The Beef and Range Field Day held on October 8, 2014 gave local high school students an opportunity to interact with farm advisors, veterinarians and researchers in order to learn about some of the practical applications of beef cattle production. California Senator, Jim Nielsen took time out of his busy schedule to speak with the students about the pressing issues currently facing California agriculture. He challenged his audience to step up and be in leaders for an industry that will most certainly need their support in the future.  We would like to offer our sincere thanks to Senator Nielsen for the support he has continuously given to agriculture education and for his dedication to those currently involved in agriculture.

The below video includes a summary of the Beef & Range Field Day in addition to comments by Senator Nielsen:

 

In the latest Research Spotlight, Glenn Nader, Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor, describes the project currently underway at SFREC to test the efficacy of utilizing rice strawlage as a supplement for beef cattle. In past studies, rice strawlage has greatly increased the laboratory nutritional quality of rice straw. The strawlage process, could greatly impact both California livestock and rice operations. It also could have potential worldwide impacts, as rice straw is one of the world's largest cereal residues produced. The current use of rice straw in the dry form has very limited applications in animal feeding systems.

For more information on rice strawlage research, click here.

As many know all too well, invasive plants are one of the greatest threats to rangelands due to competition with native species, reduced forage quality for livestock and wildlife, and multiple other ecological factors. One particular invasive grass known as medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae) is extremely widespread in rangelands across the western states. As an aggressive winter annual that can quickly infest ranches, medusahead has been the focus of numerous research projects. Ecologist and researcher Erica Spotswood of the Katharine Suding Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, has an ongoing project involving medusahead dispersal vectors, climatic conditions enhancing species spread, and the impacts of livestock grazing on medusahead populations.

While data is still being collected and analyzed, Spotswood shared some observations from the research conducted thus far. “We do not yet know the effects of grazing, but results from our first year of data indicate that medusahead does well in places with higher soil moisture, and with more grass cover. We also know from some experiments that cows can definitely move seeds around. The seeds attach to their fur, but don't stay on very long, and they probably drop most of them within the first 20 feet of picking them up,” said Spotswood.

Check out the video for details!

For more information visit:

 Dispersal Vectors and Risk Assessment of Noxious Weed Spread

Suding Lab

Initiated by Jerry Tecklin and Dr. Steve Beissinger in 2002, the Black Rail Project monitors the population dynamics and movements of two very secretive wetland birds, the Black Rail and the Virginia Rail. Over the past decade, researchers have examined a wide range of questions regarding these difficult-to-study birds including genetics, dispersal of young, West Nile Virus, territoriality, wetland type and vegetation preferences, and diet. Now in its thirteenth year, Nathan Van Schmidt is researching how the rails cope with drought, seasonal hydrology regimes, and the "rescue effect."

Check out the video for details!

Related Links:

California black rails depend on irrigation-fed wetlands in the Sierra Nevada foothills (California Agriculture, 2010)

Black Rail Metapopulation Dynamics