FARMS Leadership – Central Valley – October 20, 2020
Location of Field Day:
Cardoza Brothers Company – Tulare, CA
Mid-Valley Cotton – Tulare, CA
USDA Grading – Visalia, CA
On October 20th the Central Valley FARMS students got an inside look at how cotton is harvested, processed, and graded. The virtual tour started out in Tulare, CA, with Cardoza Brothers Company. They harvest fields of cotton in Tulare county and then send their product to Mid-Valley Cotton, also in Tulare. The cotton gin at Mid-Valley takes in the cotton from the field and removes the seed and other debris from the cotton boll, leaving you with a clean product to be sold. Of course, there is some grading to be done over at the USDA facility in Visalia, CA. This is where the virtual tour ended and students were able to see the process cotton goes through in order to be graded. Students were sent Kits that included cotton seed, bolls, lint, and an information booklet. Thank you to our hosts at Cardoza Brothers, Mid-Valley Cotton, and USDA Cotton.
Check out the kiwi kits that went home with the students to try. The kit include the three varieties of kiwi; golden red, golden yellow and traditional green.
Location of Field Day: Phillips Farms – Visalia, CA
Field Day Hosts: Doug Phillips – CEO Dave Phillips – Field Manager
October 20, 2020 was a very exciting day as the FARMS Leadership students from the Central Valley Region attended their first virtual field day of the year! They had the opportunity to see Phillips Farms in Visalia where they witnessed kiwi fruit harvesting and packing. Not many knew that kiwis actually grow on vines and come in some beautiful varieties; golden red, traditional green, and golden yellow. After watching the harvesting crew go through the vines the group then saw the packing house process and Phillips Farms was kind enough to send home the three varieties of kiwis they pack with each student to taste. It was a great experience to start off the virtual field day tours.
FARMS Leadership | Central Valley Central & South | Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Location of Field Day: California Department of Fish & WildLife – San Joaquin Hatchery – 17372 Brook Trout Drive, Friant, CA 93626
Field Day Host(s) and Mentors: William Branch Cheryl Moxley Brian Erlandsen
Theme: Aquaculture and Natural Resources
Summary of the Day: Students from Patino High School, Sunnyside High School, Kerman High School, Reedley High School and Hanford West High School met on Wednesday, January 29th at The San Joaquin Hatchery of California Department of Fish & Wildlife. Students met and practiced an introduction and thank you practice for use in the day for introducing our hosts. We were joined by Cheryl Moxley who runs the FINS Program. The FINS Program is an interpretive nature trail designed to teach children the life cycle of trout. Given the slightly older nature of our group, she covered other more age-appropriate information such as native plants, grant funding information, and interpretive design. Next, students rotated between two programs with lunch provided by FARMS to split up these two rotations. The first was SCARF: A salmon restoration project for the San Joaquin River. This covered topics such as conservation, endangered species, and the science behind genetic matrixing and testing. Students fed these fish and also checked for the success rate of the tagged fish by using the scanner provided. Finally the SJH: The hatchery itself, where we discussed what it takes to raise fish, plant it out, and deal with such things as water quality, biosecurity, and fish health. At the end of the day, students presented thank you’s to all of our hosts. We had a really enjoyable hands-on day. We were very impressed with what the state of California does for our natural resources. Thank you again, William, Cherly, Brian and your entire team.
