Farm Advisors

Farm Advisors

UC ANR has over 300 farm advisors strategically placed throughout California’s 58 counties who research and communicate science based information to solve locally relevant economic, agricultural, natural resource, youth development and nutrition issues. To learn more about each counties UCCE resources, please go to UC ANR's webpage County Offices. 

The list below provides information on farm advisers with expertise related to veterinary medicine and animal agriculture.

Laura Snell

Laura Snell is a Livestock and Natural Resource Advisor in Modoc County.  Some of her projects include long term range monitoring trends, meadow monitoring, wild horse and wildlife interactions, Juniper and invasive species removal, and post-fire grazing research.  Laura hosts a winter beef health meeting and has provided assistance for poultry, small and large livestock operations, and the local food movement. 

530-233-6400
lksnell@ucanr.edu    ANR webpage

Rebecca Ozeran

Rebecca Ozeran is a Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor in Fresno and Madera Counties.  Her interests include management of forage and water during drought, livestock nutrition, disease management and production management, ranch and economic sustainability, the interface between livestock and wildlife and targeted grazing and grazing systems.

559-241-7515
rkozeran@ucanr.edu   ANR webpage

Andrew Sutherland

Dr. Andrew Sutherland is an Urban Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Advisor for the San Francisco Bay Area, serving Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties. As a member of the University of California’s Statewide IPM Program (UC IPM), Dr. Sutherland serves as a conduit for IPM-related information and resources. The primary emphasis of this position is pest management of arthropods in urban areas with a focus on the development and adaptation of current IPM strategies in cooperation with various stakeholders. Areas of expertise include IPM protocols, decision support, reduced-risk pesticides, sampling programs, experimental design, mathematical modeling, and insectary management.

510-670-5624
amsutherland@ucanr.edu   
ANR Webpage

Maria G. (Lupita) Fabregas

Dr. Lupita Fabregas is the Assistant Director for 4-H Diversity and Expansion in UCANR.  Her interests in research and professional development areas include, Program Development, Inclusion, Intercultural Competency and Diversity. Among other areas of interest Dr. Fabregas focuses on Latino youth outreach within 4-H. 

530-750-1271
lfabregas@ucanr.edu  
ANR webpage

Katherine E. Soule

Dr. Katherine E. Soule is a Youth, Families, and Communities Advisor in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. Dr. Soule provides academic oversight to the UC 4-H Youth Development Program, UC CalFresh Nutrition Education, and the UC Master Food Preserver Program. Dr. Soule works to improve the quality of life of families and individuals living and working on the Central Coast through high-quality, research-based community education that addressed local needs while maximizing impacts by leveraging resources through collaborative programming, partnerships, and planning between UCCE programs and other agencies.

805-781-4093
kesoule@ucanr.edu 
ANR webpage

Nicholas Clark

Nicholas Clark is an Agronomy and Nutrient Management Advisor in Kings, Tulare, and Fresno Counties.  His interests include agronomic cropping systems and manure nitrogen management of crops including corn, alfalfa, dry beans, oilseed and biofuel crops.  In addition, his current dairy forage related work has focused on optimizing growing practices, feed quality, and nitrogen use efficiency of corn and sorghum.

559-852-2788
neclark@ucanr.edu
ANR webpage 

Devii R Rao

Devii Rao is the Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor serving San Benito, Monterey, and Santa Cruz counties.  Her work is focused on economic and ecological sustainability of ranching on the Central Coast. She has projects investigating rangeland weed control and long-term forage production, with an interest in pursuing research related to rangeland seeding, mineral deficiencies in livestock, and water quality & quantity.

831-637-5346 ext14
drorao@ucanr.edu
ANR webpage

Julie Finzel

Julie Finzel serves Kern, Tulare, and Kings Counties and focuses her research efforts on topics that influence the economic viability of today’s ranching industry. She has recently completed a cow/calf cost study and is beginning work on the first sheep cost study undertaken in the San Joaquin Valley in more than 40 years. Her research also focuses on the link between range management and ranch finances.

661-868-6219
jafinzel@ucanr.edu
ANR webpage

Josh Davy

Josh’s program conducts research and educational support in the areas of livestock management/husbandry, range improvement, weed control, feeding and supplementation strategies, grazing, and irrigated pasture management. Current and future projects work to keep production agriculture and natural resources healthy and sustainable.

530-527-3101
jsdavy@ucanr.edu
ANR webpage

Jeffery W Stackhouse

Jeff Stackhouse is the Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor (also serving Dairy) for Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. His diverse program has incorporated dairy herd health and manure management, forage and seeding trials, integrated weed management, prescribed fire, marijuana and land-use change, wildlife resources, and woody encroachment on rangelands. The North Coast’s climate, geography, and diverse culture make it the perfect spot for all types of research with possibilities for replicated research on numerous climatic and ecologic gradients, come visit.

707-445-7351
jwstackhouse@ucanr.edu
ANR webpage

Stephanie Larson

Dr. Stephanie Larson is Director of University of California Cooperative Extension, Sonoma County.  She directs all research and extension programs in Sonoma County. In addition, she is the Livestock and Range Management Advisor, conducting education and research to integrate dairy and livestock production with rangeland management in Sonoma and Marin Counties, helping local producers to improve production and marketing. She is developing economic models to document the benefits of local agriculture to the region, and she leads the effort to increase “agritourism” in Sonoma County. 

Her program integrates ecosystem services provided by rangelands and highlights the benefits of using grazing animals as tools to manage local landscapes. As a certified rangeland manager, she works with land managers to help them to make sound ecologic decisions about managing working landscapes for the benefit of all users.

She is currently the principle investigator for the USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher program, which is training “Agropreneurs” to increase food production throughout a five county region. She is working to develop an incubator farm that will provide opportunities for these beginners to learn their skills and increase local food access.

Royce Larsen

Dr. Royce Larsen is the Area Watershed/ Natural Resource Advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension serving Monterey, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. He conducts education and applied research programs for watershed function, natural resource issues on rangelands, non-point source pollution, food safety issues related to rangelands, noxious invasive weeds on rangelands, grassland restoration, forage production and ecology of annual grasslands. 

805-434-4106
relarsen@ucanr.edu
ANR webpage

John M. Harper

John attended both UC Davis and the University of Arizona. His undergraduate degree is in animal science and agricultural economics with emphasis in business management. His graduate studies were in range management and his thesis research was on grazing behavior. He is a member of both the Society for Range Management and the American Society for Animal Science and served as president of the Cal-Pac section of SRM in 2008. He holds license #23 as a Certified Rangeland Manager by the California Board of Forestry and is also a Certified Rangeland Professional #CP01-495. Presently he is the secretary for the Mendocino/Lake Wool Growers Association and is ad hoc Director of the Mendocino County Cattlemen’s Association.

707-463-4495
jmharper@ucanr.edu
ANR webpage

Scott Oneto

Scott Oneto is a Farm Advisor and the Director for Cooperative Extension for El Dorado, Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties. He conducts education and applied research programs in agriculture, range management, natural resources, weed control, and home horticulture.

209-223-6834
sroneto@ucanr.edu
ANR webpage

Emeritus Farm Advisors

Rob Benetton

Rob Bennaton is the Urban Agriculture Advisor for the San Francisco Bay Area.  His work focuses on supporting small scale food growers and extending knowledge on urban soil quality/resource management and urban agricultural policy.  His extension efforts include urban soil management, heavy metals exposure prevention, mapping of urban food growing sites in the East San Francisco Bay Area, and providing technical assistance on urban ag/community garden -site governance.  He is also the County Director in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, overseeing programming in all five ANR Strategic Initiatives through applied research & educational programs conducted by local UCCE Advisors, Specialists and Program Managers/Coordinators.

510-670-5621
rbennaton@ucanr.edu
ANR webpage