Posts Tagged: soil
Allie Igwe: The Road to Success
The road to success is paved with soil microbial communities. And education, curiosity,...
UC Davis doctoral student Alexandria “Allie” Igwe has received a $138,000 National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship to work on soil microbial communities and develop novel online tools to increase interest in ecology.
Jeffrey Mitchell holds outreach soil health presentations to Tulare County fourth-graders!
In what might be the sixth or seventh year in a row, Jeff Mitchell, Cooperative Extension systems specialist at Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center,UC Davis Plant Science department, and Conservation Agricultural Systems Innovation program participated in the annual AgVentures! educational event for several Tulare County public schools fourth-grader classes on May 11, 2018 at the International Ag Center. This is an annual event that is put on by the Tulare County School District in conjunction with the Tulare County Cooperative Extension and the International Ag Center and it typically involves several hundred students from the local schools. It turns out to be the classic ‘field trip' for kids and seems to be something that brings excitement and hopefully good learning to large numbers of students. A short video of some of the action can be seen at the You Tube site https://youtu.be/R4LDy4Ru9ws.
KARE supports a June 6, 2017 soil management training at West Side Research & Extension Center in Five Points.
A very diverse and large group of farmers, consultants, public agency, and private sector folks participated in a highly successful training session on the benefits of soil management for farming systems at the site of the long-term USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture National Research Initiative (NRI) Project field in Five Points on Tuesday, June 6th. The overflow crowd took in discussions by farmers Scott Park, Jesse Sanchez, Alan Sano, and Tom Willey; UC Davis researchers Randy Southard, Rad Schmidt, Howard Ferris, Sloane Rice; and KARE's own Jeff Mitchell. Attendees also participated in a number of demonstrations of soil function that were provided by NRCSers Sheryl Feit and Kabir Zahangir and were also able to view soil profiles of two of the tillage and cover crop systems that have been evaluated at the site for over 17 years with soil pit trainers, Phil Smith and Rafael Ortiz of NRCS and Randy Southard of UC Davis. The training event was organized to provide evidence and experiences related to the benefits that might be achieved through a dedication to reduced disturbance management and soil biology.
Take-home messages from the training event emphasized the fact that no-till has now been shown to be a successful seeding technique for a range of crops in California, that deliberate and sustained attention to sustaining soil biology through practices such as reduced disturbance, cover crops and compost amendment applications may have functional benefits to farming systems, and that there are great opportunities for expanding the application of such practices to good advantage particularly in Central Valley annual crop systems.
Handout informational materials were provided and may be requested by writing to Jeff Mitchell at jpmitchell@ucdavis.edu. Educational videos summarizing progress that has been made at the NRI Project site over the years are also available through CASI.
In addition, tour visits of the long-term site can be scheduled by contacting Mitchell at (559) 303-9689. Now is a particularly good time to visit the site as there are two no-till crops, garbanzos and sorghum, growing simultaneously throughout the entire study field.
KARE works with 300 Tulare County Fourth Graders at 2017 AgVentures Day!
KARE outreach and education leader, Laura Van Der Staay, along with UCD Cooperative Extension Cropping Systems Specialist, Jeff Mitchell, had their hands full with over 300 enthusiastic Tulare County 4th graders as part of the 2017 half-day AgVentures extravaganza that was held at the International Ag Center on May 12. This is the third time the two of them have taken part in this activity that is always a big hit with the kids, teachers and parents. Students learned about soil science and research that is underway at the KARE Center related to soil function and management and also had a chance to see up close and personal how soils can change if they are managed using conservation agriculture practices. While the day is always grueling, both Van Der Staay and Mitchell departed after a hearty hamburger lunch that was provided by the event organizers with the satisfaction of having hopefully expanded horizons and inspired a new generation of science-loving students.
Kearney researcher participates in STEM high school conference at Reedley College.
Long-time Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center researcher and budding motivational speaker, Jeff Mitchell, participated in the STEM Conference organized for local San Joaquin Valley high school students on Saturday, April 23, and thoroughly enjoyed the interactive, high-energy experience.
STEM refers to science, technology, engineering, and math programs and the day-long conference was an effort by the College to stimulate interest and preparedness in interested high school students to pursue educational programs and careers related to these disciplines. Mitchell was invited to share with students his work in agricultural systems research and soil health. He provided two hands-on sessions to a wide range of students from a number of regional schools including Laton, Hanford, Corcoran, Madera, Tranquility, Sierra, Selma, Reedley, and Parlier.
The highlight of the day, however, was the motivational and music extravaganza provided by special conference guests, Domino Saints, a bilingual urban pop duo from San Juan, Puerto Rico that includes David Leal, a young and very creative mechanical engineer with several nuclear fusion technology patents, and Gisele, “Gigi,” Ojeda. Students and presenters were wowed by the infectious music and inspirational message provided by Leal.