Water-quality rule will affect Central Coast farms ByChristine Souza of farmingon theCentralCoast.
tive proposal, which featured incentives for individual farmers who take a collec- tive or third-party approach to meeting the regulations. “Although agricultural stakeholders were successful in getting some signifi- cant revisions to the final adopted order, there’s still numerous provisions that are concerning to Central Coast agriculture,” Fisher said. Those problematic provisions include the regional board’sdecision tohold farm- ers accountable as “dischargers,” due to what staffdescribedas “passivemigration” of groundwater that includes the contam- inant 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP)— something Fisher said hasn’t been used in agriculture for decades. In addition, the order requires enforce- able limits on nitrogen fertilizer applica- tions, whichFisher said shebelieves “goes beyond the scope of the regional water quality control board” by regulating what is applied to a field. “The board’s authority is to regulate the discharge of water from the field,” Fisher said. Another provision in the order puts en- forceable limitson theamount of nitrogen thatmight be discharged fromthe farm. MontereyCountyFarmBureauExecutive DirectorNormGroot saidAgOrder 4.0will takeafinancial tollonCentralCoast farmers, andwill“substantiallychange”thecharacter
professionalswhocanassistwithirrigation nutrientmanagement plans.” “What the board has crafted cannot be successfully implemented without a strong, third-party alternative; all incen- tives for growers to participate have been removed or minimized, and are punitive with respect to compliance qualifications formembership,” Groot said. With Ag Order 4.0 now in effect, Fisher said, individuals and entities that want to challenge it have until May 17 to file an appeal with the State Water Resources Control Board. For more informat ion about the order, see www.waterboards.ca.gov/ centralcoast/water_issues/programs/ ag_waivers/ag_order4_renewal.html. (Chr i s t ine Souza i s an ass i s tant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)
Predicting that it will have a profound impact onCentral Coast agriculture, farm organizations expressed disappointment in a final waste-discharge regulation ad- opted by a regional water quality board. KnownastheIrrigatedLandsRegulatory ProgramforCentralCoastAgriculture, and by the shorthand term Ag Order 4.0, the regulatory permit governs runoff from ir- rigated farmland. It received unanimous approval last week fromthe Central Coast RegionalWater Quality Control Board. Agricultural advocates said the regional boardmade few changes to the order that would have made it easier for farmers to comply—and therefore achieve the de- sired results. Ag Order 4.0 expands monitoring and reportingrequirementsandalsosetsa lim- it on the amount of nitrogen farmers can apply to crops. For three years, California FarmBureau SeniorCounselKariFisher said, agricultur- al stakeholders including theFarmBureau provided feedback regarding theproposal, detailing thechallenges itwouldcreate for farmersandranchersontheCentralCoast. Fisher said farmgroups investedmuch time in developing “a robust, third-party alternative” thatwouldprotect surfacewa- ter and groundwater quality. But she said thenewly adoptedorder does not include theagricultural organizations’ full alterna-
“Small farmswill be challenged tomeet all the confusing, complex requirements,” Groot said, “and larger farms will spend more resources ondata gathering, report- ing and calculations than actual water quality improvements.” He added that experts to help farm- ers manage the program would be hard to find, “as we already have a shortage of “Small farms will be challenged to meet all the confusing, complex requirements.” — Norm Groot Monterey County Farm Bureau
UC software provides specific weather data for small grains
ByBob Johnson New software that lets farmers compare seasonal rainfall and temperature patterns for their specific location for any period of timesince2009canbeaddedtothegrowing listofprograms tohelpsmall-graingrowers access informationmorequicklyandeasily. If theweatherpattern this seasonseems similar toayear in thepastwhen the farm- er had the same crop in the ground, the program provides information on how similar the rain and temperature have been. It’s available at smallgrains.ucanr. edu/General_Production/weather. “For growers and agronomists, loca- tion-specificweatherinformationisessential tounderstandplant growthandwater use,” saidTaylorNelsen, Universityof California, Davis, assistant specialist. “It is also import- ant forplanningfieldmanagementactivities suchas fertilizationand irrigation.” The weather software was developed by a teamof UC small-grains researchers including Nelsen, UC Davis software en- gineer Gabriel Rosa, UC Davis research support engineer Justin Merz and UC Cooperative Extension grain cropping systems specialistMark Lundy. Nelsen said the goal of the software is to let farmers, pest control advisors and re- searchers find historical temperature and precipitation data that is extremely local. “Weather patterns are highly variable across the state of California,” she ex- plained. “They change from year to year and across locations. While parts of the state may be experiencing drought con- ditions this year, each location can have dramatically different weather.” Thesimplest useof theprogram,Nelsen said, is to enter a specific location to see howmuch precipitation there has been, and when it has fallen, since the current rain year began on Oct. 1, plus chang- es in the daily minimum and maximum temperatures during that time. The site
also provides information to compare the current numbers to historical averages for the location. “Userscanchooseaspecific locationand enteradaterangeof interest,”shesaid. “The websiteuses these inputs toproduce inter- activegraphsof precipitationand tempera- turepatterns.Thegraphsshowthehistorical, 10-year average and current-season data, making it easy to compare this season to otherseasonsandtoseechangesovertime.” Nelsen said a user can also do a quick comparisonbetween the current year and any year in the last decade that seemed to have similar weather. Such a comparison could come in handy inmakingmanage- ment decisions about irrigating or fertil- izing a crop, if the same variety was grown under similar conditions during a season in the recent past. The programcan also provide forecasts on the amount of precipitation and the likelyminimumandmaximum tempera- tures during the next 10 days. “Forecasts arealsoavailable in themain crop-growingregionsofCalifornia,”Nelsen said. “Users can also download their loca- tion-specific data for further exploration.” Theweatherapprepresents the latest ef- fort tomakeresearchinformationavailable via smartphone to small-grains farmers in a simplified format, which beganwith the introductionof a variety-selection tool. That program lets users enter whether theywanttoplantcommonordurumwheat or triticale; select a planting season and region; choose the relative importance of yield,proteinlevelsorstriperust resistance; and,withoneclick, learnwhichvarietiesare goodcandidates, basedonUCtrialsduring the last fewyears. Thevariety-selectiontool may be found at smallgrains.ucanr.edu/ Variety_Selection. ( Bo b J o hn s o n i s a r e p o r t e r i n Sacramento. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)
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6 Ag Alert April 21, 2021
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