University of California, Davis Archives - Page 4 of 10

UC Davis Student Maureen Page Speaks for the Bees

Maureen Page to Spread Flowers for Bees

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

Maureen Page

California Ag Today recently spoke with doctoral student Maureen Page of the Neal William’s lab at UC Davis, Department of Entomology and Nematology. She is the recipient of a prestigious three-year fellowship for promoting food security by optimizing wildflower planting. She supports the wild and bee management. We asked her about the flowers that she plans on planting to help those bees.

“I do believe that in general, flowers are really important for bees. Planting flowers are generally good for them,” she said.

Although planting is good for the bees, there are some precautions that need to be made.

“Some flowers can be somewhat toxic to bees. Some do not actually provide bees with pollen and nectar resources,” Page said.

There are many ornamental plants that are bred to not have much pollen so that people do not sneeze as much.

“On top of that, if you are planting non-native species that are really weedy, it may be great for the bees, but might not be great for other plant species,” Page said.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:05:11-07:00June 21st, 2018|

UC Davis Pollination Ecologist Wins 3-Year Fellowship

Fellowship Comes From the Department of Defense

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

Maureen Page Awarded Fellowship to Optimize Wildflower Plantings

Doctoral student Maureen Page of the Neal Williams lab at the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology is the recipient of a prestigious three-year fellowship, a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship for her research proposal: Promoting Food Security by Optimizing Wildflower Plantings to Support Wild and Managed Bees.

Page, a pollination ecologists, was one of 69 awardees selected from more than 3,600 applicants. The Department of Defense funds her fellowship.

“Most people probably are aware that both managed honeybees and many of the wild native species that we have in California as well as in the U.S. have major stressors that are contributing to declines in their populations,” Page said.

And of course, the bee populations suffer when there’s a lack of floral resources to pollinate. “Especially when crops are not in bloom and bees need pollen and nectar to survive. And so without enough resources, it can have dramatic declines in bee populations,” she said.

Page explained that bees are critically important to our food supply. “It’s estimated that about a third of the food supply directly benefits from insect pollination. Many of those crops are entirely dependent on insect pollination,” she said. “Without bees and other insects, those particular crops wouldn’t even be able to set fruit and many others, which while not wholly dependent on insect pollination benefit very much from insect pollination, which means more production and lower prices so that more people can afford healthy, nutritious food.”

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:05:11-07:00May 25th, 2018|

New Study Reveals Economic Impact of California Citrus

Citrus Research Board Quantifies California Citrus Industry’s Importance

Edited by Patrick Cavanaugh

Despite Tulare Mayor Carlton Jones posting a series of anti-ag comments on Facebook, causing a stir in the local community, agriculture provides a huge economic stimulus to his community. In fact, without agriculture in Tulare, the city would most likely be in economic ruin.

Citrus is one crop that is grown in the county. And the total economic impact of the iconic California citrus industry is $7.117 billion according to a new study commissioned by the Citrus Research Board (CRB).

“In updating our economic analysis, we selected a well-known expert, Bruce Babcock, Ph.D., a professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of California, Riverside, to conduct the research. His findings quantified the significant impact of citrus on California’s economic well-being,” CRB President Gary Schulz said.

According to Babcock, the California citrus industry added $1.695 billion to the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016.

“California citrus is a major contributor to the economic value of the state’s agricultural sector and is much larger than just the value of its sales,” he said. “Estimated full-time equivalent California citrus jobs totaled 21,674 in 2016-17, and estimated wages paid by the industry during that same time frame totaled $452 million.”

Babcock added, “The application of management skills and capital equipment to efficiently utilize land and water to produce high-quality citrus also generates upstream and downstream jobs and income that magnify the importance of citrus production beyond its farm value.”

In 2016-17, the most recent marketing year of data compilation, Babcock found that the total direct value of California citrus production was $3.389 billion. This value generated an additional $1.263 billion in economic activity from related businesses that supplied materials and services to the citrus industry. Layered on top was another $2.464 billion in economic activity generated by household spending income that they received from California’s industry, according to Babcock, thus rendering a total economic impact of $7.117 billion.

The study revealed that 79 percent of California’s citrus was packed for the fresh market and 21 percent was processed in 2016-17, which is economically significant because fresh market fruit has a higher value than processed fruit.

Of further note, California produced about 95 percent of all U.S. mandarins in the most recent reporting season.

California Citrus Mutual President Joel Nelsen said, “The ‘wow’ factor in this report is something, as it relates to gross revenues and positive impact for the state, people and local communities. This enthusiasm must be tempered by the fact that huanglongbing (HLB) can destroy all this in a matter of a year if the partnerships that exist between the industry and government cannot thwart the spread of this insidious disease. Just this week, coincidentally, Brazil authorities reported a 20% reduction in fruit volume. Reading how that would affect our family farmers, employees and the state is sobering.”

The CRB study also looked at the possible impact of a potential 20 percent reduction in California citrus acreage or yield or a combination of the two that could result from increased costs associated with meeting government regulations, combatting the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) and warding off the invasion of HLB, a devastating disease that has decimated citrus production in many other growing regions such as Florida. Babcock calculated that such a reduction could cause a loss of 7,350 jobs and $127 million in associated employment income and could reduce California’s GDP by $501 million in direct, indirect and induced impacts. The CRB currently is devoting most of its resources to battling ACP and HLB to help ensure the sustainability of California citrus.

Babcock is a Fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association and has won numerous awards for his applied policy research. The economist received his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Masters and Bachelors degrees from the University of California, Davis.

The CRB administers the California Citrus Research Program, the grower-funded and grower-directed program established in 1968 under the California Marketing Act as the mechanism enabling the State’s citrus producers to sponsor and support needed research. More information about the Citrus Research Board and the full report on the “Economic Impact of California’s Citrus Industry” may be found at www.citrusresearch.org.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:05:12-07:00May 21st, 2018|

UC Davis Tea Initiative Will Include Research and Teaching

Tea Initiative is First of Its Kind

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

Katharine Burnett is a professor of Chinese Art History and Asian Art History at UC Davis. She spoke with California Ag Today recently about the Global Tea Initiative; a group focused on the culture and science of Tea through research outreach and teaching.

Katharine Burnett Will Head Up Tea Initiative

“The role of the Institute will be to tell the story of tea and all its dimensions, it will be to encourage research and to encourage interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research along with teaching,” she said.

The Global Tea Initiative wants to develop a curriculum for undergrads and grads. They plan on developing international partnerships as a research institution.

“We want to be the … institution that can help the researcher, scholar, industry member, and community member to be able to access evidence-based knowledge about tea and to help the consumer and industry better understand what it is and what it can do for us,” Burnett said.

The Global Tea Initiative is the first of its kind.

“Other institutions study their national product or their local product either from the perspective of science or from culture, but they don’t bring science and culture together and they do not study from a global perspective,” Burnett explained.

California does not have very much tea production. UC Davis hopes to be a neutral site that can be trusted by the industry, farmers, and scholars.

California Ag Today2018-05-02T16:35:52-07:00May 2nd, 2018|

Tea Initiative Becoming Reality At UC Davis

Katharine Burnett Pursuing All Things Tea at UC Davis

By Laurie Greene, Founding Editor

Katharine Burnett wears many academic hats at UC Davis: associate professor and co-chair of the Department of Art and Art History; director, East Asian Studies Program; and founding faculty director, Global Tea Initiative for the Study of Tea Culture and Science. In this last endeavor, Burnett is spearheading UC Davis’s global, intellectual and cultural exploration of tea, including hosting its annual tea symposium and researching the possibility of growing tea here in California.

“We started in 2012 as an idea and a research cluster called ‘All Things Tea,’ ” Burnett said. “After a couple years of working and pushing forward with support from the community, we broached the topic of an initiative to the Ralph Hexter, UC Davis provost and executive vice chancellor. The Provost gave us his blessing and said, ‘Make it blossom.’”

“And, so our initiative was born,” Burnett explained. “The recent 2018 Global Tea Initiative Symposium, the program’s third symposium, commemorates our third year of being an initiative. We are gradually transitioning from an initiative into an actual institute.”

Burnett foresees the institute’s role as, “to tell the story of tea and all its dimensions. It will encourage tea research in any discipline, any field, any approach, including both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and teaching. We want to develop a curriculum for our undergraduates and graduate students and also develop international partnerships so that we can conduct faculty and student exchanges.”

To hear Katharine Burnett tell the story of the Tea Initiative at UC Davis click here: goo.gl/bf7svf

California Ag Today2018-04-18T17:03:35-07:00April 18th, 2018|

Anna Gomes on Consumer Outreach

Tips on How to Speak to Consumers

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

Anna Gomes is a senior at UC Davis studying Agricultural and Environmental Education, with a focus on plant and soil science. She spoke recently to California Ag Today about consumer outreach to the next generation regarding agriculture at the recent Bayer Crop Science Agvocate Forum. She also explained the plan to open up an Ugly Food Market in Sacramento.

Gomes said her background in agricultural education prepared her for consumer outreach.

“I had a really unique journey through my undergrad career. So as an Ag Education major, not only have I been focusing on communication, but a lot of it’s been focused on, “How do we take this hard science and actually convert it into something that’s understandable from a consumer’s point of view and their perspective?’ ” she said.

Gomes said agvocacy is something that she is working on.

“I’m really interested in the science and research behind moving agriculture forward, and I think there’s huge potential there, but how do we educate consumers about this research and about what’s going on to really make it impactful and make it actually practical in the ag industry?

“I think you can really start from their perspectives. What makes them interested in agriculture, and how are they connecting to it? Is it merely that they consumed food every single day?” Gomes said. “OK, start with that. What do you eat? Where does it come from? What do you know about it? It’s good to start with them and get to know them, instead of starting with you and getting to know them.”

The Ugly Food Market is something that Gome started at UC Davis, which aims to reduce food waste and eliminate food insecurity,

“It’s a startup through the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. We’ve been participating in entrepreneurial competition. We’ve pitched for seed funds, so wish us luck,” noted Gomes. “We want to start a physical marketplace in Sacramento, focused around food waste and food insecurity. We’re using shrinks from grocery stores, cull fruit from the farm, wholesalers and distributors, all in between the food chain.”

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:05:12-07:00March 30th, 2018|

Grain Diseases Must Be Closely Monitored

Diseases are Always Evolving

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

Mark Lundy is a UC Cooperative Extension Specialist in grain cropping systems at UC Davis. Lundy runs trials on grain crops because California is such a diverse environment and there are different conditions from year to year so it’s important to be consistent in measuring yield and crop quality, grain diseases, and agronomic traits on small grains.

Lundy’s work is predominantly on California wheat, but there are many trials on barley.

“Improved varieties have been the mainstay of my work,” Lundy said. “I came at it from a water and nitrogen management background, and one of our goals is trying to disentangle the environment that you can’t control from the environment that you can control. But this is the second year where we have some of those gradients in there so we are trying to maintain the attributes we have, while also trying to add some value.”

And diseases have been closely monitored within the trial system, noted Lundy.

“We do try to keep track of disease, and so when there are diseases of concern such as stripe rust, which was historically a big problem for growers, it has been successfully addressed through breeding,” he said.

The breeding is spearheaded by Jorge Dubcovsky, a professor at UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences working on wheat genes.

“Stripe rust is still something we have to keep an eye on, and it’s certainly a disease that is always evolving,” Lundy said. “And because resistance is not permanent, we’re always looking for the big diseases that can be detrimental to the production system, such as stripe rust.”

“We also keeping track of leaf rust,” Lundy said. “I’m not a pathologist by training, so I’ve been learning on the job, and I’m grateful to the former UC Cooperative Extension Specialist Lee Jackson, who was a pathologist. He created a nice knowledge base for us to build on.”

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:05:13-07:00February 27th, 2018|

World Ag Expo is Feb 13-15

UC Davis Engineers, Economists, Advisors gather at World Ag Expo

By Diane Nelson, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences dean’s office

UC Davis specialists in everything from grapes to livestock to irrigation management will join staff and students at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, February 13-15, to chat with farmers, prospective students, alumni and leaders throughout the agricultural industry.

More than 100,000 people are expected to attend the 51st annual event, where 1,500 exhibitors display cutting-edge agricultural technology and equipment over a massive 2.6 million square feet of show grounds.

“We’re thrilled to be taking part in this incredible agricultural exhibition and reconnecting with alumni from the Central Valley and beyond,” said Sue Ebeler, an associate dean for the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and professor of viticulture and enology. “Faculty will be in town and available to discuss current agricultural research and our Aggie Ambassadors can answer questions about our majors and campus life.”

The UC Davis team will be located in the World Ag Women’s Pavilion. In addition to Professor Ebeler, dean of undergraduate academic programs for the college, seven faculty experts will attend portions of the three-day event. They include:

Rachel Goodhue, professor and chair of the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics,
Deanne Meyer, Cooperative Extension specialist in livestock waste management,
Samuel Sandoval Solis, associate Cooperative Extension specialist in water management,
Ali Pourreza, assistant Cooperative Extension specialist in agricultural mechanization and precision agriculture,
Matt Fidelibus, Cooperative Extension specialist in grape production
Anna Denicol, assistant professor and veterinarian who specializes in reproductive biology, and
Jeff Mitchell, Cooperative Extension specialist in conservation agriculture.

UC Davis is ranked number 1 in the nation for agriculture, plant sciences, animal science and agricultural economics. The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences enrolled more than 2,000 new students in the fall of 2017, many of them from California’s Central Valley. The college offers 29 majors—everything from agriculture to nutrition to global disease biology.

“Prospective students can learn about all our majors and the career paths they provide,” Ebeler said. “At the World Ag Expo, we get to meet with agricultural leaders from around the world, as well as so many passionate young people who will become tomorrow’s leaders.”

Media contacts:

Diane Nelson, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences dean’s office, 530-752-1969, denelson@ucdavis.edu

Sue Ebeler, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences dean’s office, 530-752-7150, seebeler@ucdavis.edu

California Ag Today2018-02-07T17:42:01-08:00February 7th, 2018|

Grain Crop Variety Trials Important

Grain Crop Variety Trials Ongoing in California

By Brianne Boyett, Associate Editor

Grain crop variety trials are taking place around the state in hopes of measuring productivity among a diverse range of environments. California Ag Today spoke with Mark Lundy, UC Cooperative Extension Specialist for grain cropping systems at UC Davis, about the topic.

“We’ve been doing statewide variety trials as an institution for decades, almost a century. The goal is to be consistent, as California is such a diverse environment and because there are different conditions from year to year,” Lundy said.

“We are conducting trials that we measure yield and crop quality, disease reactions, agronomic traits on small grains—which are predominantly wheat in California, but we also do trials on barley,” Lundy explained.

The goal is for producers to be able to utilize this data and apply it in their own management systems.

“We want to take that data and put it into a format that growers can use to make decisions about what to plant. Also, we want to make it so the breeders can use it to make decisions on what to advance in, what lines to make available for growers,” Lundy said.

These trials are widespread and take place in a variety of locations.

“We have trials as far north as Tule Lake in the intermountain region, as far south as the Imperial Valley. Trials are conducted on a combination of grower fields and also at research and extension centers where we can have better control over the variables. We want to get a little better understanding of not just the location and its inherent characteristics, but the management in terms of how much water or nitrogen it may need,” Lundy explained

For More information on Mark Lundy:

http://www.caes.ucdavis.edu/about/directory/fsd/mark-lundy

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:05:14-07:00January 31st, 2018|

Survey Coming To Gauge Nitrogen Fertilizer Use

Understanding How Growers Are Using Nitrogen Fertilizers

By Brianne Boyett, Associate Editor

Nitrogen fertilizer applications are an important topic for growers. They’re expensive, and farmers only want to give crops what they need. UC Davis researchers want to know more about how growers are using nitrogen, and they’re sending out a survey to growers throughout the state at the end of January.

Jessica Rudnick is a third year Ph.D. student in the Graduate Group of Ecology at the UC Davis Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior, and she is overseeing the survey.

“UC Davis is sending out a survey to about 8,000 growers in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley [areas]. We’re asking about perspectives and attitudes on nitrogen management. This is really to understand what the education and outreach resources that are available around nitrogen, how people are understanding the new policies that are coming down the pipeline and how we can optimize both the extension and outreach around nitrogen,” Rudnick said.

“They’re looking for ways to optimize infield use of nitrogen, which is increased efficient production and protection and stewardship of the land and water resources,” Rudnick explained.

Of course, all this stems from new nitrogen regulations and the nitrogen budgets that growers are forced to put together. UC Davis wants to find out how growers feel about all this.

“ I frequently hear from growers that nitrogen regulations are a lot of paperwork. They’re taxing for their valuable time. I know that there’s file cabinets full of paperwork for various pesticides, nitrogen and farm employee information. The list goes on, and from a regulatory burden perspective, it’s another piece of paper that everyone hates filling out.

“However, we are trying to tighten up our systems so that we’re spending resources in the most efficient way, and that we’re producing food efficiently, saving money where we can, cutting costs and not overly applying fertilizer,” Rudnick said.

These surveys will be arriving in the growers’ mailboxes later this month. Please take the time to fill it out and send it back. It’s all self-stamped for growers so that these researchers can find out just how growers are using these regulations.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:05:14-07:00January 22nd, 2018|