Mark Gaskell, Ph.D., Small Farms and Specialty Crops Farm Advisor
USDA has initiated a new sustainable agriculture educational campaign to reach thousands of small-scale farmers and ranchers over the next few years. "Farming for Profit, Stewardship, and Community" is the title of the education effort, which was one of the top recommendations in the landmark report released last year by the USDA National Commission on Small Farms.
Packets of information, comprised of 10 "Tip Sheets," are now available from USDA field offices (including NRCS, RD, and FSA), and also from Cooperative Extension offices. These information packets provide valuable new tools to assist farmers and ranchers to incorporate more sustainable practices and principles into farming operations. The tip sheets cover topics such as soil quality, agricultural marketing, and low cost animal systems. Each tip sheet is filled with additional resources of where to turn for valuable information on the subject matter topic.
For copies of one or more of the tip sheets in the information packets, please contact this office at 805.934.6240 or contact me via e-mail: mlgaskell@ucdavis.edu
Titles of the tip sheets:
| No. 1 | Improve Soil Quality |
| No. 2 | Add Value Through Marketing |
| No. 3 | Prevent Pest Problems |
| No. 4 | Explore Organic Production |
| No. 5 | Cut Livestock Costs |
| No. 6 | Manage Weeds Wisely |
| No. 7 | Plan for Profit |
| No. 8 | Network |
| No. 9 | Diversify Crops |
| No. 10 | Use Trees |
Aseries of publications on organic vegetable production in California is now available from Communication Services at University of California, Davis, via the Internet. The series was written by a group of farm advisors and specialists from the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. There are six titles in the series, which cover crop production processes across vegetable crops.
The titles of the individual publications are:
| Organic Certification, Farm Production Planning, and Marketing | UC ANR Publication 7247 |
| Soil Management and Soil Quality for Organic Crops | UC ANR Publication 7248 |
| Soil Fertility Management for Organic Crops | UC ANR Publication 7249 |
| Weed Management for Organic Crops | UC ANR Publication 7250 |
| Insect Pest Management for Organic Crops | UC ANR Publication 7251 |
| Plant Disease Management for Organic Crops | UC ANR Publication 7252 |
A seventh publication, entitled Post Harvest Management for Organic Crops, will be added to the series in a few weeks.
These publications are available on the Free Publications page at http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/
To download these or other publications, you will need to use the Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't have the Acrobat Reader, you'll find a link to the Adobe download site at the Free Publications site.
If you don't use the Internet, contact this office at 805.934.6240, and we will send you a copy by mail.