- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A UC laboratory at the former Castle Air Force Base in Atwater received clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly dones at the Merced County Radio Control Club's field, reported Thaddeus Miller in the Merced Sun-Star.
The unmanned aircraft are part of a project funded by the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources that aims to study the possible use remote controlled aerial imaging to provide real-time information to farmers about water use and crop health. The project leader, David Doll, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Merced County, has put together a...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Small changes in irrigation habits can result in big water savings said an Earth Day report in the Merced Sun-Star written by Thaddeus Miller.
The article focused on the Earth Day festivities at UC Merced, but the water-savings tips came from David Doll, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Merced County. A large fraction of home water use happens in the yard. Doll said reducing lawn watering time and fixing broken sprinklers are important first steps to water conservation.
Grass lawn can use more water than many agricultural crops - including almonds, walnuts and tomatoes....
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Even as farmers across California struggle with the third year of drought, so do University of California agriculture researchers, reported Todd Fitchette in Western Farm Press.
Fitchette opened his story with the plight of ag research at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center near Five Points. Many of the farmers in the area will receive no surface water allocation this year; neither will the research center.
The facility can pull water from a deep well, but it is not enough nor is the water quality adequate for all the farming operations, said Bob Hutmacher, UC...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
In light of severely reduced surface water deliveries this year due to the California drought, more San Joaquin Valley farmers are digging new wells or deepening current wells to tap more groundwater, reported Lisa M. Krieger in the San Jose Mercury News.
But mining water that has been underground for thousands of years has many deeply worried.
"It's our savings account, and we're draining it," said Phil Isenberg of the Public Policy Institute of California, a former Sacramento mayor and assemblyman. "At some point, there will be none...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Due to the lingering drought, farms in the San Joaquin Valley are being found with an unwelcome white dusting of "snow" on the soil surface. It isn't the snow so desperately needed in California's high country; rather it is salt and other toxins that have precipitated out of the soil because of sparse winter rains, reported Dennis Pollock in Western Farm Press.
At the recent California Plant and Soil Conference in Fresno, multiple speakers showed pictures of what they labeled "California snow," the article said.
Plant toxins like selenium, boron and salt leach out with water, but water is in short supply this year. "That's why a lot...
