- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Unprecedented Study Discovers what Urban Coyotes Really Eat
(Care2) Laura Goldman, March 30
Hiking boots, avocados, candy wrappers and fast-food containers. These aren't a few of my favorite things, but they are some of the items found inside the stomachs of dead urban coyotes in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
…Since the study began over a year ago, the researchers, led by Dr. Niamh Quinn, the human-wildlife interactions advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension, have discovered that cats make up only about eight percent of a coyote's diet.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
China has threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs on American exports following President Trump's plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Agricultural exports are in the crosshairs, reported Thaddeus Miller in the Merced Sun-Star.
China's tariffs would first hit U.S. products such as avocados and nuts with 15 percent duties, the article says.
"It doesn't really matter which one it is, whether it's alfalfa, almonds or wherever it may go," said David Doll, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Merced County. "They're as much political as they are anything...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Rising temperatures appear to be reducing the number of hours tree crops in the San Joaquin Valley are subjected to chill during the winter, a critical factor in producing a profitable yield, reported Ezra David Romero on Valley Public Radio, KVPR-FM.
Pistachios, for example, require temperatures between 32 and 45 degrees for about 700 hours each winter, but for the past four years have had less than 500 chill hours.
UC Davis researcher Hyunok Lee recently published a study about climate change impacts on agriculture in UC Agriculture and Natural Resources' peer-reviewed journal
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
People in California are divided over whether the “L” in the word almond is pronounced or silent, reported Ezra David Romero on Valley Public Radio.
As a general rule, farmers in the northern part of the state say “am-end” and farmers in southern areas say “almond.” In a quest for an explanation, Romero spoke to numerous farmers and ag industry professionals who all told a version of the same joke. For his story, he quoted UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor David Doll, who he called the "go-to guy" for all things almond in California.
“Farmers will...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A surge in the price of almonds in 2014 has cut demand and resulted in a lower price for the 2015 California almond crop, reported Tom Philpott in Mother Jones.
Despite the state's four-year drought, almond production continued its steady rise over the last 15 years. The plunge in global demand may impact the trend, according to UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension advisor David Doll. Last year Philpott asked Doll how long the almond boom would continue.
"He told me it would only stop 'when the crop stops making money,'" Philpott wrote.
Doll...
