- Author: Daniel S. Munk
This workshop is designed to give growers and water managers tools and insights on how to better conduct surface irrigation activities including furrow, border and basin (flood) irrigation systems. Topics include basic system design issues, performance evaluation approaches and commonly used practices to improve the distribution uniformity and efficiency of applied water.
The agenda is:
8:30 - 9:00 a.m. | Registration and refreshments |
9:00 - 9:10 a.m. | Introductory remarks and welcome - TBD |
9:10 -9:30 a.m. | Practical Application for Improving Surface Irrigation Efficiencies, Dan Munk, UCCE advisor in Fresno County |
9:30 - 9:50 a.m. | Irrigation Systems and Energy Efficiency, Daniele Zaccaria, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis |
9:50 - 10:10 a.m. | Improving the Efficiency of Surface Irrigation Systems, Eduardo Bautista, USDA ARS Water Management and Conservation Research Unit at the Arid-Land Agricultural Research Center in Arizona |
10:10 - 10:30 a.m. | Break |
10:30 - 11:10 a.m. | The relationship between irrigation efficiency and field geometry, field condition, and inflow rate into the irrigated field, Eduardo Bautista, USDA-ARS |
11:10 -11:30 a.m. | Understanding Irrigation Efficiency with Different Systems: How it's Defined, Why it's Important, Khaled Bali, UCCE advisor and director in Imperial county |
11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. | Q&A |
To register for the workshop or for additional information, please email or call Dan Munk or Terri Gonzalez (email:dsmunk@ucanr.edu, 559-241-7515). Event registration is optional but preferred to estimate attendance.
Our programs are open to all potential participants. Please contact the Fresno UCCE office (two weeks prior to the event) at 559-241-7515 if you have any barriers to participation requiring special accommodations.
/table>- Author: Laura J. Van der Staay
UCD plant pathology graduate students visited Kearney on May 13, 2016 to have classes in the field.
Bob Gilbertson, professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis, specializing in seed pathology, virology, and insect-transmitted viruses, brought 18 graduate students to the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center (UC ANR KARE) in May. The visit was related to the course: PLP 205A Diseases of Field, Vegetable, Fruit and Nut Crops.
The field trip started with a general introduction about the UC Extension principles and philosophy by Pete Goodell, UC Cooperative Extension advisor, Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program and UC ANR KARE. Students then got a field tour lead by Chuck Boldwyn, Center Superintendent of Agriculture at UC ANR KARE and field presentations by Florent Trouillas, Assistant UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis and UC ANR KARE, Themis Michailides, Plant Pathologist in the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis and UC ANR KARE, and George Zhuang, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Fresno county, specializing in viticulture and enology, on various diseases and related issues.
Field presentations included:
- Prunes: wood decay and Cytospora canker
- Pistachios: Botryosphaeria shoot and panicle blight; bushy top syndrome, and research on Aflatoxin
- Grapes: grapevine canker diseases (Esca, Phomopsis, Eutypa and Botryosphaeria).
- Author: Laura J. Van der Staay
Shannon Mueller, county director and agronomy farm advisor in UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Fresno County and Madera County, and Karen Francone, Environmental Program Manager, California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR), teamed up to provide an apiary inspectors' training at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center. According to the 2012-2014 CDPR progress report, “Bee health and protection is a state, national, and worldwide issue”.
In the meeting room, there were many examples of equipment, hive problems and diagnostic techniques available for viewing. The meeting room agenda included honey bee africanization; safety considerations during hive inspection; apiary pests and diseases; beekeeper pesticide usage; “toxic to Bees” label interpretations and managed pollinator protection plans; and an overview of bee incidence response.
Attendees also got the opportunity to go into the field for a smoker demonstration and hive visitation/colony strength evaluation and incident scenarios.
The overarching theme was to train the apiary inspectors so that CDPR, the County Ag Commissioners, UCCE, and beekeepers can continue to work together in finding strategies and technologies to help reduce bee colony deaths. The same training was delivered in Modesto the following week.
- Author: Laura J. Van der Staay
- Editor: Themis J Michailides
On May 10, 2016, Kearney researchers, Kris Tollerup, UC ANR cooperative extension advisor at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, specializing in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for almond, pistachio, tree fruit and grape crops; and Themis Michailides, UC ANR plant pathologist and lecturer in Plant Pathology at UC Davis and Kearney Agricultural Research & Extension Center, conducted a workshop to help attendees learn more about leaffooted bug monitoring, damage, management, and its involvement in spreading Bot of pistachio and other diseases on pistachio and almond.
Tollerup discussed the different Hemipteran pests (leaffooted bugs and stink bugs). A PowerPoint handout was provided. The handout covered what the bugs look like; the stages of the bugs' growth; diagnostics for identification; the host crops; overwintering, what the damage to almonds and pistachios looks like; when the damage occurs; what we know, and what we need to know.
In the field, Michailides showed how the insect damage can lead to an increased incidence of pathogenic infections. Field research by Michailides and Dave Morgan has shown that there is an “association of Botryosphaeria panicle and shoot blight of pistachio with injuries of fruit caused by Hemiptera insects and birds.”
Michailides concluded that the disease in almonds caused by insect damage “is a new disease of almond and it is very similar to the stigmatomycosis reported on pistachio.” Early insect damage can result in the nuts dropping from the tree and later damage can render part of the crop unmarketable due to decay and black spots on the kernels.
The photograph shows: Infection of pistachio fruit by Neofusicoccum mediterraneum (initially identified as Botryosphaeria dothidea, thus the name Bot of pistachio disease) initiated from insect-punctured fruit and spread into the main rachis of the cluster [A and B; note a leaffooted bug (Leptoglossus clypealis) on the rachis of pistachio cluster in B]; C, fruit infected by the pathogen and covered with pycnidia surrounding the sap exuded from the insect's injury; D, fruit infections initiated from injuries caused by birds and spread into the main rachis of clusters.
- Author:
Jeffrey Mitchell
Long-time Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center researcher and budding motivational speaker, Jeff Mitchell, participated in the STEM Conference organized for local San Joaquin Valley high school students on Saturday, April 23, and thoroughly enjoyed the interactive, high-energy experience.
STEM refers to science, technology, engineering, and math programs and the day-long conference was an effort by the College to stimulate interest and preparedness in interested high school students to pursue educational programs and careers related to these disciplines. Mitchell was invited to share with students his work in agricultural systems research and soil health. He provided two hands-on sessions to a wide range of students from a number of regional schools including Laton, Hanford, Corcoran, Madera, Tranquility, Sierra, Selma, Reedley, and Parlier.
The highlight of the day, however, was the motivational and music extravaganza provided by special conference guests, Domino Saints, a bilingual urban pop duo from San Juan, Puerto Rico that includes David Leal, a young and very creative mechanical engineer with several nuclear fusion technology patents, and Gisele, “Gigi,” Ojeda. Students and presenters were wowed by the infectious music and inspirational message provided by Leal.