All Issues

California's rice industry faces numerous challenges as it strives to meet competitive pressures in the coming decade. In addition to traditional demand considerations—population and income growth, and changing consumer tastes—competitiveness will be affected by future trade regulations and price support policies. On the supply side, adjustments to current and potential environmental regulations affecting the use of land and water are likely to be of greatest importance to California producers.

Investigation of the diets of Native Americans in California's Yosemite-Mariposa region identified eating habits that contributed to their well-being as well as habits that were potentially detrimental. The main problem: economics. With little money and no access to major grocery chains, many families cannot buy the kind of food that supports an adequate diet; others are unaware of government programs that can help them.

Bud break, not a calendar date, is the best time to protect sycamore trees against the sycamore scale, Stomacoccus platani, with insecticidal sprays. It is at bud break that the highest density of crawlers appears on twigs.

In flight, codling moths prefer upper tree strata, whereas navel orangeworm oviposition is more evenly distributed throughout the tree. Pest monitoring and pheromone placement for mating disruption should recognize the vertical distribution of these insects in walnut trees.

Insect-parasitic nematodes suppressed black vine weevil larvae in planters containing ivy vines at a commercial building. After 1 year, weevil numbers were lower in containers treated with nematodes either with or without an added alternate host.

Of 258 irrigation systems evaluated by mobile field laboratories in five Southern California resource conservation districts, average uniformity in distribution of water was relatively low. Generally, farms larger than 100 acres had systems with higher uniformity in distribution. Age of a system did not necessarily account for poor distribution. What did account for it was variation in pressures due to inadequate system design or to installation of incorrect hardware.

Municipal sewage sludge, amended with Eucalyptus tree trimmings and composted, is being evaluated in San Diego as a soil amendment for field and greenhouse plantings of onion, snapdragon, turf and spinach. So far, increases in yields have been significant. In greenhouse studies comparing compost containing Eucalyptus trimmings with heat-dried sludge, results show both materials equally beneficial to crop growth. The presence of Eucalyptus did not decrease yields.

Increasing copper levels in 120 growing beef heifers, ages 6 to 9 months, was attempted with copper injections and with oral administration of cupric-oxide needles. The weaned Hereford heifers were randomly allocated to three groups, including one with no supplementation. Study results indicate that oral administration of copper-wire particles was effective, cheap, safe and convenient in preventing or treating copper deficiency. Such a deficiency can retard growth in cattle.

Nine Duroc and thirteen crossbred (Hampshire x Yorkshire) growingfinishing barrows were fed two different diets: a typical corn/soybean basal diet and a diet consisting 85% of the basal diet plus 15% of almond hulls. Body composition was obtained by measuring total body electrical conductivity before and after the feeding trial. The upshot: Pigs fed the almond hulls ended up with 16% less body fat. The results raise questions: Should almond hulls be used to improve carcass grade—particularly where maximum rates of gain are less important than carcass quality? Also, can almond hulls be useful in gestation diets and for breeding stock?

From California's agricultural and livestock industries come a wide variety of possible ingredients for dairy feeding. Relatively limited information exists on the rumen's degradation of these feeds. In tests, disappearance of feedstuffs from suspended dacron bags in the rumen indicates apparent rumen digestibility. Data on observations of both common and relatively new feeds are presented here.