Posts Tagged: Siskiyou County
UCCE’s Post-Fire Resilience Workshops: Nurturing community growth post-wildfire
In Spring of 2022, UC ANR launched its first Post-Fire Resilience Workshop. Since 2022, the...
Siskiyou County Hi 4-H helps animal owners prepare for fire season
Siskiyou County is one of California's most rural counties. Forest fires and other natural...
Dan Drake retires after 35 years as UCCE advisor for Siskiyou County
“Dan is the epitome of a farm advisor,” said Jack Cowley, president of the California Beef Cattle Improvement Association. “He advised us on all kinds of issues.”
Cowley has worked with Drake for nearly 30 years. After 29 years of practice as an ophthalmologist in Sacramento, Cowley pursued his dream of becoming a cattle rancher and has consulted Drake on many occasions.
“He helped us with animal health records, organizing breeding, animal nutrition and water issues,” said Cowley. “He helped everybody with farm issues and never turned us down.”
Back in the 1980s, before computers were in every home, Drake co-authored a UC Cooperative Extension publication on how to use computers.
“He was a computer wiz,” Cowley said. “Most of us older farmers and ranchers didn't know much about computers so he helped us navigate computer issues.”
Drake earned a bachelor's degree in zoology at California State University, Long Beach, in 1974 and a master's in animal science at UC Davis in 1977 before starting his career with UC Cooperative Extension in 1978. He later earned a Ph.D. in animal science from Oregon State University in 1988.
Early in his career, Drake helped introduce to Siskiyou County no-till planting methods, intensive grazing management and triticale forage systems. He identified a new rangeland plant, Monte Frio rose clover, an annual clover suited for cold, mountainous areas such as Siskiyou County.
White muscle disease, a disease cattle get from insufficient selenium in their diet, was well known but he further defined its implications on growth and championed alternative and multiple selenium supplementation methods. He also began testing animal and plant tissue and soil at ranches to identify where adding selenium might pose environmental problems.
“When he started, I was 17 and a 4-H exhibitor at the fair,” said Cliff Munson, now CEO of the Siskiyou Golden Fair.
“He led efforts that improved beef production,” said Munson, who is also president of the Siskiyou County Cattlemen's Association. “Carcass data continues to get better and better. For example, he was instrumental to moving the fair to ultrasound data.”
With Jim Oltjen, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis, Drake developed procedures for using ultrasound in youth beef carcass contests. The practice is used statewide nowadays. Using an ultrasound device, like those used on pregnant women to view unborn babies, Drake showed ranchers and 4-H youth how to evaluate the quality of meat on a live animal. They can determine the size of the ribeye, fat thickness and marbling.
4-H members dramatically improved their results using ultrasound data. In 2010, 93 percent of the 45 carcasses entered by 4-H members in the Siskiyou Golden Fair were graded Choice minus or better, compared to 36 percent to 68 percent in previous years.
“This aspect is very important as it is part of the transition that has occurred with producers from raising cattle to raising beef,” Drake said. “It ties in with all of the special niche markets as well.”
For further refinement in breeding beef cattle, Drake studied DNA with Alison Van Eenennaam, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis, testing national DNA prediction equations in local commercial beef ranches.
“In the last few years, he's helped us understand genetics of the animals,” said Cowley. “We can select our animals to improve the production and quality of the product so that it's healthier for humans.”
Cowley explained, “My medical background helped me understand animal genetics. We can modify the genetics to improve the quality of the beef to make it more heart healthy.”
Throughout his career, Drake wrote a monthly newsletter called the Siskiyou Stockman to keep ranchers apprised of the latest research. He served as co-editor of the UC beef publication “Fundamentals of Beef Management.”
Recently Drake and Van Eenennaam finished on a three-year project studying the parentage and animal genetics of Cowley's and two other Siskiyou County ranch animals. With the data, they will evaluate DNA prediction equations and hope to develop economic models to identify which animals are likely to be worth more money based on their genetics.
The American Society of Animal Science honored Drake with their Western Section Extension award in 2007. UC Cooperative Extension recognized his teaching accomplishments with a Distinguished Service Award.
Drake has also volunteered to help producers in other countries. He visited cattle producers in Kazakhstan three times, showing them how to keep records on a computer and update their artificial insemination practices. In Mali, he advised a women's cooperative on accounting and other business practices.
“They used animals as a bank account. When they needed funds they would sell the animals,” Drake said. He advised the women to sell their sheep and goats when they were ready for harvest and to invest their resources in raising another animal for optimal economic return and better use of their scarce natural resources.
In retirement, Drake looks forward to doing more international consulting. “I have particularly enjoyed international volunteer work for animal producers and will do more,” he said.
He also intends to spend time playing baseball (hardball not softball), dog training, duck hunting and traveling for pleasure.
New CE Forest Advisor in Northern California
Ryan DeSantis is the new University of California Cooperative Extension Forestry and Natural Resources Advisor for Shasta, Trinity, and Siskiyou Counties. Ryan will be responsible for conducting an extension, education and research program that resolves needs and problems in the fields of forest management and ecology.
Ryan grew up in rural New Hampshire, where he fell in love with hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, skiing, mountain biking, and spending time in the woods of New Hampshire and Maine in general. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Forest Science from the University of New Hampshire and then he spent two years working with a National Park in Bulgaria as an ecological volunteer for the U.S. Peace Corps. When he returned to the U.S., Ryan moved to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where he attended Michigan Technological University and earned his Master’s degree in Applied Ecology. Ryan’s Master’s thesis work involved the post-harvest effects of prescribed fire and mechanical treatment on jack pine forest biodiversity and fuel load. Following graduate school, Ryan worked in a fire ecology laboratory at the University of Massachusetts and on fire crews at Cape Cod National Seashore (Massachusetts) and Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming). After leaving the Tetons, Ryan went back to graduate school and earned his Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University in Natural Resource Ecology and Management with a concentration in forest resources. The goal of Ryan’s Ph.D. dissertation work was to advance the understanding of fire and drought as disturbance forces that determine the species composition and structure of upland oak forests in Oklahoma. Following his Ph.D., Ryan worked as a postdoctoral research associate for the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Forest Futures Project, where he determined the economic and ecological impacts of forest threats to Midwest and Northeast U.S. forests.
Ryan is excited to have the opportunity to work with oak and conifer ecosystems and fire, and to once again be surrounded by mountains and forests. He is also excited to explore the trails of rural Trinity, Siskiyou and Shasta Countie, try hunting black-tailed deer, and fishing on the Sac and Trinity Rivers for the first time.
Ryan is stationed at the University of California Cooperative Extension office in Redding but he expects to spend plenty of time working in Trinity and Siskiyou Counties. His contact information is:
Ryan DeSantis, UC Cooperative Extension
1851 Hartnell Avenue
Redding, CA 96002-2217
530-224-4900
rdesantis@ucanr.edu