Agriculture

Sweeping acres of striking golden flowers may soon grace California's desert southwest. UC Cooperative Extension irrigation specialist Khaled Bali believes sunflowers may be an ideal crop for the state's most punishing agricultural region.

We remember photographing a young beekeeper, Mikayla Hagan of the Rio Vista (Calif.) 4-H Club, when she delivered presentations at Solano County 4-H events. Yes, 4-H'ers can enroll in beekeeping projects--if a club offers them. And they should! Rewind to the 2012 Solano County Project Skills Day.

Spring is in full swing and summer is right around the corner. If you work in agricultural, turf, landscape, or structural settings, you are probably at your busiest. If you handle pesticides as part of your work, you most likely wear some sort of personal protective equipment (PPE).

FOOD IT: The Full Stack will be held June 26, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., at UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center and UC ANR is a sponsor. If you missed early registration, you can get a 40 percent discount by using the code SPECIALSAUCE at https://www.eventbrite.

Slugs, snails, ants, aphids, spider mites and inclement weather conspire against strawberry growers harvesting perfect red berries to sell. Farming is hard work, said Fam Lee, as she pulled a weed from a row of strawberry plants.

Timing is everything. Especially when it comes to bumble bee colonies. Postdoctoral scholar Rosemary Malfi of the Neal Williams lab, University of California, Davis, will speak on Timing Is Everything: Bumble Bee Colony Performance in Response to Seasonal Variation in Resources at 4:10 p.m.

Growing mandarins in the foothills often produces a tantalizing crop of fruit that delights even the pickiest of connoisseurs, however, it is not produced without difficulty.

At a recent beginning farming workshop, that was the exact question that was posed to an earnest group of beginning farmers. Many of you may have similar questions so this post answers a few of them.

How's the butterfly population faring in north-central California? What do you plant to attract and sustain them? You can find out at the second annual Butterfly Summit, a free event hosted by Annie's Annuals and Perennials in Richmond. The event takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Aspiring sheep shearers flocked to the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center in May for a week of training on the proper techniques for harvesting wool from sheep, reported Tiffany Camhi on KQED Radio News.