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.
Watermelon trials San Joaquin County field tests grafting for melons
Ag Alert returns Aug. 3 Ag Alert® publishes 46 times a year, and will be on hiatus next week (July 27). Our next issue will be published Aug. 3. In the meantime, please check the California Farm Bureau Facebook and Twitter feeds, and the Ag Alert and California Farm Bureau websites at www.agalert.com and www.cfbf.com, for breaking news.
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www.cfbf.com • www.agalert.com JULY 20, 2022
Field Crops ® Vegetables ®
special reports
By Kevin Hecteman California’s horn of plenty has become a horn of plenty of issues, prompting many leading minds of California agriculture to meet under one roof to hash out ideas. At a July 11 agriculture summit in Sacramento, Jamie Johansson, president of the California Farm Bureau, named drought, inflation and supply-chain is- sues as among the top problems facing his membership. He also identified a paradox facing farmers and ranchers. “We know that consumers want us to be more sustainable, our buyers do, but we know we have to intensify our production,” Johansson said, noting it was not long ago that stores had to limit how much milk shoppers could buy. Johansson offered his observations as part of a panel convened at the Food & Ag Issues Summit West. The summit was pre- sented by Agri-Pulse, with California Farm Bureau among the top sponsors. “What we’re being asked to do as farmers is really manage scarcity,” said Johansson, who appeared virtually from Washington, D.C., where he was meeting with state and national Farm Bureau pres- idents. “How are we going to farm when we’re given less—whether that’s surface water and groundwater, whether that’s the pesticides we can apply—are they still go- ing to be available?” He said the same question applies to fertilizer, especially nitrogen, and power. Energy prices and the future of renew- ables took center stage with a panel includ- ing California Farm Bureau Counsel Kevin Johnston. He noted that Farm Bureau and others work to point out flaws and mitigate impacts of rules such as “time of use” peri- ods, in which energy prices rise during late afternoon and early evening. “I don’t think the (California Public Utilities) Commission always understands what these time-of-use periods mean for agriculture and how we actually use our energy for irrigation,” Johnston said. “It’s See SUMMIT, Page 3 Food and farming forum focuses on times of scarcity
Bartlett pears, harvest of which started last week in the Sacramento River district, are packed at Rivermaid Trading Co. in Sacramento County. Rivermaid is the state’s largest pear supplier.
With less acreage, pear market is ‘on fire’
By Ching Lee After years of removing their trees due to shrinking markets, California pear growers won’t have much of a problem finding buy- ers for their fruit this year. With harvest ramping up in the Sacramento River district, which produces the bulk of the state’s pears, growers such as Alex Wilson are upbeat. “Right now, the
fresh market is on fire,” he said. “It’s an ex- citing time to be a pear grower.” Wilson’s family operates Rivermaid Trading Co., the state’s largest pear sup- plier. The company grows its own pears in the delta and handles fruit from the state’s three main growing regions: Sacramento, Lake and Mendocino counties. The focus is on Bartlett, the most widely
grown pear that’s used in canning and for fresh-fruit eating. It accounts for nearly 90% of the state pear crop. Last year, 63% of California’s total pear volume went to canning and other processing, according to the California Pear Advisory Board. Chris Zanobini, the board’s executive di- rector, described demand for processing
See PEARS, Page 10
n e w s p a p e r
Comment.......................................2 Field Crops...................................7 Vegetables................................. 11 Classifieds........................... 18-19 Inside
Published by
A bad bill undermines cooperation on groundwater By Danny Merkley and Jack Gualco The ink is barely dry on the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and here comes more legislation to redo what has
nently put in place, even after the drought and during times of heavy precipitation. Small- and medium-size family farmers and ranchers and members of communi- ties with inadequate water infrastructure are those who would be most severely im- pacted because they can least afford to go through the additional procedures called for in the legislation. Local GSAs have already done the heavy lifting during the development of their plans, hiring consultants at significant ex- pense to analyze groundwater basins and determining how to bring high- and me- dium-priority basins into sustainability, if they are not there already. Additional costly studies and mandated analyses are unnecessary, and they would unduly delay the permitting process for the smallest and most vulnerable farms and ranches struggling to keep their crops alive. California farmers and ranchers do not shy away from their efforts to put food on America’s tables. Similarly, a large coali- tion of agriculture, local government and business interests opposing AB 2201 is now actively fighting on their behalf. The coalition includes the California Farm Bureau and clients of The Gualco Group Inc., which advocates on behalf of water suppliers and agricultural producers. Our coalition is working on solutions to keep water flowing to produce the most healthful food and farm products in the world. Unfortunately, Assembly Bill 2201 represents a misguided rush to fix the new SGMA law, which isn’t broken. (Danny Merkley is director of water re- sources for the California Farm Bureau. He may be reached at dmerkley@cfbf. com. Jack Gualco is president of The Gualco Group Inc. He may be reached at Jackson_gualco@gualcogroup.com.)
A San Joaquin Valley wheat field is irrigated with groundwater. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act established a co- operative frame- work to protect aquifer supplies.
been the most sig- nificant change in California water law in over 100 years. The California Department of Water Resources has not fin- ished evaluating Groundwater Sustainability Plans
Danny Merkley
submitted by local agencies under SGMA, which established a cooperative framework to protect California’s groundwater re- sources. But already legislation—Assembly Bill 2201 by Steve Bennett, D-Ventura—
ca.gov/water-basics/drought). But AB 2201 goes beyond the provisions of the governor’s directive by requiring lo- cal permitting agencies to post well permit applications on their websites for at least 30 days before approving the permit. Additionally, the legislation would require a licensed professional engineer to certify that the proposed well is not likely to inter- fere with existing nearby wells or cause sub- sidence. This has raised significant liability concerns for engineers and cost consider- ations for anyone seeking to obtain a permit. The executive order has already caused significant confusion between the GSAs and local well permitting agencies. Until the administration and the department have the time necessary to sort out the many questions that have surfaced since the issuance of the order, it is premature to lock its provisions into the California Water Code by enacting Assemblymember Bennett’s legislation. Our observation is that the Department of Water Resources is working hard to find answers and to give guidance to counties and GSAs trying to understand and com- ply with the order, but it takes time. It also
takes time to address groundwater basin sustainability, something that was made clear by the architects of SGMA at the time of its passage in 2014. So far, the continuing, collaborative efforts throughout the state have largely drawn fa- vorable attention of state regulators. When the law was being debated, many questioned the ability of cities, counties, special districts, agriculture and affect- ed community stakeholders to come to- gether to form groundwater sustainability agencies, as well as adopt groundwater sustainability plans that the Department of Water Resources would deem to comply with the statute. Under SGMA, a locally driven approach to managing our threatened aquifers is advanc- ing and maturing. Yet, suddenly, AB 2201 threatens to hurl a curveball into the progress being made. The resilient and adaptive men and women who make up California’s family farmers and ranchers have long overcome adversity, whether man-made or thrown at them by Mother Nature. They would face unnecessary harms if AB 2201 becomes law, particularly with the proposed new provisions being perma-
seeks to change SGMA in ways that would bring unnec- essary confusion and disruption into the process. The bill, which passed in the Assembly and is now in the state Senate, would pro-
Jack Gualco
hibit a local groundwater well permitting agency from approving a permit for a new groundwater well, or for an alteration to an existing well in a basin subject to SGMA, unless it receives written verification from the local Groundwater Sustainability Agency that manages the basin. Since last amended June 22, the mea- sure is crafted in part on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s March 28 drought executive or- der to conserve water, including ground- water supplies. (A fact sheet to assist those navigating the order can be found at water.
VOL. 49, NO. 27
July 20, 2022
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Summit Continued from Page 1
Joining vir- tually from Washington, D.C., California Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson speaks during the Food & Ag Summit West.
kind of this constant battle of trying to de- fend against these increases, to educate on how we actually use energy.” Asked what policy change he’d make if given the chance, Johnston said he’d like to see the state stop sticking utility ratepayers with the bill for its initiatives. “This treat- ment of ratepayers as a blank check for whatever the cause du jour is, I think, is not the right way to go about it,” Johnston said. Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the California Department of Natural Resources, devoted a session to updating water management for a changing climate. While the existing water system built over decades allowed California to become an economic powerhouse, “that water sys- tem is outmoded for the challenges that we face,” Crowfoot said. “It’s 20th-century in- frastructure for a 21st-century challenge.” For example, he cited systems meant to capture spring runoff from the Sierra snowpack, which has become less reliable as warmer winters result in more precipita- tion falling as rain instead of snow. “Frankly, we built a water-delivery sys- tem and a water-supply system anticipat- ing that slow melt of snow in the spring and summer,” Crowfoot said. “You have less snowpack to rely on as a result of these hot temperatures. In the spring and summer, temperatures are warmer, so more of that snowpack that we anticipate would go into
the reservoirs is absorbing into very dry ground or evaporating into warm air.” Water management also needs to be- come less adversarial, Crowfoot noted. “What we’re trying to do is break out of this endless cycle of regulation and liti- gation, where water management is ulti- mately decided, for example, in a federal court and then persists for a decade or more,” Crowfoot said. “It’s a really prob- lematic way to manage our system.” In its place, Crowfoot said, he’d like to see a shared approach. Among those urging cooperation over vitriol was Ashley Swearengin, chief ex- ecutive of the Central Valley Community Foundation. She said contentious politics often gets in the way of resolving challeng- es for agriculture. “I feel like the various components of the overall industry and ecosystem are tired of that fight,” Swearengin said. “Nobody’s get-
ting what they want. People are realizing we actually have to do food at scale, and we’ve got to do it in a regenerative way.” She said “a new path” may be being forged. “I’ve heard some people sitting and talking to one another who have been al- most mortal enemies in recent years—and that seems to be shifting,” she said. Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said communities are focusing on jobs of the future. “We have to think very carefully about all the ways that the entire workforce will benefit from employers shifting their in- vestments to automation, and then focus on workforce development,” Ross said. Gabe Youtsey, chief innovation officer at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, is focused on in- novation—and inspiring young people to pursue the agricultural jobs of tomorrow.
“We’re not just trying to create a new set of technologies,” he said during a summit session. “We’re trying to create a brand- new industry, an ag-tech industry, with leadership from the Central Valley.” That effort, Youtsey added, requires “a hugely interdisciplinary set of skills and people” from computer science, food sci- ence, environmental science and climate technologies. Connecting to students from community colleges, high schools and ju- nior high schools will be critical, he added. “Once kids are exposed to these new careers of the future—even if they don’t have a full understanding of all the various possibilities—they get extremely excited,” Youtsey said. “And in some cases, it’s abso- lutely changed career directions.” (Kevin Hecteman is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)
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July 20, 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.
Photo/Ginny Miller
Photo/Rob Andrew
Jason Miller Placer County beekeeper and mandarin grower Our honeybees spend the spring in California and the summers in North Dakota, so I’m currently traveling between Newcastle and Gackle, North Dakota. Last week, I took delivery of our company’s first electric truck, which should help reduce our fuel costs. We have been doing our best to fight inflation by not increasing our pollination prices these last couple of years. Unfortunately, the world has run the other direc- tion and hit us with massive price increases across the board. We buy our sugar syrup by the tanker, and those prices almost doubled this season, now topping $23,000 per load. Our freight to haul bees was $5 to $6 per mile, also nearly dou- bling this season. The spring rainfall has continued in the Dakotas, where we hope to improve from our spectacular honey crop failure of last summer. This year started with us working more hours than I ever thought possible. The reason being our H-2A labor crew from Mexico was delayed three weeks due to the Department of Labor misfiling our labor application. This meant the bees arrived in California for the spring almond pollination, but we had no beekeepers to place and inspect the hives. Fortunately, by mid-February, our 16 H-2A employ- ees arrived. The bees benefited from excellent almond pollination weather, and colonies experienced low winter losses. This was followed by a couple of nice spring rain events in the foothills. In June, the green grass of the foothills turned to scorched earth, so we loaded the bees and headed to the Midwest.
Glenn Tanaka Orange County agritourism operator
What was really nice about springtime is a lot of schools did come back into taking field trips again. Our weekday business was fairly good. In fact, we prob- ably had a lot more non-schoolchildren, families coming out on the weekdays, which was quite refreshing. This summer, with the economy so unstable, it was like in 2008. People are maybe a little leery of not having enough money to go on extravagant vacations, so they’re staying close to the home. Maybe we’ll have a little bit more local business. We grow most of our own fruits and vegetables, but we ran into a little gap in our planting schedule, so we ran a little short on corn. We were trying to buy some corn on the market, and it was outrageous. It was $60, $70 a crate, when normally it’s $20 a crate. There wasn’t as much corn being grown because of the water short- age, and whatever corn was available, they’re trying to get premium dollar for it. Our strawberry season finished a couple weeks ago. We’re in our summer crops, which is corn and watermelon, so we have our watermelon tours going on right now. What’s nice about strawberries is people get to go out and pick their own. With watermelons and cantaloupes, it’s a little hard for them to pick their own because it’s so hard to tell what’s ripe, so we pre-pick it for them. We let them sample all kinds of different melons, so they still have a good time on the tours. The future looks good. Our sales are actually up a little bit over last year, so we’re happy with that.
Jay Ruskey Santa Barbara County coffee and fruit farmer
Coffee harvest started in May. It’s a little early because of the warm winter we had. Harvest is going to continue for the next few weeks here and in San Diego County. We’ve got a couple more farms that we are going to be planting with coffee. All the farms that are a little more inland have been planted. We try to get them in the ground sooner so they have a longer time to establish, especially before the heat comes. We’re wrapping up avocados. We’re pulling them off right now, and they’re at maxi- mum maturity. A lot of our (coffee) growers are avocado growers too, so they’ve been very excited to get the extremely high prices that are still hovering around $3 a pound, which are incredibly higher than we’ve ever experienced. Some of our lemon growers are finally done with their spring harvest that went late because of market forces, and they’re beginning to prune and get ready for the next crop. From a weather standpoint, it was obviously a dry spring for everybody, but the winds were really beating us up. The winds were present all the way into June, which normally doesn’t happen. On the coastal corridors of the farming community, we finally found relief through the fog and the marine layer cooling us down at night and bringing some relief. Everybody is preparing for heat and watching well levels carefully. As water supplies begin to decrease, a suggestion for growers is to start watching salt levels, because as reservoirs and aquifers get more concentrate, we’re all going to notice higher levels of salt. Measuring your soils and staying on top of your leaching require- ments are going to be critical for the next four or five months until we get our winter rains.
Photo/Summer Staeb
4 Ag Alert July 20, 2022
Debbie Chamberlain Riverside County mango and vegetable farmer
We’re two weeks into our main variety of mango called Valencia Pride. It’s the one we have the most trees of. The harvest looks good so far—good sizing taking place. We probably have four to five weeks to go of that variety. After that, we have proba- bly until Sept. 1 to finish off another variety, the Keitt mango. We finished two early varieties. Nam Dok Mai, a Thailand mango, comes off first. That was the end of June. They call that the dessert mango of Thailand. It’s a small- er-size mango, very sweet, very low fiber. We also finished Golden Lady, which is a variety that we developed in our field. It’s from a Haden seedling also, but it’s golden with a red blush, and it’s very sweet and medium fiber. We also have a few Manilas. The mango has alternate-bearing tendencies, so with these first varieties, we did have a lower yield. But our main variety is looking real good, and so does the Keitt, which was low last year. We really work hard to make sure it’s a standout product—picking mangos tree- ripe. They don’t have to go through that hot water bath that all imported mangos have to go through. It really affects the flavor. The other things we’re doing is adding more greenhouse, because we need to increase our basil production during our tomato season. We’ve had really good de- mand for (basil). We’re building more shade houses to get increased mango (tree) reproduction, because we also sell mango trees retail. We do these other projects during the offseason to increase production based on our past results, so that’s been good news despite all the increase in costs. We’re just inching up (production) to meet demand. Of course, we’ve had to in- crease prices because of all the increased costs, but fortunately, (the products) are still in demand.
Photo/Melissa Jewel
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July 20, 2022 Ag Alert 5
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CALIFORNIA
Field Crops A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®
®
A field is planted to sweet corn, above, near the Central Coast. At right, Tayebeh Hosseini shoots infared images of sweet corn in drip-irrigation trials in the Imperial Valley. Researchers say corn may be able to thrive in multiple California regions without traditional furrow irrigation.
Photo/ Ali Montazar, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources
Study: Drip systems can boost yields for sweet corn By Bob Johnson Sweet corn may be the next major crop to benefit from the water-saving efficiencies of drip irrigation.
“It appears that the drip-irrigated fields received nearly 37% less water than the furrow-ir- rigated fields,” Montazar wrote. “This conserved water could be sufficient to irrigate more than 300 acres of lettuce fields throughout the crop season in the low desert region.” The overwhelming majority of the state’s 370,000-acre corn crop is harvested for feed for the state’s dairies. But California growers still plant a nation-leading 25,000 acres of sweet corn, much of it in the desert regions of Imperial, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, with additional production in the Central Valley and Central Coast regions. “Over the past 10 years, sweet corn production has fluctuated around 8,000 acres in Imperial County,” Montazar wrote. While most Imperial County sweet corn is germinated and grown with sprinkler irriga- tion, there is enough drip to make a comparison possible. Montazar’s study compared water and fertilizer use on six drip-irrigated fields totaling 400 acres with five furrow-irrigated fields totaling 365 acres. Drip-irrigation tape in this study was buried an inch and a half beneath the surface. “The findings of this study demonstrated that drip irrigation clearly has the potential to enhance the efficiency of water and fertilizer use, and total marketable high-quality yield in desert sweet corn,” Montazar wrote. Because corn is a shallow-rooted crop, drip irrigation makes it easier to spoon-feed
Drip irrigation has been the standard for strawberries and grapes for decades. Since the 1980s, growers of processing tomatoes, cool-season vegetables, and tree fruit and nuts have found they have greater control over their crops with the precision that comes with micro-irrigation. Now new research in the Imperial Valley indicates that drip irrigation for sweet corn may signficantly reduce water use and boost crop yields in California’s low desert region, as well as in other areas of the state. Recently, Ali Montazar, a University of California Cooperative Extension desert region irrigation and water management advisor, found that an average of more than 2.2 acre-feet of water can be saved irrigating sweet corn with drip rather than furrow irrigation. “I’ve worked with drip on processed onions, lettuce, alfalfa, spinach,” Montazar said in a statement released by the UC. “We’ve never seen a figure like 2.2 acre-feet per acre. That’s huge.” After conducting large-scale comparison on commercial fields in the Imperial Valley, Montazar wrote about the study findings in June in a UC newsletter. His article may be found at ceimperial.ucanr.edu/newsletters/Ag_Briefs93507.pdf.
See IRRIGATION, Page 8
July 20, 2022 Ag Alert 7
Irrigation Continued from Page 7
wrote. “They have already adapted sever- al irrigation tools and water conservation practices for different commodities.” He also recently demonstrated that us- ing drip rather than sprinklers can signifi- cantly reduce downy mildew pressure in organic clipped spinach. It can take some time before the results of a study, however encouraging, translate into new practices in commercial production. “A common concern is how viable are these technologies and tools in different commodities, specifically when the tech- nology is initiated to be adapted keeping in mind that the environment, soil types and conditions, and cropping systems in the desert are significantly different,” Montazar wrote. “Using drip in sweet corn is new to the desert region, and besides that there have not been many irrigation studies on sweet corn in California.” He said his recent study attempted to assess the viability of using drip in sweet corn, while developing “real world” crop information rather than just data from small research plots. “The data and information developed may assist growers to understand better the promises and pitfalls of drip in sweet corn,” Montazar wrote. “I am hoping this study can encourage growers to adapt the technology.” (Bob Johnson is a reporter in Monterey County. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)
University of California Cooperative Extension advisor Ali
fertilizer to avoid leaching nitrogen below the root zone. Precise application under the drip system made it possible to reduce fertilizer use by at least 25%, which would be a money saver with the rising cost of synthetic fertilizer. “The results demonstrated that the total expense of applied fertilizers in the drip-irrigated fields were $145.60 per acre less on average than the furrow-irrigated fields,” Montazar wrote. “This means that because of a higher water and fertilizer use efficiency in drip-irrigation system, drip could considerably reduce by nearly 25.7% the fertilizer costs compared to regular fur- row irrigation practice.” Corn is a tricky crop to deficit irrigate, because water stress at the wrong stage of development can be harmful. “While there is never a good time to water-stress corn, some periods are worse than others,” Mark Lundy, a UCCE agronomy specialist, wrote during the 2015 California drought. “The worst de- velopmental stage to water-stress corn is during the weeks leading up to and fol- lowing tasseling and silking, when polli- nation is occurring.” Lundy’s Managing Irrigated Corn During Drought pamphlet is available on the UC Agronomy website (corn.ucanr.edu/). He also outlined drought tips in a 2015 UC Agriculture and Natural Resources article,
Montazar led drip-irrigation studies in the Imperial Valley.
“Managing Corn During Drought.” Lundy said the amount of irrigation applied will largely determine how much water is available to the crop. “Although water limitations have reduced field corn productivity,” he wrote, “careful consid- eration of variety choice, planting date, tillage practices, residue management, in-season agronomic practices, and irri- gation system design and performance can help to counter some of these effects and maximize the productivity of the water that is applied.” Drip has the advantage of affording more precise control over when water applications are reduced, which makes it possible to grow more sweet corn with significantly less water and fertilizer. “The water requirements for sweet corn rapidly increase from nearly 30% of poten- tial evapotranspiration (PET) during early growth to 110% of PET at peak growth,”
Montazar wrote. “This rapid increase in crop water use can occasionally catch growers out and reduce yield. Irrigation management from two weeks prior to silk- ing until harvest is significantly associated with yield.” Growers in the study using drip pro- duced more sweet corn using not only less water but also 25% less fertilizer. “On average, high-quality sweet corn yields were 5% greater in the fields un- der drip than the fields under furrow,” Montazar wrote. In addition to studying sweet corn, Montazar also joined researchers in studies showing that drip irrigation can save signif- icant amounts of water in alfalfa production. “Our growers in the low desert region like other parts of the state of California, and all western states have concerns associated with water shortage, the high price of fer- tilizers, and water quality issues,” Montazar
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8 Ag Alert July 20, 2022
Hearing airs concerns over wildfire insurance coverage
July 13 hearing in Oakland. “Some businesses and homeowners cannot get coverage they need from the FAIR Plan alone,” he said. “So they have to purchase difference-in-conditions in- surance policies, which may or may not fill gaps in coverage, and may also be very, very cost-prohibitive.” All insurance companies authorized to operate in California must participate in the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan. It was created in the 1960s after wild- fires and civil unrest made obtaining insur- ance difficult. Farms and agricultural oper-
ations were excluded until the enactment of Senate Bill 11 last year. California Farm Bureau Administrator Jim Houston testified that insurance is one more headache for farmers and ranchers. “We are dealing right now with fewer in- puts—less water, less fertilizer, less energy, less employees,” Houston said. “Having to deal with the insurance crisis on top of that really puts a strain on our businesses.” Houston said he’s pleased the plan now covers farm structures, but he said
By Kevin Hecteman California’s insurer of last resort needs some work. That was the message deliv- ered on the California FAIR Plan at a state Department of Insurance hearing. Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said more Californians are turning to the FAIR Plan after losing coverage in the wake of years of devastating wildfires. New FAIR
Plan policies ballooned from 23,049 in 2018 to 77,650 in 2020, according to de- partment data, while renewals rose from 117,398 to 163,816 over the same period. “We are here today because of our con- tinued concerns that the FAIR Plan is not meeting its mission of ensuring access and availability of insurance for those Californians who need it,” Lara said at the
See INSURANCE, Page 15
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July 20, 2022 Ag Alert 9
Pears Continued from Page 1
Sacramento County pear farmer Alex Wilson stands next to a bin of harvested Bartletts, which account for 89% of state pear tonnage.
with good weather,” said Scott Fraser, sales manager for Scully Packing. He said har- vest of Bartletts is expected to begin the week of Aug. 1, with volumes similar to last year. He described this year’s crop as “excellent quality with a normal distribu- tion of sizing.” Mendocino County grower Chris Ruddick said he will likely begin harvest of Starkcrimson, an early red pear, this week or next. His trees suffered from heat and a lack of rain during the past two years, he said, with this year’s crop “somewhat light- er than normal.” After taking “a beating on income” last year due to smaller fruit, Ruddick said he’s in no hurry to start pick- ing, as he wants larger sizes. With a smaller crop, “I think we can make up our tonnage difference a little bit that way,” he added. All his Bartletts are destined for the can- nery, while his Starkcrimson, Seckel and Bosc pears go to the packinghouse, where size becomes critical, he said. Hurt by drought and smaller fruit during the past two years, Ruddick said, the re- gion lost “a lot of acreage.” Now the market is bullish on pears, he said, with packers and canners “looking around to see what they’ve got and trying to lock up what they can.” Optimistic about the business, he said he’s planning to plant a new pear orchard to replace one he tore out several years ago. “It’s nice to have somebody say we want (pears) instead of saying maybe,” he said. (Ching Lee is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.)
pears as high. “The cannery price definitely sets the bar for where fresh market returns have to come in at,” he said. Even though overall production is ex- pected to be about the same as last year— an estimated 117,692 tons this year com- pared to 121,106 tons in 2021—Zanobini noted the state has fewer acres. The reduced plantings have led to de- mand exceeding supply, Wilson said, with packinghouses competing with canneries for pears. He said early-season fresh mar- ket prices could top what canneries are offering by $200 a ton. “In general, pear growers are going to be very impressed with the returns that the fresh market brings to them,” Wilson added. That wasn’t always the case. Just four years ago, Seneca Foods announced clo- sure of its Modesto cannery ahead of the 2018 pear season, and growers who lost their contracts were scrambling, with some deciding to rip out orchards. The year Seneca shuttered, 66,720 tons of pears went to canning, compared to 103,743 tons in 2017, according to the pear board. Statewide, two pear canneries remain: Walnut Creek-based Del Monte Foods and
Pacific Coast Producers, based in Lodi. In addition to Rivermaid, there are three oth- er pear packers: Scully Packing Co. in Lake County, and Greene & Hemly and Stillwater Orchards, both based in Courtland. State pear acreage stood at 9,400 in 2021, down from 9,900 in 2020 and 10,000 in 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Growers say they believe acreage is much lower this year. With canneries and packers vying for pears, Wilson said growers are weighing options on where to send fruit to “keep both relationships happy.” While they don’t want to miss out on the “phenom- enal pricing in the fresh market,” he said, they see multi-year cannery contracts as a guaranteed home for their crop in years when the fresh market is oversupplied. Kyle Persky, who handles sales for
Rivermaid, said the fresh Bartlett market starts “fairly high.” Then the price drops every week and settles just as the Pacific Northwest begins shipping its pears. “This year, I think we’ll see a more stable, consistent Bartlett market,” he said, “and a lot of that is driven by processing demand. It kind of creates the price floor.” What’s more, there’s less carryover fruit from South America, Persky said, especial- ly in West Coast markets, creating “a fairly open pipeline.” The Pacific Northwest crop is also expected to be down a bit and lat- er than usual, which will give California a longer window to market its pears, he said. Robert Arceo, who manages farming for Rivermaid, said the company’s own orchards saw a lighter crop this year, and as such, the fruit is bigger. Still, he said he’s waiting for the fruit to get even larger, “because size is everything.” That meant applying fertilizer earlier and more water, which is needed to size the fruit, he said. Meanwhile, orchards in Mendocino and Lake counties had “an exceptional bloom
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Taxes, freight, setup, delivery, additional options or attachments not included in suggested fi r etail price. Offer is nontransferable. Offer subject to change or cancellation without notice. 2 C fi ash back amounts vary and are applied at time of sale. Cash back offers are only available when nancing purchase with CNH Industrial C apital America LLC or CNH Industrial Capital Canada Ltd. 3 O ffers end September 30, 2022; subject to change or cancellation without notice. © 2022 CNH Industrial America LLC. All rights reserved. CNH Industrial Capital and N fi ew Holland are trademarks registered in the United States and many other countries, owned by or licensed to CNH Industrial N.V., its subsidiaries or af liates. o fi f July 1, 2022, with a suggested retail price on a new T5.100 STG5 DC, ROPS of C$109,472 customer provides down payment of C$21,894.30 and nances the balance of C$87,577.20 at 0% per annum for 12 months. There w ill be 12 equal monthly payments of C$7,298.10. 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CNH Industrial Capital America LLC and C NH Industrial Capital Canada Ltd. standard terms and conditions apply. Canada Example: The interest rate will be 0% for 12 months. Total contract term is 12 months. Based on a retail contract date o fi f July 1, 2022, with a suggested retail price on a new T5.100 STG5 DC, ROPS of C$109,472 customer provides down payment of C$21,894.30 and nances the balance of C$87,577.20 at 0% per annum for 12 months. There w ill be 12 equal monthly payments of C$7,298.10. The total amount payable will be C$87,577.20, which includes nance charges of C$0. Taxes, freight, setup, delivery, additional options or attachments not included in suggested fi r etail price. Offer is nontransferable. Offer subject to change or cancellation without notice. 2 C fi ash back amounts vary and are applied at time of sale. 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10 Ag Alert July 20, 2022
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