Role of Birds on Farms Course - Lesson 6

Track 3. Managing and Co-Existing with Birds

Lesson 6 - Co-Existing With Birds and Making Farms Safe

Presenters: Dr. Olivia Smith - Michigan State University & Rachael Long - UCANR

Olivia is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Michigan State University. She is interested in identifying when and where birds are helpful or hurtful to farmers. Her work tries to find solutions to maximize the benefits of birds while minimizing the harms. She is particularly interested in working with small, diversified farms.

Rachael is a UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor with 30-years of experience working on ecosystem service benefits of hedgerows on farms in the Sacramento Valley. She’s a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Davis and the recipient of the UC Agricultural Sustainability Leadership Award. She lives on a farm in the Central Valley where her family grows almonds and field crops. She’s also the author of a children’s chapter book series that brings kids into a world of bats through a high adventure story.

Learning Objectives

Explain livestock situations that are bigger or smaller risks of being sources of pathogens for birds, which could then be deposited on food.
Give reasons why birds are likely to be a lower food safety risk when farms are in areas with abundant natural habitat.
Evaluate farm situations (telephone wires, etc.) where birds are more likely to cause contamination.
Share reasons why habitats like hedgerows do not have a greater risk of food borne. pathogens than the crop itself.

Presentation Recording