Category archive

Agriculture

Floodwaters on farms help boost aquifers

in Agriculture/Community/News

The historically wet winter early this year motivated greater adoption of a water management strategy known as flood-managed aquifer recharge, or flood-MAR, in which excess flood flows are diverted onto farmland to boost depleted groundwater aquifers.

“We knew from the previous year, even in intense drought years, we have opportunities with these big storm events and need to do everything we can,” said California Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth, addressing water managers, farmers, government officials and others, as part of the Flood-MAR Forum in Sacramento last week. “Our ability to respond to those kinds of intense rain events is becoming increasingly important.”

Continue reading on Valley Voice

Good news, bad news for California almond growers

in Agriculture/Food/News

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recently released 2023 California Almond Objective Measurement Report shows that almond production is forecast at 2.60 billion meat pounds, up 4 percent from May's forecast, and 1 percent above last year’s crop of 2.57 billion meat pounds — all this despite the heavy rainfall this winter that hindered bee pollination of trees.

Continue reading on Turlock Journal

More weekend shopping awaits downtown at ‘The Market’

in Agriculture/business/News

If you thought that life in downtown Turlock slowed down on Sundays, two local business owners want you to think again.

On May 7, Main Street between First and Broadway was blocked off to drivers and filled with nearly 50 vendors as part of The Market, a brand new makers’ market in the heart of Turlock. The minds behind the project are Stephanie Torres and Adrina Silveira.

Continue reading on Turlock Journal

Abundant rain = good irrigation season

in Agriculture/News/Weather

Since the last storm system moved through the region, there’s one question on most everybody’s mind: “Is the drought over?”

Of course, the answer to that can vary, depending on who you ask. And regardless of the answer, you shouldn’t go back to 20-minute showers and watering your lawn every day. But if you’re asking the folks at Turlock Irrigation District, then, yeah, the drought is pretty much over.

Continue reading on Ceres Courier

Feds say railroad must deliver grain to California chickens, cattle in danger of starving

in Agriculture/Animals/Transportation

OMAHA — Federal regulators have ordered Union Pacific railroad to make sure a livestock producer gets the grain it needs in California to prevent millions of chickens and hundreds of thousands of cattle from starving.

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board told the railroad it must improve service to Foster Farms to keep it from running out of feed for livestock it raises. 

Continue reading on Lincoln Journal Star

Relief from water wars in sight at long last for Modesto and Turlock growers

in Agriculture/business/Government

Say you are a business owner being sued in court. You firmly believe you are in the right, but the other side thinks they have a solid legal argument, too.

The case drags on for years. Finally, you agree to give up something in a settlement.

Continue reading on Modesto Bee

Once struggling, United Farm Workers gains new clout in California, wants to use it

in Agriculture/Community/Environment

CERES, Calif. — By late morning it was already hot, but not nearly as scorching as it would be in just a few hours. Lourdes Cardenas, 59, had already walked nearly 8 dusty, sun-blasted miles from Turlock, with about that many more to go to the day’s destination in downtown Modesto.

At break time, a mariachi in full regalia began to play, and Cardenas sank into a chair set up under a shade structure, gathered up creams and bandages, and bent over her blistered, swollen feet.

Continue reading on The Mercury News

Out in the Fields, Contemplating Humanity and a Parched Almond Farm

in Agriculture/business/Environment

Hours before sunrise, Christine Gemperle lay in bed, snoozing an alarm set for 3 a.m. and dozing.

She waited until the chimes outside her window signaled that the wind had died down enough for her to spray insecticide on the 40 acres of almonds that surround her house.

Continue reading on Inside Climate News

Turlock farmer and inventor using special technique to keep irrigation wells working

in Agriculture

Longtime local farmer Joe Sallaberry has overseen two of the well pumps in the region since 1970. But about three months ago, he got worried when he noticed several stopped supplying water.

Continue Reading on Yahoo! News

California’s strawberry fields may not be forever. Could robots help?

in Agriculture/Around California

In a strawberry field surrounded by strawberry fields on the outskirts of Santa Maria, a team of robots have been picking berries all summer.

Each robot, made by a Colorado company called Tortuga AgTech, trundles between the elevated beds on rugged wheels, then stops in front of a plant. An articulated arm maneuvers its sensor array among the leaves; machine vision software scours the sensor data in search of ripe berries.

Most California strawberry plants sprout constantly over the course of the season — little green berries sitting alongside fat red ones, nestled among the leaves. If an unripe berry is in the way, the robot repositions for a better angle. A snipper-grabber mounted in the middle of the sensors jabs in to cut the berry’s stem, then gingerly places it in a waiting plastic clamshell in a compartment at the robot’s base. The motion calls to mind a bird hunting, peering and pecking for insects.

Continue Reading on Los Angeles Times

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