A daylong bus tour offered as part of the annual EcoFarm Conference at Asilomar Feb. 1-4 was led by representatives from Organic Ag Advisors, Community Alliance with Family Farmers and UC Cooperative Extension, according to a post by Caitlin Keller on the Daily Dish, a Los Angeles Times food blog.

Monterey County UCCE farm advisor Richard Smith led a tour of innovative farms along the Central Coast.

Asian citrus psyllid at Coachella Valley's doorstep
Guy McCarthy, Parl Desert Patch

Asian citrus psyllid has been found in eight residential locations in the San Gorgonio Pass, according to a CDFA official. The pest was detected in Cabazon, Banning and Beaumont.

"So far these are the eastern-most detections in Riverside County, so we would like to treat this area to knock down the population, and prevent it from spreading to the Coachella Valley," said Debby Tanouye, CDFA state branch chief of pest detection/emergency projects.

Milking industry for all it has
Rick Longley, Willows Journal

UC Cooperative Extension and the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program hosted North Valley Dairy Day in Orland Feb. 6. The morning session focused on financial matters and the afternoon focused on feeding practices, pasture management and bovine illnesses.

"They do a nice job," dairy producer Jason Osburn said. "I try to attend whenever they have one."

Learning about new practices in the industry and getting up to speed on what is happening in areas outside Orland also interest him, Osburn said.

A very small amount of antibiotics administered to dairy cattle makes its way into shallow groundwater, according to research by UC Davis Cooperative Extension groundwater hydrologist Thomas Harter.

The results of Harter's research were outlined in a UC Davis press release distributed last week and picked up by the Sacramento Bee, an LA Times blog and other media outlets.

"Our next task is to determine whether these particular antibiotics are further degraded before reaching domestic and public water wells," Harter was quoted in the release.

California dairies typically give antibiotics to young cows, and to nonlactating adult cows. The news release said health officials are concerned that antibiotics could travel from manure lagoons into drinking water for people and livestock. Harter said that the health effects of antibiotics in drinking water at the low levels he detected are not known.

Harter's study was conducted at two large freestall dairy operations in the San Joaquin Valley with a total of more than 2,700 milking cows and 2,500 heifers. The research was published Aug. 10 in the American Chemical Society's online journal Environmental Science & Technology.

American dairy operators are asking the Obama Administration to protect them from an increase in New Zealand dairy exports to the U.S., according to an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. But Daniel Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, believes the American farmers' worries are overblown.

"They're making wild claims," Sumner was quoted in the story.

Obama's trade negotiators begin talks next week in Australia on a regional trade agreement that may make it easier for New Zealand dairy operators to ship products to the U.S.

American dairy farmers are concerned because they are still recovering from nearly two years of severe losses, wrote WSJ reporter Lauren Etter. Last year, milk prices fell to 30-year lows.

New Zealand's open space and mild climate have helped it become one of the world's lowest-cost dairy producers. Its inhabitants can consume only a fraction of the milk and related products made there.

Sumner told the reporter that New Zealand dairy products entering the U.S. would put some downward pressure on U.S. dairy prices. But he said the U.S. economy would benefit from trade in other industries that will likely outweigh the hardships for dairy farmers.

For Central Valley dairies, conflicting laws are making it hard to generate green electricity from dairy waste, according to an article this week in the Los Angeles Times.

In order to reduce emissions of methane - a greenhouse gas - some dairy operators have installed methane digesters that convert the methane into electricity.

However, the process produces nitrogen oxides (NOx), which react with volatile organic compounds to create ozone, a significant air pollution problem in the San Joaquin Valley. NOx levels for the valley, a region with air pollution among the most severe in the country, is set by federal officials and enforced by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.

The district is requiring expensive modifications on digesters, which in some cases shuts the equipment down altogether. Air district officials told the LA Times they're just doing their jobs. "Combating smog, not climate change, is the agency's mission," Times reporter P.J. Huffstutter wrote.

Modesto dairy operator John Fiscalini spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a catalytic converter and other filtering equipment to meet the air district's limit of 11 parts per million of NOx for his digester system.

UC Davis Cooperative Extension animal scientist Frank Mitloehner told the Times that works out to equal the emissions of 26 cars for every 1,000 cows.

"They have a point. I want clean air," Visalia dairy farmer Ron Koetsier was quoted in the story. "But it doesn't make financial sense for me keep doing this. I don't see how they can turn methane gas into electricity in California, given these rules."