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.
International trade Farm groups focus on Canadian market amid USMCA negotiations
Beyond baking To boost sales, walnuts find place in produce aisle
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www.cfbf.com • www.agalert.com AUGUST 5, 2026
The Newspaper for California Agriculture
Trees & Vines Vegetables
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By Manola Secaira It’s been a tough period for California processing tomato growers as contract- ed acreage has declined during the past couple years. But with a steady start to the harvest season, growers say they’re on the road to recovery. California tomato processors this year contracted 185,000 acres, the lowest in more than 30 years, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The 2026 season also marks the third-consecutive year of declining acre- age and the first time in more than 50 years that California farmers planted fewer than 200,000 acres of the crop. While the 2026 production estimate saw an improvement of 1% from what was pre- dicted in January, the crop still amounts to 11% fewer tons this year than the final contracted production in 2025. Yolo County farmer Bruce Rominger said his processing tomato acreage is a lit- tle less than 900—a decrease of about 50 acres from last year. “Overall acreage is reduced because there is a lower demand,” Rominger said. “There’s a lot of tomato products in inven- tory from our big crop last year.” Mike Montna, president and CEO of the California Tomato Growers Association, said the increased inventory combined with reduced movement, or sales, in re- cent years led to reduced contracted acres. He described the decision to contract fewer acres this year as a way to get invento- ry levels into balance with market demand. “It’s going to take a couple years,” Mont- na said. “But at least we have year one un- der our belt of going through this dynamic to where we can get our acreages back up.” There has been some improvement. From June 2025 to May of this year, Mont- na said sales have increased 8.4%, helping reduce the buildup in inventory. “We’ve turned the corner on the See TOMATOES, Page 14 Processed tomato growers hope for market recovery
‘Rough’ peach crop caps a bitter season Cling peaches are harvested at Johl Orchards in Marysville. About a quarter of California’s cling peach acreage was ripped out this year following the collapse of Del Monte Foods. In recent years, Del Monte, which filed for bankruptcy last year, was one of two major buyers of the state’s cling peaches.
By Caleb Hampton California’s cling peach orchards lurched to life this summer as harvest crews stripped the fruit off trees. For the first time, nearly all of it was bound for can- ning facilities owned by a single processor. Earlier this year, the closure of Del Mon- te Foods’ cannery in Modesto following the company’s bankruptcy left cling peach
growers with just one major buyer, Pacific Coast Producers, which processes fruit at canneries in Lodi and Oroville. Unlike free- stone peaches, cling peaches are typically not sold fresh. Del Monte’s collapse left several dozen growers without a buyer for some or all of their fruit, and it put the industry at a pre- carious crossroads.
“We grew up with the peach business, and we’ve been phasing out not by choice but because of the situation in the indus- try,” said Sarb Johl, who at one time grew more than 500 acres of peaches in Yuba and Sutter counties and was left this year with just 40. “We’re getting to the point where we may not be able to maintain it.”
See PEACHES, Page 12
n e w s p a p e r
From the Fields........................4-5 Trees & Vines...........................6-7 Vegetables........................... 10-11 Classifieds........................... 18-19 Inside
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Young farmer reflects on her agricultural leadership By August D’Amato
In December 2025, I was elected chair of the California YF&R committee after serving as the secretary in 2023, second vice chair in 2024 and first vice chair in 2025. During my time on the executive committee, I helped grow our social media activity and partici- pated in the Open Discussion Meet. As the FarmPAC chair last year, I planned our first state YF&R FarmPAC dinner and took over Napa County’s Barn Dance, netting more than $23,000 in a sin- gle evening and contributing toward our final total of $131,000 for California Farm Bureau’s FarmPAC. It is hard to believe half the year is over. Last month, we hosted the 2026 YF&R Summer Leaders meeting in my new hometown of Napa, which had been a dream of mine since joining the executive team. I could not be prouder to have had more than 70 YF&R members from around the state join us to grow, learn and network with each other. We even toured Groth Vineyards & Winery, where my YF&R and Farm Bureau story began. For me, the highlight of the Summer Leaders meeting was bringing 60 YF&R members to The Mission Farm to harvest tomatoes, squash, corn, peppers and cu- cumbers for donation. In just one hour of work, our group harvested 600 pounds of produce, and we were able to showcase a Harvest for All program that can be repli- cated around the state. With about four months left as the Cal- ifornia YF&R chair, I am excited for every- thing that is still to come, including a re- gional tour and mixer in Stanislaus County, open and collegiate Discussion Meets and wrapping up my tenure at the 2026 California Farm Bureau Annual Meeting and YF&R Conference. I hope to see you in Reno in December to celebrate all that YF&R has accomplished. Cheers! August D’Amato is a first-generation farmer in Napa County. She works as a Carneros vineyard manager and pest control adviser for Beckstoffer Vineyards in Napa and serves as the 2026 chair of the California Young Farmers & Ranchers. She can be reached at augustd@ beckstoffervineyards.com.
Being a first-generation farmer in Cali- fornia comes with many challenges. As a Delaware transplant, I struggled to navigate the California wine industry. It is a tight- knit industry that relies heavily on who you know—and I did not know anyone. In 2019, a friend invited me to the first Napa Young Farmers & Ranchers meeting in more than two years. Some 30 young professionals in the wine industry gath- ered at Groth Vineyards & Winery in Napa for dinner, drinks and networking. I was immediately hooked. Not only did I make lifelong friends at the event, but it was also the day I met my husband. During our first year of reviving the Napa YF&R committee, we held monthly meetings at different vineyards and win- eries, and brought back Barn Dance, the annual fundraiser. By December 2019, we had enough money to fully fund our chapter and be- gan planning big for the future. I wrote our bylaws and created subcommittees for members to get more involved. We had elected our first officers in February 2020, and I was elected secretary. A month later, everything stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All our big plans for the year were canceled. When farmers and ranchers were deemed essential work- ers, we knew we had an opportunity to give back to our community in a big way. In April 2020, we came across The Mis- sion Farm, a 2.5-acre volunteer-run or- ganic farm at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Napa that donates fresh fruits and veg- etables to the local food bank. Napa YF&R Chair Julian Clymer and I looked at each other and immediately knew we had found what we were looking for. The farm needed us, and we needed them. It was the beginning of a life-chang- ing partnership. Napa YF&R began volunteering week- ly at the farm—and continues to do so to this day. It allowed us to maintain our mo- mentum and gather as a group while giving back to our Napa community in need. That
Inside Farm Bureau
August D’Amato Chair of California Young Farmers & Ranchers
Attendees of the 2026 California Young Farmers & Ranchers Summer Leaders meeting tour The Mission Farm at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Napa.
year, the farm donated more than 23,000 pounds of produce to the Napa County Food Bank and continues to average about 20,000 pounds annually. I was elected chair of the Napa YF&R committee in 2021. We returned to month- ly meetings and incorporated guest speak- ers and annual activities, including corn- hole and softball tournaments against Sonoma-Marin YF&R. Along with volunteering at The Mis- sion Farm, we incorporated interactive Agriculture in the Classroom days such as “Make Your Own Ice Cream.” We also planted a pumpkin patch and hosted two U-pick pumpkin days for students in the
local community. That December, I attended my first California Farm Bureau Annual Meet- ing and YF&R Conference in Anaheim, where we were awarded for community involvement. During Annual Meeting, I was elected to the state YF&R committee to represent District 17, overseeing the Napa and Sonoma-Marin YF&R committees. During the next four years, I helped my district committees win Committee of the Year—Napa in 2022 and Sonoma-Marin in 2025, along with several other awards for their involvement. Our district re- mains active in community agriculture and education.
VOL. 53, NO. 15
August 5, 2026
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2 Ag Alert August 5, 2026
A winegrape vineyard in San Joaquin County is removed earlier this year due to a yearslong downturn in wine sales. Several Canadian provinces have banned the sale of alcohol from the U.S.
State’s farmers seek fairness in trade talks with Canada commodity groups.
By Caleb Hampton Agricultural groups in California are pay- ing close attention this month to the trade relationship between the U.S. and Canada. The North American neighbor has long been the top export market for agricultur- al products from California and the U.S. as a whole. But a trade conflict that began shortly after President Donald Trump re- turned to office last year has put that rela- tionship on fragile footing. “There has been a lot of volatility,” said James Sayre, an international trade researcher and assistant professor of Co- operative Extension at the University of California, Davis. The dispute reached another inflection point last month when the Trump ad- ministration announced plans to impose new 50% tariffs on some Canadian goods. Meanwhile, the two nations and Mexico began negotiations on the renewal of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement during Trump’s first term as president. “The purpose of USMCA was to secure guaranteed access for producers in all three countries into the other ones’ mar- kets,” Sayre said. Bilateral agricultural trade between the U.S. and Canada last year was valued at $9.2 billion, according to federal data. On July 1, which marked the first re- view deadline since the trade pact began in 2020, the Trump administration opted not to approve a 16-year extension of the USMCA. The trade agreement remains in effect, but the decision by the U.S. not to automatically extend it triggered an annual review and negotiation process. Amid that backdrop, stakeholders from both sides of the border met last week at a closed-door meeting in Sacramento to dis- cuss their priorities. Those in attendance included California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross, Ca- nadian Consul General Rana Sarkar and representatives of various agricultural
“Trade is extremely important to Cal- ifornia agriculture,” said Matthew Viohl, director of federal policy advocacy at the California Farm Bureau, which hosted the meeting. “We want to be leaders on this, and we’ll continue to take this conversa- tion to D.C. and emphasize our goals.” Among the topics discussed, Viohl said, were bans on U.S. alcohol sales imposed by several Canadian provinces. The provincial bans came in response last year to Trump’s tariffs on Canadian products and his promises to annex Can- ada and make it a U.S. state, which caused California wine sales to Canada to plum- met from $404 million in 2024 to $90 mil- lion last year. Trump cited Canada’s “discrimination” against U.S. alcohol last month in his proc- lamation announcing new tariffs on Ca- nadian goods, which were scheduled to take effect Aug. 19 if Canada does not meet certain conditions. The collapse of the Canadian mar- ket worsened an already bleak outlook for California winegrape growers and wine producers. “That’s a really strong headwind on top of the other headwinds they’re already fac- ing,” Sayre said. In recent years, a global downturn in wine consumption left the state with a persistent oversupply of grapes. In each of the past three years, some of California’s winegrape crop went unpicked due to lack of demand. Last year, a record amount of around 820,000 tons of winegrapes—about a quarter of the crop—went unpicked, ac- cording to industry estimates. Sarkar, the Canadian official, said the country’s government could not speak to the bans on California wine because “de- cisions on the sale of alcoholic beverages in Canada are made at the provincial level.” He added, “Canada remains committed to constructive engagement with the U.S. and to restoring predictability in our trading See TRADE, Page 15 August 5, 2026 Ag Alert 3
From the Fields ®
Rod Chamberlain Riverside County mango and vegetable farmer
Joe Valente San Joaquin County winegrape grower
We’re starting harvest about two weeks earlier than normal. Typically, we be- gin harvesting during the second or third week of August, but this year we start- ed at the end of July. We anticipated an earlier season because of the unusually warm weather we experienced in March. Everything started developing early and continued that schedule throughout the growing season. At this point, it’s still difficult to know exactly what yields will look like until harvest is underway. We’re expecting somewhere between a light and average crop. The earlier harvest mainly affects timing and logistics. Every year we build our schedule around when harvest normally begins, including preparing equipment and organizing labor. When harvest starts two weeks ahead of schedule, every- thing has to be ready sooner than expected. Fortunately, we were able to get everything together in time. Labor has been very good this year. We haven’t experienced any significant labor shortages during pruning or other vineyard work. Most of our grapes are harvested mechanically, so while labor is always important, we aren’t as depen- dent on large hand-harvest crews as some other operations. Overall, the weather has been very favorable. While it’s been warm, we haven’t experienced many days above 100 degrees, and we’ve avoided the prolonged stretches of 105- to 110-degree temperatures that can create problems. The mild summer has also helped reduce disease and pest pressure. Mildew hasn’t been much of an issue this season, and we also haven’t seen the mite pressure that typically develops during hotter weather. Overall, it’s been an excellent growing season from a weather standpoint. We grow enough fruit that we sell to outside wineries in addition to using it in our own wineries, but there simply aren’t as many buyers as there once were. Even when we process fruit ourselves, we still must sell the finished wine, so the chal- lenge doesn’t disappear. Whether it’s grapes on the vine or wine in the bottle, marketing the product remains difficult.
We’re wrapping up harvest of our third mango variety. It’s been a very early season for us. Once mango harvest is finished, we’ll begin cleanup and field preparation before starting to seed our vegetable crops in early September. The early season has worked in our favor. Our mango orchards follow our veg- etable season, allowing us to keep our employees working year-round. Because the two crops don’t overlap very much, we can transition directly from vegeta- bles into mangoes without needing to hire a large seasonal workforce. We’re a small operation, so we keep only a handful of permanent, year-round employ- ees. Many of our employees have been with us for decades—some for more than 40 years. When we need additional seasonal help, our employees typically bring in family members and friends to fill those positions. We’ll have some whitefly issues in the early fall plantings, but compared to most other areas, we’re on the fortunate side. The mangoes also seem to be very pest-free. They have a latex sap, so I think they’re not as susceptible to a lot of the sucking pests that affect other crops. We use only organic pesti- cides, even though we’re not a registered organic operation. We like to stay within that framework. As for the mangoes, we’ve never sprayed them with any- thing. In the 35 years we’ve been growing mangoes, we’ve never applied any pesticide sprays. We market almost all our products through farmers markets in the Los Angeles area. Santa Monica and Hollywood are our two largest markets, and then we have a couple of smaller markets. We also ship some product to the Bay Area. Everything goes through the farmers markets. We also do some whole- sale sales through those markets. We’re fully integrated. We do everything from growing our own seedlings all the way to harvest and sales. That allows us to keep the margins that would normally go to someone else, and that helps our bottom line significantly.
Trevor Airola Calaveras County rancher
We’re in what I call a cruising pattern. We receive irrigation water on a 10-day rotation, so every week and a half I have a 24-hour irrigation window that keeps me busy. Outside of that, it’s mostly checking on the cat- tle, monitoring salt and mineral levels, managing fly control and making sure everything is running smoothly. We’re about two weeks away from starting our fall calving season, and my spring calves—born in February and early March—are getting ready to be marketed at the end of August. As calving ap- proaches, I’m doing more frequent herd checks to monitor the cows and determine when those first calves will arrive. I’m also checking all my veterinary and medical supplies, making sure everything is stocked, sterile and easy to access. I’m also moving cows that are closest to calving nearer to the handling facilities so they’re easier to reach if I need to intervene. Right now, I’m selling calves for more than $3 per pound higher than the first calves I sold about 20 years ago. Last year’s fall calf crop is a good example. I kept nearly all my replacement heifers and only sold the steers, yet I still generated the same gross income I was making five years ago with my entire calf crop. The market is strong enough that I can afford to reinvest back into the herd by retaining replacement females, something I couldn’t have done just a few years ago. Fortunately, predator pressure hasn’t been much of an issue for us. We don’t run cattle in the higher elevations where predators are more common, and we don’t have wolves in our area yet. When selecting bulls, I’m willing to sacrifice some growth potential in exchange for stronger calving ease because my cattle need to be able to take care of themselves while I’m at work. I’ve structured the entire operation around producing independent, low-maintenance cattle.
4 Ag Alert August 5, 2026
Insights from farmers and ranchers across the Golden State, including members of the California Farm Bureau.
Ken Mitchell Sacramento County squab producer
After the loss of turkey production—not only in California but across the industry due to avi- an influenza, disease pressures and declining sales—we made the decision to transition into squab production. We raise meat pigeons, not barn pigeons or racing pigeons but California Kings, which are specifically bred for meat production. The primary markets are the Asian trade, Chinese restaurants, fine-dining establishments and French Canadian cuisine. We’ve completed most of what we consider Phase 1, which should be fully finished within about six weeks. Phase 1 will house approximately 7,400 birds, or about 3,400 to 3,500 breeding pairs. We’re purchasing breeding stock from another grower within the cooperative and have offi- cially become members. We’re currently producing about 200 squab each month for the co-op. Breeding pairs stay together for life, which can range anywhere from three to 12 years. Managing those breeding pairs, minimizing losses and keeping them productive has become one of the most important parts of the operation. Converting the turkey facility required considerably more carpentry and labor than we origi- nally anticipated, making the project more expensive than expected. However, production has started, so we’re beginning to see revenue come back into the operation. The buildings are simi- lar, but squab production requires a completely different setup, with nesting boxes, 8-by-10 pens and much more hands-on management. We made this transition not just because we wanted to but because we needed to. The turkey busi- ness had simply reached a point where it was no longer sustainable. One of the strengths of the squab industry is its cooperative structure. You must first become a member of the cooperative before you can produce birds, and breeding stock must come from existing members. That naturally limits expansion. Current production still supplies less than half of the existing market demand, so there is significant room for growth. The cooperative carefully manages expansion based on sales and market demand, giving existing growers the first opportunity to increase production before bringing in additional growers.
To contribute to From the Fields, submit your name, county of membership and contact information to agalert@cfbf.com.
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August 5, 2026 Ag Alert 5
A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ® CALIFORNIA Trees & Vines
®
Latest campaign positions walnuts as fresh produce By Tim Hearden The 2025 walnut crop was the second largest in history, coming in at nearly 810,000 tons. To drive sales, the nut is being promoted as more than a baking ingredient.
mirroring how they treat fresh produce. Gordon Heinrich, a Modesto grower and processor who chairs the walnut commis- sion’s marketing, promotions and business development committee, said he’s seen the produce-aisle promotions in most of the supermarkets he’s entered. “The produce department is just a natural place for walnuts to be,” Heinrich said, noting how walnuts complement many of the foods shoppers already find there. The nut is also a staple on charcuterie boards and pair well with dried fruits, cheeses and other fresh ingredients, he added. He said the produce section is an ideal place to highlight walnuts’ health benefits and encourage purchases. At the same time, he said walnuts should be merchandised in mul- tiple locations throughout the supermarket to make them more visible and convenient for shoppers. The push is the latest phase of a two-pronged strategy the industry has pursued for years highlighting the value of walnuts as a healthy snack and as a versatile food ingredient. In 2011, the American Heart Association recognized walnuts as a heart-healthy food, allowing retailers to display the organization’s Heart-Check mark alongside walnut prod- ucts. Walnuts are a rich source of alpha-linolenic acid, a plant-based omega-3 fatty acid that has been shown to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. See WALNUTS, Page 7
To strengthen its market position, California’s walnut industry is running a campaign this summer to encourage consumers and retailers to think beyond the baking aisle and place walnuts in the fresh produce section, where they can be marketed as a healthy snack or a versatile topping for salads and other dishes. The promotion, launched in May to coincide with peak produce sales, combines in- store displays near fruits and vegetables with a media campaign featuring influencer endorsements, streaming TV commercials, digital advertising and product sampling at wellness-focused events. The effort is an extension of the California Walnut Board and Commission’s 2025 “Feel Good” campaign to position walnuts as a lifestyle brand for millennials and Gen-Z con- sumers who increasingly turn to natural foods for better health. The industry wants to move walnuts beyond simply an ingredient in “grandmother’s banana nut cake,” said Robert Verloop, the board and commission’s executive director and CEO. “The younger generation is much more educated about food as medicine, and they understand that nuts play an important part of not only breakfast, lunch and dinner but also snacking,” Verloop said. “Having a handful of nuts at 10 in the morning or 3 in the afternoon provides a metabolic boost.” The industry is also encouraging consumers to store walnuts in the refrigerator,
6 Ag Alert August 5, 2026
Walnuts Continued from Page 6
into the produce area, we will continue to see improved sales of California walnuts both domestically and internationally,” he added. A sales boost is needed after last year’s crop, forecast at 710,000 tons by the U.S. Department of Agriculture but came in at close to 810,000 tons, the second largest in history, Verloop said. Producers have been on a pricing roll- er-coaster, with walnuts peaking near $1.88 a pound in 2013-14, crashing at roughly 25 cents a pound amid a global glut in 2022-23 and rebounding to an average of about 93 cents a pound in 2024-25, according to the most recent USDA data. This year’s crop should be smaller than last year’s, Verloop said. But Red Bluff grower Tyler Christensen said he still has “a pretty decent-sized crop” and that he’s excited about the quality. As a grower, Christensen said he appre- ciates the industry’s produce-aisle push. “We’re just always looking to expand our markets so more people will compete to buy our product back to a sustainable level,” he said. Verloop said he’s optimistic the industry will see increased consumption. “We’re very bullish on where the market can go and where it can grow,” he said. Tim Hearden is a reporter in Redding. He can be reached at agalert@cfbf.com.
That recognition, coupled with a grow- ing body of nutrition research linking regular walnut consumption to benefits ranging from brain health to male fertility, led the industry to promote walnuts as a nutritious snack. More recently, however, the rapid growth of the plant-based meat sector and renewed interest in home cook- ing during the COVID-19 pandemic shift- ed the industry’s focus toward positioning walnuts as a versatile cooking ingredient. In 2020, the walnut board and commis- sion released a product guide for bakeries and pastry shops to encourage the use of walnuts in everyday baked goods, includ- ing breads, pastries, cakes, cookies and pie crusts. The industry also promoted walnuts as a versatile ingredient for glu- ten-free and low-carbohydrate recipes. Having come from the produce industry four years ago, Verloop led a reexamina- tion of that strategy and noted that placing walnuts solely on the baking aisle became a barrier to consumption. “Obviously, it provides texture and fla- vor, but in the baking aisle … they put it next to sugar, flour and indulgent items like chocolate,” Verloop said. “It doesn’t have the same connotation as a healthy, nutritious nut.” Verloop, who was born in Holland, not- ed that tree nuts are part of the culture in Europe and “were always on the table,” as
In this promotional photo, the California Walnut Board and Commission is trying to change the perception that walnuts are simply for baking by positioning the tree nut in the produce section.
they are in the Middle East and India. “It’s seen as a snacking item and less as an ingredient,” he added. Further, while the industry sells between 55 million and 60 million pounds of wal- nuts in various forms annually in retail, it has been selling only about 7 million pounds a year to food service, which is more likely to use the nuts as an ingredi- ent, Verloop said. Even in retail, the baking aisle gets
less traffic than most other parts of the store, noted Jack Mariani, a producer in Winters who chairs the walnut board’s marketing, promotions and business de- velopment committee. “Our recent efforts to move walnuts into the produce section is long overdue and seems to be a great improvement and (is) bringing our fresh and healthy product to consumers in the area where they do their most healthy shopping,” Mariani said. “As more stores convert our production
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August 5, 2026 Ag Alert 7
Feds release Colorado River framework for next 10 years
how shortages are shared must come through voluntary agreements. That re- spects senior water rights while allowing the states to work together voluntarily when the system needs help.” Lower Basin negotiators had asked for a commitment from states in the Upper Basin—Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming—that in the most dire circum- stances, those states would join the Lower Basin in enforcing cuts. During the next two years, the federal government is not requiring cuts from the Upper Basin. “The Lower Basin cannot stabilize the
river alone,” Eugenio said. “A shared river requires a shared commitment, and every part of the basin must be actively involved.” She added that farmers in the Imperial Valley in particular have shouldered much of the water conservation despite having some of the most senior water rights on the river. “Imperial Valley has stepped up again and again,” Eugenio said. “For de- cades our farmers have helped protect the system and other Colorado River water users while continuing to grow food to feed the nation and sustain our rural communities.”
The Trump administration released a long-awaited plan last week for managing declining water flows in the Colorado Riv- er. The framework, which was published Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, will govern how the seven states in the Col- orado River Basin share the river’s supplies for the next decade. The Colorado River supplies water and hydropowerto40millionpeopleintheWest and irrigates more than 5 million acres of farmland. During the past two decades, unprecedented drought has depleted the river’s flow and threatened to sink reservoir levels below the threshold needed to supply water and electricity to the Lower Basin. The plan announced by the Trump administration allows the federal govern- ment to reassess the operating guidelines that determine the extent of water cuts ev- ery two years. “The Department has a responsibility to ensure the Colorado River system re- mains reliable and resilient for the millions of Americans, communities and industries that depend on it,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a statement. “This framework provides the flexibility to re- spond to changing hydrologic conditions while preserving the opportunity for the Basin States to continue working toward durable, consensus-based solutions.” The framework could force the Lower Basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada to cut their use of the river’s water by up to 3 million acre-feet a year in the driest conditions. However, for the next two years, the Trump administration accepted a propos- al from the Lower Basin to conserve about half that much—3.2 million acre-feet of water over the two-year period. Achieving those reductions will require California to conserve at least 440,000 acre- feet of water a year for the next two years. Supplies from the Colorado River are allocated based on the seniority of each user’s water rights and governed by a com- pact enacted in 1922. Under the century-old law, 7.5 million acre-feet of water a year is promised to the Upper Basin, which includes Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. The Lower Basin states of Nevada, Arizona and California are entitled to the same amount, while 1.5 million acre-feet goes to Mexico. That totals 16.5 million acre-feet. But in recent years, drought has reduced flows to a fraction over 12 million acre-feet. “The proposal responds to a fundamen- tal reality: The Colorado River no longer reliably produces enough water to support all the uses and expectations built around it. That challenge is shared across the Ba- sin, and addressing it requires specific, measurable reductions in water use by ev- ery state,” said JB Hamby, president of the Colorado River Commission of California and the state’s lead negotiator. The stakes are especially high for farm- ers in California’s Imperial Valley, who are entitled to the largest share of the river and rely on it as their only source of irrigation for half a million acres of farmland.
Farmers in the desert region produce most of the vegetables grown in the U.S. during winter, and they employ a sixth of the local workforce. Karin Eugenio, who chairs the Imperial Irrigation District’s Board of Directors, said in a statement that the plan announced last week “recognizes that changes as to
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August 5, 2026 Ag Alert 9
CALIFORNIA
Vegetables A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®
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Tomato variety key to controlling fusarium stem rot By Vicky Boyd Fusarium stem rot and decline, commonly known as FRD, affects the water- and nutrient-carrying vascular portions of processing tomato plant stems and canopies. Eventually, vines begin to decline, collapsing and exposing the fruit to the sun, leading to potential sunburn.
Ag Seeds Unlimited joined the collaborative effort in 2021, and Lazicki started in 2023 when she was hired by UCCE. The California Tomato Research Institute is supporting their work. Each year, Ag Seeds grows the transplants, and plants replicated trials in farmers’ com- mercial fields infested with soil-borne pathogens, said Ross Lopez, an Ag Seeds salesper- son also involved with product development. Rarely does a field have a single pathogen, so he said the company typically screens for multiple diseases. This year, Ag Seeds planted 11 trials, each featuring the same 29 popular varieties. During the season, the seed dealer and UC rate them for disease symptoms and vine decline. If the cause is questionable, they may pull samples to send to Cassandra Swett’s pathogen diagnostic laboratory at UC Davis. A commercial processing tomato harvester picks the plots, transferring the fruit to a modified gondola cart with a weight cell to measure yields before conveying them to commercial trailers. Through the years, the trials have evolved. “They used to be just strip trials of varieties side by side, with no yield information. It was just visual ratings,” Lopez said. They’ve found that no variety has true FRD resistance, although some varieties ap- pear more tolerant, Aegerter said. Even then, some varieties may not yield well under
As experts learn more about a relatively new fungal disease of processing tomatoes, they say variety selection is key to reducing potential yield losses. Crop rotation and equipment sanitation also are important in managing fusarium stem rot and decline, though to lesser extents. “I think the variety and sanitation would be my top priorities,” said Brenna Aegerter, University of California Cooperative Extension vegetable crops farm adviser who serves San Joaquin County. Rotating to a nonhost crop can help reduce the pathogen in the soil, but she said it’s not too popular because many of the alternatives are unprofitable. Fusarium stem rot and decline, often referred to as FRD, is found in scattered fields from Kern County to the northern Sacramento Valley. But the bulk of the infections are centered in the northern San Joaquin and southern Sacramento Valley processing toma- to-production areas. Patricia Lazicki, UC vegetable crops farm adviser for the southern Sacramento Valley, said FRD is the issue that generates the most calls from growers. In 2025, it comprised about 30% of her diagnoses. In the northern San Joaquin Valley, the disease is scattered but still common, Aegerter said. For the past seven years, Aegerter has been part of a UC team researching FRD. From the beginning, she conducted trials to screen for varietal disease resistance. Woodland-based
See FUSARIUM, Page 11
10 Ag Alert August 5, 2026
Fusarium Continued from Page 10
variety,” she said. Retired UCCE farm adviser Gene Miyao collected the first plants with suspected FRD in 2017. But it took Swett, an associate UCCE specialist in plant pathology, sever- al years to determine that a pair of related fusarium fungi was causing the issue. Al- though the two belong to the same large genus as the fusarium wilt causal organ- ism, they aren’t closely related, so varieties with fusarium wilt race 3 resistance are still susceptible to FRD. Initially, FRD-infected plants take on a yellowish or chlorotic cast, while leaves may be small and possibly curled, Aegert- er said. Lazicki said she frequently sees leaves that look bleached, but the veins are dark green. As the disease progresses, vines begin to decline, eventually collapsing and expos- ing fruit to the sun and potential sunburn. Damaged fruit also is more prone to other invaders such as mold. If cutting into the below-ground stem portion and crown tissue of infected plants, they may be necrotic, or dead, and “pretty ugly,” Aegerter said. Because foliar symptoms can be con- fused with tomato spotted wilt virus, southern blight or even potassium defi- ciency, Aegerter said it’s wise to have a lab- oratory confirm the field diagnosis. Vicky Boyd is a reporter in Modesto. She can be reached at agalert@cfbf.com.
high disease pressure. But varieties that have both FRD tolerance and the extended field-holding trait frequently produced the highest yields in the trials. UC and Ag Seeds publish their results annually in early winter so growers, pest control advisers and sales people can use them to make planting decisions for the upcoming season. In addition, Lopez said it was important to relay the data to seed breeders as they develop new varieties. To reduce the amount of inoculum in the soil, UC experts recommend rotating to nonhost plants for one or more seasons. UC Davis doctoral student Myles Collinson conducted laboratory and field trials over three years to determine the pathogens’ host range. Of the commonly grown crops, potatoes, peppers, cilantro, carrots and some sun- flower varieties yielded severe symptoms. Garlic, onions, alfalfa, corn, cotton, mel- ons, wheat and barley, on the other hand, were nonhosts. Sanitizing equipment before moving from one field to another is another man- agement tool to help reduce pathogen spread, Aegerter and Lazicki said. While removing all dirt and plant debris on ma- chinery may not be feasible, they said min- imizing the amount of plant debris using high-pressure air or water goes a long way. Equipment sanitation also is
Field trials have found that processing tomato varieties with fusarium stem rot and decline tolerance and the extended field-holding trait produced the highest yields under high disease pressure.
helpful to reduce the spread of broomrape, a yield-robbing processing tomato parasite found in the southern Sacramento Valley. As part of a federally funded specialty crop research project in 2025, Lazicki ex- amined the efficacy of K-Pam soil fumigant at 25 gallons per acre, 2.5 tons per acre of poultry manure and Trichoderma benefi- cial microbes used alone or together. She planted a tolerant variety and compared the treatments to untreated controls in a grower’s heavily infested field. Incorporating poultry manure following
K-Pam fumigation increased yields by 14.3 tons per acre compared to the untreated control and by 9.3 tons per acre compared to K-Pam alone, Lazicki said. Using the 2025 processing tomato price of $109 per ton, she said the K-Pam plus manure treatment yielded a $1,021 per-acre net profit over the untreated check. K-Pam plus manure produced a $776 per-acre return compared to K-Pam alone. “Fumigation and manure were both helpful even though it was a pretty tolerant
August 5, 2026 Ag Alert 11
Peaches Continued from Page 1
Former Del Monte growers who re- moved peach orchards in the Yuba-Sut- ter area said they planned to plant other tree crops—most likely almonds, wal- nuts or prunes, or possibly pistachios. While those crops may be viable alter- natives—many peach farmers already grow them—the loss of peach orchards weighed on families that have grown the fruit for generations. “If your family has been farming peach- es for a long time, there is an attachment to it,” said Kulwant Johl, whose grandfather began farming in the Yuba-Sutter area in 1924 and purchased the family’s first peach orchard in 1946. He said the labor-intensive crop was at- tractive to Punjabi farmers who immigrat- ed to the region because it was possible to make a profit on relatively small acreage. “We all got established growing peach- es,” said Khera, whose grandfather began farming in the area in 1978. “There is defi- nitely a sense of pride in growing peaches, especially for the Punjabi community.” Today, peaches appear on the seals of both Yuba and Sutter counties, and an an- nual peach festival is held in Marysville. While the fruit’s image is firmly stamped on the region, farmers said they were start- ing to wonder how much longer they will be able to grow it. “It’s sad,” Khera said. “It seems a little bit like the beginning of the end.” Caleb Hampton is an editor at Ag Alert. He can be reached at champton@cfbf.com.
The historic industry, which is cen- tered in the Yuba-Sutter area, was once supported by dozens of processors. But declining demand due to the year-round availability of fresh fruit, combined with rising production costs and cheap im- ports, caused bearing acreage to fall from a peak of more than 63,000 in 1969 to less than 14,000 in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The loss of Del Monte’s business was expected to result in the removal this year of about 3,000 acres of peach trees, according to the California Canning Peach Association. “I would say the majority of it has been taken out,” said Sutter County farmer Ranjit Davit, who chairs the peach associ- ation’s board of directors. In June, the California League of Food Producers reported bearing acreage had dropped to about 10,000 this year. Farmers typically plant cling peach or- chards—at a cost of thousands of dollars per acre—only after securing contracts with processors that last 20 years, the
Part of a mechanical peach harvester is used at a Marysville orchard to filter out fruit that is too small. A spring heat wave caused more fruit than usual to ripen before meeting size requirements.
before it had grown to the size required for canning. “The fruit is looking pretty rough,” said Johl, who operates two of the three receiv- ing stations that grade randomly selected fruit from each truckload of peaches grown in the Yuba-Sutter area. He said in the past decade he had never seen so much fruit rejected for being too small. Yields were
is not entirely resolved. During an auction of the company’s assets, PCP licensed some of its shelf-stable fruit product brands. To stock those products, the grow- er-owned cooperative picked up about a third of Del Monte’s cling peach acreage on one-year contracts. But as of last week, the future of that acreage remained uncertain. Sutter County grower Bhaavan Khera, whose family this year is farming most of its peach acreage on a one-year deal with PCP, said the arrangement left growers guessing how much to invest in their trees. “It’s still a stressful time for a lot of for- mer Del Monte growers who got picked up, and it’s even worse for the guys that didn’t,” Khera said.
orchard’s esti- mated lifespan. It can take sev- eral years for a farmer to earn back the initial investment, and Del Monte’s bankruptcy ex- posed growers to steep losses. “It’s a huge setback,” said Johl, who re- moved 80 of his 120 acres of peach trees this year, the youngest of which were just reaching matu- rity. “They’re all pushed out and burned up.”
down about 12% from the initial estimate on the earliest cling peach variet- ies, with subse- quent varieties faring better but still below aver- age, according to the peach association. Last year, Cali- fornia produced about 211,000 tons of cling peaches. With the removal of acreage formerly under Del Monte
Third-generation peach grower Kulwant Johl is pictured last week during harvest in Marysville.
contracts, the initial forecast for this year’s crop was 170,000 tons. Last week, the peach association revised its projection to 155,000 tons. Yuba County grower Kulwant Johl, who is Sarb Johl’s cousin, said the quality chal- lenges this year meant growers will earn less from the crop and were spending more getting it off trees and trucked to canner- ies. Even after stationing a quality control worker at each bin as fruit was picked by hand, he ran peaches from some orchard blocks this year through a mechanical sort- er to get rid of small fruit before loading the peaches onto trucks. Growers said they were also impacted by higher costs for fuel, fertilizer, labor and other inputs. Meanwhile, their earnings remained flat, at best, as the peach asso- ciation and PCP agreed to keep the same base price as last year of $610 per ton mi- nus varying penalties for offgrade fruit. “It still pencils out, but the profit margin is going down,” Kulwant Johl said. The fallout from Del Monte’s bankruptcy
In April, USDA allocated $9 million in aid for affected growers. The peach asso- ciation, which contributed an additional $1.5 million, was set to begin accepting applications for the funding this week. Rich Hudgins, president and CEO of the peach association, described the aid as a “life preserver” that will partially cover the cost of removing peach trees and transi- tioning to a different crop. “It’s allowing the grower to stay afloat for another year,” he said. According to court documents, the Del Monte contracts growers lost were val- ued at $555 million in total, with some having begun just last year and been valid through 2044. “It’s been tough,” Johl said. This year’s harvest, which started May 30 and was expected to conclude in mid-Au- gust, has hardly improved fortunes. A searing spring heat wave sped fruit development by more than two weeks, causing much of the state’s crop to ripen
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