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Conservation agriculture news
Strip-till Operation Thrives in Face of Heavy Regulation and High Costs
February 28, 2023
Strip-till Operation Thrives in Face of Heavy Regulation and High Costs
Tipton, CA dairyman and long-time CASI farmer member, Tom Barcellos, was featured in the Winter 2023 issue of Strip-till Farmer, a quarterly publication of the National No-till Farmer Association and Lessiter Publications. The article details Tom's 23-year history as a strip-till trailblazer right here in California's San Joaquin Valley and describes how he came to find how strip-tillage "made everything a lot easier" at his 2,000 cow dairy just east of Highway 99 in Tulare County. The Strip-till Farmer magazine article was written by Noah Newman when he came to California recently to interview Tom. A copy of the article is attached below.
Barcellos Strip-till 2023
Capture Strip-till Barcellos 2023 jpeg
Tom Willey presents CIG Project's reduced disturbance organic vegetable production project in You Tube video
August 21, 2022
Madera, CA long-time organic farmer and key farmer member of California's CIG reduced disturbance organic vegetable project, provided a recorded copy of the presentation that he gave at the 2022 Annual Conference of the Soil and Water Conservation Society in Denver, CO on August 2nd. The video can be viewed at the You Tube link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfiaJYuu1WU&t=6s
Tom's video presentation goes into the history of the CIG effort and summarizes challenges that the group has faced.
Capture Tom Willey SWCS
CIG's Willey and Foster conducting pressurized air injection study in peppers in Hollister, CA in 2022!
August 13, 2022
The national NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant Program CA organic reduced disturbance vegetable project has a new research component this year at the Hollister, CA farm of Phil Foster. Both he and CIG Project partner, Tom Willey, along with John Petrosso, of the Mazzei Company in Fresno, CA have set up an elaborate trial in one of Foster's 2022 bell pepper fields to test the potential of using pressurized air injection into drip irrigation water as a means of adding oxygen to the crop's root zone. One of the suspected challenges in increasingly reduced soil disturbance production systems is thought to be lack of oxygen and this method may be a means for overcoming this issue. On August 10th, the three of these study partners, along with Jeff Mitchell, met out in the pepper field to take stock of things and to make observations about crop growth and development in the four experimental treatments that Phil has established - reduced till (strip-tillage) without injected air, reduced till (strip-tillage) with air injection, spader-till without injected air, and spader-till with injected air. To date, drone images have not shown striking differences in growth. Phil's harvest is coming up soon and he intends to very carefully weigh each plot's productivity through his several hand harvests. Stay tuned for more conclusive information coming from this innovative approach to vegetable production.
Shown in photo: Left to right: John Petrosso, Phil Foster, and Tom Willey
Air Injection August 10, 2022 Phil Foster's Hollister, CA
CASI honored with SWCS 2022 Conservation Innovation Award - August 2, 2022
CASI honored with SWCS 2022 Conservation Innovation Award - August 2, 2022
August 4, 2022
California's Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation (CASI) Center was recognized as the recipient of the 2022 Conservation Innovation Award by the Soil and Water Conservation Society at their Annual Conference held in Denver, CO from July 31 through August 3rd 2022. Tom Willey, retired organic farmer in Madera, CA and long-time CASI member received the award on behalf of our entire group and also presented a summary of work currently being done by a group of California organic farmers on reduced disturbance systems. The 2022 Award recognizes many years of dedicated service that CASI members have provided in extending information and increasing the adoption of improved performance production systems in California since 1998 when the organization was founded. Tom also had the opportunity to meet USDA NRCS national Chief Tom Cosby at the Denver conference and he invited the Chief to meet with CA CIG Project organic farmers when he is coming to the state in September 2022.
Tom Willey receiving SWCS recognition in Denver CO 2022
Storyteller Douglas Gayeton visits Park Farming and Fully Belly Farm, May 20, 2022
May 30, 2022
The Lexicon of Sustainability's Gayeton visits Park Farming and Fully Belly Farm
Douglas Gayeyon, storyteller and creative force behind the Lexicon of Sustainability (https://www.thelexicon.org/) spent the better part of May 20, 2022 interviewing and photographing Scott and Brian Park of Park Farming in Meridian, CA and Paul Muller of Full Belly Farming in Guinda, CA as part of a book that he is working on that is going to be about regenerative agriculture. He had been trying to work with the Parks and Muller for quite some time due to the reputations they have for being progressive farmers who have been putting great efforts into further improving their already outstanding farming systems. The Parks, Muller and Andrew Brait at Full Belly are part of a broader group of California farmers who over the past three years have been exploring opportunities for reducing soil disturbance in their organic vegetable production practices. While at Park Farming, Gayeton photographed Park showing a variety of innovative equipment that he has created and acquired over the years, an organic carrot seed production field, a cover crop roller trial, and an elaborate demonstration field where the Parks are evaluating nine different types of reduced disturbance systems for tomato production. With Muller at Full Belly, he photographed Muller in one of his no-tillage fields and also captured images of Muller in an orchard where grazing sheep roam. Gayeton will return to capture additional photos of the Parks' equipment fabrication shop in the near future.
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