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April 2011

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J1 Visas offer alternative labor source

Finding quality labor is an issue most growers must deal with. Many fruit and vegetable growers are aware of the H-2A visa program that allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the country to fill temporary agricultural jobs for which domestic workers are not available. These same growers are also aware of the obstacles associated with the H-2A system. There is an alternative for some workers, however, with the J1 Visa system. Few growers are taking advantage of the Exchange Visitor J1 Visa program, which enables experienced interns and trainees to be placed on U.S. farms and agricultural operations. There are some striking differences between J1 and H-2A, however, and the J1 Visa is not an option that will work for everyone. "The J1 Visa program is a training program," said Bob Jones Jr. of The Chef's Garden Farm in Ohio. "It shouldn't be looked at as a source of labor, but more of as an educational program where you'll get an exchange of ideas." A key difference of the J1 program is the education, or experience, requirement. The intent is that the workers would arrive with a higher-than-average level of experience, gain additional… » Read more

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California growers turning to center-pivot

Center-pivot irrigation could become the wave of the future in California, where farmers are looking to maximize water efficiency and minimize labor costs. About 30 growers attended a meeting recently in Five Points, Calif. - hosted by the Center for Irrigation Technology - to learn more about center-pivot irrigation.Although Midwestern farmers have traditionally used pivot systems the most, more California farmers are starting to show interest. "The reason why California hasn't adopted the pivot system is because California has always had vast quantities of water, huge labor pools and an infrastructure of concrete ditches that delivered water. That system was super successful and people made a lot of money," said Ray Batten of Valmont Irrigation, who spoke at the meeting. All that's changing now, because of the dwindling water supplies and smaller and more expensive labor pools. While pivot irrigation, like drip, is 90-95 percent… » Read more

Using genetics to build a better tomato

Agricultural Research Service researchers are working to save our tomatoes - or at least some of them. Tomatoes spend so much time on shelves and in refrigerators that an estimated 20 percent are lost to spoilage, according to USDA's Economic Research Service. Autar Mattoo, an ARS plant physiologist with the Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., is trying to change that. Mattoo is working with Avtar Handa, a professor of horticulture at Purdue University, to enhance tomatoes so that they offer not only better taste and higher nutrient levels, but also a longer shelf life. Mattoo, Handa and Savithri Nambeesan, a graduate student working with Handa, recently focused on manipulating a class of nitrogen-based organic compounds known as "polyamines," which act as signals and play a role in the plant's growth, flowering, fruit development, ripening and other functions. Polyamines have also been linked to… » Read more

Gills Onions adds to its sustainable power initiative

Gills Onions' sustainability efforts have garnered national attention. The Oxnard, Calif., farm is documenting what it does and working with outside groups to track the data ¬- for internal use, to continue to improve, and external use, to help shape sustainability metrics. The company's biggest sustainability investment so far was the construction of an advanced energy recovery system powered by solid waste. The waste - up to 300,000 pounds a day - is turned into a liquid and goes into an anaerobic digester, which converts it to methane. The clean-burning gas can be used to power the 600-kilowatt fuel cells. The system came online last year. Construction took almost three years, but the process from idea to implementation took about a decade. The advanced recovery system covers between 30 percent and 40 percent of the farm's plant power needs, and saves the company about $700,000… » Read more

Supplemental lighting guidelines for greenhouses

High-intensity supplemental lighting can increase photosynthesis and plant quality of crops during periods of dark weather. However, until recently, the definition of "dark" weather was ambiguous and subjective. Research at several U.S. universities has generated specific information on how ornamental plants respond to the daily light integral (DLI). With this information, the benefit of supplemental lighting can be ascertained based on the ambient DLI and the plant response to DLI. DLI refers to the number of light particles, or photons, received during one day in a particular location and area. Photons that have a wavelength between 400 and 700 nanometers (nm) provide the energy for photosynthesis, which is the process of converting water and carbon dioxide into sugars and oxygen. These sugars are used for plant growth. The DLI specifically refers to the amount of light received in one day in one square meter of… » Read more