Minutes
The following Advisory Team members were present:
Mark Cady
Chris Heintz
Tom Babb
Frank Zalom
Mario Viveros
Wes Asai
Lonnie Hendricks
Gene Beach
Joe Connell
Sara Goldman Smith
Roger Duncan
Lisa Ahlem
Tom Babb is the new DPR contract manager, replacing Bob
Elliott. Tom was in the sugar beet industry for the last 15 years and spent the
last three years as the coordinator of the Sugar Beet PMA project.
Sara Goldman Smith is the new field scout for the Butte
County PMA project, replacing Nicole Darby.
2)
Review of Minutes of Sept. 7, 2000 meeting
The minutes of the Sept. 7, 2000 meeting had been mailed to
all team members. No comments were received regarding revisions and the minutes
were accepted as presented.
3)
Review of PMA project from October 2000 to present
Kern County Project
Farm advisor Mario Viveros reports that his cooperator has
expressed the sentiment that Europe will “go green” and he wants to “go
green” regarding pesticide applications. The grower tolerates 10-12% rejection
levels and has seen scale infestation go as high as 50%. As a result, this PMA
plot will offer some interesting results over the course of the project.
The orchard is very clean- there were virtually no mummies
found during the winter. Monitoring for overwintering mites showed that the
reduced risk plot appears to have fewer mites coming out of the ground.
Monitoring for PTB emergence is finding that emergence is coming after full
bloom. The cooperator is planning to use Bt, especially where they don’t use a
dormant spray.
There was discussion about whether there is a lack of
information about when to use Bt’s as spring sprays. Chris Heintz indicated
that this might be a possible area of research by the Almond Board.
Stanislaus County Project
Farm advisor Roger Duncan reported that an untreated
portion has been added to the project this year. The soft program number one is
changing and they will be using “Confirm” in the May spray, with
“Agrimek” being applied for mites. For the third year in a row, copper will
not be applied.
Monitoring continues to show that PTB and San Jose Scale
are showing up in very low numbers as the cooperator continues to keep a very
clean orchard. Reject levels are very low- less than 1% for all three
treatments.
Scale traps were placed this week and NOW traps will be
placed next week. There is no sign of PTB yet—emergence has been very slow.
Butte County Project
Farm advisor Joe Connell said there was very low damage
from ants and PTB in all segments of the orchard. The cooperator is looking to
do as little spraying as he can possibly get away with and sometimes he has to
spray solely for purposes of the project.
There have been no disease outbreak problems and there has
not been much of a mite problem. Overall, the orchard continues to be very
trouble-free on all of the plots.
4)
Spring field days
Discussion was held on holding field days in each of the
regions in the Spring. The following dates were agreed on:
May 1—Kern County field day
May 10—Stanislaus County field day
June 7—Butte County field day
It was agreed that ant control was a topic that would be
suitable for all three field days and should be worked into the schedule if
possible.
Another topic to be worked into all three field days,
either this Spring but definitely for the Fall would be discussions of dormant
spray runoffs and what the latest regulatory efforts are in the local
watersheds.
5)
Year Four funding announced
Mark discussed the awarding of the DPR grant for $100,000
for a fourth year of the PMA project. The award was covered by articles in the
Modesto Bee and Fresno Bee and helped generate a very positive message for the
project.
6)
Spring Newsletter
Mark Cady led the discussion of the role of the newsletter
in the PMA project. He expressed the thought that rather than just focusing
solely on the results of the project to date in each region, the newsletter
should help provide growers with useful information they can apply in their own
orchards.
Possible articles might include:
The next newsletter is set to be published this Spring and
Mark will talk with each farm advisor to follow-up on possible story ideas.
7) Misc/announcements
Frank Zalom discussed the status of the grower survey. Rose
Prather left the UC in August to take a job at Washington State. The UC is
trying to contract with her to complete the compilation of results. There have
been problems in arranging this contract and the problem is being worked on.
Chris Heintz will be on a panel discussing partnerships at
the Ag Partnership Forum March 27-28 which is sponsored by DPR and several other
stakeholders. She will discuss the PMA model and other partnerships which the
Almond Board is involved in. The PMA will have a tabletop display.
Tom Babb said a future agenda item could include discussion
of the PMA project after DPR funding is gone. Discussion could include the role
of UC farm advisors and how the project is maintained institutionally by the
other PMA partners.
8)
Set date for next meeting
The next Advisory Team meeting will be held at the UC Davis
DANR building on Thursday, Sept. 6 at 10 a.m.
Submitted by: ______________________________
Mark Looker
Project Administrator