Yuma County Cooperative Extension

Crop Protection: Our Yuma farmers work hard to keep America fed with wholesome fruits and vegetables. In a perfect world it would be easy, plant seeds, watch them grow, harvest, and sell at the market. In the real world there are many external pressures that limit yield and quality. Most limiting factors can be cared for by planning and providing what for crop needs at specific growth stages: water, nutrition, healthy soil, and climate are planned from the start then fine-tuned as the season progresses. A more difficult factor to manage is pest control, as weeds, disease, and insect pressure fluctuate from season to season, requiring different levels of response based on severity of outbreak. The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) industry is dedicated to supplying the grower with proper defenses customized for each situation. IPM strategies have evolved over time away from broad spectrum treatments, with modes of action that act indiscriminately, to more targeted ‘selective chemistries’ that may only affect a specific pest at a specific life stage, while not affecting other life in the field needed to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Commercially, crops are often sprayed with ground rigs or aerially with helicopters and crop-duster planes. Pest Control Advisors (PCAs) scout the field and provide spray recommendations to applicators, logging each app with the Arizona Department of Agriculture or California Department of Pesticide Regulation. With aerial application, flaggers on the ground identify hazards, monitor the wind, and making preparations for the sprayer. The chemical mix is loaded on the aircraft and applied with different sized nozzles to create larger or smaller droplets to maximize surface contact, via flow-control systems that automatically change discharge rates based on flight speed.

UArizona Yuma Cooperative Extension offers Online On-Demand Continuing Education Courses for agricultural professionals. These courses are accredited by the Arizona Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Visit www.YumaExtension.com to view the library of available courses.

Yuma County Cooperative Extension offers convenient online, on-demand courses for continuing education credits! Perfect for Agricultural Professionals looking to expand their knowledge and stay up to date with their CEUs goals, these courses provide flexibility and accessible learning opportunities. Take advantage of this great resource today at www.YumaExtension.com

Join us on November 13 & 14, 2024, for The Desert Difference, a two-day AgTech conference hosted by the University of Arizona’s Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture, Arizona Cooperative Extension, Yuma Agricultural Center, and the Office of Research Innovation & Impact, in partnership with Western Growers. This event unites Ag professionals, AgTech innovators, and leaders to explore cutting-edge desert farming tech. Enjoy hands-on demos, expert talks, and networking for a sustainable future in agriculture.   Nov. 13 – Field demos at Yuma Ag Center Nov. 14 – Conference at Yuma Civic Center   Don’t miss this opportunity to connect, strategize, and lead in the next era of AgTech! Register before November to take advantage of the FREE Early Bird Registration! https://lnkd.in/gu2iKFhA

UArizona Yuma Cooperative Extension offers Online On-Demand Continuing Education Courses for agricultural professionals. These courses are accredited by the Arizona Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Visit www.YumaExtension.com to view the library of available courses.

Yuma County Cooperative Extension offers convenient online, on-demand courses for continuing education credits! Perfect for Agricultural Professionals looking to expand their knowledge and stay up to date with their CEUs goals, these courses provide flexibility and accessible learning opportunities. Take advantage of this great resource today at www.YumaExtension.com

As the warm sun bathes the fields of Yuma, local farmers are celebrating a bountiful harvests in the local citrus groves that dot the region. This unusually warm fall season has brought in a bumper crop of sweet and tart treats destined for domestic and international sale, doing its part to deliver on one of the iconic 5 C's of Arizona: Citrus, Cattle, Cotton, Climate, and Copper. The sun, soil, and water in Yuma County are perfect for supporting citrus orchard growth, producing our iconic oranges, tangerines , grapefruit, and lemons, all of which harvested during the cooler months of fall and winter. Lemons are a major crop in Yuma, first they are ringed for size, then fruit is clipped and put in picking bags. The bags are used to fill bin boxes that are then transported to the packing houses to be cleaned, sorted, and shipped around the world. Lemon season usually runs from September through February, but this season we've seen a delay in harvest, with great quality, but smaller fruit due to the late summer heat. In Arizona we're providing a niche in the domestic production gap between imported fruit and that grown in coastal Ventura County.

UArizona Yuma Cooperative Extension offers Online On-Demand Continuing Education Courses for agricultural professionals. These courses are accredited by the Arizona Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Visit www.YumaExtension.com to view the library of available courses.

Yuma County Cooperative Extension offers convenient online, on-demand courses for continuing education credits! Perfect for Agricultural Professionals looking to expand their knowledge and stay up to date with their CEUs goals, these courses provide flexibility and accessible learning opportunities. Take advantage of this great resource today at www.YumaExtension.com

Agriculture students at the Yuma County Cooperative Extension are calibrating a metered fertilizer application machine for upcoming field trials. The project aims to enhance efficiency in fertilizer applications, contributing to more sustainable farming practices in preparation for field trials at Yuma Agricultural Center. Proper setup is crucial for success, not only must the machine be calibrated accurately, but the field itself must be carefully prepared to ensure reliable results. Giving the students hands-on involvement is key to their development in the agriculture industry, aligning with Yuma's commitment to agricultural innovation.