and encourage farmers to participate in CDFA programs aimed at increasing adoption of smart farming and ranching practices.

“Agriculture is an important part of the climate solution,” Ross said. “This funding enables CDFA and UC ANR to partner with farmers to scale-up climate smart agricultural practices.”

The new program is funded by California Climate Investments dollars through the Strategic Growth Council (SGC),

“Farmers and ranchers are key to carbon sequestration and a sustainable California,” said SGC chair Ken Alex.  “The Strategic Growth Council is pleased to fund this partnership for smart agricultural practices.”

The partnership is focused on implementing on-farm solutions to improve soil health, nutrient management, irrigation management, on-farm composting and manure management – smart farming practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

• State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program
• Healthy Soils Program
• Alternative Manure Management Program

“This new joint effort reflects our commitment to extending research-supported solutions to our farming community so they have the information and tools they need to make climate-smart decisions,” Humiston said. “It also demonstrates our shared goal of promoting new practices that are grounded in science.”

The 10 new education specialists will serve in Mendocino, Glenn, Yolo, San Joaquin, Merced, Kern, Imperial, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz counties.

Three UCCE advisors will mentor and assist the new educators: water quality and management advisor Laurent Ahiablame, based in San Diego County; area dairy advisor Betsy Karle, based in Glenn County; and irrigation and cotton advisor Dan Munk, based in Fresno County.

In addition to working with the new educators, the UCCE advisors conduct research on farming and ranching practices that boost efficiency and protect the climate, therefore serving as a conduit between discovery and implementation.

“This is a great opportunity to really support growers find the right balance between food production and effective management of natural resources,” Ahiablame said. “With the 10 community education specialists we will be one step closer to the producers across the state. I look forward to the opportunity to mentor these specialists, who in turn will be making direct impacts on the community.”

Karle said she was interested in participating in the program as a way to encourage dairy operators to try practices they are interested in but consider too costly.

“I've worked here locally with dairy producers who wanted to implement practices but need financial assistance in order to make it feasible,” Karle said. “They need assistance in the grant application process and technical support to make changes on their farms.”

Doug Parker, director of the UC California Institute for Water Resources, is the UC ANR point of contact and liaison with CDFA. To contact Parker, email doug.parker@ucop.edu.