- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
United States Congressman Jim Costa visited the UC West Side Research and Extension Center in Five Points last week to introduce his new legislative director, Nick Choate, to west side farming practices. A focus of the visit was conservation tillage, a farming system in which growers minimize tractor work and plant crops in the residue of a previous crop.
UC research has shown that CT practices have numerous benefits, including water conservation, dust suppression, reduced runoff, lower labor needs and costs, fuel savings and carbon sequestration. Members of the Conservation Tillage and Cropping Systems workgroup asked Costa for federal...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A series of conservation tillage workshops last month and a follow-up news release by UC Davis cropping systems specialist Jeff Mitchell resulted in a story about the event on a Fresno morning ag show on KMJ 580 am radio. The radio story is archived online, about midway through the hour-long broadcast.
Mitchell conducted a phone interview with host Sean Michael Lisle in which he
said national experts on no-till and strip-till came to...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Hanford dairy farmer Dino Giacomazzi was recognized for his innovations in conservation tillage yesterday at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 12th annual Environmental Awards Ceremony held in downtown Los Angeles, according to an EPA news release.
Giacomazzi was in good company. The 12 businesses and individuals honored included Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fresno mayor Ashley Swearengin and a 14-year-old boy who recorded a song about global warming that reached children on five continents.
According to the release, Giacomazzi is the fourth generation to manage Giacomazzi Dairy, a family farm of 900 cows and 600 acres,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Farmers in California interested in trying conservation tillage practices have a new resource available with the launch yesterday of the UC Conservation Tillage and Cropping Systems Workgroup website, said an article in the Sacramento Bee. The story also appeared in the Merced Sun-Star.
Reporter Carol Reiter picked up the story from an ANR news release about the new resource.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Farmers in the Central Valley are increasingly turning to "conservation tillage," a variety of practices that reduce soil disturbance and cut down on dust, according to a story in the Modesto Bee over the weekend.
The story, written by John Holland, said producers in nine valley counties were surveyed by the Conservation Tillage and Cropping Systems Workgroup, an alliance of farmers, researchers and industry representatives coordinated by UC Davis Cooperative Extension specialist Jeff Mitchell. The survey found that 64,613 acres were being cultivated...
