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Conservation tillage farm press tour to be held Aug. 30 FRESNO - The media are invited to a conservation tillage press tour from 10 a.m. to noon at the University of California's West Side Research and Extension Center, 17353 W. Oakland Ave., Five Points. The tour will acquaint reporters with new farming practices that growers and researchers are developing in California's Central Valley. These conservation or reduced tillage systems come in a variety of forms, including minimum tillage, no-till, strip-till and ridge-till planting. They involve a host of accompanying management issues. Proponents of conservation tillage believe the practice has many advantages, such as cutting farming costs, storing carbon in the soil and reducing energy use. "There is tremendous innovation aimed at the development and adaptation of such systems for California," said Jeff Mitchell, the UC Davis vegetable crops specialist based at the UC Kearney Agricultural Center near Parlier. Mitchell presents annual conservation tillage conferences in Five Points and Davis, CA. The 2002 conferences will be held Tuesday, Sept. 17, in Davis, and Thursday, Sept. 19, in Five Points. The press tour is offered in advance of the conservation tillage conferences to provide reporters theoretical and practical background information related to conservation tillage and to provide the press with a conference agenda, digital images of various conservation tillage systems and articles. For
additional information, contact Jeff Mitchell at (559) 646-6565,
email:mitchell@uckac.edu.
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