- Author: Judith Eppele, UC Bonnie Reiss Leading on Climate Fellow
Farmers placed clumps of soil into metal mesh baskets, submerged the baskets into jars of water, then watched to see if their soil held together. The slake test, conducted at the Soil Health Field Day in Woodland, measured soil health. Healthier soil, which contains more organic matter and bioactivity and can better support plant growth, stays intact.
“Participants said that it was particularly useful to see the slake test on a variety of soils to better understand the nuance of how soil health management practices such as cover cropping and reduction of tillage intensity could affect soil aggregation,” said Sonja Brodt, UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and...
- Author: Trina Kleist
Roche team lands $1 million to help ranchers stay strong
California ranchers benefit when they plan ahead for extreme weather variability, according to rancher surveys and interviews conducted by a team headed by Leslie Roche, a professor of Cooperative Extension in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences.
But while wise planning and climate-smart adaptations helped ranchers survive the state's record-breaking 2012-2016 drought, those strategies by themselves were not...
- Author: Amy Quinton, UC Davis
Findings offer solution for more climate-friendly cattle farming
Seaweed is once again showing promise for making cattle farming more sustainable. A new study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that feeding grazing beef cattle a seaweed supplement in pellet form reduced their methane emissions by almost 40% without affecting their health or weight. The study was published Dec. 2 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
This is the first study to test seaweed on grazing beef cattle in the world. It follows previous studies that showed seaweed cut methane emissions
- Author: Adina M Merenlender
- Author: John T Bailey
Fire has been part of indigenous stewardship in California since time immemorial. These fire practices were deeply connected to cultural traditions, food ways, and enhanced the resilience of landscapes. Using fire for research and land management at the UC ANR Hopland Research and Extension Center (HREC) dates back to the early 1950s and fire was used as an effective tool for maintaining the health of the landscape for many years. However, the regulations and paperwork permitting controlled burns became increasingly restrictive after the catastrophic wildfires of 2017.
Thanks to three years of perseverance by John Bailey, HREC director, and with help...
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
Tech can save ranchers time and benefit animals and land, becoming more viable
After the Caldor Fire destroyed seven miles of fencing on their cattle ranch in 2021, Leisel Finley and her family needed to replace the fence.
Finley, a sixth-generation rancher at Mount Echo Ranch in Amador County, said reconstruction costs were bid at $300,000 and would take at least a year to build, leaving the family without summer pasture and a herd of hungry cows to feed. Additionally, the U.S. Forest Service mandates that grazing be withheld for two years in postfire landscapes. This put the family in a difficult position.
While watching a recording of a...
