- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center opens its doors to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 27 for free tours of the 330-acre facility. The center is at 9240 S. Riverbend Ave., Parlier.
At the facility, which is part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, scientists conduct research on a diversity of Central San Joaquin Valley crops, including grapes, stone fruit, almonds, pistachios, pomegranates, kiwi fruit, blueberries, alfalfa and more recently sorghum. Twenty Ph.D.-level scientists are based at the center to study pest control, new crop varieties, plant disease control and irrigation strategies.
Trams will run throughout the day on 30-minute guided tours that highlight research in permanent and row crops. The research includes plant pathology, integrated pest management, winegrape rootstocks, fresh fig varieties and handling, carbon sequestration, nematology, medical entomology, orchard strategies, organic alfalfa strategies, dried on the vine strategies, wine varieties.
Large groups are asked to register in advance on the Kearney website, http://kare.ucanr.edu/Open_House. For more information, contact Laura Van der Staay, (559) 646-6030, ljvanderstaay@ucanr.edu.
- Author: Laura J. Van der Staay
This year, Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center participated in both the Kings County Farm Day and the Fresno County Farm and Nutrition Day. KARE's mini workshop discusses what it takes to be a healthy plant and what it takes to be a healthy person. The students plant leaf lettuce to take home so that it can grow and they can eat it. The Kings County event attracted over 2700 students and the Fresno County event attracted over 3500 students. Left over lettuce transplants were used by different FFA programs. These events were made possible by generous donations from Greenheart Farms, The Plant People, and Valley Soil & Forest Products. Our ability to deliver these workshops are in great part due to the wonderful volunteers who come and work hard at the events. Fresno's lettuce planting was featured on the KMPH Channel 26 Great Day morning show. We also thank the respective fair staff and Farm Bureau staff.
- Author: Laura J. Van der Staay
In their capacity as California Agriculture Systems Innovation members, Jeff Mitchell, Cooperative Extension cropping systems specialist at the UC ANR Kearney Agricultural Research & Extension Center and in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis specializing in vegetable cropping systems, irrigation management, soil quality, organic soil amendments, extension models, and postharvest physiology and innovative conservation agriculture farmer John Diener of Red Rock Ranch in Five Points, CA were part of a panel organized by the Berkeley Food Institute that discussed "farming practices to reduce risks tied to drought." Read more.
See the video of the panel discussion.
- Author: Laura J. Van der Staay
This year, Kearney had the pleasure of watching four great horned owls mature. We considered this to be a nice addition to the Kearney family. Themis Michailides indicated that owls in ancient Greece represented the bird of wisdom! In fact, when he attended high school in Greece, it was mandatory that all the students wear a hat with an owl-embroidered on the front of the hat.
Kearney staff noticed that a great horned owl was nesting in one of the trees in our north gravel parking lot. When the tree did not have very many leaves, the female parent remained vigilant in the nest with the nestlings. After the young owls became fledglings, the female parent would fly to a nearby tree to watch them. At first, we thought that there were two fledglings, and in the end, we discovered that there were four. All of them became branchers, moving out to the branches at about 6 weeks old. They started to fly about a week later and survived to be independent. Luckily, when one branchling fell out of the nest on a Friday, Gwen Conville, Tayoko Handa and Matthew Fidelibus came by to look at the owls before going home. They captured the fallen young owl and took it to a Critter Creek animal rescue volunteer, who indicated that the bird would probably be flying in a week. The three juveniles that did not fall can still be seen in different areas of Kearney. Please enjoy the following pictures that were taken by many different Kearney personnel, including but not limited to Dan Felts, Matthew Fidelibus, Larry Schwankl, and Laura Van der Staay.
- Author: Laura J. Van der Staay
April 9, 2015, Riverview 6th grade science students attended workshops on nematology, conservation agriculture strategies, and integrated pest management. Students were exposed to issues that they could work on if they chose a career pathway resulting in working in a science, technology, engineering and/or math field related to agriculture and natural resources.
Nematology workshop: Andreas Westphal, UC Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist at UC ANR Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center and in the Department of Nematology at UC Riverside and specializing in pathogens and nematodes affecting plants, increased student awareness of the impact of nematodes. Tom Buzo and Fen Westphal assisted with the workshop. Students learned about the diversity of nematodes in the world; that there are good, bad and very bad nematodes.
Westphal works on nematodes that are bad for plants. Many of these feed on plant roots. Students used microscopes to see some easily recognizable nematodes that were dug up from the soil.
Soil Health workshop: Jeff Mitchell, Cooperative Extension cropping systems specialist at the UC ANR Kearney Agricultural Research & Extension Center and in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis specializing in vegetable cropping systems, irrigation management, soil quality, organic soil amendments, extension models, and postharvest physiology provided a workshop on soil health. Students learned that we will have an additional 3 billion people by 2050. This leads to the problem that the estimated food production demand from 2010 through 2050 will be more than it was for all of history. So, just like caring about our own health, we must care about the health of our natural resources. We are in a race to see if we can improve our food production and have sufficient water to meet the demands of a larger population. Mitchell had samples from an ongoing long-term trial that compares soil quality and yields using conservation agriculture strategies versus traditional tillage practices. Students noted that the conservation agriculture soil samples had more organic matter and held its shape while absorbing water when placed in the water. They noted that the traditional tillage soil samples had low organic matter and fell apart when placed in water.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) workshop: Laura Van der Staay, Field Research Supervisor 2 at UC ANR Kearney Agricultural Research & Extension Center, provided students with the basic concepts of IPM, with role playing to better understand how effective IPM strategies are at sustaining our food, feed, and fiber production while protecting our natural resources. One of the role playing scenarios was to see how different modes of action can help reduce pesticide resistance in pest populations. Students got the extra treat of seeing some great horned owls (part of nature's IPM) that hatched at Kearney, as well as bones and feathers in the owl pellets.
Students were also provided with a field tour to see current research plots. (photgraphs by William Bowe and KARE personnel)