The Almond Board’s Environmental Stewardship Tour in May provided real-world examples of how almond growers are taking sustainable farming principles and putting them into action in a way that manages resources with an eye toward environmental stewardship and economic viability.
Brian Leahy, director of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, one of the state’s highest-ranking regulators and who himself has a background in sustainable farming, was one of 40 state, local and federal regulators and elected officials, members of the media and other guests who got a firsthand look at innovative almond-growing practices related to water, nutrient and pest management at the Almond Board’s eighth annual Environmental Stewardship Tour.
Mike Burden, farm manager for tour host Jackson-Rodden in Oakdale, shared how the 5,000-acre farm has integrated sustainability into water, nutrient and pest management on the farm, and in the end boosted the efficiency of its applied inputs.
The farm in recent years converted a tailwater drainage area for neighboring water districts near the property into a series of sediment settlement ponds, and is now reclaiming the nitrogen-rich tailwater for irrigation, keeping it out of environmentally sensitive surface waterways. Burden said the return system provides enough water to irrigate 600 acres of almonds and walnuts at about 10% of the cost of pumping supplemental water from the farm’s deep wells. The reclaimed tailwater also provides 50 pounds of nitrogen per acre through the irrigation water that is taken into account in the overall nutrient management budget.
Leahy said Jackson-Rodden’s sediment basin provides a perfect example of how sustainability is being implemented in very real ways in California Almond orchards.
“The real definition of sustainability is when you can take a misplaced resource and put it to use somewhere else, and at a fraction of the cost,” he said. “That’s what you want, and that’s what we are learning growers are doing. Nothing is sustainable until it makes you more efficient at the end of the day, and I think we are rediscovering that."
Burden also shared with tour participants how high-tech soil, weather and water monitoring systems are helping integrate technology into the farm’s drip irrigation and fertilizer decision-making for optimum efficiency. Jackson-Rodden uses a combination of plant- and soil-based monitoring in the Monterey/Fritz/Nonpareil orchard.
Print