The 33rd Annual Fertilizer Research and Education Program (FREP) and Western Plant Health (WPH) Nutrient Management Conference was held in Fresno, CA, October 29-30, 2025. This year’s conference brought together attendees from academia, crop consultants, growers, industry representatives, researchers, and government personnel.
This blog provides a quick recap of the event; for more detailed information, including summaries from presented FREP projects, check out the 2025 Conference Proceedings on the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) FREP webpage: https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/ffldrs/frep/FREP_Conference_Proceedings.html
Pre-Conference Tour (Oct. 28) The conference started off with a tour of Mid Valley Disposal, a state-of-the-art, in-vessel-covered composting facility, which receives local urban and agricultural green waste and creates a compost that is certified by CDFA as an Organic Input Material. The finished compost product is available in bulk for growers and sold in individual packages for home gardeners. The tour included a demonstration of THOR food waste de-packer; green waste sort line, grinding/feedstock blending, Sustainable Generation composting bunker system, and compost screening operations.
(Left) Tour attendees at the Mid Valley Disposal facility. (Right) Staff showing final compost products.
Day One (Oct. 29)
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross and Western Plant Health President/CEO Renee Pinel welcomed attendees to the conference, followed by a full day of presentations and discussions facilitated by Dr. Karl Wyant, Director of Agronomy, Nutrien.
The first half of the day included presentations on four FREP-funded research projects and one presentation that focused on soil nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions in California:
- The Importance of Dissolved Organic Nitrogen Leaching: Management’s Primacy and Soil Type’s Modulation; Hannah Waterhouse, Assistant Professor, UC Santa Cruz
- Soil NOx Emissions in California; Martin Burger, Project Scientist, UC Davis, and Senior Environmental Scientist, CDFA (retired)
- Assessing Optimal Water and Nitrogen Management Practices in Drip-Irrigated Desert Lettuce using Field Trials and the CropManage Decision Support Tool; Ali Montazar, Irrigation and Water Management Advisor, University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE)
- Fertilizer and Irrigation Management Considerations for Low Desert Sudan Grass Production; Oli Bachie, Agronomy and Weed Management Advisor, UCCE
- Tree-Level Yield Mapping for Nut Trees Harvested with Shake-Catch Harvesters; Stavros Vougioukas, Professor, UC Davis
The second half of the day featured a panel discussion, presentations on continuous fertigation and phosphorus management, and an evening networking reception:
- Panel: Benefits and Economics of Improved Management Systems
Moderator: Franklin Gaudi, VP of Business Development and Engineered Solutions, Ag Laurel and Water
Panelists: Sam Ford, Ford Ranches; Joel Leonard, Sun Pacific; Guillermo Valenzuela, WiseConn; Roy Levinson, Netafim - Continuous Fertigation; Chris Malek, Senior Agronomist, Deerpoint Group Inc.
- Evaluating NutriCharge® and Phosphorus Rates for Alfalfa Production in High pH Soils of Scott Valley, Siskiyou County; Jagdeep Singh, Agronomy Advisor, UCCE
(L-R) Sam Ford, Guillermo Valenzuela, Roy Levinson, and Franklin Gaudi join a panel discussion on the first day of the Nutrient Management Conference focused on the benefits and economics of improved irrigation management systems.
Day Two (Oct. 30)
Facilitator Chuck Moran, Senior Agronomist at Buttonwillow Warehouse Company, welcomed conference attendees to the conference’s second day and moderated the morning’s presentations and a panel discussion on effective outreach for Agricultural Professionals:
- Evaluating Farm Scale Nitrogen Management Needs; Deanne Meyer, Extension Specialist, UC Davis
- Optimizing Nitrogen Fertilizer Concentrations in Vegetable Transplant Production; Bruno Pitton, Environmental Horticulture Advisor, UCCE
- The Role of Irrigation Management for Improving Nitrogen Use Efficiency for Broccoli Grown with Nitrate-Contaminated Irrigation Water; Charlotte Decock, Associate Professor, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
- Nutrient Management and Irrigation Efficiency Outreach and Education for Latino and Southeast Asian Farmers; Harol Gonzalez Gallardo, Agricultural Specialist, and Anel Trujillo, Outreach Specialist, American Farmland Trust
- Panel: Effective Outreach for Agricultural Professionals
Moderator: Sat Darshan Khalsa, Associate Project Scientist, UC DavisPanelists: Mae Culumber, Nut Crops Farm Advisor, UCCE Fresno; Kevin Greer, Project Manager, Tehama County Resource Conservation District; Jeff Mitchell, Cropping Systems Specialist, UC Davis; Eryn Wingate, Certified Crop Advisor, Independent Consultant - Potassium Opportunities in Specialty Crops; Karl Wyant, Director of Agronomy, Nutrien
Save the Date
The 2026 FREP/WPH Nutrient Management Conference will be held in Stockton, CA, October 28- 29.