Godbey and Shydlowski win at UC-wide conference

Mia Godbey and Maya Shydlowski— graduate students the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences— took first place in poster contests at the annual California Plant and Soil conference in Visalia, Calif. 

The California Plant and Soil Conference brings together agronomy students and professionals to discuss issues at the forefront of state agriculture. The conference gives students the opportunity to network with experts in the industry and learn about research happening around the state.  

The conference is hosted by University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources and the California chapter of the American Society of Agronomy. 

Mia Godbey  

Godbey won for her poster, “No-tillage effect on rice yields: A global mixed model literature review,” in the doctoral student division. 

She studies in the lab of Bruce Linquist in the Department of Plant Sciences, with a focus on growing rice in no-till fields. “I wrote about the effect that no-tillage has on rice yields around the world as compared to conventional tillage,” Godbey said.  

“Mia getting first prize in the Ph.D. poster competition makes me proud. And, it should make her proud as well. Her poster is the result of a lot of hard work,” said Linquist, a professor of Cooperative Extension in the department. “This is an excellent conference for graduate students. It brings together many UC system and Cal State graduate students who are interested in agriculture.”  

This is Godbey’s second year attending the conference. “I really enjoyed the more student-focused aspects of the conference,” Godbey remarked. “It allowed us to receive feedback and advice from many experts in various fields.”

Maya Shydlowski  

Shydlowski won best poster for the master’s student division with her presentation, "How do crop choice, establishment timing and deficit irrigation impact the productivity of winter cereals in water-limited environments of the San Joaquin Valley?" 

Shydlowski studies the ways plants and human health affect each other in Mark Lundy’s Grain Cropping Systems Lab. Her presentation looked at how varieties of cereal crops, including wheat and barley, respond to different management practices with differing levels of irrigation. 

Due to increasing drought and state water regulations, hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland are expected to be fallowed in the next few years. Fallowing, the practice of not resuming cultivation on a field after it is harvest, greatly limits the agricultural productivity of an area. 

“Fallowing fields can result in negative effects on environmental and human health,” Shydlowski said. “It can have lasting impacts on local economies, communities and the soil.” 

“Maya’s project is a great example of the practical problem-solving that we specialize in at UC Cooperative Extension,” said Lundy, Shydlowski’s PI and an associate professor of Cooperative Extension in the department.  

She is co-advised by Cameron Pittelkow, an associate professor in the department. 

Her research is in its second season of observation. “I'll be interested to see how this water year will affect the trends we saw in our first year of results,” she said.  

This was Shydlowski’s first year attending the event. “The conference was really fun,” she said. “It was partially run by UC ANR, so there were a lot of great, relevant speakers and topics --- talks on water, California regulations, healthy soils and using specific tools in agricultural research.”

 “I was excited, but not surprised, to learn that Maya received this award!” Lundy said. “She is a talented communicator and puts a lot of thought and preparation into her presentations.”