By Whitney Forman-Cook

The House Agriculture Committee heard from the private sector Wednesday on how it plans to safely use the “big data” American producers collect with farm equipment during their day-to-day operations.

“Big data has what seems like a boundless potential to improve the efficiency, profitability and competiveness of our nation’s farmers and ranchers,” Chairman Mike Conaway said in his opening statement. But before the benefits of big data can be fully realized, the Texas Republican said, an important question needs answering: How can privacy and private property rights be protected when farmers willingly hand their data over to private companies?

Today’s farmers generate data regularly with their modern tractors, combines, sprayers and planters equipped with computers, sophisticated sensors and GPS. These highly intelligent machines can record data on an inch-by-inch scale, giving farmers precise information they can use to effectively adjust input levels, maximize yields and even reduce sediment and nutrient runoff.

Away from the farm, the same data can be used to inform product development, manufacturing, trade and potentially agriculture policy, if producers allow their information to be sent to a virtual repository known as the “cloud.”

Take AGCO, for instance. Matt Rushing, a vice president for the farm equipment manufacturer told lawmakers at the hearing that the company “encourages growers to share” the data its machines collect to better understand what can be done to improve its product.

And even though the data is transferred to AGCO via cloud computing systems for use by the company, Rushing said the farmer still “owns and should have control and responsibility for the data generated by his or her operation.”

Climate Corporation, the company responsible for the Climate FieldView Platform that uses real-time and historical crop and weather data to make farm management prescriptions, also asks producers to share their data.

“As a company that will utilize our customers’ data in the course of developing these transformational digital tools, we take our commitment to safe-guarding that data very seriously,” said Mike Stern, the president and CEO of the company, which was acquired by Monsanto in 2013. Those safeguards include a guarantee that the farmers’ data will only be used for the services they subscribe to, it won’t be sold or shared with third parties, and that it can upon request be removed from the company system if a farmer decides to cut ties.

Big data could, in theory, end up in the wrong hands however. The witnesses described situations where an investor could use aggregated data gathered by companies for an unfair advantage in the futures markets. And they raised the possibility that regulators could use the data to identify which farms are conservation compliant, and which are no longer eligible for crop insurance or other assistance programs.

Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst testified that his group, commodity associations such as the American Soybean Association and a number of big agribusinesses, including John Deere, DuPont Pioneer, Monsanto, are committed to developing a framework for the safe and transparent transfer of data that helps and protects farmers. But the government has to stay out of it, Hurst stressed.

“Farmers prefer this teamwork, ‘business-to-business’ approach over a regulatory approach or legislative ‘fix’ because we believe the market will provide the process to address problems if farmers have an equal footing with agribusinesses,” Hurst said. “If we rely on the government to make changes, the undue overhead might irreversibly deter innovation.”

The other hearing witnesses agreed that Congress could play a minor supportive role, but the free market should be allowed to establish its own standardized and secure process for transfer of agricultural data.

Billy Tiller, a fourth generation farmer, has done just that. As the cofounder and director of the Grower Information Service Cooperative (GiSC) – a farmer-owned data cooperative that advocates for grower data ownership and transparency in private sector data handling – Tiller testified that “big data” will only benefit family operations if farmers can safely share their information with other parties.

That’s why GiSC is developing “a secure data platform” that “integrates and stores data from the myriad of technologies adopted by the ag community” and also “allow growers to share data with others” while maintaining ownership.

GiSC said its platform will be called “AgXchange,” and expects its current membership of 1,300 farmers in 37 states to grow once it’s formally deployed.

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Farms are encouraged to accept flood flows from storms to help recharge groundwater.

From Sustainable Conservation:

After a harrowing string of dry years, California pines for wet weather. With summer in the rearview mirror, our farms, communities, and wildlife sure could use a hydrating boost this winter.

The Golden State’s record-breaking drought has prompted widely voiced concerns about farming’s use of water. At the same time, our agricultural sector helps feed the nation. How can California conserve and protect water while providing sustenance to millions?

Sustainable Conservation has a plan to marry these pivotal actions. Expanding upon our work in the Kings River Basin, we’re mobilizing San Joaquin Valley farmers to accept flood flows from pending storms onto active cropland to help replenish groundwater – California’s underground “savings account” for parched seasons.

And, we’re thrilled to announce a remarkable new partner in our outreach: the Almond Board of California. The key group – which represents nearly 7,000 almond growers and processors on approximately one million acres throughout the state – has committed to being part of California’s groundwater solution with us.

With forecasts calling for strong El Niño rains, we’re just in time. Throughout the arid months of summer and into the fall, Sustainable Conservation has been working diligently to line up willing farmers with the right soils to demonstrate our strategy as soon as precipitation returns.

The technique more closely mimics the natural floodplain process of rivers spreading seasonally across the valley and recharging over-tapped aquifers below. By allowing waterways to stream back onto agricultural lands with sandy, permeable soils and applying water at rates compatible with crop production, we can also reduce the risk of flooding to downstream communities.

“Both the Almond Board and Sustainable Conservation believe that a healthy environment and farming sector can only be achieved through collaboration and uniting around common goals.”
Ashley Boren, Executive Director, Sustainable Conservation

Through nearly 100 innovative Almond Board-funded research projects since 1994, California almond growers have incorporated irrigation practices that reduced the amount of water needed to grow each pound of almonds by 33%*.

As part of our partnership, a team of Almond Board-funded UC Davis researchers will monitor three of the ten demonstration plots we are selecting in the San Joaquin Valley to test on-farm recharge this winter. Findings will assist in identifying the orchard practices and recharge conditions best suited for almond tree health, and the Almond Board will map where additional orchards can be part of replenishing our subterranean stores.

Bold alliances are needed now more than ever, and we’re proud to join forces with this vital industry player to build a powerful buffer against future droughts. Ever the solution match-maker, we’re hoping to unite storm with soil very soon to the benefit of our Golden State’s environment and people.

“Almond growers understand and share the concerns of many Californians about agriculture’s impact on state and local water resources, especially during this prolonged drought. Almond growers are part of the fabric of their local communities, often living on the land that their families have farmed for generations. Their own families, communities, and neighbors are equally impacted by groundwater concerns. These efforts focus on leveraging a significant attribute of the California Almond industry – the land dedicated to growing almonds – to continue our efforts to do our part to realize a sustainable California water supply.”
Richard Waycott, President and CEO, Almond Board of California

Link to Sustainable Conservation

Cooperatives are at the very heart of agriculture. Cooperative systems emerge at all levels of production and extend through many facets, from harvesting to marketing. Co-ops can be complex operations that serve as supportive foundations for farmers and ranchers, and they can be as simple as direct marketing between farmers and consumers. Co-ops enable many small family farm operations to reach markets, direct research, and connect with consumers in ways they would not be able to do alone. The United Nations has said that, “Cooperatives are a reminder…that it’s possible to pursue both economic viability and social responsibility.” Our agricultural co-ops achieve both on a daily basis while making an invaluable contribution, as demonstrated by the designation of October as National Co-op Month.

The USDA has found that cooperatives earned $6.5 billion in net income and generated $246.7 billion in total revenue last year. Net income increased 16.5 percent while revenue rose 0.4 percent from 2013. Co-ops set records for income and revenue in 2014 for the fourth year in a row.

In California, co-ops have been major success stories, transforming themselves into brands sought around the world – for example,  Sunkist, Blue Diamond, Sunsweet and Sun-Maid.  Four of our state’s Ag co-ops rank in the top-100 nationally: California Dairies Inc. of Artesia at number-six, Blue Diamond in Sacramento is #25, Sunkist out of Sherman Oaks is #32, and Pacific Coast Producers of Lodi is #71

Here at CDFA, we are committed to policies that that will allow co-ops to continue to flourish. This is demonstrated by the state’s Certified Farmers Market program, signed into law by Governor Brown during his first term in office, back in 1976. Many California farmers involved in this and other aspects of the direct marketing industry, including CSAs, have established and participate in cooperatives. California is now the national leader in farmers markets, with approximately 800 of them featuring  more than two-thousand certified producers. And California’s CSAs deliver farm-fresh produce directly to thousands of loyal customers.

While it’s important to recognize that co-ops remain a major component of the food and agricultural industry,  they are also able to help people in virtually all segments of the economy. Cooperatives are an extension of the human spirit and a daily reminder that we’re all in this together!

By Geoffrey Mohan

Bob Lombardi, 70, went ahead and planted two acres of baby bear pumpkins in a corner of his shut-down ranch this year, just to say he had farmed for 50 years. He hoed them every day by hand, too, the way he and his wife, Joann, did in the beginning, when they had youth, hope and water.

All three are gone, and this may be the end of Lombardi Ranch, a Santa Clarita landmark known for its lavish Halloween pumpkin patch.

Around California, drought has taken a toll on small “agritourism” farms that once thrived on the Halloween season crowd. Some have shut down, while others have stopped growing their own pumpkins or trimmed acres from their corn mazes and canceled activities that require water.

Even the hobby growers of behemoth varieties for contests say they’ve had a hard time keeping their half-ton gourds from cracking apart — an Oregon grower won this year’s weigh-in at Half Moon Bay.

The travails haunting some of the state’s small farms this Halloween come even as large-scale growers of the ornamental gourds in the San Joaquin Valley say they’ve had a bumper crop that is in high demand because of rain-damaged harvests in the Midwest, Texas and East Coast.

The divergent fates illustrate a paradox of California’s drought: farmers with recourse to deep wells can reap a tidy profit. Those who don’t might not farm again.

“We could’ve bought pumpkins and made a pumpkin lot,” Lombardi said. “But we didn’t have the water to grow all of the sunflowers and the maze — the things that make the patch. I don’t want to look like the guy down the road who has just a tent and is throwing pumpkins on the ground.”

The immediate source of Lombardi’s fate is a convoluted dispute with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power over releases of water behind the Bouquet Canyon dam, part of the Los Angeles Aqueduct system.

The agency drastically reduced water flow into Bouquet Creek about eight years ago, after a storm clogged the creek bed, causing floods on Bouquet Canyon Road. The agency is locked in a squabble with the U.S. Forest Service, the county Public Works Department and environmental groups over restoring the creek bed.

Without that water, and without rain, Lombardi’s wells are not recharging. One is dry. The other runs at one-seventh its former strength. It would take two years of El Niño rain to recharge the wells, Lombardi said.

Elsewhere, the Corona Pumpkin Farm at CJ’s Ranch in Perris has closed. The property is for sale — the result, owners say, of a 30% cutback in water due to the drought.

Webb Ranch, an organic grower in Portola, canceled its Walk on Water giant bubble attraction to conserve water.

In Merced, Bear Creek Pumpkin Patch at Fox Creek Ranch eliminated its corn maze to save water for its pumpkin crop.

Mark Cooley, a Dixon tomato farmer who also runs a you-pick pumpkin operation, Cool Patch, made hard choices about crop rotation. That forced him to cut his record-setting maze from 63 acres to 44. (Besides, he said, some people got so lost last year they dialed 911.)

Cooley’s decision paid off. He had a bumper crop on the 44 acres he planted with pumpkins, even with a more miserly use of water.

Bryan Van Groningen, a co-owner of Von Groningen & Sons Inc. in Manteca, said the harvest from 1,400 acres of pumpkins has been up by about 15% to 20% from last year. He supplies his Magic Wand carving pumpkins and dozens of other varieties to several in-state food store chains.

This year, though, he has shipped as far as Texas, where rain damaged the state’s own crop. The Phoenix market also was stronger because it normally is supplied from Texas and New Mexico, where yields also suffered from bad weather, he said. (As of Oct. 9, the U.S. Southwest had the highest average retail price for pumpkins: $4.34, about 50 cents higher than the Midwest or Northeast, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.)

“We did run into some heat in early September,” Van Groningen said. “We lost some of our specialty varieties that have a delicate, thinner shell. Aside from that, we had a pretty successful year.”

Nearby, in Riverbank, John Bos of Dutch Hollow Farms opted to sell some of his water allotment back to the irrigation district, skip his silage corn crop and bet hard on just 10 acres of pumpkins for his patch, across a busy road from a Best Buy mini-mall. It paid off.

“For once I gambled correctly,” said Bos, who also grows tulips in spring.

Statewide, growers have gambled on crops that give them the best yield per drop, agriculture experts say. Despite the drought’s estimated $1.5-billion toll on the agriculture economy last year, many of California’s vegetable crops, and a few fruits, have had increased yields, according to UC Davis and the USDA. Pumpkin harvests were up 16% last year.

When autumn temperatures begin to cool, many people like to warm themselves with a cozy fire.

When choosing firewood, natural resources experts ask that people use local firewood to avoid moving harmful insects and plant diseases into and around California.

“Buy firewood from a local source close to your home to prevent the spread of insects and diseases, such as the goldspotted oak borer, sudden oak death and emerald ash borer,” said Thomas Scott, a University of California Cooperative Extension specialist based at UC Riverside who studies these invasive pests.

“Firewood is one of the least-regulated natural resource industries in California,” said Scott, “but this is a situation where the university can play a critical role in changing behavior through research and education rather than regulation.”

Scott and his UC Cooperative Extension colleagues are working with the U.S. Forest Service, the California Firewood Task Force and other agencies to educate and discourage woodcutters, arborists, firewood dealers and consumers from transporting infested wood.

“Many people don’t realize that firewood can harbor harmful insects and plant pathogens. Moving around infested wood can introduce those pests and pathogens to new areas where they might take hold and could have devastating impacts to trees, our natural resources and local communities,” said Don Owen, California Firewood Task Force chair and CAL FIRE forest pest specialist based in Redding.

“Even wood that looks safe can harbor destructive pests,” cautioned Janice Alexander, UC Cooperative Extension sudden oak death outreach coordinator in Marin County. For example, female goldspotted oak borers lay eggs in cracks and crevices of oak bark, and the larvae burrow into the cambium (inner tissue) of the tree to feed so they may not be visible.

The goldspotted oak borer has killed more than 80,000 oak trees in San Diego County in the last decade, and Scott hopes it can be contained in that region. The half-inch-long beetle is native to Arizona but not to California and likely traveled in a load of infested firewood.

In his research, Scott has found outbreaks of goldspotted oak borer 20 miles from the infested area, which leads him to believe movement in firewood is the most likely reason for the beetle leap-frogging miles of healthy oak woodlands to end up in places like La Jolla. In communities where people harvest local trees for firewood, oaks have remained relatively beetle-free, Scott said.

In addition to concealing goldspotted oak borer, firewood may harbor other destructive invasive species such as emerald ash borer or the pathogen that causes sudden oak death. Sudden oak death has killed more than a million oak and tanoak trees in 14 coastal California counties, from Monterey to Humboldt. The highly destructive emerald ash borer has been identified in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, but not California.

“Our best defense against the GSOB outbreak is the enlightened self-interest of Californians purchasing firewood,” Scott added.  “If you want to protect the oaks around your house, neighborhood, and nearby woodlands, make sure that you’re not buying wood that could contain these beetles.”

In a broader sense, buy firewood from reputable dealers, from local sources whenever possible – and try to make sure that the wood you buy has been properly seasoned and doesn’t contain pests.

Tips for buying oak firewood

• Don’t buy green firewood from unknown sources; it has the highest chance of containing pests and pathogens.

• Ask where the firewood originated. If it isn’t local, ask what precautions the seller has taken to ensure that the firewood is free of harmful insects and disease or consider buying from another local source.

• Wood should preferably be bark-free, or have been dried and cured for one year prior to movement.

• If you see D-shaped exit holes, be reluctant to buy unless you know the wood has dried for at least a year or longer.

For more information about the pests and diseases that threaten California’s oaks, visit these websites:

• GSOB.org

• firewood.ca.gov

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By Ken Christensen

Honeybees need a healthy diet of pollen, nectar and water. But at a bee laboratory in eastern Washington state, Steve Sheppard fills their feeding tubes with murky brown liquid from the forest.

His bees are getting a healthy dose of mushroom juice.

“If this does what we hope, it will be truly revolutionary,” says Sheppard, who heads the Department of Entomology at Washington State University. “Beekeepers are running out of options.”

Commercial honeybees, which pollinate $15 billion worth of crops in the United States annually, have teetered on the brink of collapse for nearly a decade. A third of all bee colonies have died each year since 2006, on average, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Scientists say the mysterious phenomenon, known as colony collapse disorder, may be the result of at least 60 environmental factors that combine to cripple honeybees — including pesticides, disease, malnutrition, loss of habitat and climate change.

Beekeepers, however, say the honeybee’s single greatest threat is a virus-carrying parasite called the varroa mite.

Sheppard has spent decades breeding western honeybees to better tolerate the mite and its viruses. But he hasn’t had much success, he says.

Varroa mites have devastated U.S. beehives since the late 1980s, when they arrived here from Asia. In 1996, half of the colonies east of the Mississippi River died due to mite infestations.

The reddish-brown pests, which are no bigger than the head of a pin, invade colonies and multiply rapidly. They hide among bee larvae developing in the honeycomb, feed on infant bee blood and lay several eggs each.

“It would be like having something the size of a pancake feeding on you,” Sheppard says.

Honeybees that emerge from the infected hives typically carry illnesses, like a virus that results in deformed wings that prevent bees from flying.

If beekeepers don’t intervene, the varroa mite can destroy a colony in less than two years. Meanwhile, the pest reproduces so rapidly, it builds resistance to chemical pesticides more quickly than solutions can be invented, Sheppard says.

That’s why he decided to try an unconventional approach last year, after local mushroom expert Paul Stamets called him with an idea to help arm the honeybee in its fight against the mite.

“We’ve gone to the moon, we’ve gone to Mars, but we don’t know the way of the bee?” says Stamets, who owns the medicinal mushroom company Fungi Perfecti near Olympia, Wash.

The self-taught mycologist says he noticed a relationship between honeybees and mushrooms when he observed bees sipping on sugar-rich fungal roots growing in his backyard.

“I looked down, and they were sucking on my mycelium,” he says.

Now he thinks he knows why.

In recent years, his research has shown that rare fungi found in the old-growth forests of western Washington can help fight other viruses and diseases, including tuberculosis, smallpox and bird flu. He wondered if the honeybee would see similar health benefits from wood-rotting mushrooms.

“Bees have immune systems, just like we do,” he says. “These mushrooms are like miniature pharmaceutical factories.”

Stamets and Sheppard are feeding liquid extracts of those forest mushrooms to mite-infected honeybees. Initial findings suggest that five species of the wood-rotting fungi can reduce the honeybees’ viruses and increase their lifespans.

In addition, the scientists are trying to fight honeybee viruses by taking aim at the varroa mite itself. Insect-killing fungi have been used as an alternative to synthetic chemical pesticides for years, and previous studies show that one type of entomopathogenic fungus can weaken varroa mites in beehives.

Paul Stamets thinks his version of the fungus will be more effective. So far, the results of the experiments in Sheppard’s lab look promising.

“The product seems to be killing mites without harming bees,” Sheppard says.

This fall, the scientists plan to expand both experiments by partnering with commercial beekeepers like Eric Olson, who runs the largest commercial beekeeping operation in Washington.

Olson says two-thirds of his beehives died five years ago because of a varroa mite infestation. After several years successfully controlling the pest, he arrived this year in California for almond pollination season and nearly half of his bees had died during the winter.

He spent $770,000 to buy replacement hives, he says.

“I was lucky that I had the cash and the connections to recover from that,” he says.

Olson recently donated about $50,000 to Sheppard’s department to help find a solution to the mite. Looking at the bees in one of his hives, he says, “I’m really concerned about whether these little girls will survive.”

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By Bob Johnson

Hundreds of farmers around the state are upgrading their irrigation systems with the financial support of a California Department of Food and Agriculture grant program for projects that improve water and energy efficiency, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

CDFA awarded $10 million in 2014 to help more than 130 growers improve their irrigation through the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program, and announced an additional 100 projects for 2015 awards last week.

One of the 2014 awards helped finance a weather station at Rio Viente Vineyards near the Sacramento River in Walnut Creek.

“That provides the Et data,” said Jamie Reamer, who oversees irrigation at the family vineyard, as she pointed toward the weather station. “Every Wednesday, I look at the Et for the previous week and talk to the viticulturist.”

While the weather station provides evapotranspiration data, sensors buried in the ground at each block radio back soil moisture data for every four inches to a depth of four feet.

The combination of the two sorts of information lets Reamer devise a precise irrigation program, and monitor whether there are problems that need to be addressed.

“The Et tells me how much water to apply, and the soil sensors tell me how to apply it,” she said. “What I’ve learned with the sensors is every block has its own story. One block has infiltration problems, where the water goes down to a foot and stops; this lets me try different solutions and see how they’re working. Another block hits peat at 20 inches, and I know not to run long sets. It’s learning to apply water in sets of duration that make sense.”

The combination of instruments and transmitters makes information easily on hand every day that would otherwise only be available through considerable effort at each vineyard block.

“You can auger the ground, but you’re not going to auger every day,” Reamer said. “I can sit at my desk 22 miles away and decide how long to run the water. The in-line pressure sensors tell me if the blocks are irrigating properly or if there is a problem in the line.”

CDFA has helped other farmers install equipment that gives them more precise information to guide irrigation decisions.

Daniel Jackson installed a system to monitor soil moisture through sensors with electronic data output and flow meters to ensure efficient irrigation scheduling at his Family Tree Farms in Tulare County.

Four Oaks Farming in San Benito County installed equipment to test soil moisture levels, and onsite weather and CIMIS requirements to improve irrigation efficiency of its organic walnut orchard.

And Six K’s Orchards in Butte County converted from flood irrigation to efficient micro-jet irrigation with solar panels to run the water pump.

The awards, made available through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the proceeds of California’s greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program, are for a maximum of $150,000 per project.

“We have money to give out to save water and reduce greenhouse gases,” said Amrith Gunasekara, CDFA science advisor. “It uses greenhouse gas reduction funds.”

Funds have been awarded to highly established firms and beginning farmers, for highly sophisticated technical improvements and for relatively simple water storage projects.

At the 4,200-acre Scheid Vineyards outside Greenfield, SWEEP funds helped finance irrigation and fertilizer automation equipment, soil and microclimate monitoring equipment, and a variable-frequency drive for pumping efficiency improvements.

SWEEP funds last year also helped a complex of small farms just outside Davis put real-time moisture sensors in the ground for four crops, retrofit automatic irrigation on two pumps, install a gray water system to irrigate existing blackberry fields and a vegetable plot, and install solar panels to replace a three-horsepower gasoline-powered pump.

“The panels power one of the pumps that irrigate vegetables, melons and blackberries,” said Emma Torbert, one of the principals at the Cloverleaf Farm tree fruit orchard.

In addition to buying hardware, the SWEEP grant funds also pay off by encouraging farmers to devote their precious management time to learning as much as possible about irrigation and energy efficiency.

“One of the good things about the grant was having all of us farmers brainstorm about ways to save water and energy,” Torbert said. “We thought of ways to save water that didn’t cost anything.”

One of the rows at the Cloverleaf orchard, for example, was left without weed-suppressing mulch as an experiment in how much water the mulch saves.

The sophisticated moisture sensors and weather station at the Rio Viente Vineyard have also set in motion a learning process.

“I’m using Et, and that’s the most important thing, but I’m still learning,” Reamer said. “One of the things I’m working on is calibrating the point where we have the sensors to the rest of the block.”

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