Conservation agriculture news

Asgill and Winemiller 2016 CASI Innovators

The CASI (Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation) Center announced the first of its 2016 innovator awards in a recognition ceremony in Madera on the 16^th of August. Ladi Asgill, Senior Project Manager of the San Francisco-based environmental group, Sustainable Conservation, and Mike Winemiller, the Customer Account Manager for California Ag Solutions (CAS), a full-service decision-support company that provides leadership to help farmers achieve efficient, sustainable and profitable production systems, were recognized for the partnership they forged and for the support they've provided to farmers to accelerate the adoption of improved forage production systems in California. Together, they were highly instrumental and successful in helping over two dozen farmers successfully convert to strip-till corn production during the past three years. By combining strip-till and advanced planting equipment with targeted plant nutrition, the tremendously successful relationship that Winemiller and Asgill forged has been instrumental in moving strip-tillage forward in California's dairy silage production sector.

Winemiller is a very knowledgeable and outstanding teacher when it comes to equipment and in particular, strip-tillage. His conservation agriculture equipment and farm management experience combined with his High Plains strip-till background, have greatly helped enable the successful adoption of strip-tillage with all of the California farmers he's worked with. 

In his work with Sustainable Conservation, Asgill has brought great value and recognition to this award-winning environmental organization in recent years. He has bulldogged a number of projects in their diverse portfolio that have been quite useful in terms of both farmer sustainability and environmental benefits. He worked on some of the early research and development related to conservation tillage options for Valley dairy farmers, the incentive-based “BMP Challenge” NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant project here in California with a group from the Midwest, the development of CASI's strategic plan, and the ongoing biennial conservation tillage acreage survey. 

More information regarding Asgill and Winemiller, CASI's 2016 Farmer Support Innovator Awardees, is available at the CASI website http://casi.ucanr.edu/ . Two additional innovator award ceremonies will take place later this year in Orland and in Tulare.

Soil Health Baseline Monitoring at Poldevarrt Dairy in Orland, CA

Baseline soil health monitoring was begun by Wendy Krehbiel and Megan Schroeder of the USDA NRCS, and Betsy Karle, UCCE Advisor, in Glenn County at the dairy farm of Marty Poldevarrt on August 8, 2016. An array of tests including soil water infiltration, bulk density, total carbon, respiration, % residue cover, and texture are being conducted with a goal of developing point of departure data for how soil properties and functions might change over time with the strip-tillage management that Poldevarrt is conducting. The evaluation site is part of California's farm demonstration network that now includes several farms where similar time-course monitoring is underway

Update on May/June farm visit series

July 24, 2016

CASI folks,

A final summary of the many lessons that surfaced during the five farm visits that were held back in May and June is now posted at the CASI website at   http://ucanr.edu/?blogpost=21603&blogasset=85918.

Additional farm demonstration evaluations are being established and we hope to have more opportunities to share this work in the near future.  If you are interested in becoming involved with the farm demonstration network, please contact us at (559) 303-9689.

 http://ucanr.edu/?blogpost=21603&blogasset=85918

 

Sano Farms Farm Visit Video Now Available on You Tube and at the CASI Website

A short video summarizing some of the information that was provided at the June 24^th farm visit to Sano Farms in Firebaugh, CA is now available at You Tube (https://youtu.be/Qa5vVvmQjXU) or at our CASI website (http://casi.ucanr.edu/Video_updates/).  We apologize that not more of the field day was captured, but we didn't do a very good job of audio capture that day and are sorry that we didn't collect better sound.

Tom Willey's Radio Interview with CalCAN's Renata Brillinger and CASI's Jeff Mitchell

Tom Willey's "Down on the Farm" 88.1 FM KFCF Radio Interview with CalCAN's Renata Brillinger and CASI's Jeff Mitchell on California's GHG emissions offset programs and the California farm demonstration network

 

An audio archive of the KFCF 88.1 FM radio program of Tom Willey's "Down on the Farm" segment for July 1, 2016 that included interviews with CalCAN's Renata Brillinger and our own CASI's Jeff Mitchell is now posted at the CASI website.  This hour-long interview included discussion of the State's GHG emissions offset programs by Brillinger and information on our farm demonstration network from Mitchell.

The radio program can be heard by clicking on this link:  http://casi.ucanr.edu/video_updates/radio_updates/

 

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