Climate Smart Agriculture Blog

Grower Profile #4: Mary Jean Russell, Pickalittle Farms

Practices: Occultation, cover crops, compost, field borders, reduced tillage, companion planting, crop rotation Mary Jean Russell runs Pickalittle Farm, a diversified vegetable operation in Bakersfield, CA. She provides organically-grown vegetables...

Grower Profile #3: Nathanael Siemens, Fat Uncle Farms

Practices: No-till, animal integration, alley cropping, poly cropping, composting, and cover cropping Nathanael Siemens is an organic grower juggling a variety of crops, fields, and systems across California. He has a 150 acre farm in Modoc County...

Conservation Profile #2: Steven Lee, Quaker Oaks Farm

Steven Lee, PhD, has worked as the farm manager for Quaker Oaks Farm in Visalia, CA for the past 5 years. This 22-acre nonprofit educational center includes 8 acres of native wetlands, 2 acres of organic mixed vegetable crops, and 1 acre of organic stone...

Alves Dairy successfully completes AMMP Grant

In Spring 2019, one of the owners from Alves Dairy reached out about applying for an Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP) grant through CDFA. Only one other project like this in the area exists, so tackling this sort of large-scale manure...

Soil Testing Protocol for HSP Recipients

Congrats! You've been awarded a grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Healthy Soils Program. Now what? Once your grant has been executed and before you implement any of your practices, you need to take soil samples to...

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