http://ucanr.org/blogs/Kearney/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed Updates about the University of California's largest off-campus agricultural research facility. en-us UC ANR http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/ Fri, 04 May 2012 07:52:21 PST Fri, 04 May 2012 07:52:21 PST UC ANR The solar array at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center has been completed. Robert Ray, superintendent of the physical plant, said it will be integrated into the PG&E grid within a month and begin generating electricity for the F. Gordon Mitchell Post Harvest Laboratory, the sensory laboratory and a plant and sample handling lab. Below are photos of the construction process. Infrastructure has already been installed underground to expand the array when funds become...
]]> Fri, 04 May 2012 07:38:48 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7414&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7414 Fred Jensen had a gift for grooming future UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors. A litany of current and now-retired farm advisors began their careers working with Jensen when he was a viticulture specialist at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center. Jensen passed away April 18. He was 91. During his 15 years at Kearney, Jensen identified recent agricultural science graduates and hired them as staff research associates to work with him in the field and in his lab. He trained...
]]> Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:02:23 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7323&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7323 A group of world IPM leaders presented UC Cooperative Extension integrated pest management advisor Walt Bentley with its Lifetime Achievement Award at the 7th International IPM Symposium March 27 in Memphis, Tenn. Bentley also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Applied IPM Ecologists in February. Professionals and academics in the field of integrated pest management convene the international symposium annually to bring together the scientists and people who practice...
]]> Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:47:25 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7297&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7297 An 80-panel solar array is being installed at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center to provide clean, green energy to the F. Gordon Mitchell Postharvest Laboratory, the sensory laboratory and a plant and sample handling lab. Initially, the array will generate 22.4 kilowatts of electricity per hour, a supply expected to cut the center's energy expenditures by $5,400 per year. "We have a significant amount of electrically intensive equipment in the post harvest laboratory," said...
]]> Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:11:03 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7300&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7300 Nearly 2,000 third-graders visited the Fresno County fairgrounds March 23 to learn about the connection between the food they eat and their home county's No. 1 economic driver, agriculture. Farm and Nutrition Day is sponsored by the Fresno County Farm Bureau and the Fresno Fair. UC Cooperative Extension in Fresno County has been involved since the event's inception in 2005; this was the first year for the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center to bring an educational booth to...
]]> Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:15:57 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7096&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7096 Solar tents can easily, inexpensively and successfully kill weed seeds and rhizomes, eliminating the need for hauling weeds out of remote areas where the unwanted plants have taken hold, a UC researcher has demonstrated. Research by Jim Stapleton, a UC Cooperative Extension advisor and Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program Coordinator for Natural Resources, based at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, was published as Feasibility of solar tents for inactivating weedy...
]]> Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:25:05 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7075&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=7075 Freelance photographer Elena Zhukova was at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center March 8 as part of a photo shoot involving all the UC campuses. To browse the professional photos Zhukova shot at other UC locations, visit the UC Office of the President gallery website. Below are snap shots of Zhukova at work at Kearney.
]]> Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:17:03 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6989&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6989 Felicitas "Lita" Santos is marking her last day at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center March 8. Santos worked at Kearney for 25 years, much of that time staffing the receptionist's desk in the main academic building. With her cheerful demeanor and vast knowledge of the institution, she has come to be known as "The Face of Kearney."
]]> Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:16:12 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6987&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6987 Namesake of the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center’s postharvest center, F. Gordon Mitchell, died in February. He was 88. Mr. Mitchell began his distinguished career with the University of California Cooperative Extension immediately following graduation from college in 1949. He was the viticulture advisor in San Joaquin County for eight years before taking a position as statewide pomology specialist at UC Davis in 1957. During his career, Mr. Mitchell’s work resulted in an...
]]> Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:23:32 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6977&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6977 In recognition of a productive career advancing integrated pest management programs in California and for tireless support of IPM practitioners, UC IPM entomologist Walt Bentley received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Applied IPM Ecologists. The award was presented at the association's annual meeting, Feb. 6 in Oxnard, Calif., by his IPM colleague Pete Goodell, a nemotologist who is, like Bentley, based at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in...
]]> Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:04:03 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6871&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6871 The UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center has a presence at what is billed the world's largest agricultural exposition, the World Ag Expo in Tulare, Calif., Feb. 14-16, 2012.
]]> Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:06:49 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6840&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6840 The production costs for peaches grown in California are heavily dependent on the costs of hand labor for pruning, thinning and harvest. This work takes a lot of time in part because farmworkers must climb up and down ladders and reposition the ladders as they move through the orchard. UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center scientists have found that production costs can be cut dramatically by growing “dwarf” trees that minimize the need for ladder access. However, the limiting...
]]> Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:53:04 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6686&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6686 Applying composted green waste to a field before solarization is more effective for killing weed seeds than solarization alone, according to the preliminary findings of research conducted at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center last summer. Soil solarization involves covering a field with clear plastic mulch to trap solar radiation in moist soil. During the hot summer months, the soil temperature can rise to levels that can kill soilborne diseases, nematodes and weed...
]]> Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:40:52 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6705&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6705 The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) team at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center is growing this year. The program will add two positions in the coming months with new grant funding as more scientists recognize the value of employing spatial mapping in their agricultural research, said Kris Lynn-Patterson, the GIS Academic Coordinator at Kearney. GIS is giving researchers and growers a whole new perspective of the land. GIS software enables users to attach landscape...
]]> Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:46:34 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6685&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6685 A newly redesigned website, the UC Fruit Report, was launched at the beginning of 2012 with comprehensive information for Central Valley tree fruit producers. The website contains research and photos that three UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists developed and collected over the past 30 years. Website visitors will find useful horticultural information about establishing and managing fresh market peach, plum and nectarine orchards. UC pomology specialist Scott Johnson, who is...
]]> Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:17:35 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6657&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6657 Richard "Dick" Rice passed away on Dec. 24, 2011, at the age of 74. Dr. Rice was a UC Davis entomologist who worked at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center for 33 years. Dr. Rice was raised and spent much of his career in the Central Valley. He attended Sultana Grammar School, Dinuba High School and a semester at Reedley Jr. College before going on to UC Davis in 1956. There he earned his bachelor's degree in 1960 and master's degree in 1961 before serving two years...
]]> Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:29:48 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6494&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6494 The growing interest in valley pomegranate production was demonstrated by a standing-room-only crowd of more than 130 farmers, pest control advisers and industry representatives at the San Joaquin Valley Pomegranate Meeting Nov. 29 at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center. UC Integrated Pest Management Program entomologist Walt Bentley opened the meeting with an overview of the crop's most serious insect pests. Bentley suggested growers focus on omnivorous leaf rollers and...
]]> Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:49:28 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6282&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6282 UC subtropical horticulture specialist Mary Lu Arpaia, who is based at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, was one of four UC specialists who traveled to Sarajevo Oct. 24-28 at the request of local officials to present a condensed version of the UC Postharvest Technology Short Course. Nearly 100 participants from 11 countries attended the program, which included lectures and a field tour. Simultaneous translation was offered in Bosnian and Russian. “To me it was a...
]]> Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:23:20 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6135&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6135 An early October rainstorm in the San Joaquin Valley provided UC viticulture specialist Matthew Fidelibus an ideal opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of plastic vine covers for protecting late-season table grapes from inclement weather. Fidelibus, who is based at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, installed the covers in September on a Redglobe vineyard near Easton. Some farmers choose to grow late season table grapes – such as Autumn King, Crimson Seedless and...
]]> Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:38:11 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6005&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6005 UC integrated pest management entomologist Walter Bentley has received the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Extension in recognition of his 34-year career dedicated to the development and delivery of practical, relevant and sensible pest management programs to the people of California. Bentley was named the UC Cooperative Extension entomology advisor for Kern County in 1977. In 1994, he was promoted to his position with the IPM program and...
]]> Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:37:20 PST http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6044&utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS%2BFeed jewarnert@ucdavis.edu(Jeannette E. Warnert) http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6044