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Updates on agriculture and natural resource topics from the Sierra Foothills
Faraway
Comments:
by Charles A Raguse
on March 10, 2018 at 10:09 AM
Nikolai, when I fired up my computer this morning and found the SFREC NEWS Blog line in my Inbox, it felt like I had come home again.  
I spent time with the array of posts given, by Dustin Flavell, Nathan Van Schmidt, Helene Dalke,and Alexandra Stefanich (from the latter's post: I know well the road near the Yuba, where her picture shows some lucky students running about "in the wilds" at play). Add to that the annual SFREC updates on the furtive Black Rail and trends in forage production as modified by seasonal weather variations, and it demonstrates well why such facilities must exist, and deserve strong regional, institutional, state, and federal support.  
My associations with the "Sierra Field Station" (research, teaching, outreach, and some administration) began in 1965, when I was invited to join a small group of people, a precursor of Research Advisory Committees to follow, all melded to form a major part of my life. I gained much, and I have much to give back. Nikolai, let's set to work on that.
by Dustin K. Flavell
on March 14, 2018 at 11:34 AM
Nice write up Nikolai. Very happy to see that we now have the ability to review both precip. and soil temperature data that has been generated at the plot and not have to rely on CIMIS which is all the way down at HQ.  
 
680 lbs/ac growth from February 1 to March 1 is pretty phenomenal, but to have over 1,600 lbs/ac of total production at this point in the season is impressive. This must be a record amount of growth? Based on your soil temperature values being above 50*F or just slightly lower for a few months , I would suggest the forage really never stopped growing.  
 
April 1st reading should be real interesting if it stays warm and we get the amount of rain forecasters are predicting for March. I look forward to hearing the results.
by Dan Macon
on March 16, 2018 at 4:19 PM
Great to have all of this information in one place (and site specific) - thanks, Nikolai!  
 
I am observing similar production in Placer County, although I wonder if our forage will mature earlier than normal, too! Will be very interesting to see what peak standing crop is this year.
 
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