BIFS Buy California Initiative Project

SAREP > BIFS > Buy California

• Prune/Dried Plum
• Walnut
• Dairy/Forage Crop

In January 2003, SAREP was awarded Buy California Initiative funds by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the USDA to coordinate a project entitled Increasing the Adoption of Biologically Integrated Farming Systems in California Specialty Crops - Farmer-to-Farmer Outreach of Environmentally Sound and Economically Viable Practices. This outreach project builds on the successes of SAREP's Biologically Integrated Farming Systems (BIFS) program by enlisting experienced growers to inform a wider audience of farmers about the practices demonstrated in the prune/dried plum, walnut and dairy BIFS projects. Project outreach objectives are:

1. Implement a commodity focused farmer-to-farmer outreach initiative that relies on the experience of a core group of farmers in biologically integrated farming system practices.
2. Create and refine key educational tools and documents that will facilitate the farmer-to-farmer outreach program.
3. Improve outreach efforts based on results of recent grower surveys.

A project update was reported in SAREP's Winter/Spring 2004 Sustainable Agriculture newsletter.

Outreach Programs

Prune/Dried Plum BIFS Outreach Program

January 2003 - December 2005 Coordinator: Fred Thomas, CERUS Consulting
Adoption Team Growers: Dan Bozzo, David Crane, & Dick Jacobs

At a series of outreach events in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley prune production region, farmer mentors present to other farmers their experience and success with environmentally sound practices. Mentor farmers are part of a local adoption team that assists in planning outreach events and reviewing outreach materials. The targeted audiences are farmers who also frequently grow peaches, almonds, and walnuts where cover cropping techniques may also be applicable.

An outreach event addressing aphid control and pruning options for prune/dried plum growers was described in SAREP's Fall 2004 Sustainable Agriculture newsletter.

Outreach Materials

• Dried Plum Cover Crop Selection Guide
• Integrated Prune Farming Practices Decision Guide
• California Dried Plum Newsletter - Alternative Dormant Spray Options
• UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines - Prunes:
  • Monitoring in a Prune Orchard
  • Dormant Spur Sampling and Treatment Guidelines
  • Brown Rot on Fruit
  • Leaf Curl Plum Aphid
  • Mealy Plum Aphid
  • San Jose Scale
  • Peach Twig Borer
  • Obliquebanded Leafroller

Walnut BIFS Outreach Program

Coordinators: Joseph Grant, UCCE San Joaquin Co. & Kathy Kelley Anderson, UCCE Stanislaus Co.
Adoption Team: Gary Barton, Mark Cady, Bert Crane, Cindy Lashbrook, Chris Locke, Jeannine Lowrimore, David Miller, & David Taylor

This project targets walnut growers, pest control advisors, input supplier representatives, and other allied industry professionals in San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties. Outreach events focus on alternative walnut orchard management practices that were demonstrated in the walnut BIFS project.

A local adoption team of walnut growers and licensed pest control advisors with experience in biologically integrated orchard management identified five under-utilized alternative technologies to be promoted by this project: 1) nitrogen fertilizer use and budgeting, 2) walnut orchard floor management and cover crops, 3) pheromone mating disruption for reducing codling moth damage, 4) brush chipping and shredding to mitigate adverse effects of orchard operations on air quality, and 5) identification, biology, monitoring and control of key secondary pests.

Outreach Materials

• Lanini, W. and J. Grant. Organic Weed Management in Walnut Orchards. (Handout from Innovations in Walnut Orchard Floor Management Field Day, August 15, 2003.)
• UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines - Walnut: Codling Moth
• Nitrogen Fertilization Recommendation Model for Walnut (to estimate nitrogen budget)

Dairy/Forage Crop BIFS Outreach Program

Coordinator: Stuart Pettygrove, Dept. of Land, Air & Water Resources, UC Davis

Project collaborators are developing a 20-25 page guide for California dairies in the Central Valley and in the North Coast/Bay Area dairy regions. By highlighting improved manure and forage management practices currently being used by farmers at both North Coast/Bay Area pasture dairies and at confinement-style dairies with large storage ponds in the Central Valley, we expect that this guide will encourage dairy farmers to adopt environmentally sound dairy forage production and manure nutrient management practices.

Further Information on Forage & Manure Management

• Checklist for Using Dairy Lagoon Water for Crop Production
• Lagoon Nutrient Management : http://groups.ucanr.org/LNM/
• Dairy BIFS Project Final Report
• Dairy BIFS project: http://www.dairybifs.uckac.edu
• California Dairy Quality Assurance Environmental Stewardship module: http://www.cdqa.org/es/