Ag Alert. November 2, 2022

Ag Alert is the newspaper of the California Farm Bureau Federation, reaching Farm Bureau agricultural and collegiate members. Agricultural members are owners and decision-makers on California farms and ranches. The California Farm Bureau Federation is a non-governmental, non-profit, voluntary membership organization whose purpose is to protect and promote agricultural interests throughout the state of California and to find solutions to the problems of the farm, the farm home and the rural community. Farm Bureau is California's largest farm organization, comprised of 53 county Farm Bureaus. Farm Bureau strives to protect and improve the ability of farmers and ranchers engaged in production agriculture to provide a reliable supply of food and fiber through responsible stewardship of California's resources.

Raising the vines Vineyards, researchers embrace higher trellises

Trapping data Researchers capture, monitor vegetable pests

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www.cfbf.com • www.agalert.com NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Vegetables ®

special report

By Peter Hecht A group of San Joaquin Valley farm- ers, led by a contingent of growers from the Sikh community in Madera County, marched on the state Capitol last week to call for increased allocations of surface water for agriculture. Farms in the valley received zero water deliveries this year from the federal Central Valley Project and faced severe cutbacks in diversions from the State Water Project. In addition, California water officials is- sued curtailment orders to protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. “We’re protesting against the poli- cies...that are cutting water in the Central Valley and affecting a lot of people’s lives,” said Jaspir Singh Sidhu, founder of the Punjabi American Growers Group, which represents more than 450 farmers and 100,000 acres of farmland. Sidhu, who helped lead a march and rally of about 200 farmers and agricul- ture supporters, blamed California water policies for putting “the whole valley in a jeopardized condition” and threatening food production. Sidhu represents farmers in Madera County, where the Board of Supervisors in September voted to impose a $100 per acre-foot penalty—to begin in 2023—on farmers who pump groundwater beyond their allocations. This came after the county this sum- mer added an additional $246-an-acre fee to manage irrigated lands in areas where farmers have no access to sur- face-water supplies and must rely exclu- sively on aquifers to grow crops. The fee has triggered a lawsuit from a farmers group called California Unified Water Coalition, which contends the fee is an illegal tax. Christina Beckstead, executive director of the Madera County Farm Bureau, said many of the county’s Sikh farmers grow almonds, pistachios and other crops in areas without surface supplies. See PROTEST, Page 10 Madera farmers march on Capitol, protest water fees

Pima cotton, the main variety grown in the state, is harvested in Fresno County. With practically no carryover inventory for pima cotton, California growers remain upbeat about the market outlook for the high-end fiber, even as global prices for upland cotton have fallen from their historic high.

Short supplies could hold up pima prices

By Ching Lee With water shortages limiting the amount of cotton farmers grew this year, those who planted acreage say they re- main optimistic about the market out- look for the fiber, even as global prices have softened from their record highs last spring. Cotton harvest is well underway in the San Joaquin Valley, and dry conditions

so far have been favorable to farmers. Weather for growing cotton also has been decent this year, even with the extend- ed heat wave in September, said Roger Isom, president and CEO of the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association. But the multiyear drought left some farmers in the state’s prime cotton-pro- ducing region with no surface-water supplies to grow the crop, even when

prices soared and market signals told them to plant more cotton. “The biggest issue is just a lack of wa- ter,” Isom said. “We didn’t have water to really increase the acreage.” Most of the cotton grown in the state is the higher-end pima variety, valued for its extra-long fiber. Supplies of pima

See COTTON, Page 9

n e w s p a p e r

Comment.......................................2 From the Fields........................4-5 Vegetables................................ 7-8 Classifieds........................... 13-15 Inside

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How farmer-researcher ties help agriculture thrive By Donald Bransford

Natural Resources. Thanks to the state’s historic boost to UC ANR funding, more scientists and educators are being hired to address needs of California communities. On Giving Tuesday, Nov. 29, we have an additional opportunity to support pro- grams that serve our agricultural regions. In the past, individual donations to UC ANR have been used to host grower meet- ings to discuss control of a new pest or dis- ease, build UC Master Gardener demon- stration gardens, and fund scholarships for children to develop life and work skills in UC ANR’s 4-H programs, among other important uses. This year, a new UC ANR endowment fund for research has been established commemorating late agriculturalist Jean- Mari Peltier and her leadership and passion for agricultural research, education and teaching. Donations may be made online at donate.ucanr.edu. People seeking more information may contact Mary Ciricillo at 530-219-1085 or mciricillo@ucanr.edu. Peltier, who served as president of the National Grape & Wine Initiative and the California Citrus Quality Council, played vital roles in supporting a wide range of commodity groups, including those rep- resenting grapes, tree fruit, pears, citrus, strawberries and wine. Now the Jean-Mari Peltier Endowment will advance strategic research and program- matic priorities, including emerging issues facing agriculture, the environment, the food system and our communities. The results will better position farmers to face complex challenges that arise in the future, while fur- thering the important partnership between UC researchers and California agriculture. (Donald Bransford is the owner of Bransford Farms, which produces rice and almonds. He may be contacted at donald.bransford@gmail.com.)

As California’s economy is poised to overtake Germany’s as the fourth largest

in the world, I am reminded that re- search and innova- tion drive progress. In California, we are fortunate to en- joy an abundance of healthy food and other agricultural products, even as new complications arise in the busi-

Donald Bransford

ness of farming. It’s no coincidence that California is the nation’s top agricultural producer with more than 400 commod- ities. University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers and the state’s farmers and ranchers have been working together for more than a century to innovate, and our research needs continue to grow to adapt to drought, wildfire, invasive pests and diseases, and other challenges. Over the years, the rice industry has part- nered with UC ANR, including through a funding partnership with the California Rice Research Board. We have dramatically decreased pesticide residue in the water- ways, developed new weed management strategies and improved air quality in the basin. We are also working on using flood- ed rice fields to provide food for migrating salmon. UC researchers are an integral part of the success of the rice industry. We will need even more research and people to extend those results to the end user. I farm in the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, which typically grows about 100,000 acres of the variety of rice used in sushi. This year, with limited water due to the extreme drought, we planted only 1,000 acres of rice. When large acreages are fallowed, it

University of California Cooperative Extension vegetable and irrigation advisor Zheng Wang, center, works with farmers to share research on grafting watermelons into vigorous rootstocks.

creates a domino effect: people working for farms and associated businesses lose jobs. It hurts the whole community. Even migra- tory waterfowl suffer when rice isn’t planted, losing food and habitat when fields along the Pacific Flyway aren’t flooded. For specialty crops, growers can turn to UC ANR for assistance. For example, when watermelon growers saw an increasing amount of their crop rejected by supermar- kets because of the melons’ inconsistent quality, they appealed to UC Cooperative Extension vegetable and irrigation advisor Zheng Wang, who serves Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Merced counties. By grafting watermelon plants onto more vigorous rootstock, Wang showed growers they could produce 15% to 25% more water- melons of consistent quality using less water. In Southern California, UCCE irriga- tion management advisor Ali Montazar is working with avocado growers to test new technology such as soil mois- ture sensors to fine-tune irrigation

applications and reduce water expenses. To help immigrant farmers, UCCE of- fers farming advice in Spanish, Hmong, Chinese and other languages. Small farm advisors work with growers to study spe- cialty crops from other countries to find the best way to grow them in California. Where else could they get scientific information tailored to their needs? Throughout the state, farmers must prepare for wildfire impacts—from evac- uating livestock to dealing with smoke in grapes. UCCE specialists and advisors work to develop Ag Pass guidelines appropriate for their regions to allow farmers access to their property to help firefighters and care for livestock. Viticulture specialists are working with grape growers and wine makers to determine how much smoke ex- posure can be tolerated by grapes. Although we are constantly facing new challenges, it is an exciting time for me to serve as a member of the UC President’s Advisory Commission on Agriculture and

VOL. 49, NO. 40

November 2, 2022

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2 Ag Alert November 2, 2022

Winegrape growers turn to higher trellises to beat heat

Science, that could influence future winegrape cultivation. Over several years, they compared the quality and yield of cabernet grapes grown on six different trellis systems at the UC Davis Oakville Research Station in Napa. The researchers found that vertical shoot position (VSP) trellises, favored for decades by North Coast growers, expose the grapes to too much direct sunlight and provide little pro- tection from solar radiation, especially when the ground reflects heat up into the clusters.

“We constantly see sunburn issues,” said Runze “Cliff” Yu, assistant profes- sor of viticulture and enology at Fresno State and co-author of the study. The researchers recommended cab- ernet growers in the North Coast switch to single high-wire trellises, which pro- duced the study’s best results. “The fruit maturity is decent, and the berry quality, in terms of the color and other flavonoids or compounds, are the most accumulating in this system,” said Yu,

By Caleb Hampton With its warm summers and mild win- ters, California’s North Coast produces some of the world’s best winegrapes. But as the region gets hotter, growers are navigating more obstacles to bring their grapes to maturity without losing their yield or quality. Cabernet sauvignon, Napa and Sonoma’s signature variety, needs sunlight, but excessive heat can dry out the fruit, costing growers thousands of pounds in weight per acre. It can also make the grapes too sugary. During fermentation, sugar turns into alcohol, and too much alcohol content masks the layered aromas that distinguish quality wines. “It was definitely a challenge,” said Napa County winegrape grower Peter Nissen, speaking about August and September heat waves that caused some growers to get their grapes rejected by wineries. “In all the years I’ve been farming, it was probably the worst heat event,” said Nissen, president of the Napa County Farm Bureau. Growers in Napa and Sonoma have tried various methods to mitigate the effects of heat on their grapes. Several years ago, a handful of Sonoma County farmers started growing cabernet grapes on high-wire trellises, a system more often seen in the Central Valley that shades the grape clusters with vine leaves. The technique also allows growers to cut labor costs due to the trellises’ com- patibility with machine pruning and oth- er mechanized maintenance. At the time, the decision to try the system was “purely economics,” said Duff Bevill, who owns Bevill Vineyard Management and has farmed winegrapes in Sonoma County for over four decades. Bevill manages roughly 1,300 acres of vineyards, including 100 acres of cabernet on high-wire trellises, the largest block in that style he knows of in the North Coast.

After employing the trellises, he said, he began noticing “dramatically less sun damage” to his grapes, particularly during intense heat waves. Now, researchers at the University of California, Davis, and California State University, Fresno, have found sim- ilar results in a study, published last month in the journal Frontiers in Plant

See TRELLIS, Page 11

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November 2, 2022 Ag Alert 3

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.

Mitchell Yerxa Colusa County farmer Photo/Courtesy of Mitchell Yerxa

Photo/Aubrey Aquino

Tom Ikeda San Luis Obispo County vegetable grower

We just finished harvesting our rice and walnuts. We had a good rice-growing year. We felt the yields were as they should be. We had good head quality. We had enough water to make it through, which was very exciting. Walnuts, we felt the nut quality was down, and our yield was down a little bit. I just don’t think you could have as much heat as we had that close to harvest and not have some problems. That late heat, the 110-112-degree days were a little tough on the trees when they were at a full nut set. Across the valley a lot of grow- ers are saying they thought their quality wasn’t as good this year as it was last year. We felt like the meat was a darker color, so a lower-quality nut. We are planting wheat. We always plant wheat in front of tomatoes, which is our way of drying out the soil ahead of planting tomatoes next year. Usually, we wait for a storm to pass through. Once the ground has soaked up the moisture, then we’ll work the ground, plant the wheat, and then hopefully get a nice fall rain. We are starting pecans next week. Unlike walnuts or almonds, if pecans don’t want to come out of their hulls, you can’t bring them onto the ground before they’re ready. Ours are not quite ready yet. They usually say that pecans are ready to come down after your first good freeze. Our trees are still young; we planted them seven years ago. They take about seven years of maturity, so we’re at the point where we’re starting to get yields. They’re fairly similar to a walnut. If yields were decent in walnuts, then I would imagine the yields would be decent in pecans. There’s only 4,000 bearing acres of pecans in California, so there’s not very many of us to try and figure out how all this works out. We’re still learning.

We planted our normal crops. We have bok choy and baby bok choy, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, celery, parsley. Those are the main ones. We’ve been able to har- vest most things. Further up in the valley we have a ranch where it’s a little bit warm- er. We have struggled with diamondback moths. That’s really hurting our brassica production. They’ve also reduced the amount of water we have available, so we’ve had to fallow more ground. If we don’t get a wet winter, we may be down 30% of our overall acreage to fallowing. The markets were somewhat depressed, but about mid-summer the market turned around. Prices on certain things are very good. Lettuce is at maybe historic highs due in part to problems in the Salinas Valley. The celery is the only thing struggling price- wise. But because we have lettuce, it can leverage the celery, so we think we’re going to come out in the black. We’ll wait to see what the next two months bring. They’re thinking the lettuce market should hold through December. If what they’re saying holds true, we should come out OK. Revenues have been high, but costs are also high. Fertilizer prices doubled since last year. Like everyone, we are dealing with high fuel prices. So, even though reve- nue has been really good, we’re struggling to maintain the margin. Considering the inflationary pressures at the beginning of the year, we’ve been blessed to have the markets we have and to even have the potential for a profitable year. I don’t want to say it’s because of our hard work. There’s a certain amount of luck involved. Unfortunately, the problems in the Salinas Valley create the lettuce market that we benefit from. Somebody has to get hurt for somebody else to benefit. It’s not what you want, but these days it seems like that is the case.

Chris Jergenson Merced and Stanislaus counties organic farmer

We are in the middle of harvesting sweet potatoes. We hope to be done by the first week of November. I just start- ed into my Japanese variety, and the yield looks good. I wouldn’t say it’s a huge bumper crop, but I can’t complain. I also planted a newer variety—an orange skin, orange flesh potato. It’s called 1381. The yield on that was not great. The quality is exceptional. It’s not like a Covington, which is a great yielder. That’s the one I usually plant, but I wanted to try out this new variety. It has a double skin, so it doesn’t get as scratched coming up the har- vester. It’s a really pretty potato—perfect shape, perfect size. But I don’t think I’m going to grow it anymore. With almonds, we finished harvest at the end of August. Since then, we’ve been taking care of weeds. I use a flame thrower-style burner to burn the weeds. Irrigation season just finished last week. We are spreading compost. Then we’ll hit them with an organic copper spray once the trees lose a little more leaves and are about to go dormant. With peaches, my last irrigation was about two weeks ago. We’re spreading organic chicken compost. We don’t have to worry about weeds and floor sanitation as much, so we’ve been mowing and disking the rows. We topped the trees after harvest to give a little more vigor to the lower branches and help with the pruning pro- cess. We’ll also do a copper spray, and then we’ll start pruning. With this cold weather that we have coming in the next couple weeks, that’ll start putting the trees to sleep. As soon as I’m done harvesting sweet potatoes, I’ll bring in a pruning crew for the peaches. All the prunings are then stacked into the middle, shredded, then disked to incorporate it into the soil. That’ll eventually break down and provide nitrogen.

Photo/Courtesy of Chris Jergenson

4 Ag Alert November 2, 2022

Zane Peterson Shasta County forester

We are currently salvage logging in the northern part of the state in Plumas, Lassen and Shasta counties. This year we haven’t experienced as big of wildfires. During the last few years, most of the areas that we work in have burned. The fact that we got a little break from fires this year is definitely encouraging. We’re not out of the woods yet with fire sea- son, but we hope that it stays off and we can make it through this year without burning trees up. The last two years have been very heavily intense on salvage logging and getting the burnt trees removed and to the sawmills. It’s been very challenging. A lot of those fires are getting cleaned up on private land. We’re getting baby trees planted, and they’re growing again, so that’s encouraging to see some new life in a black burn scar. We’re cutting the trees with feller bunchers. It’s a machine that can cut a tree off and place it where we want it to go. Then we grab them with grapple skidders and drag them to the landing, a centralized location. At that point, we process them to length with a machine we call the processor. It strips all the limbs off and cuts them to a desired length for the sawmill. Then we load them onto log trucks. The market is pretty soft for raw logs right now because of the glut of burned material on the market. That’s one reason we’re encouraged that we didn’t burn up a lot of acres this year. The market might come back up, and there might be some opportunity to sell some logs. Federal lands are still behind (on salvage logging) and not quite getting things done as quick as they need to. It’s because of NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act). Their process to be able to harvest trees is more strenuous than the process to harvest trees on private land in an emergency situation in California.

Photo/Courtesy of Zane Peterson

The Produce Safety Rule is Here; ARE YOU READY?

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CALIFORNIA

Vegetables A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®

University of California and U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers have been gathering data on aphid, thrips and diamondback moths captured in traps set up since 2020 in Salinas Valley farms.

New app tracks movement of Salinas Valley ag pests By Bob Johnson

“Our job is to monitor and report on the populations every week,” said Daniel Hasegawa, a USDA research entomologist. “We go out and change them on a weekly basis, but we don’t report information for particular traps.” Hasegawa has supervised the trap counts since Pozo-Valdivia moved on from Salinas, and researchers have worked closely with the grower-funded Leafy Green Research Board. The new app was developed after Hasegawa and UCCE entomology specialist Ian Grettenberger discussed what information from the monitoring would best be made public to aid growers. Then Ben Lee, a postdoctoral researcher in Grettenberger’s lab, did the coding and app design. Lee, Hasegawa and Grettenberger announced the app on the Monterey County UCCE’s Salinas Valley Agriculture website in mid-September. “We wanted to provide growers with a tool to view the most up-to-date lettuce pest population data available and have developed an app to track pest populations over time throughout the Salinas Valley,” the researchers wrote.

Monterey County vegetable growers can monitor areawide pressure from three important lettuce and cole-crop pests on their phones or laptops, using a new app showing the results of 21 monitoring traps at strategic locations throughout Monterey County. The recently released app provides nearly three years of data on aphid, thrips and diamondback moth catches in traps set up from Prunedale to King City. Various University of California and U.S. Department of Agriculture research- ers have been involved in the monitoring project since former UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Alejandro Del Pozo-Valdivia chose the first trap sites in 2020. Now UC researchers say data they have gleaned from sticky, bug-catching traps set up across the Salinas Valley can help vegetable growers by providing up-to-date infor- mation on regional pest populations. The trapping data tell how many of the pests were caught countywide or in a partic- ular region. But it is not intended to replace traps set up near particular fields to help trigger management decisions, researchers say.

See PESTS, Page 8

November 2, 2022 Ag Alert 7

Pests Continued from Page 7

annual trend and regional informa- tion,” Hasegawa said. “All of these pests are increasing with the heat.” Data reported in the app show a close correlation between regional thrips populations and the average tempera- tures measured at weather stations in Salinas, Soledad and King City. Thrips are important largely because they transmit impatiens necrotic spot vi- rus, which causes stunting and necrosis on the inner leaves. Because there is no treatment for infected lettuce, virus management requires a complex combination of reducing thrips populations and re- moving weeds that host both thrips and INSV. While 2021 was a relative moderate year for this virus, UCCE researchers es- timated that INSV caused $100 million in damage to Monterey County lettuce in 2020. This year, the disease has again been relatively widespread, they said. Different types of aphids can infest Central Coast region lettuce. They in- clude foxglove, green peach, lettuce and potato aphids. The monitoring data reported in the new pest app show that aphids, too, have increased along with warmer temperatures in all three regions of the Salinas Valley. While aphids carry and transmit many viral diseases, the lettuce aphid can be particularly troublesome because it

They said the app can be used “to quickly view current thrips, diamond- back moth and aphid abundances where pest populations are increasing the fastest, and how previous years’ pest populations responded to changes in temperature.” Researchers say they hope to add new features over time for the app, which can be found online at salinaspestmap. shinyapps.io/salinas-pestmap. They are soliciting feedback from farmers on improving the product and its data pre- sentations for helping growers manage their pest-control decisions. Meanwhile, they say the information currently provided by the application is useful for knowing the level of insect pest pressure throughout the Salinas Valley and in each region from year to year—rather than deciding whether an application would make sense in a par- ticular field. After opening the app, users can choose to access the latest informa- tion on thrips, aphids or diamondback moths. Another option on the front page of the app is to navigate to a sec- tion with three years of historical data tracking the pests as the temperature rises or falls. All three of these pests have increased with the warmer growing seasons in re- cent years. “The industry tells us they can use

A trap in a broccoli field, above, captures and photo- graphs diamondback moths. At right, U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist Daniel Hasegawa monitors traps and pest populations.

Photo/University of California, Riverside

seeks refuge near the heart of the plant, where it can be shielded from insecti- cides and cause cosmetic damage. Diamondback moth larvae feed on the growing points of young cole-crop plants, frequently stunting growth of the crop.

Like the other pests, diamondback moths have increased in numbers with higher temperatures in the Salinas, Soledad and King City areas. (Bob Johnson is a reporter in Monterey County. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service has signed an agreement to provide $23 million in funds to purchase locally sourced foods for California school meal programs. “This cooperative agreement sup- porting California schools is anoth- er example of how USDA is working to build a more resilient food system rooted in local and regional produc- tion,” said USDA Under Secretary for

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amz_r1_22_K142_4,75x6_Zoll_4c_ZA-TS_en_us.indd 1 8 Ag Alert November 2, 2022

22.08.22 10:42

Cotton Continued from Page 1

stronger prices will hold into next year and even 2024. But with the economy slowing, demand for apparel and other products made with luxury fibers such as pima cotton could retreat, driving prices down, growers said. Tom Pires, general manager of West Island Cotton Growers in Kings County, said the cooperative cotton gin is just starting to gin this year’s cotton, so it’s hard to know what the total yields and quality will be. There’s also not much pima cotton being traded, but he noted earlier prices were double what they were last year. “We’re in a transition period right now trying to determine where the true value is,” he said. Meanwhile, competition remains fierce among seed companies, canner- ies and other processors looking to sign contracts with growers who have access to water to grow crops such as processing tomatoes and planting seed, including for cotton. Sheely said these companies are al- ready scouting for contracts for next year’s crop, “bidding up the ground.” They’re willing to pay more to get more acreage, he said. Even so, he said his cropping decisions going forward will be determined by water availability. With restrictions on groundwater pumping next year, he said he expects to be “more conservative on what I’m going to grow.” For example, he said he already decided

he won’t grow any organic pima cotton next year because of the high risk of a crop failure. He also has not committed to growing the amount of upland acres a seed company wants to contract because of water uncertainties. “What water we have, we’re going to put it to the permanent crops first,” Sheely said, referring to his pistachios and winegrapes. Rick Worth, who farms in Fresno and Kings counties, did not grow any cotton this year because he received no sur- face-water allocation. With almond pric- es dropping, he said he’s removing older orchards and “making choices on what to grow” depending on what he thinks is most profitable. “We’re not going to go back into a per- manent crop; we’re going to go back into row crop—tomatoes or possibly even cotton, especially if the price comes up,” he said. Tulare County farmer Geoff Toledo, who finished cotton harvest last week, typically grows an equal amount of pima and upland. Even though pima prices are higher, the longer-season crop is risky as harvest moves into the rainy season in November. Rain can delay harvest and wreck crop quality. Upland has a shorter season and typically yields better than pima, but prices have tumbled from where they were six months ago.

Even with the lower prices, Toledo said he will make out OK, as part of his upland acreage was contracted for seed, which pays him a price closer to what he would earn on pima. He also presold a third of his upland at higher prices. But he said he fears the weakening economy will affect consumer spending on cotton products such as clothes and sheets, further low- ering grower prices on the fiber. Merced County farmer Gino Pedretti III was about 70% done with cotton harvest last week. He described his yields as “a little off compared to last year,” blaming unfavor- able planting conditions in April. He plant- ed 60% of his acreage to pima and 40% aca- la, a higher-quality upland variety grown mostly in California and the Southwest. After “really good” yields last year and historically high prices, he said he was able to make “a decent profit” despite ris- ing production costs. With fuel, fertiliz- er, labor and other costs even higher this year, he said he hopes cotton prices will remain firm enough to cover those costs. What’s being grown and what’s being consumed still look “pretty promising” for stronger cotton prices, he said. “But everybody’s worried about what the world economy does,” Pedretti add- ed. “If it crashes and people stop buy- ing clothes, then that’s going to mess up the fundamentals.” (Ching Lee is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.)

cotton remain depleted, with virtually no carryover from last year. California grows most of the nation’s pima cotton, with some production in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Considering the price, Isom said “we’d be wall to wall pima cot- ton if we had the water.” California farmers planted 131,801 acres of cotton this year, about 17% more than they grew last year, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. A total 113,858 acres went to pima, a 20% increase over 2021. Plantings of the more widely grown upland cotton climbed 11%, to 17,943 acres. After earning his “biggest returns on cotton” last year, Kings County grower Ted Sheely said he thinks the market out- look for pima remains good. He noted that Supima, a trade association that pro- motes American pima cotton, told grow- ers “this year’s crop will be all committed and sold by June or July of next year.” “That means there’s going to be demand for whatever we can grow,” Sheely said. The market outlook for upland cotton is more uncertain. Isom said even though prices have fallen from their historic high levels seen earlier this year, much of the U.S. Cotton Belt crop “is not looking good” due to hurricane, drought and oth- er weather-related production problems. With pima, Isom said people in the cotton business are more confident that

Agricultural Market Review

Quotations are the latest available for the week ending October 28, 2022 Year Ago Week Ago Latest Week Livestock Slaughter Steers – 5-Area Average Select & Choice, 1150–1460 lbs., $ per cwt. 123-124 147-148 150 Hogs – Average hog, 51-52% lean, Iowa-Minn. market, $ per cwt. 77.71 90.89 91.74 Slaughter Lambs – $ per cwt. 125–175 lbs. National weekly live sales 214.86-253.59 108-135 115.51 Field crops – basis prompt shipment Barley – U.S. No. 2, $ per cwt. Truck, Stockton-Modesto-Oakdale-Turlock No Quote No Quote No Quote Cotton – ¢ per lb., Middling 1 3/32” Fresno spot market 86.90 74.83 71.96 Corn – U.S. No. 2 yellow $ per bu. trucked 7.08 9.33 9.11 Alfalfa Hay – $ per ton, quality*, FOB Region 1, Northern Inter-mountain 260 (S) 360-370 (S) 370 (S) Region 2, Sacramento Valley No Quote No Quote No Quote Region 3, Northern San Joaquin Valley 260-280 (S) No Quote 450 (P/S) Region 4, Central San Joaquin Valley 330 (S) 460-478 (S) 475 (P/S) Region 5, Southern California 300 (P) 25 (S, per bale) 24.50 P, per bale) Region 6, Southeast Interior 191-280 (G/P) 450 (P) 420-435 (P) Oat Hay – $ per ton, quality*, FOB Northern California, dairy No Quote No Quote No Quote Oats – U.S. No. 2 white, $ per cwt. Statewide, trucked price No Quote No Quote No Quote

December 2-7, 2022 • Monterey

CALIFORNIA MARKETPLACE Enjoy live cooking demonstrations and booths highlighting the bounty and artisan goods of Farm Bureau members. Taste, talk and shop! WORKSHOPS

Delve into topics including water, Senate Bill 11, media training, and membership recruitment and retention. PRESENTATIONS

Dr. Amrith Gunasekara, CAFB director of science and research, introduces the exciting new work being done by the California Bountiful Foundation. SUNDAY ACTIVITIES Kick off the meeting with a FarmPAC ® cornhole tournament, farm tours, golfing and whale watching.

• Continuing Education (CE) sessions on pesticide licensing • Annual award banquet recognizing counties and individuals • Receptions and networking • Silent and live auctions • YF&R State Conference workshops, awards and networking PLUS

Dry Beans – Grower FOB prices Baby Limas, $ per cwt, (sacked) Large Limas, $ per cwt. (sacked) Blackeye, $ per cwt. (sacked)

No Quote No Quote No Quote

Rice – Milled No. 1 Head, FOB No. Calif. mills Medium grain, $ per cwt. Wheat – U.S. No. 2 or better, winter, $ per cwt. 13% protein, Los Angeles, trucked price

42-44

68-72

No Quote No Quote Provided by the California Farm Bureau as a service to Farm Bureau members. Information supplied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Market News Branch. * ADF=Acid detergent fiber; (S) = Supreme/<27%ADF; (P) = Premium/27-29; (G) = Good/29-32; (F) = Fair/32-35. No Quote

For more information, visit cfbf.com/annual-meeting or call 916-561-5594

November 2, 2022 Ag Alert 9

Protest Continued from Page 1

As farmers regionwide have turned to groundwater to make up for cuts in res- ervoir supplies, that has further reduced aquifer levels and heightened frustra- tions for those relying solely on wells. For the eight valley counties from San Joaquin to Kern, the California Department of Water Resources report- ed some 1,200 agricultural and domestic wells have run dry this year. Water offi- cials reported 465 dry wells in the Madera County alone. That is as California enters the third year of drought, with dry conditions across the West described by scientists as the worst in 1,200 years. Beckstead, who wasn’t present at the Capitol rally, said the farmers from Madera County are saying, “‘Look, stop chastizing us for pumping ground- water when you cut off our surface- water supplies.’” Beckstead has met with many of the affected farmers. She said, “At this point, their livelihood depends on something that is being taken away from them at every angle they turn. So they are trying to have that voice and explain what it is they’re losing and how it impacts every- one else.” Sidhu, who is also part of the Unified Water Coalition group, said some farmers are frustrated with their own county. He said the new groundwater pumping pen- alties “basically now penalize us for taking

Farmers and supporters march on the Capitol, demanding that officials provide more surface water for San Joaquin Valley agriculture. Many were farmers from Madera County upset about new fees on aqui- fer pumping.

water from the ground...when our state government is not allowing surface water.” County Supervisor David Rogers, who voted against the pumping penalty, turned out in support of the farmers at the Capitol march and rally. He blamed California water policies for putting Madera County—and its farmers—in an untenable position. “We know there’s a problem, and we know we have to fix the problem,” Rogers said. “But they’re trying to fix the problem on the backs of one group.” Some participants in the protest called on state officials to release more water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin riv- ers to replenish badly depleted reservoirs.

State water officials say they need to safe- guard sufficient flows to protect salmon populations and the environment. “I’m not saying take everything out of those rivers,” said protest participant Nanette Simonian, a Fresno County pest control advisor and former vegetable and organic prune farmer. “I’m just say- ing take a portion. I mean, there can be allocations into our reservoirs. I’m not saying take the whole thing—we don’t want the fish to die.” Simonian said she is frustrated that “farms are getting torn up right now.” In Fresno County, she said, “you see citrus being pulled. You see olives being pulled out, vineyards being pulled out. No new

planting is happening because there is no water.” Rogers said he fears those who face hardships from water shortages “are the best environmentalists in the world— family farmers who love the land, who love their farms, and who want to see them continue to the next generation.” He said it is unfair to blame “the farmer pumping groundwater.” “Water is life,” he added. “And when you take away our water, you take away our life. You’re taking away our ability to make a living.” (Peter Hecht is chief editor of publications for the California Farm Bureau. He may be reached at phecht@cfbf.com.)

CIMIS REPORT | www.cimis.water.ca.gov

CALIFORNIA IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

For the week October 20 - October 26, 2022 ETO (INCHES/WEEK)

YEAR

3.0

THIS YEAR

2.5

LAST YEAR AVERAGE YEAR

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

MACDOEL II (236)

BIGGS (244)

DAVIS (06)

MANTECA (70)

FRESNO (80)

SALINAS-SOUTH (214)

FIVE POINTS (2)

SHAFTER (5)

TEMECULA (62)

IMPERIAL (87)

THIS YEAR LAST YEAR AVG. YEAR % FROM AVG.

.91 .75 .76 19

.52 .36 .53 -4

.86 .38 .66 28

.88 .27 .75 21

1.00 .36 .81 23

.89 .66 .72 24

.87 .64 .74 17

.98 .65 .85 16

.85 .52 .86 -2

1.10 1.16 1.05 6

W eekly reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is the rate of water use (evapotranspiration—the sum of soil evaporation and crop transpiration) for healthy pasture grass. Multiplying ETo by the appropriate “crop coefficient” gives estimates of the ET for other crops. For example, assume ETo on June 15 is 0.267 inches and the crop coefficient for corn on that day is 1.1. Multiplying ETo by the coefficient (0.26 inches x 1.1) results in a corn ET of 0.29 inches. This

information is useful in determining the amount and timing of irriga- tion water. Contact Richard Snyder, UC Davis, for information on coefficients, 530-752-4628. The 10 graphs provide weekly ETo rates for selected areas for average year, last year and this year. The ETo information is provided by the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) of the California Department of Water Resources.

For information contact the DWR district office or DWR state headquarters:

SACRAMENTO HEADQUARTERS: 916-651-9679 • 916-651-7218

NORTHERN REGION: Red Bluff 530-529-7301

NORTH CENTRAL REGION: West Sacramento 916-376-9630

SOUTH CENTRAL REGION:

SOUTHERN REGION:

Fresno 559-230-3334

Glendale 818-500-1645 x247 or x243

10 Ag Alert November 2, 2022

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