- Author: Trina Kleist

Roche team lands $1 million to help ranchers stay strong
California ranchers benefit when they plan ahead for extreme weather variability, according to rancher surveys and interviews conducted by a team headed by Leslie Roche, a professor of Cooperative Extension in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences.
But while wise planning and climate-smart adaptations helped ranchers survive the state's record-breaking 2012-2016 drought, those strategies by themselves were not...
/h3>- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert

This is one of a series of stories featuring a sampling of UC ANR academics whose work exemplifies the public value UC ANR brings to California.
Livestock and natural resources advisor Dan Macon came to UC Cooperative Extension three years ago with much more than a formal education in integrated resource management and agricultural and managerial economics.
He had years of hands-on experience running a successful foothill sheep operation, toiling long days and often into the night tending animals, irrigating pastures, training livestock guardian dogs and managing forage.
“I came to this position mid-career,” said Macon, who also accumulated...
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice

Two new studies on the costs and returns of establishing and producing irrigated pasture in the Sierra Nevada Foothills have been released by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources' Agricultural Issues Center. Ranchers in Nevada, Placer and surrounding counties may find the cost estimates useful for planning.
Based on 40 acres of leased ground, the studies focus on establishment by tilling the soil, using conventional cultural practices and re-establishment of pasture using no-till cultural practices. The two separate studies, by Dan Macon, UCCE livestock and natural resources advisor, and Donald Stewart of the Agricultural Issues Center, estimate the cost of establishing or...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert

Scientific evidence of a warming climate in California and across the globe is clear, but the impacts on ecosystems and agriculture are still difficult to predict.
Sophisticated computer models are used to forecast future climate. Understanding that temperature and precipitation levels will change in the future does not tell the full story: UC Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers also want real-world experience under those future conditions.
Moreover, some agricultural operations have higher sensitivity to the changes than others. Rangeland forage is particularly sensitive to climate changes since, unlike irrigated agriculture, ranchers rely solely on precipitation. They have no...