California Agriculture News Archives - Page 123 of 175

VEGETABLE CROPS RESEARCH EVENT

UCCE Vegetable Crops Research Update Feb. 14

UC Cooperative Extensionwill host the Vegetable Crops Research Update on Friday February 14, 2014, from 8:30 am through 11:45 am at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center, 17353 W. Oakland Avenue, Five Points, CA 93624

The Update will cover irrigation and salinity in processing tomatoes, herbicide carryover studies, the bagrada bug, nematode control, beet curly top virus program developments, and curly top virus biology and management.

Department of Pesticide Regulations and Certified Crop Adviser continuing education hours have been requested.

For more information call: Tom Turini (559) 375-3147

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:41:12-07:00January 23rd, 2014|

NITROGEN MANAGEMENT TRAINING

CDFA Debuts CCA Nitrogen Management Training

CDFA’s Fertilizer Research and Education Program (FREP) is excited to announce the debut of the Nitrogen Management Training Program for California certified crop advisers (CCAs). Since October 2012, FREP has collaborated with the California Certified Crop Adviser Program and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources to develop and implement a voluntary nitrogen management curriculum specifically targeted for California Certified Crop Advisers.

The goal of the program is to facilitate CCAs’ understanding of sound nitrogen management practices and increase their ability to make informed recommendations to growers, thereby improving environmental performance relative to nitrogen management for crop production. Developed by subject matter experts, the curriculum will address the management of nitrates from plant nutrients to reduce unintentional emissions in waters throughout the state, while emphasizing the economic and environmental benefits achieved through improved management of agricultural use of nitrogen and irrigation water.

Each training session will occur over the course of two days. The first day will include presentations on course objectives, the nitrogen cycle in crop production systems, nitrogen sources, irrigation and nitrogen management, nitrogen budgeting, future resources, and a discussion of local and statewide considerations. The second day will feature concurrent sessions with emphasis on annual and perennial crops. Each session will address current practices, the use of best management practices, and will include a hands-on nitrogen management planning exercise, concluding with a synopsis from both the annual and perennial crops subject matter experts.

The first course is already underway this week in Modesto. Four other courses are scheduled to take place in February and March throughout the Central Valley and the Central Coast-area; please see below for dates and locations. If you are a CCA interested in attending, please pre-register to attend one of the sessions through the CAPCA Ed website at or by using the links below. Due to the targeted nature of the curriculum for these courses, attendance is limited to CCAs only.

The nitrogen management training sessions are a part of FREP’s ongoing commitment to provide growers and CCAs with decision-support tools, technical education, and access to research to increase awareness of more agronomically sound use of fertilizing materials to minimize the environmental impacts resulting from their use.

Since 1990, FREP has funded more than 160 research projects focusing on California’s important and environmentally sensitive cropping systems. For more information about this project and other FREP initiatives, please contact FREP staff.

WOODLAND — February 18-19, 2014

Heidrick Ag History Museum – Event Hall 

1962 Hays Ln, Woodland, CA 95776  Register Online

FRESNO — February 25-26, 2014 

Ramada Inn Fresno (University) – Shaw Rooms A, B, C 

324 E Shaw Ave, Fresno, CA 93710  Register Online

SALINAS — March 5-6, 2014 

Salinas Elks Lodge #614 – Main Dining Room 

614 Airport Blvd, Salinas, CA 93905  Register Online

TULARE — March 11-12, 2014

 International Agri-Center – Banquet Hall 

4500 S Laspina St, Tulare, CA 93274  Register Online

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:41:12-07:00January 23rd, 2014|

REGULATED SHIPMENTS OF ACP-QUARANTINED MANDARINS PERMITTED

CDFA Issues Permit for Movement of Selected Mandarins with Stems and/or Leaves Attached

CDFA’s Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services (PHPPS) TODAY notified all county agricultural commissioners  of a newly issued PEST EXCLUSION ADVISORY Permit  regarding movement of mandarin fruit with stems and/or leaves attached produced inside an ACP quarantine area for shipment into and within a  noncontiguous ACP quarantine area.

 Mandarin fruit with attached stems and/or leaves produced within an ACP -regulated area may now be shipped to a noncontiguous ACP regulated area.  
Mandarins with attached stems and/or leaves produced/originated from an area  regulated for Citrus Greening (CG) are NOT eligible for this program.  
Eligible mandarins with attached stems and/or leaves produced within ACP regulated  areas shall NOT be processed and/or packaged in an area regulated for CG.  
Eligible mandarins with attached stems and/or leaves produced within ACP regulated  areas shall not be shipped intrastate to areas of the state that are not regulated for  ACP.  
Eligible mandarins with attached stems and/or leaves produced within ACP regulated  areas shall NOT be shipped interstate.

Among the Permit requirements for all agricultural entities that handle the crop are to:

Have a signed Compliance Agreement with the ACP Project/Agricultural Commissioner
Comply with on-site inspections
Use standard packinghouse procedures including washing, brushing, and disinfecting delivered mandarins
Seal shipments from time of loading to unloading
Isolate mandarins from fruit that has not been properly handled
Dispose of stems and leaves properly
Break the shipment seal at destination by a state regulatory official or as required by the permit

 If there are any questions concerning this advisory, contact Vince Arellano at (916) 654- 0312.

For more information, visit: http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/acp

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:41:12-07:00January 22nd, 2014|

NEW EVENTS FROM THE NORTH

Northern Central Valley Has Full Calendar

Yuba-Sutter Farm Bureau Board Meeting

Jan. 27 5:30 p.m. Monday, January 27 at the YSFB office. 475 N. Palora Ave, Suite A Yuba City, CA 95991

2014 Annual Rice Grower Meetings

Jan. 27 Richvale: 8:00 am, Evangelical Church, 5219 Church St., Richvale

Jan. 27 Glenn: 1:00 pm, Glenn Pheasant Hall, 1522 Highway 45, south of Glenn

Jan. 31 Colusa: 8:00 am, CIP Conference Room, 100 Sunrise Blvd., Colusa

Jan. 31 Yuba City: 1:00 pm Veterans Hall, 1425 Veterans Memorial Circle, Yuba City

RSVP for Spray Safe

Jan. 28 The Yuba-Sutter Farm Bureau will host Spray Safe 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28 in Franklin Hall at the Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds. This is a FREE training on safe spraying practices for the entire farming community. Spray Safe provides live demos in English and Spanish, and offers 3 continuing education units through the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. All farm owners, employees and industry professionals are welcome and lunch will be provided. Full agenda attached. Call or email YSFB to RSVP.

Farm Transition Planning Hosted Dinner

Jan. 28 Nationwide Insurance will host its “Land as Your Legacy” farm transition planning seminar 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28, at the Yuba-Sutter Farm Bureau office. Dinner will be catered by Casa Lupe, see attached flyer for more details. RSVP to YSFB at ysfb@ysfarmbureau.com.

Seminar on Drought Mitigation in Livestock Production

Jan. 29 UCCE will hold a seminar entitled, “Mitigating Drought: Optimizing Pasture, Supplemental Feed and Managing Risk,” from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 29 at the UCCE Sierra Foothill Research Station, 8279 Scott Forbes Road, Browns Valley, CA 95918. This seminar will also be available via webcast for those who cannot attend.

Order Your Tri-Tip Now! Help Send YF&R to State Conference in Visalia

Jan. 30 Let the Yuba-Sutter Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee cook for you at their drive-thru tri-tip dinner on January 30 at Tractor Supply in Yuba City. YF&R will be whipping up a delicious full spread for you to take home. Be sure to order your meal in advance – get one for $15, or four for $50 by calling AJ at 682-2511. Dinners will be hot and ready for pickup from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 30at the Tractor Supply parking lot. Proceeds will help send the group to YF&R State Leadership Conference in Visalia this February.

South Sacramento Valley Winter Almond Meeting

Feb. 4 UCCE will host its annual South Sacramento Valley Winter Almond Meeting8:00 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, February 4 at Stagehands Theater, Colusa County Fairgrounds. 1 hours PCA CE units have been requested, as well as 3 CCA CE units. Topics covered include pruning, rootstocks, groundwater management, irrigation in a drought year, and more.

UCCE Pesticide Safety Train-the-Trainer Workshops in Woodland

Feb. 18 UC ANR Integrated Pest Management will offer a pesticide safety refresher course 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 at the UCCE office in Woodland for those who are already qualified to train pesticide handlers and fieldworkers. Hands-on training techniques and group activities will be used to demonstrate ways to extend pesticide safety information to handlers and fieldworkers in an interactive and effective manner

Application Deadline Approaching for Northern Sutter County EQUIP Funding

Feb. 21 In addition to general Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funding, NRCS has special initiative funding pools. New Bay-Delta special initiative funding is available in the northwest area of Butte County (within the Pine Creek Watershed) as part of the Tehama County – Sacramento River Project Area.

Bay-Delta funds were also allocated for another year in northern Sutter County (within the Lower Snake Watershed) as part of the Lower Snake River project area.

The deadline to apply for 2014 funding is Friday, February 21, 2014.Contact the Oroville NRCS office at 530-534-0112 x. 124 or the Yuba City NRCS office at 530-674-1461 x. 128 for more information and an application.

UCCE Seminar on Future of Farming & Ranching in Sierra Foothills

Feb. 22 The UC Sierra Foothill Research & Extension Center, located in Browns Valley, is hosting a forum focused on the Future of Farming and Ranching in the Sierra Foothills 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday, February 22. This event will bring together local producers, regional ag leaders, high school students interested in agriculture, and community members interested in developing a local ag enterprise. Cost is $10 per family, which includes lunch. Contact Jeremy James for more information.

Plumas Street Farmers Market in the Works

May 21 The Yuba City Downtown Business Association is in the planning stages of bringing a Certified Farmers Market to downtown Plumas Street. The focus of this market will be on local producers and “Farm to Fork”. The market will take place 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday nights, May 1 – Nov 7 (28 weeks), at the corner of Church & Plumas streets (Arts Center parking lot). Certified producers can reserve a booth at $20/week, as well as other ag-related/healthy lifestyle vendors. Call Donna Hannaford, Downtown Business Association Coordinator at 530-755-1620 for more information.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:41:12-07:00January 22nd, 2014|

CENTER FOR PRODUCE SAFETY ANNOUNCES CALL FOR RESEARCH PROPOSALS

$3M in Funds Available to Answer Produce Food Safety Questions

The Center for Produce Safety has announced its 2014 request for food safety research proposals. The center and its public and industry research partners are making $3 million available to fund general and commodity-specific research aimed at addressing the fresh produce industry’s food safety research needs.

Proposals are due by March 14, 2014, 5 p.m. PST, and should be submitted through the CPS Grant System website. All qualified research professionals are eligible to apply for CPS funding.

“This request for proposals builds on previously funded CPS research and provides a clear roadmap to generate the information needed to develop science and risk-based best practices and policies to enhance produce safety across the supply chain,” said Dr. Jim Gorny, vice president of food safety and technology, Produce Marketing Association, and chair of the CPS Technical Committee. “I especially look forward to working with the numerous CPS partners in research as we review the proposals. Their active participation throughout the process has and continues to be critical in assuring the success of CPS funded research.”

The 2014 RFP seeks to fund both general produce food safety questions and commodity-specific questions. Core (general produce) research prioritiesendeavor to better understand risk potential and to develop more effective food safety management tools. Factors affecting human pathogen persistence, routes of produce contamination, agricultural water, and harvest and postharvest water are among the core research areas listed.

CPS and its partners sponsor research projects designed to fill basic knowledge gaps in specific areas of food safety practices for fruit, vegetable, and tree nut production, as well as harvest and post-harvest handling. One public partner is CDFA-Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. Some commodity partners are:

Almond Board of California
California Cantaloupe Advisory Board
California Melon Research Board
California Leafy Greens Research Board
California Pistachio Research Board

CPS has compiled an impressive four-year body of work, awarding nearly $13.6 million and funding 85 one and two-year research projects at 27 universities and organizations.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:41:12-07:00January 22nd, 2014|

FARMERS DELIVER FREEDOM TO AMERICA

Vilsack Appreciates Farmers’ ContributionTo America

The California Farm Bureau Federation reported TODAY that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack discussed the vital importance of farmers and ranchers to the American economy and society at the recent American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Convention in Texas. Some of his comments are paraphrased here.

Vilsack said agriculture is not as appreciated it ought to be. Many Americans are so far removed from where their food comes from; they may be three, four generations removed. So we need to continue educating our friends in urban and suburb urban centers on what farming is and what it does.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

Americans are fortunate to have extraordinary diversity in food, and unlike many people in the world, we don’t have to worry about where our food comes from. We have the capacity within our own borders to produce what we need.

Ninety percent of the population lived in rural America and farmed when USDA was founded, and that 90 percent slowly reduced. So today, it’s 15 percent who live in rural America and less than 1 percent who farm.

What do the other 99 percent do? They are not required to stay on the farm because there is less than 1 percent of America that’s producing so much that we can feed the world and ourselves. Every person in this country today has the option to live someplace else and to be someone else, to be a lawyer, a teacher, a doctor, an engineer, a construction worker, a business owner, to live anywhere in this country. Why? Because our farmers are so enterprising, we don’t have to worry, and we get to do what we want to do.

Freedom: That’s what farmers mean to this country. It’s more than food security and paycheck flexibility. It’s the extraordinary opportunity in this country that you can be whatever you want to be, not just simply by dreaming big dreams, but because you’ve got somebody in some rural community on some farm or ranch, in some orchard, producing enough so that you’ve got the nutrition to be whatever you want to be, and that ought to be celebrated. The country ought to be reminded of it, and every farmer in this country should be valued, appreciated and thanked, because we in this country have been extraordinarily blessed by Growers.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:41:12-07:00January 22nd, 2014|

THE BIG DILEMMA: USE GPS OR KEEP PRIVACY?

‘Big Data’ On Farm Brings Questions About Privacy

Source: Christine Souza, California Farm Bureau Federation

For more than a decade, beginning with the advent of global positioning systems, the use of precision agriculture on the farm has transformed into a whole style of technology that uses computers and satellites to know where the operator is in the field and then deliver the exact inputs needed to that location, says the California Farm Bureau Federation TODAY. This technology helps farmers improve yields, decrease inputs and reduce costs.

YET, some observers warn growers to understand what they are agreeing to regarding the use of their private data before approving a company’s terms of service.

“The new big-data technology provides a huge opportunity for farmers to increase their production and their efficiencies. However, it is important that farmers read the fine print and understand the privacy issues that surround release of their data,” said Mary Kay Thatcher, senior director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

AFBF has reported an increasing amount of discussion about the ownership of data from various GPS planting and harvesting monitoring technology. For example, several seed and/or equipment companies offer farmers the option to store data from their monitors “on the cloud,” that is, on a Web-based service rather than on a personal computer.

If farmers select this option, the companies can access the data. In some cases, the companies will have real-time access to planting and harvest data. In other cases, broadband capabilities in rural areas may not be advanced enough for that to happen.

While some companies aggregate the data and make it available to all who provide it, AFBF said it appears there is not a policy in place to ensure that the companies don’t use the data to their benefit—and that they might indeed be able to manipulate the market with enough real-time data.

In late 2013, AFBF and a number of state Farm Bureaus met with agricultural technology providers that are collecting and using “big data” in their marketing and services to farmers. During these discussions, AFBF reported, it became clear that big-data technology would expand at a rapid rate in the next few growing seasons.

AFBF suggests that farmers consider the following regarding the use and privacy of data:

Do you own the data?
How will the data be used and what benefits will you receive from allowing a provider to include data in a database?
Will you control management of the data?
What is aggregated data and how can it protect the farmer?
How can a farmer’s “anonymized,” or non-personal, data be traced back to the farm?
Can you stop sharing data once you agreed to share?
Who else might have access to the data, and can it be released to the public or a third party?
What is the value of data to the farmer and what is the value of the data to the company?

Big data offers a way to provide more efficiencies and opportunities for higher profits, AFBF said, but growers should weigh those benefits against the additional costs associated with analyzing the data through some other means, and of loss of data ownership and privacy.

“I started our Precision Ag Institute here 10 years ago, and at that point, there really still wasn’t a grower willing to give out their yield data or any of that type of information. They wanted to own and control that data,” said Clint Cowden, agriculture science and technology instructor at West Hills Community College in Coalinga. “There are definitely some growers that have some (data privacy) concerns, because they are doing some really interesting things with nitrogen management, fertilizer management and seed rates.”

Diversified farmer Cannon Michael of Bowles Farming Co. in Los Banos has used precision technology since 2001 for the crops he grows, including cotton, alfalfa, processing tomatoes and grain.

“We use precision technology to really focus on maximizing the use of our inputs, such as chemicals, using variable-rate spraying and amendments to target soil areas that need certain things that others don’t, really to fine-tune our program,” Michael said.

Michael said he is generally not concerned about the privacy of his farming and personal data.

“Currently, I don’t know many services that are asking people for a lot of personal information. Whether going on a website that gives you commodity prices or imagery or whatever it is, your data is not safe even when you are thinking it is safe,” he said. “You just have to be really careful what you put out there. If you have a GIS system and know how to use it, there’s a lot of data that is out there already. There’s imagery of everybody’s farms that is out there for the taking.”

Even so, Michael added, “A general message of care is not a bad one.”

The use of outside companies to process or interpret information gleaned from precision technology on the farm, Cowden said, will need to be decided by each individual farmer.

“For some growers, if they are really doing a lot of cutting-edge things and if that is their business plan to give them a competitive edge, then they absolutely need to keep the data in-house,” Cowden said. “For most of our growers, the benefit to whatever commodity they are growing—getting that information out there and pooling it and letting people that can do the geostatistics that they are probably not able to do themselves—it is going to be much better for the commodity. That information will trickle back to the grower and they will become more profitable in the long run.”

Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:41:12-07:00January 21st, 2014|

New Evidence Points to CCD

BREAKING NEWS

What? Pathogenic Plant Virus  

Jumps to Honey Bees

Could This Be the Reason for the Decline?

A viral pathogen that typically infects plants has been found in honey bees and could help explain their decline. Researchers working in the U.S. and Beijing, China report their findings in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

The routine screening of bees for frequent and rare viruses “resulted in the serendipitous detection of Tobacco Ringspot Virus, or TRSV, and prompted an investigation into whether this plant-infecting virus could also cause systemic infection in the bees,” says Yan Ping Chen from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, an author on the study.

“The results of our study provide the first evidence that honeybees exposed to virus-contaminated pollen can also be infected and that the infection becomes widespread in their bodies,” says lead author Ji Lian Li, at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science in Beijing.

“We already know that honey bees, Apis melllifera, can transmit TRSV when they move from flower to flower, likely spreading the virus from one plant to another,” Chen adds.

Notably, about 5% of known plant viruses are pollen-transmitted and thus potential sources of host-jumping viruses. RNA viruses tend to be particularly dangerous because they lack the 3′-5′ proofreading function which edits out errors in replicated genomes. As a result, viruses such as TRSV generate a flood of variant copies with differing infective properties.

One consequence of such high replication rates are populations of RNA viruses thought to exist as “quasispecies,” clouds of genetically related variants that appear to work together to determine the pathology of their hosts. These sources of genetic diversity, coupled with large population sizes, further facilitate the adaption of RNA viruses to new selective conditions such as those imposed by novel hosts. “Thus, RNA viruses are a likely source of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases,” explain these researchers.

Toxic viral cocktails appear to have a strong link with honey bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a mysterious malady that abruptly wiped out entire hives across the United States and was first reported in 2006. Israel Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV), Acute Bee Paralysis Virus (ABPV), Chronic Paralysis Virus (CPV), Kashmir Bee Virus (KBV), Deformed Wing Bee Virus (DWV), Black Queen Cell Virus (BQCV) and Sacbrood Virus (SBV) are other known causes of honeybee viral disease.

When these researchers investigated bee colonies classified as “strong” or “weak,” TRSV and other viruses were more common in the weak colonies than they were in the strong ones. Bee populations with high levels of multiple viral infections began failing in late fall and perished before February, these researchers report. In contrast, those in colonies with fewer viral assaults survived the entire cold winter months.

TRSV was also detected inside the bodies of Varroa mites, a “vampire” parasite that transmits viruses between bees while feeding on their blood. However, unlike honeybees, the mite-associated TRSV was restricted to their gastric cecum indicating that the mites likely facilitate the horizontal spread of TRSV within the hive without becoming diseased themselves. The fact that infected queens lay infected eggs convinced these scientists that TRSV could also be transmitted vertically from the queen mother to her offspring.

“The increasing prevalence of TRSV in conjunction with other bee viruses is associated with a gradual decline of host populations and supports the view that viral infections have a significant negative impact on colony survival,” these researchers conclude. Thus, they call for increased surveillance of potential host-jumping events as an integrated part of insect pollinator management programs.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:41:12-07:00January 21st, 2014|

UC ANR DROUGHT TIPS

17 Drought Tips from Univ. California and Government Agencies

California’s last multi-year statewide drought was from 1987 to 1992, according to the California State Department of Water Resources. In 1991, the driest single year of the drought, 23 of California’s 58 counties declared county-wide local states of emergency.

At the time, federal and state agencies collaborated with the University of California to create 17 “Drought Tips.” Below are links to those tips in pdf format, plus two recent updates. Please click on the links and wait a few moments for the documents to open.

The agencies that collaborated on the Drought Tips were:

California Department of Water Resources – Water Conservation Office 

University of California , UC Davis Department of Land, Air and Water Resources 

USDA Drought Response Office

 USDA Soil Conservation Service

The Drought Tips were edited by Anne Jackson of the UC Davis Department of Land, Air and Water Resources.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:41:12-07:00January 21st, 2014|

California Ag News Dixon Fair to Award Scholarships

Friends of the Dixon Fair to Award $12,500 in College Scholarships

DIXON–The Friends of the Dixon May Fair will award a total of $12,500 in college scholarships to seven Solano County students enrolled in a California college and majoring in agriculture or an agricultural-related field.

The deadline to apply for the scholarships is 5 p.m., March 1.

The Friends will award four scholarships for those enrolled in a four-year college, and three scholarships for those enrolled in a two-year college. Over the last 11 years, they’ve awarded more than $100,000 in college scholarships to Solano County students pursuing an agricultural-related career.

The top student in the four-year college category will receive the $3000 Ester Armstrong Memorial Scholarship, memorializing the former Dixon May Fair chief executive officer. Three other scholarships, at $2000 each, will be given in the four-year college category. For two-year college students, the awards are: the Jack Hopkins Memorial Scholarship of $1500; and two scholarships at $1,000 each.

The Friends of the Fair, an all-volunteer group headed by Donnie Huffman of Vacaville, is the fundraising arm of the Dixon May Fair and raises funds through the sale of beverages.

Only Solano County residents planning a career in agriculture of an agricultural-related field are eligible to apply, said JoAnn Giannoni of Dixon, the scholarship chair. They must be enrolled in or accepted for enrollment in a four-year accredited college or university or an accredited community college located in California. Applicants must be majoring in an agricultural-related field, which can encompass dozens of majors, including agricultural business, forestry, pomology, nematology, plant pathology, viticulture, wildlife and fisheries biology, and child, family and consumer science.

Giannoni said the recipients are selected on their personal, civic and academic experience, academic standing, personal commitment and goals, leadership potential, civic accomplishments, and agricultural interests. Desired but not mandatory is 4-H, FFA or Grange experience.

Each applicant must submit a personal statement of no more than two typed pages, double-spaced, explaining “why you are pursuing your desired career and what you hope to accomplish,” Giannoni said.

Applicants must have a minimum grade point average or 2.0 or be a student in good standing. They are to include a copy of their transcript (accumulative and current), along with two letters of recommendation. One letter must be from a professional educator.

Last year Jordan Dosker of Vacaville, an animal science major at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, received the Esther Armstrong Memorial Award Scholarship. Kyle Garlick of Dixon, an ag business major at Butte College, won the $1,500 Jack Hopkins Memorial Award.

Others receiving scholarships in the four-year college category were Stephanie Calestini, a 2011 Dixon High School graduate majoring in agriculture at Cal Poly; Emily Lamb, a 2013 Armijo High School graduate studying animal nutrition at Cal Poly; Maria Kogler, a 2013 graduate of Rio Vista High School who will be attending California State University Chico. Each received $2000.

In the two-year community college category, two young women each received $1000: Danielle McCants, a graduate of Vacaville High School who is studying equine dentistry and animal science at Sacramento City College; and Kaycie Shea Reeb, a 2013 graduate of Dixon High School who will be attending Solano Community College and then transferring to Sacramento State College. McCants and Reeb received $1000.

Each packet must include one set of originals and one set of copies of each of the required forms. Only official Friends of the Fair application forms will be accepted, Giannoni said, and only complete packets will be considered.

Continuing scholarship winners can re-apply up to four times. Other eligibility criteria is on the Friends’ website at http://www.friendsofthefair.org/scholarship.php. Completed application packets must be postmarked no later than 5 p.m. on March 1, and mailed to the Scholarship Committee, Friends of the Fair Scholarship Committee, P.O. Box 242, Dixon, CA 95620.

All scholarship checks will be paid directly to the recipient upon receipt of proof of enrollment, Gianonni said. All monies may be used only for tuition, fees, books, materials and supplies, housing and meals purchased on campus.

Recipients will be notified by mail after April 15 and will be announced at the Dixon May Fair.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:41:13-07:00January 20th, 2014|

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