- Author: Brenda Dawson
An article by Ching Lee in today's Ag Alert focused on the effects of budget cuts on agricultural student programs at California universities. "Budget cuts have had a profound effect on all areas of the campus," Diane Ullman, associate dean for undergraduate academic programs at UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, told the reporter. She explained the college faces challenges keeping agricultural production facilities, instructional equipment and technologies updated to deliver hands-on education — even though the office has seen student applications increase by 70–80 percent.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Janine Hasey told a Willows Journal reporter she is amazed that the peach harvest in Yuba and Sutter counties has begun. Cool spring temperatures mean harvest is expected to be late.
"All we are looking at right now is the extra early," Hasey was quoted in a story published late last week. "As time goes on, we will see what happens with other varieties."
Cooperative Extension recommends pre-harvest fungicide sprays for all varieties to prevent ripe fruit rot.
"Put your first treatment on two to three weeks before...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
California cling-peach growers' market dominance is beginning to erode in the face of cheap cling-peach imports from China, according to an article in today's Fresno Bee.
Imports of lower-priced Chinese canned cling-peaches grew from 43,000 cases 10 years ago to more than 2.2 million last year, the article said. Chinese peaches now represent 12 percent of the 16 million cases consumed in the U.S.
To defend their turf, California growers are looking for ways to reduce their production costs. Bee reporter Robert Rodriguez spoke to UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Fresno Bee profiled a local business over the weekend that pursues confidential research projects to help clients - such as fruit breeders, growers and sellers - identify fruit varieties that look great, taste delicious, grow easily and store well.
Fruit Dynamics monitors 10 stone-fruit breeding programs, evaluating 400 to 600 unreleased cultivars each year for the fresh and processing fruit markets.Tree fruit growers are looking to the company to boost their industry, in which profits have dipped due to high production and competition from a greater diversity of fruit choices, such as relatively new California...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A Master Gardener with UC Cooperative Extension in Santa Clara County, Laramie Treviño, turned San Francisco Chronicle readers on to a source of fast-producing, unusual fruit trees in a feature story printed over the weekend.
Treviño profiled C. Todd Kennedy and Patrick Schafer, rare fruit enthusiasts who run their online-only nursery as a "personal charity," the story said. Tree prices are $19.50, low considering they are already a good size and most will produce fruit within one year.
Kennedy and Schafer have constructed an unusual business model for