- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
CASI invites you to take part in a very interesting field educational event this Thursday, February 26th, at one of the fields of Danny Ramos and Jonathan Guido of Lucero Farms just south of Hwy 152 about midway between Los Banos and Chowchilla. Take 152 from either the east or west and then take Flanagan Road south about a mile. From there, turn east (left) onto Avenue 21 and follow this road about a mile or so till you see our sign on the right side of the road. Take the dirt road south about a couple hundred yards to the cover crop field.
Call Jeff Mitchell that afternoon at (559) 303-9689 if you need help finding the field.
Click here to listen to Doug Cooper's radio interview with Jeff Mitchell about this Field Day at Lucero Farms on February 26, 2015.
- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
Along with several other private sector, university and NRCS partners, the CASI Center once again took part in the World Ag Expo in Tulare, CA this week and hosted a good number of guests at our well-positioned site that we have graciously been allowed to share with long-time CASI members, Alan Wilcox and Juan Trujillo, of Wilcox Agriproducts. An estimated 100,000 visitors took part in this year's equipment and technology show. While most interactions with participants at this event tended to be brief, we were able to engage a good number of folks in discussions about our work and several good contacts have now been made for a range of follow-up connections in the near future. Planning for the 2016 expo will be underway in the near future. If you'd like to participate with us, please contact Jeff Mitchell at (559) 303-9689 or jpmitchell@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
CASI farmer members, Michael and Adam Crowell of Turlock, Darrell Cordova of Denair, and Scott Schmidt of Five Points, along with Jeff Mitchell, hosted Amelie Gaudin, the new professor of Agroecology in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis at their farms on January 23, 2015 to share with her information about their farms and the efforts they have made to improve their crop production systems. Each of these farmers very graciously welcomed Dr. Gaudin who has been on the job in Davis for only three weeks.
Dr. Amelie Gaudin has tremendous experience with cropping system ecology and is currently establishing her research lab in Davis that is focusing on using agroecological principles to help develop efficient and resilient cropping systems. Three current themes that she will be emphasizing in her research program of her lab group are ecological intensification, climate-smart agroecosystems, and evolutionary root ecology, - all very nicely related to the core goals of our CASI Workgroup.
Additional information about Dr. Gaudin's work is available at her website http://gaudin.ucdavis.edu/ and via email at agaudin@ucdavis.edu
/span>
- Author: G. Bradley Hooker
Mitchell, a UC Cooperative Extension cropping systems specialist, will work with through the Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation (CASI) Center, which promotes the principles of conservation agriculture: reduced disturbance, diversity and year-round soil health improvement practices. The internationally recognized sustainability method is now making inroads to California, particularly as a low-input high-retention approach to dealing with drought conditions.
CASI has established a network throughout California's Central Valley of high school teachers committed to the upcoming pilot program. Farm training sessions will extend the classroom learning the students currently gain in their coursework, with CASI experts sharing their knowledge and excitement for agriculture and agricultural science.
“In my own class that I am teaching this fall at UC Davis, the students themselves have selected as the topic for their panel discussion ‘California's new farmers,'” says Mitchell, “which is, I think, a fitting testament to the sheer importance of young people and the need to educate and inspire this next generation of folks who'll be responsible for agricultural production systems in the future.”
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Jeff Mitchell, UC Cooperative Extension specialist and CASI chair, presented the award to the father-son team at a field day on their Denair farm Nov. 24.
“Darrell and his son Trevor are tenacious, committed and skilled farmers,” Mitchell said. “They have demonstrated innovation and leadership in development, refinement and use of conservation tillage systems that more than meet the criteria for this award.”
In July 2003, the Cordovas summoned a group of UC Cooperative Extension researchers to their farm, including Ron Vargas, emeritus agronomy and weed advisor in Madera and Merced counties; Anil Shrestha, then UC Integrated Pest Management weed ecologist; and Mitchell. They were farming an usual mixture of crops – including corn, wheat, triticale and other winter forage species, along with almonds – on a farm with rolling hills on the eastern edge of the San Joaquin Valley floor.
“They wanted to begin a dialogue about their interest in trying conservation tillage in an edible dry bean-wheat rotation,” Mitchell said. “Darrell and Trevor were inquisitive and eager to make reduced tillage work at their farm. They jumped into these early investigations with both feet.”
Darrell Cordova also consulted with Ralph Sesena, Sr., president of Cesena Distributing of Stockton, Calif., and recipient of CASI's 2013 Privater Sector Innovator Award. Sesena suggested the Cordovas try no-till bean seeding using a Buffalo slot seeder. He worked with them as they successfully planted no-till winter small grains following their summer beans.
During the early years, weed management was a serious challenge. Because of weed pressure in their beans and wheat, they developed a minimum-tillage approach that involved a shallow disking operation before crop changes.
Things changed again in 2007. The Cordovas invested in a 165-acre corner arm center pivot irrigation system and a dairy farm was established adjacent to their property, prompting them to grow dairy silage.
“With this new rotation scheme, Darrell and Trevor once again became interested in no-till production,” Mitchell said. “They developed no-till capabilities for both their summer silage corn and their winter forage mixes.”
When they saw their corn grow taller and greener under the new no-till management, the duo purchased a new eight-row planter and a 20-food no-till drill in 2014.
“Darrell and Trevor have made major strides in their ability to use conservation tillage practices at their farm and are now truly two of CASI's most outspoken champions for these innovative conservation agriculture systems,” Mitchell said. “They continue to serve as important advisors to our ongoing conservation agriculture and center pivot irrigation work.”
Following the award ceremony for the Cordovas, Dennis Chessman, state agronomist with the USDA NRCS; Margaret Smither-Kopperl, director of the NRCS Plant Materials Center; and Mitchell led a discussion and demonstration of some of the improvements in soil health that have been seen in fields where reduced disturbance techniques are used and where residues are maintained.
Mitchell noted the importance of these conservation agriculture practices that the Cordovas are using for increasing the water use efficiency of cropping systems by reducing soil evaporation and cooling surface soil temperatures. He told the gathered field day participants that longterm work in Five Points, Calif., has demonstrated that soil water evaporation losses can be reduced by as much as five inches during a routine summer crop season using these practices.
At the field day honoring the Cordovas for their progress with conservation agriculture practices coupled with precision overhead pivot irrigation, Mitchell said the team has implemented “quite significant strategies for producing more with less.”
“Not only have Darrell and Trevor Cordova been successful at significantly cutting their overall production costs, but they've also increased the water use efficiency of their production systems," Mitchell said.