SAVE THE DATE - THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013.  UC Ventura County Cooperative Extension's strawberry and vegetable advisor, Dr. Oleg Daugovish, will be hosting an irrigation field day in Oxnard.

The event will be located at Henry Ito's ranch where attendees will be able to view plots and see the experiments at work and hear guest expert speakers on a variety of irrigation related topics including regulations, methods and test results.

Refreshments will be included.

Date:  Thursday, June 6
Time:  9:00 am - 11:15 am
Where:  Henry Ito's ranch at 1835 Hueneme Rd. in Oxnard
Contact:  Dr. Oleg Daugovish, 805-645-1454 or odaugovish@ucdavis.edu

Two hours of VCALIG educational credits have been approved from the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

For an agenda and map, click here.

On October 1, 2012 Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced new grant allocations of $101 million to support specialty crops in America.  Believing that the diversity of American agriculture is one of the contributing factors to the healthy economic state of agriculture today, Vilsack feels that investing in specialty crops will stimulate growth and development and open up new markets of opportunity for farmers.

The $101 million in grant money will be apportioned to promote two areas:

• $55 million in specialty crop block grants to state that fund 748 initiatives to strengthen markets and expand economic opportunities for local and regional producers. 
• $46 million to support new and continuing research and extension activities to address challenges and opportunities for growers and businesses that rely on a sustainable, profitable specialty crops industry. 

Specialty crops include fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, floriculture and nursery crops.

The key research areas for funding are:

• Improving crop charactistics through plant breeding, genetics and genomics
• Addressing threats from pests and diseases
• Improving production efficiency, productivity and profitabilitiy
• Developing new innovations and technologies
• Developing methods to improve food safety

These grants reflect the continuing efforts by the USDA to stimulate agriculture and food based economic development.  UC Ventura County Cooperative Extension and statewide extension in turn provides the research, outreach and expertise to local and potential growers seeking specialty niches in agriculture.

Find out more about this grant program and read the USDA news release in its entirety here.

On October 17, 2012 UC Ventura County Cooperative Extension (UCCE) in conjunction with the UC Hansen Agricultural Center will be conducting a field day at the Hansen Agricultural Center in Santa Paula. 

Here attendees will be able to visit stations staffed by UCCE experts who will speak on a variety of topics of interest to growers and horticulturists.  The structure is informal and will allow for easy interchange between speakers and attendees.

Each station will feature informational talks on the following subjects:

• Effect of compost on long term disease control and fertility of soils in peppers
• Cultural management of Prime Ark 45 Blackberry
• Differential plant response of salts in summer strawberry
• Subtropical fruit collection
• Herbicide efficacy and safety in drip-irrigated celery
• Water quality and sensors
• Effect of pruning in landscape roses

Continous education credits from the Department of Pesticide Regulation and VCAILG credits have been requested.

The agenda with more details about the event can be found here.

For more information about the UC Hansen Agricultural Center, please click here.

UC Ventura Cooperative Extension advisor, Dr. Oleg Daugovish, hosted the 11th Annual Strawberry Production Meeting on August 31, 2012.  Approximately 100 members of the public attended this meeting held at the Freedom Center in Camarillo, California. 

The meeting focused on updating growers and interested members of the public on subjects relevant to producing strawberries in Ventura County and other areas.  The agenda included topics on:

• Strawberry cultivar performance and research updates
• Management of Macrophomina and Fusarium and treatments
• Irrigation practices for strawberries in Oxnard and Watsonville
• Water quality monitoring results for strawberry production fields in Ventura County
• Fertility research updates
• Management of mites, thrips, corn earworm and spotted wing Drosophila
• California Strawberry Commission update on research and regulatory issues pertaining to strawberry production

The production meeting included lunch and attendees could receive continous education credits from the Department of Pesticide Regulation. 

For a list of this and other strawberry meeting presentations online, please click here.