Agriculture

Sacramento's newest agriculture inspector sniffs out pests

By Cynthia Hubert - Updated: Saturday, February 11 2012 - 12:27 am

Under the light of a nearly full moon early Friday morning, Sacramento County's newest agricultural inspector reported for duty. Dozer, an 86-pound Labrador retriever mix, bolted out of a white van and into OnTrac's bustling shipping warehouse on the end of a leash held by his human partner, inspector Jennifer Berger.

Dozer the Agriculture Inspection Dog

Capital-area matchmakers link would-be farmers with plots of land

By Carlos Alcalá - Published: Tuesday, January 31 2012 - 12:00 am

Putting farmers onto underused land was once a matter of creating homesteads. Now it has entered the computer age, with nonprofits using the Internet to match farmland with growers.

Funds raised to save smaller farms

By Edward Ortiz - Updated: Sunday, January 29 2012 - 3:07 pm

The Mains face a tough question – and one common to the small-farm owner: What will happen to their farm since their sons and daughters are pursuing other careers?

Feds put their mark on cattle branding

By Erica Goode - Published: Sunday, January 29 2012 - 12:00 am

MORGAN HILL – In the half-light of a winter evening here, a tawny calf skitters across the pasture after its mother, a Lazy T brand visible on its right hip. The brand, used by the Tilton Ranch since Janet Burback's parents settled on this land in 1917, appears on the ranchers' shirts, their trucks and their business cards.

Grape harvest down as U.S. thirst for wine grows, Sacramento symposium is told

By Chris Macias - Published: Thursday, January 26 2012 - 12:00 am

After two consecutive years of light grape crops, and a dry start to the 2012 growing season, a standing room crowd of 2,200 packed the Hyatt Regency Ballroom on Tuesday morning to mull the state of the wine industry at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium.

Local-food movement gets verbal support from El Dorado County officials

By Carlos Alcalá - Published: Wednesday, January 25 2012 - 12:00 am

The grass-roots (and grass-fed) agriculture revolution that Patty Chelseth, of My Sisters' Farm in Shingle Springs, started last summer is picking up steam.

California farmers eagerly await rain

By Mark Glover - Published: Wednesday, January 18 2012 - 12:00 am

Rain can't come soon enough for California farmers and ranchers, who are counting the hours in anticipation of Thursday's forecast arrival of meaningful showers.