Agriculture

Part of my role as a University of California Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor is extending knowledge to my clientele and the public at large.

As a commercial sheep producer who is also the father of two daughters who have shown lambs at our local fair since they were nine years old, I'm sometimes conflicted about the value of showing livestock.

When it comes to watering walnuts, most California growers believe you need to start early to keep trees healthy and productive throughout the long, hot summer.

Where are you most likely to encounter a rheophilic insect? If you know the answer to that, you could have scored at the Linnaean Games competition at the recent meeting of the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America (PBESA). The answer: "In moving streams.

Researchers studying cover crops near almond orchards (Western Farm Press) Tim Hearden, Oct. 31 University of California Cooperative Extension researchers have started field trials to analyze the benefits and trade-off of planting cover crops near or within almond production systems.

(News Flash: Congratulations to the UC Berkeley-UC Davis team! They won the national championship at the ESA meeting held Nov. 11-14 in Vancouver, B.

UC Sierra Foothill REC is hosting a community workshop & field demonstration event where The Silver Lab at UC Berkeley will discuss results from a long-term (10 year) compost addition trial on foothill rangeland and observed benefits for forage quality, quantity, and soil health characteristics.

As some readers may know, I put out a quarterly newsletter (The New Foothill Rancher in Placer and Nevada Counties; The New Ranch Update in Sutter and Yuba Counties).

Technology holds tremendous promise for the California agricultural industry, however there are challenges that must be better understood and managed, wrote Damon Kitney in an article distributed to participants in an Oct. 2 technology conference in San Francisco.

UC ANR vice provost Mark Lagrimini visited the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, the Lindcove REC and the West Side REC in October as he continues to become familiarized with the diversity of resources in the Division.