UC Davis Specialists and Department Chairs met on Monday for their fall meeting. It was an informational packed meeting. There were many questions about the designation of UC Santa Cruz and UC Merced as part of the UC Agricultural Experiment Station (AES). It's exciting to have two additional campuses formally recognized as part of the AES. We're currently recruiting/interviewing for Cooperative Extension Specialists in Regenerative Ag (Merced) and Agroecology (Santa Cruz). We also have searches for Cooperative Extension Specialists at UCLA and UC Irvine.
Tuesday was a terrific opportunity to interact with the delegation of technology vendors, Dutch Researchers and dignitaries working in dairy research. The Netherlands and California dairy operators share many current challenges: impact of emissions on air and water quality and the need for quality labor. Secretary Ross kicked off the afternoon with great words of cooperation and a reminder that the first delegation to the Netherlands to work on climate smart agriculture was in 2015.
Governing council met Wednesday. It was exciting to have members talk about progress at having an ANR presence at nearly all campuses and counties. This has been an important component of ANR's destination for decades and a key focus in recent years. We are two steps closer to improving the continuum from basic and applied research conducted at campuses to end users in counties. ANR serves as the bridge between the 10 campuses and our 40 million Californians. Advisors and Specialists throughout the state have the opportunity to interact with scientists and faculty at all 10 campuses to bring the latest scientific information to Californians. As we tackle issues of climate change, health equity and nutrition as well as food production under hotter drier conditions it will take the wisdom from all of the University of California campuses, National Laboratories, Natural Reserve System AND ANR to help Californians be stronger in the future.
It's been an exciting week in the news. One news release shared information about a new tool to calculate crop rotation costs for rice. In other fantastic work the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program published a new online pesticide use course designed for pest management professionals working primarily in structural pest control or landscape maintenance, but residents and property managers may also find the presented information useful. There was fun news from our employees too: Julia Kalika (Program Support Unit) was crowned the 2023 Miss CCPRA (California Cowboys Pro Rodeo Association) recently during Finals in Red Bluff. Oli Bachi co-hosted a hackathon in the city of Escondido. The City of Escondido honored him with Dr. Oli G. Bachie Day on October 21. Congratulations and way to go!
Although all this is wonderful, the greatest news of the week is rain! Here's hoping the rains fall and the snow accumulates. May rain continue to fall on California to provide the water of life for the year ahead.