Placer County Farm Bureau
Spring 2018
Farm News Inaugural issue
Supporting agriculture for over one century Meet Placer County’s future farmers
Come along on a tour of Wiswell farm
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This issue is sponsored by:
A Message from your
Bees need groceries too
Farm Bureau President By Steve Pilz
Placer County farm bureau president
Lack of flowers makes pollinators sick, hungry
G
reetings... As a mandarin farmer, I am more comfortable picking from the big ol’ heritage mandarin trees my grandfather planted or out standing in my field than writing a message as this years president. Great organizations deserve vision. With a driven new Director who shares our county farm bureaus similar vision as well as my own as a grower in Penryn. Placer County has such a great variety of organizations in the encouragement of all levels of Agriculture. The enthusiastic youth learning from their farming elders in 4H or FFA or the great teachers from the local schools, colleges and
S
pring is the best time of year for honeybees! My name is John Miller, and I keep honeybees for a living. My family began keeping bees in California over a century ago, and we’ve been in Placer County since 1974. Sadly, bees are having a tough time. One of their biggest problems is a lack of adequate and diverse forage. You see, when a bee alights from a beehive she is grocery shopping, but too often, in areas of intense agricultural activity, water scarcity, or urban growth, grocery shopping for bees gets tough. Not enough flowers equals sick and hungry bees. Bees gather pollen and nectar; the pollen is a dietary protein while the nectar is a carbohydrate. It’s a simple diet, beneficial to both the plants visited by honeybees and the honeybee colony. Bees and plants have helped each other for millions of years. At our honey house property, we plant a variety of California-sourced seeds from Kamprath Seeds, located in Manteca. Seeding is done in October, prior to winter rains. Come Spring, our property erupts in a diverse forage buffet for honeybees, as well as butterflies, native bees, beneficial insects, and birds that eat insect pests. We have also learned that deep-rooted forage plants also penetrate the soil, opening it up so rainfall can better soak in, minimizing runoff. We also know some plants, like legumes, impart nitrogen back into the soil, enriching the earth. I serve on a non-profit called Project Apis m. (PAm), named after the western honeybee, the global champion in
Larvae Nectar
Foragers
2 Nectar carries pass
their load to receiver bees to store as honey.
4 Nurse bees use the honey Pollen
1 Forager bees collect nectar and pollen.
3 Pollen collectors pack
their pollen into cells to form bee bread.
See president Page 15
Receivers
and bee bread to feed the colony. They also transform pollen into royal jelly, which they feed to larvae and to the queen, drones, and older worker bees.
Longhorn is longtime supporter of local farms
Nurses Drones Queen
We are strong supporters of FFA, 4-H, Farm Bureau and other avenues of reaching out to the community. A family owned business that started in Loomis in the 1990s then moved to Newcastle and incorporated our business. The steer on the roof is the heart of who we are. He is our mascot. It’s always been a part of my family and me. It’s a great learning aspect of be-
crop pollination and honey production. PAm has an educational website where I go for information on forage projects. The Seeds For Bees program is run by Billy Synk, who lives in Sacramento. Visit the web site, and learn how anyone can have a forage project for bees and other beneficiaries. Birds, bees, butterflies, and even bats do important pollination work, and we can help these animals (and the earth) with forage projects. (See above diagram.)
See Longhorn Page 15
A Message from your
Agriculture Commissioner Joshua Huntsinger Agriculture Commissioner
Inside this issue
I
t is an honor and privilege to be able to participate in the first modern Placer County Farm Bureau Newsletter! I congratulate Placer County Farm Bureau on all of the great work they are doing on behalf of the county’s farmers and ranchers, and wish them great success with this new effort! There are many different ways in which the county’s agricultural producers interact with my office. For many, we are the regulatory agency that oversees pesticide use, plant quarantines, organic standards, and farmers markets. For others, it is more often through the efforts of the county’s PlacerGROWN Agricultural Marketing program.
Farm Bureau Executive Director’s message . . . . . . . . . . NID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Supervisors’ Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Echo Valley Feed: A Gem In Placer County . . . . . . . . . . . PRCD Update Elisa Noble. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Annual Dinner highlights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inch’s Tooling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Farm Bureau: Gary Sack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vineyard Family Farm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Placer Farm Supply: Tradition since 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . Message from Doug LaMalfa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mountain Mandarin Festival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hillcrest Produce (Pilz): Roots Grow Deep In Penryn. . . .
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Q&A with Bob Wiswell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-H and UCCE Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Meet Young Farmers and Ranchers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Compassionate Planet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FFA news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Agricultural Banking and Lending. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nationwide and Drones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PlacerGrown Get In the Know about them . . . . . . . . . . PCFB’s Mount Pleasant Hall celebrates 100 years. . . . Oest Cattle Ranch: Family Tradition Prevails In Ag . . . Farm Bureau membership application. . . . . . . . . . . . . Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mandarin Festival’s Gary Gilligan recipes . . . . . . . . . .
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And for some, it is through work with the county’s Planning Department as we navigate the complex regulatory environment associated with opening an on-farm winery or brewery. As my staff and I work with you in these various capacities, I feel very fortunate to work in (and for!) a community that strongly supports agriculture. Back in 1994, our county Board of Supervisors approved a new County General Plan that spelled out the future of Placer County as related to land use patterns and growth. This plan is chock-full of language that reflects the Board’s intention to ensure that agriculture remains a strong part of the county, and is protected and encouraged through policies that encourage economic viability, the preservation of farmland, and policies to protect farmers from nuisance complaints. We also have a community that comes out to support our farmers by shopping at our local farmers markets, wineries, and on-farm breweries. We See Commissioner Page 15