If you are a fan of pigs, you will be happy to know that, after an in depth disease prevention program review by USDA veterinarians and other scientists in 2017, California has once again been classified as Pseudorabies “free.”

While Pseudorabies only impacts the health of swine, it is highly transmissible and can be fatal to pigs.  Maintaining “free” status is a credit to CDFA and particularly to California’s swine producers, because wild pigs in California can carry and spread the disease to our domestic hogs. Continued vigilance in monitoring for any signs of renewed infection via maintenance of programs standards was particularly appreciated by the review team.

Pseudorabies is a viral disease in swine that is endemic in most parts of the world.  It is also known as Aujeszky’s disease and is considered to be one of the most economically important viral diseases of swine.  Pseudorabies means “false rabies,” or “ rabies-like;” however, Pseudorabies is related to the herpes virus, not the rabies virus. It does not infect humans.

The Pseudorabies Eradication Program began in 1989 and California initially became Stage-V “free” of the program in February 2001.

Pseudorabies still exists in feral swine. Sporadic cases are occasionally identified in swine herds with exposure to feral swine.  Targeted surveillance is utilized for pseudorabies because it increases the odds of rapidly finding disease and helps protect  and ensure the commercial swine industry is disease free.

To support this goal, samples are collected from diagnostic laboratories, domestic swine premises with increased risk of exposure to feral swine, livestock markets and buying stations, and various slaughter establishments including sow-boar and market swine.

For more information:

Pseudorabies CDFA Fact Sheet
Pseudorabies Virus Swine Health Information Center
USDA Swine Disease Information
State Status Map

The annual Gilroy Garlic Festival will take place this weekend, July 28-30. In this encore presentation from the Growing California video series, “Gilroy’s Glory,” CDFA takes a look at the festival’s history and the crop itself.

National Moth Week (July 22-30) celebrates the beauty, life cycles, and habitats of moths. “Moth-ers” of all ages and abilities are encouraged to learn about, observe, and document moths in their backyards, parks, and neighborhoods. National Moth Week is being held, worldwide, during the last full week of July. NMW offers everyone, everywhere a unique opportunity to become a Citizen Scientist and contribute scientific data about moths. Through partnerships with major online biological data depositories, NMW participants can help map moth distribution and provide needed information on other life history aspects around the globe.

Visit the website at www.nationalmothweek.org to find a mothing event near you and to register your mothing location. Also on the website you can find links to data depositories site to submit your moth observations.

Link to SciStarter.com

In this video CDFA shows how its collection of moths and other exotic insects at its Plant Pest Diagnostics laboratory helps protect California.

Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program
www.cdfa.ca.gov/go/sfmnp

California’s certified farmers’ markets are great places to give your diet a nutrition boost. CDFA’s Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program helps low-income seniors accomplish just that. It’s a 100 percent federally-funded program that provides check booklets that low-income seniors may use to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables along with specialty items such as fresh-cut herbs and honey. The program began in May and runs through the end of November.

The program is a continuing partnership with 32 Area Agencies on Aging, and together we will distribute approximately 42,000 check booklets this year. Each booklet is valued at $20. On average, the statewide redemption rate has been 92 percent . That’s good news for vendors at the markets, but the real payoff is improved nutrition and health for low-income seniors.

Representatives of the Tulare County Farm Bureau, honored this week for 100 years of service to agriculture.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross joined the California State Fair and state agricultural leaders this week for the annual Ag Heritage Breakfast, a fair-sponsored event that recognizes the pioneers of California agriculture – Ag operations in business for 100 years or more.

The Ag Heritage tradition dates back to the 1940’s, beginning as a 100-year club and expanding its horizons as time passed.

“These farms, ranches and ag organizations were there at the beginning, helping to create the miracle of California agriculture we see today,” said Secretary Ross. “They’re also an essential part of our future as they’re committed to keeping their operations productive for generations to come. They have found the measures of resiliency and flexibility necessary for success, and they’re a shining example for all who have followed. ”

The following farming and ranching operations, and ag organizations were honored at the breakfast:

• Bert Owens Ranches
• California Cattlemen’s Association
• Davis Lumber and Hardware Co.
• Fillmore Farms
• Fresno County Farm Bureau
• Gomes Ranch
• Hine Ranch
• Jackie Baker
• Kern County Fair
• Kern County Farm Bureau
• Los Angeles County Farm Bureau
• MacLean Ranch
• River Vista Farms
• Riverside County Farm Bureau
• Ryan Ranch
• Sacramento County Farm Bureau
• Shasta County Farm Bureau
• S-K Ranch Management LLC
• Sonoma County Farm Bureau
• Tulare County Farm Bureau
• Winton-Ireland, Strom & Green Insurance Agency
• Yerxa Farms

By Karen Ross

All over California, it’s “fair season.”

County fairs are serving up the best that California has to offer and, in our capital city, the California State Fair is in the midst of its Golden Anniversary season at Sacramento’s Cal Expo—the 50th year the fair has been housed there! A half-century of corn dogs, fried foods of all shapes and sizes, and dazzling neon midways. But the State Fair’s value to its community and to the state of California goes much deeper than that, and its complete history is much, much longer.

The State Fair began in 1854 in San Francisco, and was a showcase for agriculture: fruits, vegetables, flowers, grains and livestock. That tradition carries on today and is an anchor at the State Fair as well as many local fairs throughout California.

Livestock competitions are outstanding opportunities for young people; The Farm at the State Fair features a host of crops; the annual wine competition and tasting pavilion showcase California’s world-class vintages; and the State Fair honors its own heritage by celebrating farmers, ranchers and agricultural groups with 100 years of history behind them. Farming and ranching still drive California’s growth and development, and our fairs take pride in highlighting that each and every year.

The fairs are great venues for Californians to demonstrate their skills in a variety of pursuits. A tour of the many exhibits shows impressive talent in art, photography and design, as well as more traditional agrarian pursuits such as canning and baking. It’s inspiring to see that many of those competitive entries come from our young people.

All of California’s fairs serve as community gathering points. Hundreds of thousands of people flock to them annually, and not just for fair runs. They attend concerts, trade shows and sales events. Cal Expo hosts the Global Winter Wonderland during the holiday season, Sacramento Republic FC during pro soccer season, and a year-round monument to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack at the World Trade Center in New York City. California’s fairs believe in service to their communities, and they are committed to the idea that the fair run is just the beginning.

Our fairs also serve as critical emergency shelters. They have housed the homeless during the cold winter months, stood by as cooling centers during periods of extreme heat, and stepped in time and time again to serve as shelters for people and animals in times of natural disaster, as well as command posts for emergency responders working to overcome those disasters.

Just recently, as a devastating wildfire burned near Oroville, the fairgrounds in Chico opened its gates and prepared to work with other emergency organizations to provide a range of services to evacuees. There was also a fire camp set up on the grounds at the Siskiyou Golden Fair in Yreka, and they housed animals at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds  in Angels Camp due to local fires, as well.

A heartwarming example of these disaster-response efforts came earlier this year, when a Northern California couple forced to evacuate due to the threat of collapse at the Oroville Dam went ahead with their planned wedding at their emergency shelter, the Placer County fairgrounds. A squadron of volunteers came together to arrange for a tuxedo and dress, food and drink, and even a limo and wedding night lodging. At the San Diego County Fair, there is an annual event, “My Big Fair Wedding Day,” featuring couples getting hitched at the fair’s annual garden show.

As fairs move into the future, they will continue to look for ways to fully integrate in their communities in a year-round fashion. It’s important to remember they are bona fide public assets and essential institutions that serve Californians in many significant ways.

Link to Ag Alert

Machinery being utilized in Ventura County to create California’s first water market for groundwater. From the Ventura County Star.

By Tyler Hersko

Ventura County farmers can now buy and sell groundwater on a formal market.

The market, the first of its kind in California, experts say will improve the economic value of farming and boost conservation efforts throughout the region.

The Fox Canyon Water Market and Advanced Metering Pilot was created this year in response to legal and environmental concerns that posed ongoing issues for agriculture businesses, especially during the recent drought when water supplies were tightened for farmers and cities.

Laws and regulations limit farmers’ groundwater extraction and usage, which could create problems of waste and inflexibility for those with an excess water supply.

Conversely, farmers with an insufficient water supply previously lacked a formal system that would allow them to purchase groundwater from other agricultural businesses.

The Fox Canyon project allows farmers with too much groundwater to sell the excess to those who need more.

On one hand, this can allow farmers to make money, as water is a valuable commodity essential to farm work. In addition to its financial impact, the water market can also serve as an important conservation tool for county farms, according to the program’s creators. When water becomes scarcer, its market price will rise, which will presumably increase incentives to conserve.

To complicate the issue, California regulations such as overlying rights indirectly encourage farmers to use their land’s water supply, lest other nearby farmers use it, which creators of the Fox Canyon project say promotes a “use it or lose it” mentality.

As further regulations and restrictions on groundwater extraction are likely to impact the county in the near future, creating a system to manage groundwater was important, said Matthew Fienup, executive director of the California Lutheran University Center for Economic Research and Forecasting (CERF).

Fienup cited regulations such as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, a collection of bills that aims to strengthen local and regional oversight of groundwater conservation, as something that farmers would need to adapt to keep thriving. While such acts are designed to combat poor groundwater management and prevent environmental damage, he stressed they necessitate the creation of a water market to help farmers handle increased legal restrictions.

“The reality is that Ventura County is looking at significant cuts to groundwater extraction in the years ahead largely as a result of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,” Fienup said. “The really important question is: What tools do we have in order to give water users flexibility and to maintain the viability of ag in the county? Water trading is one of the most promising tools.”

Fienup worked with approximately 50 local farmers, city representatives and environmental experts to create the market, which officially launched on the Oxnard Plain earlier this year. The market, managed by CERF, has been awarded a $1.9 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to expand the project in late 2017. Although similar markets exist in areas such as Australia, the Fox Canyon pilot is the first of its kind in California.

The water market has potential to both sustain local agriculture and improve its economic value, said Terry Farms owner and CLU professor Edgar Terry, one of the project’s creators. Terry looked at the water market from a practical perspective and said that as water is a crucial commodity for farmers, the county would benefit from a formal system to trade it.

“Given that we have constraints on how much water we can use as a grower, what if I have excess water and my neighbor needs to buy a certain amount of water?” Terry said. “There was no system in the county to do that, which didn’t make sense. Water is an asset (and) I’ve always believed that assets are more efficient when they can be traded in a robust market.”

Terry noted that his own Santa Paula-based Terry Farms was the kind of agriculture business that would benefit from the project, as greater access to water would improve his ability to farm.

“I want to be able to have the flexibility to go to the marketplace and be able to acquire the water that I may not be able to have but somebody else has so I can finish the crops I’m growing,” Terry said. “That’s how I make my living: I grow crops and this area is not conducive to growing dryland wheat. That’s what the marketplace will allow small growers to do.”

While the system is designed to facilitate access to groundwater, it can also help farms that would otherwise lack the resources to stay in business, Fienup said. He added that though the initial positive impacts of the water market were clear, the program is still in its early stages and would likely prosper further down the road due to potential future drought and additional legal restrictions on groundwater usage.

The water market also has a physical element in the form of an advanced, automatic metering program that is designed provide real-time monitoring of groundwater pumping to project participants. The program, developed by Ranch Systems LLC, aims to help farmers further track their pumping

Agriculture experts such as John Krist, CEO of the Farm Bureau of Ventura County, agree the market could be an economic booster with strong potential for conservation. Without access to groundwater, swaths of farmland would need to be taken out of commission, and programs that could prevent farm closures are essential to the county, Krist said.

“We will have another drought and having (the water market) in place will be even more imperative than it is now,” Krist said. “Anything that can maintain the economic viability of the ag industry contributes to the stability and vitality of the county. You don’t want to see 50,000 acres out of production.”

In the long term, the market’s creators hope to extend the program beyond local farming and believe that the Fox Canyon water market can serve as a model for the state. Currently, the pilot program is limited to farmers near Camarillo, Oxnard and Ventura, though its creators aim to eventually expand it to the rest of the county. Terry also said that Ventura County’s cities could also find value in the program in the future, and referred to the water market’s end goal as having farmers trading water with cities and vice versa.

As the water market is still in its infancy, project leaders are unsure when such expansions could occur, but noted that funds from the $1.9 million United States Department of Agriculture grant would greatly assist its eventual growth. Work on the water market has also been bolstered by a $70,000 grant secured by the Economic Development Collaborative-Ventura County for the project. The Morgan Family Foundation, California Stewardship Network funded the $70,000 grant.

The Nature Conservancy, a Virginia-based environmental organization, will administer the grant and work with CERF staff to permanently establish the water market later in the year.

Link to story