By Ellen Hanak

When strong winter rains finally ended the recent five-year drought, many water districts seized the opportunity to recharge depleted aquifers. How did they do, and what barriers did they face? A public forum brought more than 30 experts together to discuss the benefits, opportunities, and barriers to groundwater recharge. The event was hosted by the California State Board of Food and Agriculture and the state Department of Water Resources.

My presentation focused on recharge in the San Joaquin Valley—a region that is home to more than four million people, half the state’s agricultural output, and most of its critically overdrafted groundwater basins, where pumping exceeds replenishment. Consequences include dry wells, sinking lands, and reduced supplies to weather future droughts.

As part of our ongoing work to explore practical and effective solutions to the region’s water challenges, the PPIC Water Policy Center recently surveyed local water districts about their groundwater recharge efforts. Although such efforts have been underway for decades in some parts of the valley, the state’s 2014 groundwater law has increased interest in using recharge to bring basins into long-term balance.

About 75% of respondents to our survey said they were actively recharging this year. Large water districts with formal recharge programs are doing the lion’s share of recharge, but there’s lots of interest from smaller agencies in getting in on the act.

Agricultural districts are already employing a broad mix of recharge tools, and many see potential for expansion. In contrast, urban districts—most of which rely heavily on groundwater—are much less active. The most widespread methods—used by two-thirds of agricultural districts surveyed—include allowing water to seep through unlined canals and irrigating crops with surface water instead of groundwater, which enables basins to recharge naturally (a method known as “in-lieu” recharge). Other popular options—used by half of agricultural districts—include directing water to dedicated “recharge basins” and applying extra water on irrigated cropland. Some districts also spread water on fallowed land and open space. Of these tools, recharge basins are being used most intensively, storing more than half of total recharge reported (roughly four maf). One caveat to this last finding is that many districts have been using some popular methods (cropland irrigation, in-lieu recharge, and unlined canals) without formally accounting for how much recharge occurs.

Secretary Ross in Orland before the second annual North State Innovation Conference, speaking with Glenn County Fair CEO Ryann Newman (r) and Kevin Spafford of Ryan Wealth Management.  Photo by Tim Hearden, Capital Press

By Tim Hearden

ORLAND, Calif. — State Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross held up the rice industry in the middle Sacramento Valley as an example of how growers can respond to public concerns about their production activities.

The industry’s effort about a decade ago to move away from winter residue burning by using water for decomposition quieted downwind complaints from urban residents while creating habitat for birds — and enhancing an already famous hunting ground, Ross said.

The move illustrates what California’s 77,500 farms often have to do to mollify concerns among the state’s roughly 40 million residents, many of whom may have formed misconceptions based on inaccurate information, she said.

“People don’t know how passionate we are about our land and all the steps we take to preserve it,” Ross told about 75 people at the second annual North State Innovations in Agriculture conference Nov. 8 at the Glenn County Fairgrounds.

She urged growers to work with environmental groups and cultivate relationships and human interactions with city dwellers and consumers.

“You have the water of the state, and you have the wildlife, the forests and the diverse landscapes,” Ross said. “If you want to be bolder going forward, you have to form partnerships and communicate with more people.”

Ross’ remarks came during a wide-ranging speech and question-and-answer session near the close of the conference, which was started to educate Northern California farmers and ranchers about technological advances and marketing trends.

Her message provided a bookend after keynote speaker David Schabazian, a manager for the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, opened the conference Nov. 7 by telling growers they should form partnerships with local government planners to have input on land-use policies that could maximize their farms’ earning potential.

Noting the conference’s focus on emerging technologies, Ross cautioned producers not to lose their human touch. She encouraged farmers to tell their stories on social media and in personal interactions with consumers.

“People can feel a connection with you even if they’ve never met you,” she said.

She pointed to former California Cattlemen’s Association president Matt Byrne, whose family’s SunFed Ranch markets its new grass-fed beef product lines by handing out samples at functions such as last year’s Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif.

“That takes a lot of effort,” Ross said, adding the ranch doesn’t sell all of its beef that way but still finds the venues valuable.

While California’s regulations often flummox growers, the upside is that the state’s products are coveted around the world because people know they’ve met high standards, she said. To that end, California Grown, an organization that promotes the state’s farm products, is working with the group Visit California to enhance food- and beverage-related tourism, which already accounts for 25 percent of all the tourism to the Golden State, she said.

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What California industry directly employs more than 104,000 people with a ripple effect that supports an additional 285,000 full-time jobs in retail, construction and other sectors?

If you said dairy, reward yourself with a cold glass of milk.

But don’t celebrate long. Our success is global and fragile. Seemingly small actions giving the European Union and other U.S. competitors the upper hand can inflict damage on the California economy.

Conversely, smart trade deals remove barriers and spur growth. Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, dairy exports to Mexico are up 885 percent (to $1.2 billion in 2016).

The dairy industry supports President Donald Trump’s effort to modernize a trade deal created when Google wasn’t even a domain name, much less a verb. But walking away from NAFTA as threatened would damage a dairy industry that employs far more Californians than even the tech giant in Palo Alto.

That’s not a criticism. Silicon Valley creates prosperity, but so does dairy and the rest of California agriculture. Our jobs are dispersed throughout the state, helping rural communities.

Dairy’s economic impact can be seen in a new study by the International Dairy Foods Association, an industry trade group. It finds that, in addition to full-time jobs, dairy delivers California $4.8 billion in business tax revenue and creates $97.9 billion in economic impact when counting the ripple effect.

Dairy’s future looks promising, thanks in large part to exports. California ports are a vital gateway.

Take, for example, the milk powder securely packed into bags at Dairy Farmers of America plants in Fort Morgan, Colo., and Fallon, Nev. The powder is trucked through California to the Port of Oakland. Once there, it’s loaded into cargo containers stacked like multicolored Legos. Ships transport the containers over the Pacific Ocean to destinations such as China, Singapore and Korea.

“The export supply chain is vital in getting products from U.S. farms to the tables of consumers around the world,” says Elena Asher, assistant director of export logistics at DFA. “In the process, tens of thousands of jobs are created and billions of dollars in economic activity generated.”

It wasn’t long ago that we kept almost all our milk in this country. Today, nearly one out of seven gallons of U.S. milk ends up in products overseas. Our exporters just set a goal to increase that to one out of five gallons within three to five years.

The goal is ambitious and doable.

Middle-class populations are swelling in markets like Southeast Asia, consuming more dairy products than their own countries can produce. We have the land, cows, technology, know-how and safety record to seize that opportunity.

Why are trade agreements so important? Among other things, they determine the taxes and duties, called tariffs, imposed on products coming into a country. NAFTA was historic because it removed tariff barriers, opening doors between the United States, Mexico and Canada.

This is the time to mend NAFTA, not end NAFTA. California jobs are at stake.

TOM VILSACK IS A FORMER IOWA GOVERNOR AND U.S. AGRICULTURE SECRETARY WHO NOW SERVES AS CEO AND PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. DAIRY EXPORT COUNCIL.

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This week in Palm Desert, CDFA joined the third annual ‘Growing Together’ Latino Farmers’ Conference, hosted by the the National Center for Appropriate Technology and the USDA. CDFA staffed booths representing several of its programs, including CalCannabis, the Fertilizer Research and Education Program, and the Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation.  This short video has more information.

By Rebecca Plevin

As workers harvest dates across the Coachella Valley, growers and researchers are undertaking another huge task: Preventing a two-inch, invasive pest from boring into the palm trees that bear the sticky, sweet fruit.

The pest, the invasive South American palm weevil, feasts on date palms, fan palms and other types of palm trees. In 2011, it spread from Mexico to San Diego County, where it’s now killing Canary Island date palm trees.

“Right now, it’s not in our area,” said Albert Keck, president of Hadley Date Gardens in Thermal and chairman of the California Date Commission. “We’re not in a panic mode right now. We’re in a very precautionary mode.”

Keck is working with scientists from University of California, Riverside and Riverside biotech company ISCA Technologies to develop ways to prevent the pests from taking a bite out of the Coachella Valley’s date industry, which supplies about 95 percent of the country’s dates.

The date industry, which employs several thousand people, last year produced more than 31,000 tons of dates and generated more than $46 million in sales, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But the South American palm weevil could wreak havoc on the date industry. The pests bore holes in the leaf bases in the crowns of palm trees. Females lay their eggs in these holes and seal them off with wax. The larvae then eat the palms from the inside out, typically in the crown of the tree.

An infestation can damage the crown of the tree; if it gets bad enough, it can cause the tops of trees to droop and collapse.

Research on the pest is supported by a $300,000 grant that was announced last week. The non-profit Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research contributed $150,000, with other organizations, including UC Riverside, ISCA Technologies and the California Date Commission, matching that.

“If you can keep the population down to a minimum, you can keep the devastation down,” said Sally Rockey, executive director of the research foundation.

As part of the prevention campaign, UC Riverside and ISCA Technologies have developed a chemical formula that attracts palm weevils.

They plan to set up about 100 bucket-shaped traps throughout the valley by the spring, said Dr. Mark Hoddle, director of UC Riverside’s Center for Invasive Species Research. The traps feature the formula that attracts weevils; the pests fly into the buckets and then drown in a preservative, he said.

The traps will allow scientists to monitor the presence of weevils in the region. They can also help contain infestations and prevent the pests from spreading to rural areas where dates grow, he said.

As a second strategy, researchers will put the formula into small dollops of wax, which contain small but lethal doses of a pesticide. The wax will then be applied in silver dollar-sized dollops to trees, allowing researchers to kill the weevils without spraying pesticides on entire trees, Hoddle said.

“The weevil is going to probably arrive at some stage, so we need to be prepared for that eventuality,” Hoddle said.

Hadley Date Gardens specializes in Deglet Noor and Medjool varieties of dates, according to Keck, the third-generation owner of the company. He will likely have some of the scientists’ traps in his orchards, which stretch across the valley to the Salton Sea. He’s willing to support the research, he said, if the tools stop the infestation from spreading from San Diego to the valley.

“We just do not want it to get out from that area right now,” he said. “We want to contain it and eradicate it there if possible.”

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Watch the live stream for tomorrow’s  Public Forum on Managed Groundwater Recharge to Support Sustainable Water Management, hosted by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the California Department of Water Resources.

Broadcast available at CDFA Live Events.

Conference Agenda

Secretary Ross with USDA secretary Sonny Perdue (r), California Farm Bureau president Paul Wenger (center) and Farm Bureau vice-president Jamie Johansson (L).

I was pleased to travel to Modesto on Sunday (Nov 5) to meet with USDA secretary Sonny Perdue on his first official visit to California!  We had a great discussion about Farm Bill programs important to California and other issues like Ag workforce needs, the critical priority of trade, the reasonable implementation of food safety laws, water reliability, and environmental standards that manage to avoid stifling innovation.

Secretary Perdue speaks to Ag leaders at Modesto Junior College.

Secretary Perdue spoke to a group of Ag leaders gathered at Modesto Junior College and then was careful to listen to their comments and concerns.

I have every confidence that Secretary Perdue will be a strong, engaged leader at USDA; someone who will work for the betterment of California and the nation. I look forward to working with him in the months and years to come.

Secretary Ross at Modesto JC with the new FFA national president, Breanna Holbert, a student at CSU Chico.

USDA NEWS RELEASE

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in California is continuing to offer assistance to landowners affected by recent catastrophic wildfires.  The assistance, provided through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) covers erosion control and water quality practices on eligible cropland, rangeland and nonindustrial private forestland. Typical practices include mulching, seeding, grade stabilization, tree planting and other measures to protect burned areas from eroding and/or minimizing transport of sediment and pollutants into waterways. NRCS will continue to accept applications and will periodically evaluate them for funding consideration.

Applicants may also request early-start waivers to enable recovery work to begin immediately. (The Agency’s standards and specifications will still need to be met and any needed permits must still be secured before work begins.)

NRCS is targeting $4 million to help farmers, ranchers, and forest land owners in California recover from the recent wildfires. This is one of several disaster assistance programs available through USDA to support recovery efforts for individuals and communities.

NRCS is also offering technical and educational assistance to fire-impacted landowners faced with erosion and flooding in a damaged watershed. NRCS conservationists have expertise in erosion, hydrophobic soils, and the use of measures (such as sand bags, mulching, etc.) to mitigate damage to the landscape.

NRCS is also continuing to work with communities and partners to assess eligibility for its Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program which assists communities with rebuilding efforts following imminent hazards to life and property caused by natural disasters. For more information on available NRCS, FSA or RMA assistance, contact a local field office, or visit www.usda.gov.

Link to news release 

By CDFA veterinarian Rebecca Campagna

The ability to quickly trace movements of sick animals or animals exposed to disease is essential to maintain the health of California’s livestock. Individual animal identification and accurate record keeping are the foundations of animal disease traceability.

While animal disease traceability, or ADT, does not prevent disease, it is indispensable for disease-control programs and for emergency response investigations by animal health officials.

The United States Department of Agriculture and state animal health officials, including the California Department of Food and Agriculture, worked with livestock industry stakeholders to develop an animal traceability framework that enhances the ability to trace the movement of livestock. Federal ADT regulations became effective on March 11, 2013, and changes to California’s ADT regulations became effective on April 1 of this year.

California ADT regulations are modeled after the federal regulations but include some differences that adapt to California’s cattle industries.

For cattle and bison moving within California:

• All dairy cattle born in California after Jan. 1, 2017, must be officially identified prior to leaving their birth premises. There is an exception: If moving directly to an approved tagging site, animals can have official identification placed upon arrival.
• All dairy cattle changing ownership require official identification, with exceptions for animals moving to an approved tagging site where animals have official identification placed upon arrival; a recognized slaughtering establishment with a USDA approved backtag; or an approved livestock marketing facility that is also an approved tagging site, and then to a recognized slaughtering establishment with a USDA approved backtag. Animals may only go to one livestock marketing facility prior to slaughter.
• Non-virgin bulls less than 18 months of age and all bulls 18 months of age and over must bear individual official identification prior to change of ownership—unless the bull is moving directly to a recognized slaughtering establishment with a USDA-approved backtag or on a Bull Slaughter Agreement.
• Beef breed cows of any age moving to slaughter require an official identification device before slaughter or must be identified with a USDA backtag.

For cattle and bison entering California:

California regulations closely mirror federal regulations in that the following groups require official identification for entry: female dairy cattle of all ages; male dairy cattle born after March 11, 2013; and all cattle used for rodeo, show or exhibition.

Sexually intact female beef cattle 6 months of age and older and sexually intact male beef cattle 18 months of age and older require official identification to enter California. This state regulation differs slightly from the federal regulation that all sexually intact beef cattle 18 months of age and older need official identification, regardless of sex.

Cattle in all of these groups may be exempt from the requirement of official identification upon entry if they move directly from the farm of origin (that is, their birthplace) to an approved tagging site in California or a recognized slaughtering establishment with a USDA-approved backtag.

Cattle and bison entering California are also required to have a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection and Interstate Livestock Entry Permit, unless the animals are moving on a Special Entry Permit, moving to an approved livestock market or are passing through California.

Identification and records:

Official identification devices for cattle and bison include button Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) or bangle-type 840 tags; silver/’brite’ or National Uniform Eartagging System tags; or, in females, brucellosis orange metal or orange RFID tags in brucellosis-vaccinated animals.

Veterinarians, approved livestock facilities, approved tagging sites, registered feedlots and livestock markets must keep Certificates of Veterinary Inspection or alternate documentation, and any supporting documents required for the movement of livestock entering the facility, for five years. Approved licensed dealers must also maintain an individual identification record for each animal for five years. This must include the animal’s identification, the buyer and the seller. Any person receiving livestock and owners of the shipped animals must maintain official documents for five years.

If you want to look directly at the California regulations, they can be found in Title 3 of the California Code of Regulations, Sections 830-838; the federal regulations can be found in Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 86.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture Animal Health Branch is available to answer any questions about requirements for official identification and documentation for livestock movement within or into the state.

For more information on these requirements or other questions, please contact AHB headquarters in Sacramento: 916-900-5002 or any local AHB district office. District offices are located in Redding, 530-225-2140; Modesto, 209-491-9350; Tulare, 559-685-3500; and Ontario, 909-947-4462.

Please visit the AHB ADT website to find additional information on identification and documentation requirements at www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/animal_health/id_info.html.

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