Dairy Cares — California’s dairy farmers are leading change and making significant progress in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and advancing planet-smart, sustainable farming practices. Ongoing partnerships remain critical to this progress. On November 5-6, the virtual California Dairy Sustainability Summit welcomed 900+ registrants, with more than 600 tuning in live throughout the two-day online event. The virtual summit hosted …

Winter cover cropping is a promising agricultural management practice that boosts soil health. This article discusses a benefit-cost analysis of winter cover crop adoption and introduces a web-based interactive calculator for farmers to assess changes to baseline farm profits. Winter cover cropping is an agricultural management practice that can enhance soil health while protecting fields from soil erosion and compaction. Cover crops are typically …

Weeds can be a significant problem in berries, tree fruits, tree nuts, and vine crops (e.g. grapes, hops, etc.) especially after transplanting and during flowering and fruit and nut set. Herbicides are a primary tool for managing weeds, even though the evolution of herbicide resistance has limited the utility of many products and off-target movement can sometimes result in damage …

A new study on the costs and returns of establishing and producing lemons in Ventura County has been released by UC Cooperative Extension in Southern California and UC Agricultural Issues Center, both part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. “Coastal agriculture is always in transition and as strawberries and vegetables become less profitable due to markets and labor availability, lemons …

When prices are lean walnut farming is tough business. Farm advisors are not economists or financial advisors. However, farm advisors can be useful in providing best practices for economically sustainable production. Two key economic decisions growers face are when to replant individual trees and when to remove and replant entire orchards. Learn from Dying Trees to Improve Management of the …

Foundation Plant Services (FPS) has been testing grapevines in its foundation vineyards for grapevine red blotch virus (GRBV) since 2013. Red blotch infection rates have remained extremely low in the Classic Foundation Vineyard, ranging from 0% to 0.21% since 2013. None of the 4,270 vines were infected in 2020 (see table). Russell Ranch Vineyard (RRV) remained unaffected until 2017 when …

In California, fungal canker diseases have long been known to affect almond trees. However, they have become an increasing concern to growers in recent years as they are affecting a greater extent of young trees, eventually resulting in significant tree losses. Canker diseases can also become prevalent in mature orchards, impacting yield, the lifespan of trees, production costs and overall profitability of …

These red wines were 20 years in the making; or rather, the grape vines took two decades to develop. Whitehall Lane joined forces with Dr. Andrew Walker of UC Davis and Dr. Paul Skinner of Vineyard Investigations in Napa Valley and planted these experimental grape varieties because they are highly resistant to Pierce’s disease. Pierce’s disease is caused by a …

It’s not always easy to find silver linings during the COVID-19 pandemic, but here’s one that food scientists at the University of California, Davis, have discovered: More people are exploring the ancient art of fermented foods. “My mom made her first batch of sauerkraut this summer,” said Maria Marco, a microbiologist and food science professor with the UC Davis College …

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology, and the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences are offering laboratory services, with limited capacity, to test winegrapes and wine for the presence of smoke compounds due to recent wildfires. In addition to commercial laboratories already performing tests, these laboratories are offering …