Ag Alert
Issue Date: April 8, 2009
By Ching Lee
Assistant Editor
Faced with wild price swings and an increasingly unstable market, California dairy producers, processors and business leaders convened last week in Modesto to discuss how they can best meet domestic and global market demands through innovation and development of value-added products.
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By Seth Nidever
snidever@hanfordsentinel.com
Kings County’s $1.7 billion-a-year ag industry could be in for tough times, if predictions in a recent University of California climate change report come true. The report on global warming, announced last week, forecasts reduced snowpacks, less water available for agriculture, saturation of the air with carbon dioxide, more fertilizers needed to keep plants alive and worsening problems with insect pests.
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Dairy farmers pleased with drop in ethanol prices
By Seth Nidever
snidever@HanfordSentinel.com
Ethanol producers facing the current depressed market yearn for the good old days when demand was high.
But dairy producers who watched their feed prices soar during the corn-based ethanol boom are relieved there is less call for the clean-burning fuel additive.
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Dairy operators may look, not buy at Expo
By Seth Nidever
snidever@HanfordSentinel.com
The latest dairy technology is regularly featured at Tulare’s World Ag Expo, and this year will be no different.
Offerings to be unveiled at the Feb. 10-12 event range from high-tech health-monitoring sensors implanted in cows to siliconized silage covers that do a better job of preventing spoilage.
But local dairy operators aren’t exactly jumping for joy.
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By Seth Nidever
snidever@HanfordSentinel.com
Some cutting-edge farming practices have earned Dino Giacomazzi an award from the University of California and the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The award, announced last week, recognizes Giacomazzi for conservation tillage on his dairy east of Hanford.
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Hanford farmer Dino Giacomazzi honored for conservation tillage innovation
Dino Giacomazzi. (See end of release for high-resolution version.)
Dairy farmer Dino Giacomazzi, who heads up the Giacomazzi Dairy in the same Hanford location where it was established in 1893, has been presented the Conservation Tillage Farmer Innovator Award for 2009 by the University of California and the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Tillage Workgroup.
The award, established in 2005, honors farmers who have demonstrated innovation and leadership in the development, refinement and use of conservation tillage (CT) systems in California.
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http://www.modbee.com/business/story/233508.html
Modesto Bee
By JOHN HOLLAND
jholland@modbee.com
last updated: March 08, 2008 01:44:47 AM
It might not be as pretty as windmills spinning on a hillside or solar collectors gleaming in the sun, but cow manure could be part of the renewable energy future.
This week’s convention of Western United Dairymen in Modesto featured experts on extracting methane from manure and turning it into electricity. The energy could be used on the farm, reducing costs for the farmer, or sold to a utility if it exceeds the farm’s needs.
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By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
FRESNO, Calif., July 27 — A searing heat wave nearly two weeks old is responsible for more than 100 deaths across California, the authorities said Thursday. So overwhelmed is the local coroner’s office here that it has been forced to double-stack bodies.
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By Olivia Munoz
Associated Press
FRESNO, Calif. — The triple-digit heat wave that steamrolled across the country this week killed thousands of cattle and poultry and cooked crops in the field before farmers could pick them. And experts say consumers will help foot the bill.
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