UC Blog
Investors tour California agriculture
A group of "big name" investors are on a tour of California's Central Valley today to introduce them to the state's $30 billion agriculture industry and to ag-related companies as potential investments. The tour started yesterday at UC Davis, where the group heard from researchers and professors about water policy and UC Davis research priorities, according to a press release published on Stock Market News. The tour ends this evening in Fresno.
Investors on the tour represent such firms as Mohr Davidow Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, US Venture Partners and J.R. Simplot Company.
"By bringing the investors to the farm, we want to show them various businesses so the two groups can better understand each other's world and requirements," said venture capitalist and tour organizer Joe Hudson.
Phil Christensen, an agricultural asset manager and another tour organizer, said a significant number of large private investors are starting to make bolder and longer-term bets that the world's need for food will continue to grow.
"As California's agricultural industries evolve and their capital requirements increase, we believe that more companies will look to new and non-traditional sources of capital for their growth," Christensen said.
Dahlberg named Kearney director
We are pleased to announce that Jeffery Dahlberg has accepted the position of Kearney director beginning Jan. 3.
Dahlberg will oversee both Kearney Agricultural Center (academic group) and Kearney Research & Extension Center. He will be based in Parlier and report to Bill Frost, the Research and Extension Center System associate director/Cooperative Extension assistant director.
Currently Dahlberg is research director for the National Sorghum Producers and the United Sorghum Checkoff Program and based in Lubbock, Texas. He conducts and publishes sorghum research and has worked to develop sorghum use in the biofuels and renewable industries and food industry.
“This newly configured position, combining leadership responsibilities for both units, requires a unique set of skills,” said Frost. “Jeff Dahlberg’s research and experience working with producers, industry and policymakers will be a tremendous asset to the division in his role as Kearney director.”
Dahlberg earned a Ph.D. in plant breeding at Texas A&M University, a master’s in agronomy & plant genetics at University of Arizona and a bachelor’s in biology at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Kearney endowment announcement
Following an intensive effort, involving a broad spectrum of members of ANR and our stakeholders, ANR completed a Strategic Vision for the purpose of meeting California’s challenges to ensure a high quality of life, healthy environment, and economic success. The Strategic Vision identified 9 areas of inquiry and is the compass that currently guides our strategic planning and allocation of resources. With the initiation of implementation, in order to make the most of our available resources we are focusing on the following 5 initiatives: Sustainable Food Systems, Healthy Families and Communities; Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases, and Sustainable Natural Ecosystems, and Water.
The ANR Program Council has worked with ANR Senior Leadership diligently to identify resources available to the Division to fund efforts which meet our highest priorities. Among the resources available are endowed funds, including the Kearney Endowment Fund.
With the proceeds of the 1948 sale of property bequeathed to the University of California by Mr. Kearney in 1906, the University established an unrestricted endowed fund, known as the Kearney Endowment Fund. In 1951, at the request of ANR, the fund was administratively allocated by The regents to create the M. Theo Kearney Foundation of Soil Science to support soil science, a priority at the time.
In undertaking an allocation review of the Kearney Fund, ANR complied with University policy and administrative guidelines. After careful consideration of the terms of Mr. Kearney’s bequest, and in consideration of the University’s practice of avoiding the assignment of restrictions on gifts where none otherwise exists, ANR recommended that this fund be released of the self-imposed restriction so that it may be used to support the urgent and pressing needs in agricultural science. Today, the most pressing needs and priorities are identified in our Strategic Vision.
The timing of this administrative change coincides with the end of the current 5-year mission of the Kearney Foundation of Soil Science. As we move forward, the Kearney funds will be available through a competitive grants program open to all members of the ANR community in an effort to meet the needs outlined in the Strategic Vision. These needs may include, but would not be limited to, soil science. The University, as a public trust, is committed to carrying out the terms set by Mr. Kearney in his magnificent bequest and we believe this change not only aligns with University practice, but honors Mr. Kearney’s interest in agriculture.
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Business Operations Centers become one unit
On Jan. 1, 2011, the previously established Business Operations Centers (at Davis and Kearney) will be consolidated into one center with current staff. Cherie McDougald, current chief administrative officer (CAO) of the Business Operations Center at Kearney, which serves Cooperative Extension county-based operations, will become director of the consolidated Business Operations Center. Nikki Humphreys, current CAO of the Business Operations Center at Davis, which serves statewide programs, EFNEP and ANR’s service units including the Research and Extension Centers - Administrative Office, will become associate director of the consolidated Business Operations Center.
The center will continue to operate in two locations with the current staffing and report to Jake McGuire, ANR’s controller and director of Business Services.
The consolidation will allow the processing of business services in one entity while building on individual staff expertise and strengths, provide consistency in procedures, employ consistency in implementing internal controls and compliance, and provide a core staff to work on business projects such as the multicounty partnership project.
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Most vet grads want to be pet doctors
Only 2 percent of veterinary school graduates in 2010 plan to work mostly with large animals, like cows, horses and swine, according a survey conducted by the American Veterinary Medical Association. An additional 7 percent studied a mixed curriculum that included all types of animals.
The statistics portend a shortage of large animal veterinarians and increased food safety risk because large-animal veterinarians serve as inspectors at ranches and slaughterhouses, said an Associated Press article about the survey.
The story, written by Olivia Muñoz, was published in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the Washington Post and other media outlets.
"We have known for years anecdotally that (large animal) vets were having a difficult time finding people to work at their practice or selling it when they retire," AVMA spokesman David Kirkpatrick told the reporter. "But now we know how big the problem is and how that will magnify over the years."
At the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, applicants interested in becoming farm-animal vets have an admissions edge, the AP article said. UC Davis has slowly boosted the number of students interested in large-animal medicine to 11 students out of 127, double the number from four years ago. The vet school has also reached out to high schools in rural areas.
More than a dozen states offer some type of loan repayment program or other incentives if students pledge to work in a region in need of large-animal vets. Vet students typically finish school with about $134,000 in debt, according to the AVMA.
Today, USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture announced in a news release that it will offer nearly $6 million to repay the veterinary school loans of 62 rural veterinarians. The recipients are required to commit to three years of veterinary service in a designated veterinary shortage area.
A shortage of large-animal veterinarians looms.