- Author: Jeffrey P. Mitchell
December 28, 2021
KMJ580's Don York, who produces the daily “Ag Report” on the Fresno-based radio station, interviewed Alyssa DeVincentis and Jeff Mitchell about work they and a larger team of researchers at UC Davis conducted on water-related impacts of winter cover crops throughout the Central Valley. The interview aired at 5:05 AM on York's Tuesday, December 28th, broadcast and can be heard by clicking on the link here below.
The work that DeVincentis and Mitchell summarized with York involved ten almond orchard and tomato field sites in which side-by-side comparisons of soil water content during the winter cover cropping period from November through March were conducted from 2017 through 2019. The study sites spanned San Joaquin Valley sites in Arvin, Shafter, Five Points, and Merced, as well as Sacramento Valley locations in Davis, Durham, Orland, and Chico. Basic conclusions stemming from the work include the finding that cover crops grown in the winter growing window do not lose more soil water than fallow bare ground despite considerable dogma about the likelihood that they deplete soil water reserves during the winter growing period.
This finding adds important information that may help local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) create groundwater management plans that are required for compliance with SGMA, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. If remote-sensed imagery is used to determine a farm's overall water use, winter cover crop vegetation may appear on satellite images as a net water loss, while in actuality, because cover crops perform other functions such as improving soil water infiltration from rain, increasing soil aggregation and water holding capacity, and reducing the energy available at the soil surface by providing shade by the cover crop canopy, the net effect tends to be no additional water loss relative to a bare soil surface during the winter period.
The team that worked together on this research included then UC Davis PhD student, DeVincentis, her major professor, Samuel Sandoval-Solis, Daniele Zaccaria, Anna Gomes, then an undergraduate student at Davis and now a PhD student at Stanford University, and CASI's Mitchell.
The project is summarized in a manuscript that will be published in an upcoming issue of UC's quarterly peer-reviewed journal, California Agriculture, in 2022. A pdf copy of the research article is also available below.
- Author: Jeffrey P. Mitchell
A group of relatively new NRCS hires including Kareem Adeleke, Elena De La Torre, Breana Garcia, Jacob Wright, and Mikhael Kazzi received an exceptionally valuable introduction to state-of-the-art regenerative agriculture orchard management systems in a tour that was organized by Area 3 Agronomist, Rob Roy on December 21 at a pistachio orchard of Inbleby Farms near the tiny San Joaquin Valley town of Burrell. The tour was very graciously hosted by Gary Smith, General Manager of Ingleby along with Steven Strong, the Agronomist who works with Smith. Together, the two of them laid out the remarkable story and history of Ingleby Farms worldwide (https://inglebyfarms.com/) as well as the specific and principle-guided goals and approaches that are being pursued in Ingleby's California farming operations. To say that the new NRCS conservationists received a wonderful and information-packed orientation to soil health and sustainable orchard management would be a great understatement as Smith and Strong stayed with the eager group of NRCSers for over two full hours and showed them the many innovations that are being implemented at Ingleby. These include the use of carefully planned cover crop mixes at various planting times throughout the year that serve multiple purposes including adding carbon to the soil, capturing and cycling nitrogen in the crop's rootzone, improving soil function, and providing a trap crop for aboveground pests. Ingleby Farms is a true leader in the development of improved performance crop production systems here in California and this they provided a generous, once-in-a-lifetime introduction to their approaches. Kudos to Rob Roy for coordinating the tour and special thanks to Gary Smith and Steven Strong for so graciously hosting this group of new NRCS conservationists!
Recently hired Area 3 NRCS Conservationists along with Area 3 Agronomist, Rob Roy, and Gary Smith and Steven Strong of Ingleby Farms in pistachio orchard near Burrell, CA. From left to right, Kareem Adeleke, NRCS Conservation Agronomist, Hanford Service Center; Gary Smith, Ingleby Farms; Elena De La Torre, Soil Conservationist, Visalia Service Center; Breana Garcia, Soil Conservationist, Bakersfield Service Center; Rob Roy, Conservation Agronomist, Fresno Area Office; Jacob Wright, Soil Conservationist, Fresno Service Center; Mikhael Kazzi, Soil Conservationist, Fresno Service Center; and Steven Strong, Ingleby Farms.
- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
September 23, 2020
A video transcript of the Healthy Soils Healthy Profits - How do we get to $2.50/lb cotton in the SJV? webinar that was held on September 17, 2020 is now available at You Tube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEm8pjbbnaE&feature=youtu.be
More activities and information related to soil health in cotton production systems are now being planned. Stay tuned!
- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
September 12, 2010
Dairy silage fields under no-till and strip-till are some of the only annual cropping systems in California that address the important soil health principle of generating and preserving surface residues. While most annual crop fields are without residues due to intensive tillage practices that essentially make them disappear completely, no-till and strip-till silage farmers are achieving this key soil care practice that is otherwise ignored in most fields in the state.
- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
Getting ahead of marketplace demands – What farmers can do -
August 31, 2020 https://youtu.be/Ot1KSrfsfLA
“Last fall, I participated in the National Sustainable Agriculture Summit in Indianapolis, IN,” says Jeff Mitchell, Cropping Systems Cooperative Extension Specialist with the University of California, Davis.
This was a very large gathering of over 650 people representing various sectors of the food system.
One of the main messages in the keynote address of this meeting that was delivered by Patricia Stroup, Vice President of Nestle, - the largest buyer and seller of food in the world was that “if you want to sell your food to us, you'll meet our specifications.”
A rather blunt warning to farmers about how they do things.
“And I don't know how far along it's gotten,” Mitchell adds, “but there are now apparently efforts under way in Europe mandating an increase in organic agriculture to 20%, along with a 50% reduction in pesticide use and 20% less fertilizer use by 2030.”
“I know a farmer though, who is quite fond of saying that he doesn't want to be told how he should farm.”
He is quite literally way out ahead of these sorts of supply chain, or for that matter, government pressured that are now beginning to be seen.
It is not at all exaggerating to say that buyers are ‘beating a pathway to his farm' because they want to buy what he grows.
He is beyond being pressured.
The question of what farmers may start to do to be ahead of marketplace demands is what will be discussed in a public webinar that will be held on September 17th from 9 AM to noon.
A $10 registration fee to offset meeting coordination expenses and to support the long-term research work in Five Points may be paid by registering early at https://ucanr.edu/sjvcottonwebinar
Cotton growing following soil health management practices of reduced disturbance and surface residue preservation, Five Points, CA
