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IR-4 on Process and Trends of Biopesticides

Michael Braverman manages biopesticides for Rutgers University’s IR-4 Project in Princeton, New Jersey. The IR- 4 Project helps with research to get these safe and effective pest management products registered for use in specialty crops, the cornerstone of California agriculture.

“We have two main objectives,” said Braverman. “We have an efficacy grant program, where we fund researchers all across the United States to conduct field or greenhouse trials involving biopesticides to see how they can fit into real-world production systems. The other part of our program is a regulatory assistance program. Biopesticides, like any crop protection products on the market, require EPA registration. We work with university researchers who may have discovered a new organism, a plant extract or whatever it may be, and we help guide them through the EPA registration process,” said Braverman.

“There is certainly a trend towards use of biopesticides,” Braverman observed. “If you notice, major manufacturers—all the biggest companies—are now investing in research or purchasing smaller companies that are involved in the biopesticide market. So it’s really expanding very rapidly,” said Braverman.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:22-07:00October 3rd, 2014|

Imperial County Breaks Ag Production Record in 2013

The big Imperial County Region had a record year of Ag production value in 2013 of more than 2 billion dollars.

“It’s the first time that we ever hit the 2 billion dollar mark. We hit 2.158 billion dollars this year in production value,” said Linsey Dale, Executive Director of the Imperial County Farm Bureau. Dale is based in El Centro—the county seat of Imperial County.

“We had a bump in price of cattle last year, we had a bump in the price of some of our forage crops last year, and our onion market went up a bit, broccoli market went up a bit, so there were several different crops that had an increase in price in 2013 over 2012,” said Dale.

Dale says that agriculture drives the economy in Imperial County. “We are the single biggest private employer in Imperial County, agriculture is. It has been since day one and will continue to be. If we lose agriculture here in Imperial county we lost Imperial Valley. We have thousands and thousands of jobs in farm services providers and right in production agriculture, its a tremendous impact,” said Dale.

Dale noted that Imperial County, through the Imperial Irrigation District, has some of the strongest water rights in the state. “We do have a very strong water rights. Water is a key issue for us here, we have very little rainfall, less than 2 inches per year. All of our water comes from the Colorado river, so with drought conditions here in California currently, areas are looking at us to produce that the fruits and vegetables need for the nation, especially for the winter months,” Dale said.

“We produce crops 365 days a year, some of our fields actually have 3 crop rotations. We get cuttings on alfalfa year-round, and again we have that strong water right that is necessary to be able to grow these crops,” said Dale.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:22-07:00October 3rd, 2014|

Record Walnut Crop Harvest

By Colby Tibbet, California Ag Today Reporter

With a predicted record 545,000 tons to be harvested, the walnut industry is getting very busy this time of year.

Janine Hasey is a UC Cooperative Extension Tree Crops Farm Advisor and County Director for Sutter-Yuba Counties. She also assists growers in Colusa County.

“We started early up here, but the hot weather we’ve had has slowed things down again. So we’re working on early varieties, a lot of Serrs are in; Vinas are in, and Tulares are being harvested, and we are trying to get the Howards harvested.”

“Right now it sounds like we’re on track for that record production prediction to come true,” said Hasey. “Growers are now harvesting early varieties; I have just talked to a grower who doubled Serr production from last year, and her Ashley production has tripled or more,” Hasey commented.

Growers have used a lot of Ethrel, a common late-season spray, to help speed up harvest and trigger a more even harvest period. “Some growers are saying it has worked, while others say maybe not so well,” said Hasey.

In addition to the hot temperatures and dryness, Hasey said, “we’ve had a little bit of dew last week. We are expecting some possible rain showers on Thursday…which would be really good to get the walnut hulls splitting, and get things moving again.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:24-07:00September 24th, 2014|

President/CEO Westside Produce on Food Safety

Stephen Patricio, President and CEO of Westside Produce, a grower, packer and shipper of cantaloupe for California and Arizona, talks about food safety of our locally grown foods.

“The Center for Produce Safety is a 7 year-old organization that facilitates science-based actionable research to improve the quality as well as the safety of the healthy fruits, vegetables and tree nuts we are so proud of,” said Patricio.

Patricio commented that in general, growers have a great understanding of food safety. “There’s been a tremendous awareness over the years I’ve been actively involved, and we’re maturing everyday. Realistically, the industry matures, the workers mature, because the elements of food safety don’t exist in an ivory tower or in an office, or in a tractor or in a shop; they exist everywhere on the farm,” said Patricio.

“From the absolute beginnings on the dirt all the way through the packing houses to the shipping docks to the sales offices; it’s a culture. Food Safety is a culture, not just an action,” he added.

And for those consumers worried about the nutrition and safety of their produce, Patricio reassures that everyone involved in produce cares just as much as they do. “What I continue to tell people is that there is not a farmer, producer, or grower anywhere who doesn’t eat the product that they produced themselves. And, they feed it to their family, their children, their grandchildren. And they’re proud of it, they’re happy with it.”

Patricio continued, “If that’s the approach that people simply take to their daily actions and activities, well, I don’t have to worry about the safety of food. We just have to use our heads and manage temperature and everything from spoilage to cross-contamination that can happen anywhere. But you do a good job of creating a safe product,” said Patricio.

The beauty of California produce, according to Patricio is that it is “not a sterile environment. Everything isn’t produced in a factory, taken off a shelf, or torn out of a plastic container. It’s all healthy and from nature. It’s in God’s container and we just have to do our job of not contaminating it.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:34:17-07:00July 14th, 2014|

Tips on Minimizing Herbicide Drift

Its critically important to minimize drift when applying crop protection materials.

Alan James is a Technical Services Agronomist with Mid Valley Agriculture Services, based in Linden, in Stanislaus County. James noted the usual drift issue.

“We get called out all the time by the growers themselves, ‘What are those spots on my leaves?’ and eight times out of ten, it’s drift from the herbicide application they put on, on their own. There is always a little bit, you can’t eliminated drift, you can minimize it,” said James.

James points out some practical strategies in minimizing drift, and not just the obvious of not spraying during heavy wind.

“They need to think about the type of nozzles, the 800 nozzle produce fewer finds than the 110 nozzles, and they came out a few years ago with an extended range, T-Jet extended range nozzle, which allowed you to work at lower pressure and still the coverage,” said James. “And since then there has been at least 2 types of air induction nozzle, where you draw air in, and produce droplets that are bigger because they are wrapped around a little bit of air, and they tend to settle quicker,” he added.

Low pressure is the key, says James.

“You get a good pattern with 15-20 PSI, which produces much fewer finds if you are up at 30-40 PSI. and sometimes they think the higher the pressure the better ill drive it down into the weed, and that has nothing to do with that, it just producing more finds.” said James.

James comments on the scenario of worn out or missing nozzles.

“Every year, you ought to start out with a new set of nozzles, and make sure they are all the same. That is the other thing, when they have weed sprayers got 8 nozzles across the boom, and one plugs up, they have to put in the that plugged one, whatever they got in their pocket. which may or may not be the right size.” said James.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:34:17-07:00July 14th, 2014|

CDFA Secretary on California Drought Solutions

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross talks about the California drought and some steps the state is making to circumvent the crisis.

“We know from the UC Davis preliminary study that was released last month, that farmers are adapting because of groundwater, and that’s what we store groundwater for, its to help us get us through droughts. But when we have back to back years with surface allocations have been dramatically reduced combined with the drought, our reliance on that groundwater could in some cases mean that we wont have it available for the future,” said Ross.

Ross explained that California Governor Jerry Brown asked various industry leaders, including Secretary Ross, to come up with a “Water Action Plan” in an attempt to solve the water crisis currently facing the state.

Secretary Ross details some aspects of the collaborative “Water Action Plan” for California.

“It was specifically looking at all the things that we could be doing over the next five years, specific actions that were doable over the next five years that could help address California’s water situation going forward. It is groundwater management, it is more storage, it is much more conservation, it is really utilizing better recycled water, storm water capture. So its a whole list of things, and we think it is pretty comprehensive list at everything we need to do going forward.” said Ross.

Ross comments on her point of view on the potential tropical storm El Nino.

“I’ve certainly been in some briefings with some NONA climatologists and our own people at the department of water resources watch this very closely. When you look at the words and how many times the words probability, possibility, uncertainty are used in these descriptions I think El Nino with more than moderate rainfall and snow-pack is what we hope for, but we would be irresponsible to plan that way,” said Ross. “So we must plan the most conservative way possible to have water going forward and hope that El Nino is one that has more than moderate precipitation events come next winter. But we need absolutely need more precipitation, the lack of snow pack is very troubling this year, normally we would be having snowing melt filling our streams and reservoirs,” she added.

Ross added:

“We just our very dependent on mother nature. At the end of the day we are coexisting with mother nature.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:34:19-07:00July 3rd, 2014|

CDFA Official on California Farming Innovation

It is a big challenge to increase production for a hungry world.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross spoke at a recent Soil Health symposium to discuss the critical need to increase production with less resources such as water.

“There’s a huge challenge for us to more than double our productivity and yet we are going to do it with less arable land, less available water on a global basis. So really understanding soil health and having the metrics to know what that is and what were doing is improves that as a way to maximize productivity and still get these environmental benefits that come with it. Its the demand of the time and I think California should be a leader,” said Ross.

Ross said that California has a good knowledge base to find answers.

“We’ve got some understanding world renowned Soil Microbiologists who are looking at this. But its not just going to come from academia its going to come from private companies, it’s going to come from farmers and ranchers who are innovative themselves. And really bringing it all together, and creating that roadmap to prioritize what is it what we know? what are the gaps? How do we prioritize what needs to happens next? and go out and seek the funding, the investment. This is a huge investment for the sustainability for our food supply and humankind,” said Ross.

Ross said that California growers are innovative in new systems of farming.

“And we see so many of our systems that are constantly adapting and seeking out the information,you know the early adopters who are willing to do some of those systems on their farm. One example is the just all the work on conservation tillage. and it usually takes a few who are willing to go first, kind of prove the concept and share it with their neighbors. Then all of a sudden it becomes the standard practice. It goes from best practices to standard practice,” said Ross.

Ross added: “But we can’t just stop with that, we have to be constantly looking at all those ways of adapting our systems.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:34:19-07:00July 3rd, 2014|

CDFA Official on Success and Future of California Dairy

Karen Ross, Secretary for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, talks about the role of California Dairy has on the current global market, and what the future hold for the industry.

“So we really have seen a couple things going on. One is this huge constant demand for California milk-based products. the export markets looking for powders, they can’t get enough powders, they have huge confidence in the food safety of our milk production here, we‘re strategically located,” said Ross. “So that demand has really drive up prices, but at the same time fortunately for us our friends in the Midwest had great corn and soybean harvest and so those grain prices had moderated so that farmers are finally to the point where their realizing some margins and they need to rebuild their equity,” she added.

Ross mentions that industry leaders are already looking towards the future.

“We also to the credit of the leaders and the producers and processor community, are still meeting as part of their California Dairy Futures Task Force, and we actually have a couple different proposals for some reform to of our pricing system going forward, that we are taking a deeper dive in. We have some economists that are doing some analytics on that and concurrently the cooperative continues to work on the petition and we will find out people are willing to consider seriously going into a federally milk marketing order. ” said Ross.

Ross explains some aspects of the dairy industry need to change.

“So I think its healthy for the industry now that we have some margins in the business and to really think about our future and this almost 60-year old pricing system, and what works, and we want to retain and where we need to create some flexibility so that we can be very competitive and maximize our opportunities in the export market.” said Ross.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:34:20-07:00July 3rd, 2014|

Food Market Maker Aims to Connect Farmers

Nationwide Online System now Live for Farmers to Connect to New Markets

Chantelle Hougland, Business Development and Communication Strategist for Riverside Research, talks about the Food Market Maker program and their efforts to build an electronic infrastructure that would connect farmers with viable new markets.

“Food Market Maker has been developed for the past 10 years. It’s been a group of organizations universities, state departments of agriculture, who all came together to create a system to connect everyone along the food value chain from the producer all the way to the buyer. And just recently what we’ve done is we have opened up the system to expand from just 20 states into all 50 states which also includes California,” said Hougland.

The Food Market Maker program hopes to aid in the expansion of quality-driven food value chains, by reaching out to not only farmers but other entities as well.

“We are also looking for affiliate organizations, organizations that serve food producers and the value chain to work with us, to reach out to producers, to get them into our system.” said Hougland.

Hougland goes on to explain why the Food Market Maker program is not only beneficial to farmers, but the entire industry as a whole. Even consumers.

“I think we can reduce waste, we can help facilitate new markets, where we’re connecting demand with supply. For example, producers what to know what buyers want to buy. They want to know whether growing organic or some other means is actually going to produce them more money for them in the end,” said Hougland.

“If we can make those connections on the behalf of the farmers with the buyers, and help them understand better what they are doing and how much they can get for what they are doing, we might be able to expand the variety of foods that are available to consumers, the quality of food that’s available to consumers , and the flavorful and goodness of the food that’s available, while supporting farmers as well,” Hougland added.

And how is this program being funded?

“Well right now Riverside Research is doing that for us, so its a free system and its open to use for anyone,” said Hougland.
For more information, head to the Food Market Maker Website.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:23-07:00June 23rd, 2014|

UC Davis Soil Symposium Showcases California Innovation

A big soil health symposium was held at UC Davis last week, and there was lot to learn for everyone in the industry.

Brian Leahy is Chief of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation in Sacramento, which hosted the one day event. Leahy noted those in attendance were innovative and pioneering.

“In the room I think we had some of the most creative farmers, creative researchers, and creative private companies on the planet. These people are some the most amazing farmers that only California produces, and they were here I think as problem solvers. We know we need to understand soil better. What’s going on in the soil? And how do we work with it? said Leahy. “What we heard was a lot of amazing activities that are taking place right now. Lot of great questions asked, its unbelievable the kind of research is going on. I think it was a very productive day.” he added.

Brian Leahy (left) speaking with Malcolm Ricci, of Bolthouse Farms of Bakersfield.

In those attending the symposium, also learned some things they didn’t know.

“And that was the goal, we were trying to figure out, how do we build the support to get long term sustainable funding to better understand soil health. You know understanding soil and what’s going on in soil life, its one of the last frontiers in how were going to make incredible progress in how we feed people, how we take care of the planet, and how we take care of each other. Just layering all the other amazing research going on right in plant genetics. and plants on top of soil its going to be another revolution. I heard Warren Buffett’s son called it the “Brown Revolution”. said Leahy.

And think of that really important topsoil, 1 and half feet around the planet, that supports us all.

“We heard from the Noble Foundation and the soil renaissance, its a national movement as well, where people are realizing that we have to take care of the soil and work with soil, to really take care of the human race, to feed us, clothed us, all of that. So there is a lot of promise here.” said Leahy.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:23-07:00June 23rd, 2014|