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Ross said she’s optimistic the agree- mentswill work, noting shewants tomin- imize the amount of acreage that might need to be fallowed. “Agriculture is a renewable resource every year,”Ross said. “There’smoneybe- ing invested in planting and harvesting. … I love to remind people, whether you work at theport or youwork indowntown SanFrancisco, inmarketing or packaging or regulatory compliance: That all started on a farm, in an orchard, in a pasture.” Indiscussingenvironmental regulation, Ross noted farming is a biological system. “Just issuing mandates does not work when you’re farming in a biological sys- tem,” she said. “It’s about incentives for voluntary practices (and) demonstration projects—funding those to collect data to show the research of what works and what doesn’t.” Helping farmers and ranchers keep up with ever-changing regulations means technical assistance, Ross said. “The one area that we need to con- tinue to improve our track record is on research,” she said. “I don’t talk to any Central Valley farmer who feels really warm and fuzzy about cover-crop proj- ects that were done in Iowa. Their water picture is different.” Johansson said his concern is who would deliver the assistance: University of California Cooperative Extension or a regulatory agency.
California Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross talks with California Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson during a Farm Bureau Extension session, webcast from the Farm Bureau building in Sacramento.
to, but for resiliency—they’re looking at other places to supplement what they’re doing here.” Ross said she thinks California farm- ers can help by communicating about the standards they grow under and the importance of those standards to consumers. She also noted the upcoming dead- line for public comments on a report on farmer- and rancher-led climate solu- tions, which stems from public work- shops held in February. Comments are due by April 30 and can be emailed to cdfa.oefi@cdfa.ca.gov. A link to the re-
port can be found at www.cdfa.ca.gov/ oefi/climate. The webinar was held Monday after- noon from the California Farm Bureau building in Sacramento; a recording of the presentation will be available on the FarmBureau website at www.cfbf.com. The next FarmBureauExtensionwebi- nar, “PesticideCompliance 101,”will take place from10 to 11 a.m.May 20. Formore information and to register, go to www. cfbf.com/pesticide101. (Kevin Hecteman i s an ass i stant editor of Ag Alert. He can be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)
“We come back to that—that we need to adapt these programs to make sure that it works,” he said. “It can’t just be theoretical, but it has to be field-ready.” In response to a question from a view- er, Ross said one of her concerns involves how California agriculture can remain competitive with foreign farmers who can grow less expensively. “I’m all about California-grown, for all of the reasons that consumers have told us—that we go to the highest envi- ronmental standards,” she said. “But we also know that some of our own farm families, not because they really want
CALIFORNIA IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM CIMIS REPORT | www.cimis.water.ca.gov
For the week April 8 - April 14, 2021 ETO (INCHES/WEEK)
YEAR
3.0
THIS YEAR
2.5
LAST YEAR AVERAGE YEAR
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
MACDOEL II (236)
BIGGS (244)
DAVIS (06)
MANTECA (70)
FRESNO (80)
SALINAS-SOUTH (214)
FIVE POINTS (2)
SHAFTER (5)
TEMECULA (62)
IMPERIAL (87)
THIS YEAR LAST YEAR AVG. YEAR % FROM AVG.
1.24 1.32 .91 34
1.39 1.15 1.03 38
1.59 1.13 1.36 18
1.52 .99 1.23 23
1.44 1.05 1.12 29
1.46 1.14 1.17 24
1.41 .96 1.20 19
1.21 .84 1.07 14
.83 .39 1.11 -26
1.91 1.71 1.71 12
W eekly reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is the rate of water use (evapotranspiration—the sum of soil evaporation and crop transpiration) for healthy pasture grass. Multiplying ETo by the appropriate “crop coefficient” gives estimates of the ET for other crops. For example, assume ETo on June 15 is 0.267 inches and the crop coefficient for corn on that day is 1.1. Multiplying ETo by the coefficient (0.26 inches x 1.1) results in a corn ET of 0.29 inches. This
information is useful in determining the amount and timing of irriga- tion water. Contact Richard Snyder, UC Davis, for information on coefficients, 530-752-4628. The 10 graphs provide weekly ETo rates for selected areas for average year, last year and this year. The ETo information is provided by the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) of the California Department of Water Resources.
For information contact the DWR district office or DWR state headquarters:
SACRAMENTO HEADQUARTERS: 916-651-9679 • 916-651-7218
NORTHERN REGION: Red Bluff 530-529-7301
NORTH CENTRAL REGION: West Sacramento 916-376-9630
SOUTH CENTRAL REGION:
SOUTHERN REGION:
Fresno 559-230-3334
Glendale 818-500-1645 x247 or x243
April 21, 2021 Ag Alert 15
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