Blogs: Agriculture and Natural Resource

Mark Bolda's Berry Blog

Paper: Evaluating the Utility of an Electrostatic Sprayer and a Tractor Mounted Vacuum for Lygus Management in Strawberry
Posted 8/8/2018 - Former UCCE Entomology Advisor Shimat Joseph and I just had the linked paper below published in Crop Protection. Excellent overview of the lygus problem in California strawberries and evaluation of a combination of bug-vac use and the insecticide...

Armyworms on the March
Posted 7/31/2018 - Interesting farm call this morning. A strawberry grower near Watsonville reported a large group of worms (caterpillars) migrating north out of the mixed cover crop including barley and mustard. These worms were identified by our new...

Perishable Commodities Act Meeting August 2
Posted 7/25/2018 - UC Cooperative Extension is hosting a Perishable Commodities Act meeting at its office on 1430 Freedom Blvd, Ste E in Watsonville on August 2. See flyer posted below for details.  

Crossing the River While Feeling the Rocks
Posted 7/21/2018 - I don't write too much about it in this space because it tends more in the area of "shop talk" for us in extension, but a great interest of mine is how one successfully executes a program of extension. One of the temptations for the new extensionist is...

Bingo.
Posted 7/17/2018 - We found them.  Referring back to the previous post, as our readers know we've been looking for spotted wing drosophila pupae under fruit in raspberries, and now on the second read have confirmed that they are indeed pupating within a centimeter of...

Livestock and Range Update Blogs

Stockpond Diversions
I have been getting some calls recently regarding SB 88, the legislation related to reporting stock pond diversions. UCCE advisors Julie Finzel, Theresa Becchetti and Scott Oneto put together a great summary on Water Board requirements and how to...

Sheep and Goat Workshop: September 27 in Royal Oaks

Ground Squirrel Workshop: September 11 in San Jose
Join the Santa Clara County Division of Agriculture & UCCE Santa Clara County for a Ground Squirrel and Gopher Management Workshop. Click here to register. 

2018 Forage Production Results for San Benito, Monterey, and Santa Cruz Counties
In 2018 I clipped and weighed forage production (grasses and forbs) from four ranches in San Benito County, two ranches in Monterey County, and four ranches in Santa Cruz County. The goal is to do this during peak forage production, which is when the...

Summer is pinkeye season
(this article is adapted from an article by the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and is based on the work of John Angelos, DVM, PhD; Dr. Angelos provided additional editing) Pinkeye—or infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis—is...

Salinas Valley Agriculture

National Honey Bee Day 2018: Brush up on your knowledge of bee protection
Posted 8/16/2018 - Celebrate National Honey Bee Day by brushing up on your knowledge of bee protection—check out the newly revised Best Management Practices to Protect Bees from Pesticides and Bee Precaution Pesticide Ratings from UC IPM. These resources will...

Got "red" aphids?
Posted 8/3/2018 - Since last week, I have been receiving samples with “red” aphids to get the identification. It turned out that this time, most of these ‘reddish' aphids were identified as the lettuce aphid, Nasonovia ribis-nigri (Fig. 1). To me, they...

Bagrada bug update
Posted 6/25/2018 - We have been scouting for Bagrada bug on wild host plants at two sites in the San Ardo area since middle of May. We selected San Ardo as our most southern scouting point for the Salinas Valley. Every other week, we have performed plant visual counts and...

Dress right for work – check out the new UC IPM online course on personal protective equipment
Posted 6/1/2018 - Spring is in full swing and summer is right around the corner. If you work in agricultural, turf, landscape, or structural settings, you are probably at your busiest. If you handle pesticides as part of your work, you most likely wear some sort of...

Scouting for bagrada bug and an update on a biological control project for this pest
Posted 5/10/2018 - With warming weather come contemplations of bagrada bug. This is the time in the past when we start to find bagrada bug populations on flourishing shortpod mustard plants or patches of pepperweed in the Salinas Valley. We thought this would be a good...

Small Farm News

Exploring Bay Area Wholesale Market Options
Posted 6/26/2017 - On June 13, the Small Farm Program partnered with UCCE Small Farm Advisor Margaret Lloyd to conduct a tour of wholesale produce markets for Sacramento region farmers. During the bus ride from Woodland to San Francisco, I described the packaging and...

Ag labor management seminars offer keys to success in times of labor uncertainty
Posted 1/17/2017 - UC Cooperative Extension will hold workshops in Temecula Feb. 1 and 2 to help California agricultural employers facing many challenges including labor shortages, wage & hour laws, joint liability, worker safety, workers comp insurance, and...

USDA Announces Streamlined Guaranteed Loans and Additional Lender Category for Small-Scale Operators
Posted 11/17/2016 - USDA recently announced the availability of a streamlined version of USDA guaranteed loans, which are tailored for smaller scale farms and urban producers. The program, called EZ Guarantee Loans, uses a simplified application process to help beginning,...

Economic Impact of Local Food Marketing in the Sacramento Region
Posted 7/14/2016 - Consumers often say that they buy locally produced foods because they want to support their local economy. Our newly released report confirms that buying locally produced foods does support the local economy. Our University of California Cooperative...

UC Small Farm Advisor works with grower to push the "Horticultural Envelope"
Posted 11/10/2015 - This article by Matt Kettman was published in the Santa Barbara Independent on October 6, 2015.  UC Small Farm Advisor, Mark Gaskell, has been providing technical assistance to small-scale growers in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties for...

Bug Squad

Hear that Buzz? Saturday is National Honey Bee Day!
Posted 8/17/2018 - Hear that buzz? Tomorrow (Saturday, Aug. 18) is National Honey Bee Day. A small group of beekeepers originated the observance back in 2009 to spotlight bees and beekeeping. They petitioned and obtained a proclamation from the U.S. Department of...

Noah Crockette: From an 11-Year-Old Bohart Intern to an 18-Year-Old Entomology Student at Cornell
Posted 8/16/2018 - “Go as far as you can [young scientists]. The world needs you badly.”—E.O Wilson. That sign greets visitors to the Bohart Museum of Entomology, University of California, Davis, and that's exactly what Noah Crockette, 18, an intern...

What's Not to Love About 'Boys' Night Out'?
Posted 8/15/2018 - We look forward to "The Boys' Night Out." Ah, pillow fights, popcorn, and marathon movies on TV, you ask? No. "Boys' Night Out" is when the longhorned male bees in our pollinator garden in Vacaville engage in sleepovers on our Mexican sunflowers...

Can You Bear It? Plush Water Bears Are All the Rage at the Bohart Museum of Entomology
Posted 8/14/2018 - Move over, teddy bears! There's a new bear in town. Stuiffed toy animals resembling tardigrades, aka "water bears," are all the rage at the Bohart Museum of Entomology's year-around gift shop at the University of California, Davis. The bright blue...

Meet the 'Extreme Insects' Aug. 19 at Bohart Museum of Entomology Open House
Posted 8/13/2018 - Talk about extremes! Have you ever thought about how some insects have adapted to fire, ice, acid, hot water, salt and the desert? Have you ever seen an ambrosia beetle, a red turpentine beetle, an ice cricket, a brine fly or a sand wasp? You will if...

Food Blog

Why 'AA' is for Avocado Addict
Posted 8/15/2018 - If you're like most of us, you “go bananas” for a banana for breakfast. It's healthy, nutritious and packed with potassium. But wait! You should probably go bananas for another fruit--that pear-shaped avocado. Did you know the avocado...

Fresno’s Southeast Asian farmers are on trend with new ‘superfood’
Posted 7/9/2018 - Farmer Vang Thao has been managing a successful farm south of Fresno for nearly 30 years, producing a spectacular array of vegetables – heirloom tomatoes, purple bell peppers, water spinach, bitter melon, Thai eggplant and dozens of others. Every...

School food: Supporting healthy kids and local food systems
Posted 6/25/2018 - School food service is a multibillion dollar industry that impacts the lives of over 30 million (mostly) low-income students. Every school day and, with increasing frequency, during summer weekdays as well, this industry provides two-thirds of students'...

Growers get labor-saving ideas at UC Grape Day
Posted 6/19/2018 - Will machines replace the romance of the hand-cultivated wine grape vineyard? A “touchless” vineyard was among the latest research on labor shortages, weeds and pest management by UC Cooperative Extension scientists discussed at Grape Day...

UC Master Food Preserver volunteers in tribal communities
Posted 6/5/2018 - Throughout Humboldt and Del Norte counties, the UC Master Food Preserver Program is actively engaging with tribal members. In fact, the UC Master Food Preserver volunteers have been “jamming it up” since 2017 with over 15 workshops for tribal...

Blog de Alimentos

Los granjeros del sureste asiático del área de Fresno cultivan un “súper alimento”
Posted 7/9/2018 - In English Durante treinta años, el granjero Vang Thao ha admministrado exitosamente una granja localizada al sur de Fresno, en la que produce una gama espectacular de verduras – tomates heirloom, pimientos púrpura, espinacas de agua...

Alimentación escolar: respaldando la salud de los niños y el sistema alimentario local
Posted 6/25/2018 - In English El servicio de alimentos escolares representa una industria multimillonaria que tiene un impacto en las vidas de más de 30 millones de estudiantes (en su mayoría) de bajos recursos. Esta industria provee dos terceras partes de...

Productores obtienen ideas para ahorrar en mano de obra durante el Día de la Uva en UC
Posted 6/19/2018 - In English ¿Reemplazarán algún día las máquinas el romántico cultivo a mano de uvas para vino? Un viñedo “sin contacto” es parte de la investigación más reciente sobre escasez de...

Voluntarios del Programa Maestro para Conservar Alimentos de UC trabajan con comunidades tribales
Posted 6/5/2018 - In English El Programa Maestro para Conservar Alimentos de UC mantiene una participación activa con las comunidades tribales de los condados de Humboldt y Del Norte. De hecho, los voluntarios de este programa han estado preparando mermelada...

Los puestos de fresas venden bayas frescas y directamente del campo
Posted 5/30/2018 - In English Las babosas, caracoles, hormigas, afidios y ácaros arañas y un clima inclemente conspiran en contra de los productores de fresas que desean cosechar las frutas perfectas para su venta. .  “El cultivo es un trabajo...

Forest Research and Outreach

Lichen Is Losing to Wildfire, Years After Flames Are Gone
Posted 8/10/2018 - Wildfire Is Reshaping Forests and Lichen Communities Reposted from UC Davis News Lichen on a Napa County oak tree. (Jesse Miller/UC Davis)  Quick Summary Lichen mostly unaffected...

The California fires situation is concerning, but not hopeless
Posted 8/9/2018 - Reprinted from UCANR News The news that Americans are getting about California's devasting fires is not being hyped up by the media, said UC Cooperative Extension area fire advisor Lenya Quinn-Davidson on the nationally...

Cities in California inland areas must make street tree changes to adapt to future climate
Posted 8/6/2018 - Many common street trees now growing in the interior of California are unlikely to persist in the warmer climate expected in 2099, according to research published in the July 2018 issue of the journal Urban Forestry & Urban...

Republicans and Democrats agree on climate change — they just don't realize it
Posted 7/22/2018 - Reposted from the University of California newsroom Just how far apart are Republicans and Democrats when it comes to views on climate change? Not all that far, as it turns out. They're just too party-focused to notice.  Left to right, David...

Q&A: Gilless reflects on CNR
Posted 7/5/2018 - Reposted from UCANR News After 11 years leading the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley, Dean J. Keith Gilless stepped down from his post in June. As dean, Gilless has been dedicated to supporting CNR's diverse research, teaching and...

Oak Conservation

Proceedings Available - 7th California Oak Symposium: Managing Oak Woodlands in a Dynamic World
Posted 12/10/2015 - Overview: Beginning in 1979, there have been a series of symposia held every 5 to 7 years addressing the state of our knowledge about science, policy and management factors affecting California's oak resource. This program, held November 3-6, 2014 in...

Irrigating Oaks in the Drought
Posted 7/15/2015 - To water or not to water….an oak. That's the question. If only Shakespeare could answer our questions as eloquently as in his plays. In a state where the motto has become “brown is the new green” as people allow irrigated lawns to...

Call for Papers: 7th California Oak Symposium - Nov. 3-6, 2014 - Visalia, CA California
Posted 2/14/2014 - The 7th California Oak Symposium: Managing Oak Woodlands in a Dynamic California, will be held November 3-6, 2014 in Visalia, California. Complete details on the Symposium can be viewed on the website.  We are requesting abstracts for oral...

7th California Oak Symposium: Nov. 3-6, 2014 - Visalia, CA
Posted 1/8/2014 - General Overview Beginning in 1979, there have been a series of symposia held every 5 to 7 years addressing the state of our knowledge about science, policy and management factors affecting California’s oak resource. This upcoming program...

Oaks in the Urban Landscape - October 10
Posted 9/16/2013 -   Oaks in the Urban Landscape: Selection, Care, and Preservation is the most current and comprehensive handbook available for the management of oak trees. Join authors Larry Costello, Bruce Hagen and Katherine Jones, along with UC...