- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
To help farmers make the best use of the water they have available, a series of new and updated drought tips fact sheets has been developed by UC ANR scientists and funded by the California Department of Water Resources.
“These drought tips provide irrigation management recommendations for a broad range of agricultural crops and under different water supply conditions,” said Daniele Zaccaria, UC ANR Cooperative Extension agricultural water management specialist at UC Davis and major organizer of the drought tip series. “The information in these tips will be of practical use for growers and other water-related stakeholders now and into the future as our agricultural community continues to adapt to climate variability and to a changing water supply situation.”
UC ANR scientists have identified best management practices for a wide range of annual and permanent crops and irrigation systems and methods during the drought. In the drought tips series, they also give advice for managing soil salinity and using shallow groundwater for irrigating crops. For beef cattle, they provide recommendations for culling herds and feeding to supplement grazing.
The following drought tips are currently available for free download at http://ucanr.edu/drought-tips:
- Drought strategies for alfalfa
- Drought management for California almonds
- Use of shallow groundwater for crop production
- Drought strategies for walnuts
- Fog contribution to crop water use
- Reclaiming Saline, Sodic and Saline-Sodic Soils
Decades of UC ANR research underlie the information contained in the drought tips. In the 1970s and again in the 1990s, UC ANR partnered with DWR to develop a series of drought management fact sheets.
“DWR has worked with UC ANR to update the drought tips and make sure the latest and best information on water management is available to growers,” said Peter Brostrom, DWR Water Use Efficiency Section Manager.
The California Institute for Water Resources, which coordinates water-related research and extension education across the 10 UC campuses and UCANR, has the drought tips and more drought resources online at http://ciwr.ucanr.edu.
“Even if El Niño brings rain this fall, water scarcity will continue to impact California farmers,” said Doug Parker, director of UC ANR's California Institute for Water Resources. “As climate change continues to reduce the average annual snowpack, it is likely that droughts in California will become more frequent and severe in the years to come.”
UC ANR's California Institute for Water Resources and the California Department of Water Resources also offer drought-related information in a series of videos. Water experts from UC and other agencies and institutions have recorded presentations on high-priority drought topics. Currently 38 videos can be accessed for free on computers and mobile devices at http://ucanr.edu/insights.
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers and educators draw on local expertise to conduct agricultural, environmental, economic, youth development and nutrition research that helps California thrive. Learn more at ucanr.edu
The intensive, hands-on workshop will be led by Ken Giles, professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at UC Davis; Franz Niederholzer, UC ANR Cooperative Extension advisor for Colusa, Sutter and Yuba counties; and Lynn Wunderlich, UC ANR Cooperative Extension advisor for the Central Sierra region.
The UC ANR instructors will train participants to identify the appropriate spray equipment components, practices and conditions necessary to deliver safe and effective agricultural pest control to a particular location, timing and crop.
The workshop will cover nozzles and atomization, the dynamics of drift and how spray droplets move, factors affecting spray deposition, hydraulic nozzle alternatives (electrostatic, air shear, etc.), measuring spray coverage, pumps, sprayer selection, air-assisted spraying and more.
Before the class, to fully prepare, registrants should view a short, online PowerPoint presentation about basic sprayer calibration. A link to the PowerPoint will be sent in the registration confirmation email. A brief quiz on the material will be given at the beginning of class on Sept. 22.
The training is set to begin at 12 noon on Sept. 22, resuming at 8 a.m. on Sept. 23 and end at 2 p.m.
Registration for the training costs $150 until Sept. 12 and $175 after Sept. 12 and can be paid online at the registration website. Onsite registration will cost $200. The organizers have applied for CDPR Continuing Education units.
To register or to get more information, visit http://ucanr.edu/sites/Spray_Application_Training.
Each analysis is based upon a hypothetical farm operation using practices common to the region. Input and reviews were provided by growers, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors and other agricultural associates. The authors describe the assumptions used to identify current costs for individual crops, material inputs and cash and non-cash overhead. A ranging analysis table shows profits over a range of prices and yields. Other tables show the monthly cash costs, the costs and returns per acre, hourly equipment costs, and the whole farm annual equipment, investment and business overhead costs.
The studies for establishing orchards to produce lemons and oranges estimate costs for growing in Kern and Tulare counties. Revenue for the citrus is based on estimated sales to the fresh packaging market.
The study for organic strawberries takes into consideration growing conditions on the Central Coast of California and complying with the National Organic Program. In particular, it focuses on growing organic strawberries in Santa Cruz and San Benito counties for the fresh packaging market.
The study for producing paddy rice in the Sacramento Valley focuses on the costs of growing medium-grain rice, under a rice-only rotation in Butte, Colusa, Glenn and Yolo counties.
The field corn study focuses on the production costs of a full-season corn crop in the Sacramento Valley and the northern San Joaquin Valley. This region would include Colusa, Glenn, Sacramento, Sutter and Yolo counties. The study based costs on a farm using furrow irrigation and Roundup Ready-GMO seed.
The study on silage corn, double cropped under conservation tillage methods, focuses on production costs of corn silage using minimum tillage operations in the northern San Joaquin Valley. The corn is planted in the spring after a winter forage crop is harvested. The study is based its costs on a farm using border/flood irrigation and Roundup Ready-GMO seed.
- “Sample Costs to Establish an Orchard and Produce Lemons in the San Joaquin Valley-South-2015”
- “Sample Costs to Establish an Orchard and Produce Oranges in the San Joaquin Valley-South-2015”
- “Sample Costs to Produce Organic Strawberries in the Central Coast Region-2014”
- “Sample Costs to Produce Rice in the Sacramento Valley-2015”
- “Sample Costs to Produce Field Corn in the Sacramento Valley and Northern San Joaquin Valley-2015”
- “Sample Costs to Produce Silage Corn-Conservation Tillage Practices in the Northern San Joaquin Valley-2015”
These cost-of-production studies can be downloaded for free from the UC Davis Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics website http://coststudies.ucdavis.edu. Sample costs are also available for many other commodities. Many earlier production cost studies for agricultural commodities are also available at http://coststudies.ucdavis.edu/archived.php.
For additional information or an explanation of the calculations used in the studies, contact Don Stewart, staff research associate in the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics at UC Davis at (530) 752-4651, destewart@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
“Working with people who feed millions and millions of people is awesome!” exclaimed the UC ANR Cooperative Extension farm advisor emeritus for Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties. “Working with colleagues who share knowledge, willingly, is humbling. Working for an organization that, despite its imperfections, gets the best out of you is fulfilling.”
For the past three decades, Baameur has worked to help family farmers.
“Aziz has been a tremendous source of knowledge and information for South County growers like me,” said Pete Aiello, general manager of Uesugi Farms, Inc. in Santa Clara County.
“He has been especially helpful with my bell and chili pepper programs,” Aiello said. “From studies on irrigation efficiency to fertilizer uptake to pest management to varietal analysis, I've learned a lot about my own crops from Aziz, and have used this knowledge to improve yields and quality while decreasing inputs such as water and fertilizer.”
“This job is a gift from the gods,” Baameur said, adding, “I could have made more money – and faster – elsewhere, but I doubt I'd get the same fulfillment.”
In 2002 he transferred to Santa Clara County, where he continued to work with small-scale farmers, many of them immigrants who grow berries, bell peppers and chili peppers and Asian vegetables such as Chinese broccoli (gailan), bok choy, baby bok choy, bitter melon, daikon, Chinese chive, waterspinach, and Chinese mustard greens.
Baameur and his colleagues conducted research on specialty crops. For example, they evaluated 10 varieties of mini watermelons to provide farmers with data about how the varieties grow in different climates, their yields and quality characteristics.
An immigrant himself from Morocco, Baameur frequently brought interpreters to his meetings to translate his talks for Cantonese- and Spanish-speaking clients.
In 2005, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board began an agricultural waiver program for water discharge, requiring that participating farmers manage their irrigation and run-off water quality. To earn the conditional waiver, growers had to complete a series of agricultural water-quality short courses. By offering the courses in Cantonese, Baameur enabled about 75 small-scale ethnic Chinese farmers to learn how to produce cleaner water run-off and reduce water waste, and thus earn the waiver.
An ethnic Chinese vegetable grower in Santa Clara County who had heard about changes in food safety regulations was concerned that although she did not speak very much English, she was expected to develop a plan and obtain a food safety certification, and that otherwise her sales contracts would be cancelled. To help her and other Chinese growers better understand the new regulations, Baameur developed a training program complete with a bilingual handbook and sample templates. He also helped her to prepare for audits and create a food safety plan specific to her farm.
“I get enormous satisfaction from the fact that I don't sell and I don't buy and I don't advertise products,” Baameur said. “The relationships are based on trust; that has no tangible value. Once in a while, when we help someone out of a tough situation and they smile and thank you, it's like a prayer sung in the still of dawn. Gives you shivers.”
“We will miss his technical expertise and his infectiously great attitude,” said Aiello of Uesugi Farms. “The UC Cooperative Extension has some big shoes to fill!”
Baameur's most recent research has been focused on trying to grow spicier jalapeño peppers by fine-tuning the amount of nitrogen applied to the plants. In retirement, he is finishing his research, but plans to pursue a few hobbies – writing, drawing, painting and photograph – and to stay physically active by hiking, biking and camping.
Baameur and his wife of 41 years, Kathy, look forward to having more time to volunteer in the community. He has joined the board of directors of San Jose-based Abrahamic Alliance International, an organization that brings together Jews, Christians and Muslims to serve the poor.
This month, a lime tree and a kumquat tree with HLB were identified in residential areas of the San Gabriel Valley. In March 2012, an infected multi-grafted citrus was found in a Hacienda Heights backyard.
“So far, the bacterium that causes HLB has been found infecting only three trees, which have all been destroyed,” said Beth Grafton-Cardwell, UC ANR Cooperative Extension citrus entomology specialist. “However, it is highly likely there are other infected trees in California. It will be critical for all Californians to assist with efforts to reduce psyllids and detect and remove infected trees to prevent this disease from devastating California citrus.”
HLB disease is spread from tree to tree by Asian citrus psyllid, an invasive insect first identified in California in 2008. ACP has become established in many Southern California communities and is seen occasionally in the state's San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast commercial citrus production areas. Locations where ACP are found are quarantined by CDFA. No untreated or unprocessed citrus fruit and no citrus trees may be moved from these areas. UC ANR maintains an online map that delineates the quarantined locations. The map also shows the area quarantined because of the recent HLB find.
Once a tree is infected with the bacterium that causes HLB, there is no cure. To prevent HLB infections, citrus owners in areas where Asian citrus psyllids are found may wish to treat their trees with insecticides.
“We believe about 60 percent of Californians have at least one citrus tree in their yard, so HLB could have a devastating effect on the California residential landscape,” Grafton-Cardwell said. “There are safe and effective ways to reduce the ACP population, which reduces the chances of losing a tree to HLB.”
Grafton-Cardwell developed a website for farmers and residents with detailed information on managing Asian citrus psyllid. In some urban areas, a natural enemy of ACP, Tamarixia radiata, has been released. In those areas, Grafton-Cardwell recommends the use of “soft” insecticides that will reduce the number of psyllids and allow the Tamarixia to control the rest.
To help California residents and commercial citrus growers deal with the ACP and HLB citrus threats, UC ANR, UC Davis and UC Riverside scientists are conducting research on a number of possible solutions.
For example, Abhaya Dandekar, professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, and his colleagues are studying gene fusion, which fuses two immunosuppressive genes that attack HLB in different ways to make the plant more effective at fighting the disease.
Mikeal Roose, a professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences at UC Riverside, is working with researchers in Florida to sequence a rootstock that has some natural resistance to HLB and locate the gene or genes that cause HLB resistance.
Mark Hoddle, UC ANR Cooperative Extension biocontrol specialist at UC Riverside, has identified a second natural enemy of ACP from the Punjab, Pakistan. (The first one was Tamarixia radiata.) Populations of Diaphorencyrtus aligarhensis have also been released in urban areas and Hoddle is monitoring the insect's ability to attack ACP.
Because it is important to remove trees infected with HLB as soon as possible to reduce spread, UC scientists are also studying ways to identify trees with the disease before visual symptoms occur.
For example, Hailing Jin, professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Riverside, has identified small RNAs that are induced by the bacterium that causes HLB and could be used for early diagnosis.
Carolyn Slupsky, professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology at UC Davis, has identified metabolites that change in concentration when citrus is infected with the bacterium that causes HLB. She is working with the Citrus Research Board (CRB), CDFA, Texas A&M, and USDA to validate her results and determine how quickly the disease may be detected once the tree has been exposed to the pathogen. She is also part of a USDA collaborative grant to study the vector that transmits the disease to help find ways to stop transmission.
Wenbo Ma, professor in the Department of Plant Pathology Microbiology at UC Riverside, has developed antibodies against proteins secreted by the HLB pathogen – revealing whether the plant is infected. These antibodies have been evaluated in California, Florida and Texas for HLB detection.
An initiative to manage endemic and invasive pests and diseases is part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Strategic Vision 2025.
This story is also available in Spanish.
Author: Jeannette Warnert