The Asian Citrus Psyllid.

By Robin Koestoyo

Fighting plant disease with jet blast sprays is standard practice for Florida citrus growers fighting Asian citrus psyllid — the vaunted vector of  citrus greening. But, to spray a fungus to control a single insect that carries a disease-causing pathogen is uncommon. With that, scientists from UF/IFAS and the Florida Research Center for Agricultural Sustainability are collaborating to test an insect-killing fungus applied with horticultural oil sprays in a Vero Beach, FL, citrus grove.

The fungus, Isaria fumosorosea, is said to occur naturally in citrus groves. Lance Osborne, a Professor of entomology at the UF/IFAS Mid Florida Research and Education Center in Apopka, first discovered the fungus attacking mealybugs in a greenhouse in the mid-1980s. According to Ron Cave, Director of the UF/IFAS Indian River Research and Education Center (IRREC) near Fort Pierce, now scientists are interested in using the fungus for the good of growers because it kills and changes the feeding behavior of the citrus psyllid.

Pasco Avery, a Biological Scientist based at IRREC, tested the fungus against the psyllid under laboratory conditions. His findings, which are published in Insects, Biocontrol Science and Technology as well as Florida Entomologist, document the fungus’ promise as an effective biological control agent against the Asian citrus psyllid.

According to Avery, the fungus kills the psyllid but is compatible with beneficial insects like lady beetles, lacewings and parasitic wasps. “The fungus is not a panacea, but it is expected to greatly reduce the problem we have in managing the psyllid populations.”

Bob Adair, Executive Director at the Florida Research Center for Agricultural Sustainability, heard about Avery’s work with the fungus and approached him about using commercial sprayers to distribute the fungus in his groves. Adair has partnered with UF/IFAS on multiple occasions over the years to conduct agricultural research.

Avery carried out experiments in his lab to determine if the oils were compatible with the fungus. He found the oils sustained the fungus and helped it to grow and thrive, he said.

Adair said the next step was to determine its efficacy in field trials in citrus groves. The fungus needs to be tested in outdoor groves to determine whether it can suppress the Asian citrus psyllid population to the point where trees will be protected and that the psyllid will not become resistant to the sprays.

Avery and Adair conducted a first field spray trial in mid-June. About 1 acre of trees was sprayed on one side of the row. The scientists mixed 1% of a commercial product containing I. fumosorosea with stylet oil for 65 pounds of spray. The spray was applied to the trees at dusk with a pull air blast sprayer hitched to a tractor.

Avery said the fungus was effective in suppressing the psyllid population and that it lasted for up to 14 days after application. “What we found with this first experiment was that the fungus was as effective as the active ingredient of the insecticide spinosad,” Adair exclaimed.

A second field trial is scheduled for September. For that trial, both sides of the trees in the same grove will be sprayed with fungus added to the horticultural oil.

Link to article

The fairgrounds in Shasta County are serving as a base camp for fire fighters responding to the Carr Fire.

With the Carr, Ferguson, Mendocino Complex, Whaleback and Natchez fires continuing to burn in Shasta County, Lassen County, Mariposa County, Mendocino County, and Del Norte County–not to mention a number of additional fires–California’s network of fairs is fulfilling a crucial role as staging areas for fire crews, and serving as evacuation centers for people and animals. The following fairgrounds are serving during the current spate of wildfires.

Mariposa County Fairgrounds and Exposition Center, Mariposa, CA: This is an evacuation center currently housing people and animals displaced by wildfire.

Tehama District Fairgrounds, Red Bluff, CA:  As many as 200 animals are being housed at this site, which is also serving as a fire camp.

Sonoma-Marin Fair, Petaluma, CA: Seventy goats are being sheltered at this animal evacuation center.

Shasta District Fair and Event Center, Anderson, CA: This fair is serving as a base camp for crews from CalFire, the National Guard and the California Conservation Corps.

Lassen County Fair, Susanville, CA: This is a fire camp supporting crews from CalFire, the US Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.

Lake County Fair, Lakeport, CA: Utility crews responding to fires are being housed there.

This emergency service is yet another example of how California’s network of fairs partners with local communities. The fairs are much more than a place to congregate and celebrate. They are bonafide public assets; essential institutions that serve Californians in many important ways.

USDA veterinarian Dr. Daniel Ahnen (standing) meets with bird owners and 4H members last night in Murrieta, Riverside County – part of ongoing outreach in the Virulent Newcastle Disease project in Southern California. Dr. Ahnen and Dr. P. Ryan Clarke, also of the USDA, provided an overview of the program as well as key biosecurity tips to prevent spread of the disease. More information here.

Virulent Newcastle Disease has been detected in San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles counties. The disease has been found at a total of 74 properties – all residential. It has not been detected at commercial poultry operations. In this video, USDA veterinarian Dr. P. Ryan Clarke discusses the current incident along with a review of the disease outbreak in 2002-2003 in California.

This slide informed bird owners of the status of the current outbreak.

A rooster at a Kern County chicken ranch.
From the Bakersfield Californian

By John Cox

Garcia’s Feed & Pet on the outskirts of east Bakersfield sells baby chicks in an area where backyard coops are common. Employee Genaro Garcia said he fields customer questions about virulent Newcastle disease probably once a month.

This flyer is being distributed to feed stores in southern and Central California. Find it online

Historic heat records fell in California earlier this month. Yet, two weeks later, another mass of warm air has returned to the southern part of the state, heating the region for days.

The second heat wave of July will last from Monday through Thursday, said the National Weather Service. While this heat won’t be quite as severe as the last, it’ll still bring “record and near-record high temperatures” to different areas of California.

As average temperatures around the globe continue their accelerated rise, extreme heat events like these are becoming more and more frequent.

“The big picture is clear,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in an interview.

“As our temperatures globally have been increasing, we’ve been seeing a lot more record-breaking heat waves,” said Swain. “It’s not just this year or last year — it just the way things have been.”

Potent greenhouse gases amassing in Earth’s atmosphere, notably carbon dioxide, are responsible for trapping heat on the planet, causing overall temperatures to rise.

“With greenhouse-gas induced warming temperatures, heatwaves are expected to become more common,” Robert Weisenmiller, Chair of the  California Energy Commission, said via email.

“The number and duration of heat waves will also increase and, again, high temperature records will be broken more frequently,” said Weisenmiller.

“There are many variables with weather, but scientist around the world agree, in general, extreme weather is becoming more common, along with rising seas, prolonged droughts, and more frequent wildfires.”

The region of warm air now over Southern California, often referred to as a “heat dome,” had been parked over the desert Southwest, but Swain noted that it can “wobble around.” Now, it’s come back west.

It’s not unusual for inland Southern California, like the valleys beyond Los Angeles, to hit 110 degrees Fahrenheit or higher during a heat wave. But, “it’s something special to get those temperatures near the coast,” said Swain, as they did earlier this month. Temperatures here are usually tempered by the cooler air over the Pacific Ocean.

“A warming of our planet and of California in particular will result in more frequent breaks of temperature records including areas near the coast,” said Weisenmiller. “Both coastal areas and inland regions will experience record breaking temperatures in both regions.”

The University of California, Los Angeles campus, for instance, hit 111 degrees on July 6 — an all-time record. These extreme temperatures were largely enabled by wind blowing air down from the warm air mass hovering thousands of feet above Southern California. As warm air descends, it compresses, generating even more heat.

“When you warm something up that’s already warm, it can become super hot,” said Swain. At 3 a.m. in coastal Santa Barbara County, it was nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit on July 6.

The new heat wave, while less intense than the previous scorcher, will reach between 100 and 110 degrees in Southern California’s valleys and deserts. The heat isn’t just restricted to California, as temperatures in Phoenix, Arizona are forecast to reach over 115 degrees Fahrenheit this week.

In California, perhaps few all-time records will fall this week. But others likely will.

“We’re probably going to have record-high temps — merely exceeding the daily records,” said Swain.

Link to story

By Pamela Kan Rice

Nineteen teams of college students from top universities in the U.S., Canada and China will compete to build robots to mechanize farm work at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Meeting in Detroit.

The 2018 ASABE Student Robotics Challenge, being organized by Alireza Pourreza, University of California Cooperative Extension agricultural mechanization specialist, will be held on July 31.

“The labor availability for agriculture is decreasing while the need for more food is increasing to feed the growing world population,” said Pourreza, who is based in the UC Davis Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. “So agriculture should switch to technologies that are less labor-dependent, such as using more robots, to overcome this challenge.”

The ASABE Student Robotics Challenge provides an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills of robotics in agriculture.

“The goal of this event is to encourage young agricultural engineers to get involved in building robots for agricultural applications and to get experienced as the next generation of farmers,” Pourreza said.

The challenge will be to simulate the harvest and storage of apples, a crop commercially grown in several states. The students will design and operate robots that will autonomously harvest “apples” on field that measures 8 feet by 8 feet. The robots will harvest eight mature apples (red ping-pong balls), remove and dispose of eight diseased or rotten apples (blue ping-pong balls) and leave eight immature apples (green ping-pong balls) on the tree.

This year, the competitors are being divided into a beginner division and an advanced division.

Beginner Teams

California Polytechnic State University        Green and Gold Mustangs
China Agricultural College                          China Ag, Beginners
McGill University                                       We Are Groots
Purdue                                                     ABE Robotics
Purdue                                                     Harvestiers
Texas A&M                                               Texas A&M
University of California Merced                   Bobcats
University of Nebraska Lincoln                    HuskerBots 2
University of Nebraska Lincoln                    HuskerBots3
University of Wisconsin River Falls               Falcon Robotics
Zhejiang University                                    ZJU team 1
Zhejiang University                                    ZJU team 2
Clemson University                                    CARA

Advanced Teams

China Agricultural College                             Dream
McGill University                                          Agrobots
University of Georgia                                    UGA Engineers
University of California – Davis                      Ag-Botics
University of Florida                                      RoboGators
University of Nebraska Lincoln                       HuskerBots 1

The competition will be held in Cobo Center Exhibit Hall, 1 Washington Blvd., Detroit, Michigan. There will be three rounds throughout the day and each team will participate once in each round.

For more information, visit the 2018 ASABE robotics competition website: https://www.asabe.org/Awards-Competitions/Student-Awards-Competitions-Scholarships/Robotics-Student-Design-Competition.

Video of 2016 competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1ymUiCr3Mc

Video of 2017 competition: https://vimeo.com/250379863

Link to UC ANR blog

Teachers learn about egg production in Kern County.

By Joseph Luiz

The ongoing program to eradicate Virulent Newcastle Disease (VND) following detections in San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles counties is a very deliberate process requiring teams of CDFA and USDA employees to go door-to-door in the search for symptoms of the disease among backyard birds.

So far VND has been detected at 65 properties, but survey teams have paid visits to more than 73,000 thousand properties. Quarantines are in place at 1,786 properties, and even though the disease has not been detected at commercial poultry operations, several of them are under quarantine due to their proximity to infected premises, as a safeguard.

Outreach is a key part of the survey teams’ work. Information is shared on prevention and the recognition of symptoms at each property. This effort includes visits to farmers’ markets, feed stores, veterinary clinics and egg sellers; as well as ongoing communications with bird clubs and 4H groups and weekend visits to church services in the affected areas.

As this work continues bird owners everywhere, but especially in Southern California, are urged to practice strict biosecurity measures. In Southern California these include:

1. Don’t move birds
2. Don’t bring new birds to the property
3. Don’t let people with birds come into contact with your birds.

VND mostly travels through the movement of  infected poultry or on the hands and feet of people that came into contact with infected poultry or their droppings.

Bird owners urged to  report sick birds to CDFA’s Sick Bird Hotline, 866-922-2473.

Please visit CDFA’s VND web page for more information.

State Board President Don Cameron, left, next to Governor Brown and CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. Other meeting attendees included: Rob Yraceburu, Wonderful Orchards LLC; Carolyn Wasem, Jackson Family Wines; David Ahlem, Hilmar Cheese Company; Dan Sumner, UC Ag Issues Center; Mike Gallo, Joseph Gallo Farms; Aaron Lange, Lange Twins; Jonathan Hoff, Monte Vista Farming; Frank Muller, Muller Ranch; Rayne Thompson, Sunkist Growers and Fruit Growers Supply Company and Paul Wenger, Wenger Ranch.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross and State Board of Food and Agriculture President Don Cameron joined a group of agricultural leaders yesterday to discuss trade issues and tariff impacts with California Governor Jerry Brown. California is the largest agricultural producer and exporter in the nation. Recent trade actions by China and other foreign governments to increase tariffs will have a large potential trade impact on the state’s farmers, ranchers and farmworkers.

Farm leaders and the governor discussed the need for a quick federal resolution on tariff and trade negotiations given the quickly approaching shipping season for a variety of California products.  California exports 100 percent of the nation’s table grapes and tree nuts, 91 percent of wine, 56 percent of citrus and more than 31 percent of the nation’s dairy products. Tariffs are not only impacting current shipments, but also food processing and canning with increased steel costs as well as other rising on-farm expenses.

California farmers and ranchers are seeking immediate resolution to the ongoing tariff and trade re-negotiations to keep exports growing and farmers farming. Every dollar of agricultural exports stimulate another $1.28 in business activity, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture. California exports more than $20 billion in agricultural products.

By Mark Anderson

The state of California is offering $57 million in grants to help the food processing industry cut emissions and energy use.

“This type of support not only helps the industry reduce operating costs and greenhouse gas emissions, but it helps the industry remain competitive so jobs associated with food production remain in California,” said California Energy Commission Chairman Robert Weisenmiller, in a news release.

Food processing is one of largest users of energy in California, according to the California Energy Commission. That use included 7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and 500 million therms of natural gas in 2015. That scale of energy use is not surprising since agriculture is a $46 billion industry in California that generates $100 billion in related economic activity, according to the energy commission.

The grant program is the result of last year’s Assembly Bill 109, which created the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

“We have had a lot of interest from the industry,” said Cyrus Ghandi, energy analyst with the California Energy Commission. “We expect a good turnout.”

There are two tiers of grant money available: one for drop-in replacements and another for emerging technology. Applications are due Aug. 31.

Up to $33 million is available for tier-one grants for commercially available, energy-efficient equipment upgrades that are drop-in replacements or additions to existing equipment. The awards will range from $100,000 to $3 million, and require a minimum 35 percent match.

Up to $24 million is available in tier-two grants for emerging technologies not widely employed in California but proven elsewhere to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Those awards will range from $2 million to $8 million, and require at least a 15 percent match.

Link to Sacramento Business Journal