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LinkedInPosts Tagged: Matt Fidelibus
'Great Day' morning program features UC Kearney Ag REC
The popular morning television program "Great Day," which airs daily on KMPH Channel 26 in Fresno, featured the work of scientists at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in six live segments during the five-hour program this morning.
Reporter Clayton Clark and photographer Ryan Hudgins arrived at the Kearney greenhouse at 4:30 a.m. to interview the scientists helping California farmers feed the nation and world sustainably.
See clips of the interviews in the one-minute video below:
Segments included:
- An overview of research and extension activities at Kearney by director Jeff Dahlberg.
- UC blueberry and blackberry research that has made these commodities important crops in the San Joaquin Valley with Manuel Jimenez, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Tulare County.
- Beneficial insects, pests and invasive species that are part of research by Kent Daane, UCCE specialist in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy Management at UC Berkeley. Daane shared a handful of leaf-footed bugs with the reporter.
- How global information systems are changing the way farmers and researchers are looking at farmings systems with Kris Lynn-Patterson, coordinator of the GIS program at Kearney.
- Just like people, plants get sick. UC plant pathologist Themis Michailides explained research efforts to cure plant diseases.
- Uncommon wine varieties that might lead to new fine wines ideally suited to be produced in the Valley's warm climate, with Matt Fidelibus, UCCE specialist in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis.
- The very real threat of West Nile virus in mosquitoes in the valley, with medical entomologist Anton Cornel.
Farmers tell their stories with social media
Frustration at being the targets of technologically savvy environmental and animal rights groups has inspired farmers to get involved with social media communications outlets like Facebook and Twitter, according to an Associated Press article by Julianna Barbassa.
"There is so much negative publicity out there, and no one was getting our message out," Denair dairy farmer Ray Prock Jr. told Barbassa. Prock writes blog posts and tweets regularly on everything from emergency drills for handling manure spills to lactose intolerance. On his blog, Prock said he took up the pen because he is tired of having someone else tell his story.
Besides giving them a voice, farmers are finding that social media can help them build community and share valuable information. One source of information is the Facebook and Twitter pages developed by UC viticulture specialist Matt Fidelibus and UC Cooperative Extension viticulture advisor Steve Vasquez. Last week, for example, Fidelibus' Twitter followers learned that swarms of small flying insects in a Parlier vineyard resembled leaf hoppers but turned out to be false chinch bugs.The AP article said the duo started using social media as a way to get important information to grape growers quickly — if the risk of powdery mildew on grapevines was high for a particular region, farmers could react in time, for example. In fact, Fidelibus tweeted on July 1, "Parlier Grape Powdery Mildew RAI threshold on 07/01/10 is 70. For additional SJV locations visit http://ow.ly/2603J."
A tool like Facebook, Barbassa wrote, also allows farmers to share photos or video. They can post an image of something problematic and get advice from experts like Fidelibus or each other immediately.
A photo gallery on the San Joaquin Valley Viticulture Facebook page.
