- Author: Mark Lundy
With the summer season wrapping up, people are starting to look ahead to the wheat season. I talked to a grower recently about the timing of N demand for irrigated wheat grown in the Sacramento Valley. Based on the N rate and timing studies we began last year (and will continue this year), I put together a few figures that may be of interest in planning for the upcoming season.
The first is a depiction of the cumulative and daily demand for N by a high-yielding (7500 lb/acre) wheat crop with 11.5% protein.
This was based on measurements taken from last year's multiple N-rate, multiple N-timing study, where we grew Patwin (a hard white wheat) and Cal Rojo (a hard red wheat). It's important to note that the...
- Author: Mark Lundy
There will be a workshop outside of Arbuckle on the benefits of hedgerows for farms in the Sacramento Valley next Wednesday, 10/8 from 8:30-10:45.
Follow the links for more details on the AGENDA and a MAP to the location.
Hope to see you there!
- Author: Mark Lundy
There will be a tour of second-year poplars purpose-grown for bioenergy production in Clarksburg, CA from Noon - 2:30 PM on September 10th, 2014.
For more information and to RSVP, follow this link:
http://hardwoodbiofuels.org/event/clarksburg-field-tour/
- Author: Mark Lundy
The UC Davis Dry Bean Field Day will be Thursday, September 4th from 10AM-Noon at the Agronomy Field Headquarters in Davis (near Bee Biology, between the airport landing strip on the S and Hutchison Dr. on the N).
There will be a field tour of lima and common beans as well as some heirloom beans with potential for organic production.
Hope to see you there!
- Author: Mark Lundy
This is the description of the groundwater situation from Professor Richard Howitt, the lead author of a recent study put out by the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis. It is estimated that two-thirds of the state's water supply will be pumped from wells in 2014, as in previous dry years.
I know that people are seeing well water levels drop in the Sacramento Valley. This ‘overdraft' (pumping more out of the aquifer than is being recharged) is clearly not sustainable on a year-in, year-out basis. Even though groundwater and the regulations that may eventually accompany its use make for thorny conversation, it is a conversation that is happening, and one that we all need to engage in (as politely as we...