From The Fields ®
From the Fields is a firsthand report featuring insights from farmers and ranchers across the Golden State, including members of the California Farm Bureau. If you would like to be a contributor to From the Fields, submit your name, county of membership and contact information to agalert@cfbf.com.
Photo/Ching Lee
Photo/Courtesy Richard Bianchi
Jim Gates Nevada County rancher
Richard Bianchi San Benito County vegetable grower
We just came out of about 10 days of extraordinary heat for the vegetables. We had temperatures as high as 111 to 114 degrees, which was our high point. During that period of heat, the irrigators did a heck of a job keeping everything going, but by the end of it, they welcomed a foggy day to the area. Vegetables are pretty resil- ient. It’s just a matter of getting water to them. Anything growing on the coast here— leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, celery—water is a main component of everything we do, and it is definitely struggling. In a lot of areas, it is concerning as we see well-water levels dropping and the pros- pect of what next year could look like. We start planning now for next year, and it is hard when you don’t know what things look like. When you don’t have the delivered water, then we don’t have it. But when wells start to drop, that adds another layer of concern. It’s been a long summer for more than one reason. Disease in a lot of the lettuce has hampered production and yields. The romaine, head lettuce and a lot of the leaf lettuc- es are dealing with a disease that has really hampered us the last couple of years. Every cost is up: Labor’s up, fertilizer is up, sprays are up, any of our input costs. Everything from pallets to wax cartons to plastic bags, it’s all up, up, up. We figure our costs went up 20%. That’s got to come out of our bottom line, so it makes it tough. I know everybody across the state is dealing with the same issues. On the bright side, the weather has kind of righted itself. It’s 90 degrees during the day and then cools down into the high 50s or 60s at night. We’ve got three or four weeks before guys start to head south to Yuma. We’re hoping for a strong finish.
We had one real good rain, and we’ve got grass 2 inches tall right now, nearly tall enough for the cattle to bite. But we need it to rain again. If it doesn’t rain, we’ll lose the grass that we have sprouted. Then it’s going to get a lot tougher because those seeds are no longer there to sprout. We’ve made a huge effort to shepherd our grass to really protect it. We’ve done such a job of saving our feed resources that we make Ebenezer Scrooge look like a humanitarian. There is no feed left, for the most part, in California, except for people that have really made a conscious effort to take care of it. I have hay left over from last year, and I bought some hay this year. I’m strategically marketing my cattle so that we hold the base herd together, so if it rains and takes off, we’re ready to take off too. The cattle look good. We’ve got irrigation water for another three weeks. The grass is still growing. We’re irrigating on the dryland where we can. We’re doing what we can to stretch every inch of water to produce the most feed we can until Oct. 14. Then they’re going to cut the irrigation off, and then we’re up against the rainfall. We need more processors. My processor at the University of Nevada, Reno, called three Fridays ago and said they’re closing their door. That’s where I had my cattle done for the last 12 years. I asked around and put together a California con- nection, and we’re up and running. But it’s been a real struggle—days and days on the telephone.
Neil Nagata San Diego County farmer
We’re getting ready to plant strawberries in the next two or three weeks. Cherimoya harvest is go- ing to start in late November to beginning of December and should go through April. Fruit is on the vine, as long as the heat doesn’t do too much damage. There was that heat spell, and it is still warm now. Even though the fruit was set, that could cause some issues with the quality or outcome of the fruit. Blueberries finished in May. Pretty soon, we’ll go in and prune them, and they’ll come back about February. We also do specialty vegetables for local markets—broccoli or beans or something that fills the gap. Everything is tough, just like up and down the state. In San Diego County, we have water, but it’s expensive. State mandates could affect us. They shouldn’t affect us because we have plenty of supply, but by popular demand, agriculture can be drawn into the whole chaos of the drought. Our water authority says we have plenty of water until 2024, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be reduced. We are not short of employees now because we’re not really doing too much, but the supply has been short. Even though you hear of all the immigration going on, they really aren’t showing up to work. We’re preparing for planting, so right now we’re doing OK, but when it comes to harvesttime, we’ll have to see. Ancillary costs are going up. Fuel is probably the biggest one, but everything adds to the bottom line. At any one time, there’s always a possibility of supply-chain issues, es- pecially if we bring in things from China or overseas. Pallets were one of those big issues, but I think everything’s calmed down. It’s always a constant threat, and until we figure out the global economy and supply chain, we’re always just cautious.
Photo/California Strawberry Commission
4 Ag Alert October 5, 2022
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