http://ucanr.org/blogs/anrnews/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed The past, present and future of ANR news en-us UC ANR http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:32:05 PST Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:32:05 PST UC ANR
]]> Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:31:13 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6795&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6795 Cities throughout the United States and Canada are reforming land-use and health policies to allow and encourage urban agriculture - including raising chickens, wrote Josie Garthwaite in the New York Times. Among her sources for the story was the director of UC Cooperative Extension's Statewide Master Gardener Program Pamela Geisel, who keeps 10 hens at her own rural home west of Chico. She said enthusiasm for homegrown hens in urban areas may be close to peaking. “It’s sort of a fad,” she...
]]> Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:01:11 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6785&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6785 California agriculture is poised to match the growing demands of the world's booming population and expanding wealth, concluded AgAlert editor Ching Lee in her story about the California Ag Summit last week at UC Davis. Asking where agriculture is heading requires considering the forces that are driving both the supply side and the demand side, said Daniel Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center. As people's incomes go up, they tend to demand more dairy and meat products....
]]> Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:56:21 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6780&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6780 As blueberries have become more a popular plant for home gardening, variety choices have blossomed, wrote Laura Christman in the Redding Record Searchlight. When it comes to flavor it's hard to go wrong with any variety of homegrown blueberry, said Manuel Jimenez, a University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor specializing in blueberries. "All the varieties that ripen on the plant are good," said Jimenez, who is based in Tulare County. Among the varieties Jimenez recommends...
]]> Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:41:37 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6768&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6768 Citrus growers in Florida, who are struggling with the devastating citrus disease huanglongbing, are considering growing olives, according to a report on the Tampa, Fla., ABC news affiliate. Reporter Ryan Raiche covered a meeting at the University of Florida Citrus Research and Extension Center where UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Paul Vossen introduced growers to olive production and marketing and offered citrus growers the opportunity to taste a variety of olives and olive...
]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:22:12 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6750&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6750 Re-washing bagged greens may be making salads dirtier, according to a bevy of food safety experts, reported Deborah Schoch in the Los Angeles Times. Even the cleanest kitchens can teem with harmful pathogens - on cutting boards and in salad spinners, on knives that just sliced raw chicken, on damp, well-used cloth towels. "In brief, consumers don't wash up very well and may contaminate produce due to dirty hands and dirty sink," emailed Christine M. Bruhn, director of the Center for Consumer...
]]> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:52:41 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6745&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6745 UC Agriculture and Natural Resources is soliciting input from Californians as the organization - which seeks and disseminates solutions to critical problems facing agriculture, natural resources and youth development - wrestles with budget reductions, wrote UC ANR vice president Barbara Allen-Diaz in a commentary published today in AgAlert. "I look forward to working with you and to hearing your ideas on priorities for research innovations, priorities in your area that need science-based...
]]> Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:28:20 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6738&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6738 A Bakersfield farming cooperative will lay off 2,100 permanent seasonal workers and instead hire a labor force through farm labor contractors, reported Jill Cowan in the Bakersfield Californian. The shift toward hiring seasonal workers through farm labor contractors is not new, said University of California Cooperative Extension specialist emeritus Howard Rosenberg, who has studied agricultural labor management for decades. "(Use of farm labor contractors) has grown from the low 20...
]]> Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:14:01 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6721&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6721 University of California advisors and specialists, farmers, scientists and agriculture professionals gathered Friday in Clovis to launch a new organization that could potentially save farmers time and money, and reduce their impact on the environment, wrote Robert Rodriguez in the Fresno Bee. The event marked the establishment of the Conservation Agriculture Systems Institute, which will support research and education efforts to encourage farmers' implementation of conservation agriculture...
]]> Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:53:17 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6703&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6703 A quest to find the best zinfandel clones began in the early 1990s, wrote Ann Hanami of the Napa Valley Wine Examiner. UC Cooperative Extension viticulture specialist James Wolpert was getting feedback from winemakers about the poor quality of the four available commercial zinfandel clones from the Central Valley, whose main characteristics were high-yield, large berries and poor varietal character. Wolpert went on a California “safari” to find old-vine selections that had evolved...
]]> Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:36:39 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6680&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6680 When Khaled Bali looks at ice cream he thinks about alfalfa, wrote Alejandro Davila in the Imperial Valley Press. The story highlighted the research contributions of UC's Desert Research and Extension Center, which this year is celebrating its centennial.The director of UC Cooperative Extension in Imperial County and an irrigation farm advisor, Bali said that for some people the connection between ice cream and alfalfa is not quite clear. Since alfalfa feeds dairy cattle, it is an important...
]]> Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:45:44 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6658&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6658 The almond industry's dream of hitting the two billion-pound mark has come true, according to an article by Cary Blake in Western Farm Press. “We once believed achieving a 2-billion-pound California almond crop was a distant dream but now it’s a reality,” said Bob Curtis of the Almond Board of California at the 2011 Almond Industry Conference. The conference included presentations by John Edstrom, UC Cooperative Extension emeritus farm advisor, Colusa County; Mario Viveros, UCCE emeritus...
]]> Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:24:02 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6647&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6647 Clearing vegetation close to houses is the best way to reduce impacts of severe wildfires, according to a team of scientists from Australia and the U.S., said an article published in Science Codex. The researchers examined house loss after a series of fires raged across the Australian state of Victoria in February 2009, killing 173 and injuring 414. However, fuel reduction close to houses is only a partial solution. Other measures - such as early evacuation, safer places and architectural...
]]> Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:15:18 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6637&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6637 It's been nearly 20 years since olive, walnut and pistachio farmers first declared war on cotton, but the Glenn County Board of Supervisors declared Tuesday that fear of verticillium dahliae levels might be a a bit overblown, said an article by Susan Meeker in the Colusa County Sun-Herald. The board agreed to revisit the 2008 regulation that prevents cotton growers from planting in the same field three years in a row if the level of verticillium wilt is detected in 3 percent or more of...
]]> Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:39:25 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6627&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6627 Precipitation that would normally head toward California along the Pacific jet stream has for weeks veered north, burying Alaska in record snow, said an article by San Jose Mercury News reporter Lisa Kreiger. The story appeared yesterday in the Contra Costa Times. The weather trend has left California drenched in sun this winter, but for many, sunny skies have worn out their welcome. In the Central Valley, stock ponds are running dry -- and cows drink 10 to 15 gallons a day. Some...
]]> Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:50:49 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6614&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6614 In contrast to typical winter weather patterns, in 2012 Nevada has experienced some early January days that were downright hot, wrote Dennis Myers in the Reno News and Review. Wildfires, normally a feature of summer and fall, have been experienced during this winter. The article said Nevada's cloud seeding program is prepared for any break in the weather pattern that will provide storms that can be seeded. Truckee Meadows is dependent on the snowpack for its water supply and a lack of snow...
]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:01:56 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6592&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6592 Coho salmon are still in the Russian River's main stem rather than in the tributaries where they are usually spawning this time of year because of this winter's lack of rain, wrote Bob Norbert in the Press Democrat. Biologists are concerned about any harm done to coho, a fish which is being coaxed back from the brink of extinction but still numbers only in the hundreds. “There is so much invested in bringing these coho back, from the hatchery program to the restoration work in Dry Creek to...
]]> Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:32:59 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6581&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6581 California's long dry spell is prompting the media to begin contemplating the specter of another drought. Matt Weiser of the Sacramento Bee wrote that the dreaded D-word is back. Among the first farming operations to be affected by lack of rain is livestock grazing, which is largely dependent on rainfall to grow forage for cattle and sheep, and to fill stock ponds the animals need for drinking water. Josh Davy, livestock and range farm advisor with the University of California Cooperative...
]]> Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:46:11 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6566&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6566 "Let it be" is the mantra of some Central Valley farmers when it comes to turning up the soil, wrote John Holland in the Modesto Bee. Holland was reporting on a recent UC survey that found more farmers are using conservation agriculture practices. The survey was conducted by UC's Conservation Agriculture Systems Institute, made up of government, academic and environmental partners. It looked at land in nine San Joaquin Valley counties that was planted in silage and grain corn, small grains...
]]> Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:51:19 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6549&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6549 The Colorado farm linked to a deadly listeria outbreak last fall is 1,300 miles away, but the tragedy changed a way of life in Mendota, Calif., the Central Valley farm town that proudly calls itself the Cantaloupe Center of the World, said an article in the Los Angeles Times by Diana Marcum. This would normally be the season when farmers plan the summer crop that in good years is valued at nearly $200 million, according to the California Cantaloupe Advisory Board. Instead, they are cutting...
]]> Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:14:58 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6528&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6528