Newsletter Page Version Ag Alert July 21, 2021

Ag Alert is the weekly 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.

Freeze damage lingers Walnut crop likely to take a hit from chilly fall

Ag Alert returns Aug. 4 Ag Aler t® publ ishes 46 t imes a year, and wi l l be on hiatus next week (July 28) . Our next issue will be published Aug. 4. In the meantime, please check the CFBF 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 21, 2021

Vegetables ® Field Crops ®

s p e c i a l r e p o r t s

ByKevinHecteman Avocado growers haven’t been feeling the heat as much this year, but they sure havebeen feeling the lackof precipitation. “We haven’t had a severe heat wave or a severe couple days of heat, like we’ve had in the past couple of years,” saidWill Pidduck, who grows avocados and citrus inVentura County. “Sowe’ve got that go- ing for us.” However, he added: “We’re just severe- ly dry after going through a winter where we got barely 4 inches of rain. We started the season dry. You’re almost playing catch-up all season.” Playing catch-updue to lack of rainhas ramifications at harvesttime. Avocados Avocado farmers have lighter crop amid drought

See AVOCADOS, Page 10

Farmers markets seeing uneven recovery Kimberly Espinoza of Brenner Ranch and Morgan Farm in Newcastle, left, helps George Washington of Sacramento at the Capitol Mall Farmers Market in downtown Sacramento. The seasonal market depends for much of its business on customers such as Washington, who works nearby, and other pedestrians.

ByChristine Souza California FarmBureau, as part of a na- tional coalition representing thousands of western farmers, ranchers,water providers, businessesandcommunities,urgedleaders oftheU.S.Senatetotakeactiontoaddressthe shortcomingsof agingwater infrastructure. Citing an “acute and critical need”mag- nifiedby another all-too-familiar drought, the coalition sent a letter last week to Chairman Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and RankingMember JohnBarrasso,R-Wyo.,of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. It called for increased federal investment inwater infrastructure. “California Farm Bureau joined with 200-plus organizations in a letter to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Joe Manchin and Ranking Fix aging water infrastructure, Senate told

ByChing Lee Farmers markets have long drawn thousands of shoppers during peak sum- mer season for many crops. But growers say the pandemic upset that trend and its impacts linger, even as markets ease COVID restrictions and try to return to some normalcy. The pandemic forced some farmers markets to close temporarily last year at

the height of the state lockdown. Though many markets reopened after putting in placesafetyprotocols, others stayedclosed andhavenot reopened. Somemarkets saw attendance drop as distancing require- ments and other restrictions led to long lines, increasedwait timesandfewer trans- actions, farmers reported. Now that restaurants are allowed to open to full capacity, farmers say they’re

beginning toseemoreof their food-service customerscomingbacktothemarkets.But with so many people still working from home, weekday markets that depend on their patronage continue to struggle with lighter foot traffic. Vendors at the Capitol Mall Farmers Market in downtown Sacramento say they have yet to see the pre-COVID lunch

See MARKETS, Page 14

n e w s p a p e r

From the Fields........................ 4-5 Vegetables....................................7 Field Crops................................ 11 Classifieds........................... 18-19 Inside

Published by

See WATER, Page 6

Growing food is essential, reasonable use of water

ByChris Scheuring Amid histor ic heat and drought , California’s rivers and creeks dwin- dled early this year. Many, if not most, of our reservoirs are at exceptionally low levels. And this year we are faced

brief but deeply frightening food sup- ply disruptions at grocery stores. This brought into vivid focus just what it is to be considered an essential industry and how critical California agriculture is to the Golden State and the world at large. How do we reconcile that repre- sentation to this new relegation of ag- ricultural water use to an alleged “un- reasonable” use? Is it reasonable to hamstring food production through unnecessary and expansive use of a legal doctrine that is amorphous at best, when the likely alternative sources for that displaced food supply will lead to worse environ- mental outcomes? Let’s be clear: There’s no doubt that, in many places, we are brutally short of water this year. That’s precisely where we look to our water rights system to go to work. However, while short-termcurtailments based upon honest water availability analysis and solid administration of our water right priority system are one thing, wholesale, ham-fisted deploy- ment of a subjective legal concept may leave us with a bell we can’t unring. Again, I ammindful of where we were a year ago during the shelter-in-place requirements for COVID-19.California’s farmers and farmemployees stayedat the helm during that storm, when so many others went belowdecks. It wasn’t easy to be “essential” then, but there they were. That’s why it’s hard to draw a line from farming being an “essential” undertaking last year to this year’s allegation of “un- reasonable use.” (Chris Scheuring is senior counsel for the California Farm Bureau. He may be contacted at cscheuring@cfbf.com.)

with a novel chal- l enge : The ev i - dence sugges t s that snowmelt in- creasingly evapo- rates or soaks into the ground before reaching reser- voir systems. Our water sup- p l y d i f f i cu l t i e s

Chris Scheuring

deepen, and demand bold policy initia- tives.Chief among them is addressing the need for new infrastructure and wa- ter storage to accommodate hydrology that is likely to be more rainfall-based and may result in longer dry spel ls punctuated by more intense, if shorter, wet periods. One thing it does not do, however, is require reorganization of water rights. Quite the contrary. In fact, the state’s wa- ter rights system is fundamentally con- ceived to deal with scarcity in dry years, including this one—by providing for a hierarchy of priority upon which to base necessary curtailments. In fact, that sys- temreally only exists todeal with scarcity. Most farmers and ranchers under- stand that we didn’t get much snow- pack and precipitation this year, and that means reduced water availability in a lot of places. What is unprece- dented is the thought that agricultural water use should, in times of scarci- ty, be labeled an “unreasonable use” of water.

Agriculture was deemed essential when the COVID-19 pandemic prompted shelter-in-place or- ders last year. It’s no less essential now, even as some people question the water-rights system.

This broad label, recently at issue in proceedings regarding emergency cur- tailment regulations inMendocino and Sonoma counties, now becomes a po- tential sweeping new tool in the state’s menu of drought and water rights man- agement options. There is, of course, a requirement in the Cal i fornia Const i tut ion that all water use is reasonable. Article X, Section 2, approved by California vot- ers in 1928, was intended to reform an imbalance between the protection of riparian rights at the expense of appro- priative rights. It’s important to note that that partic- ular constitutional provision also calls out California’s basic hydrology —think variable, and think semi-arid in most places—and requires that the water re-

sources of the state are also “put to the beneficial use to the fullest extent of which they are capable.” If anything, the concept of reasonable use speaks to the need for balance inwa- ter use, against the backdrop of the need to make it productive. Yet we saw this doctrine used by regulators to constrain farm water use in the last drought, and we are now seeing a troubling expansion of this approach in the current drought. From a water rights standpoint, it’s a show-stopper. But there is nothing balanced about calling farm water use unreasonable. Not if you are expecting to resort to your local Safeway or farm- ers market in the way that all of us do. Over the last year, shutdowns and early panic buying triggered mercifully

VOL. 48, NO. 27

July 21, 2021

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2 Ag Alert July 21, 2021

Last fall’s freezing weather will reduce walnut harvest

We have a big crop with damage to the trees that’s unbelievable,” Lauenroth said. “Some trees are loaded so much they look like they’re going to break, and then you go to the next tree and it looks dead, then thenext tree is half loaded and the next tree is loaded. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Lauenroth saidhebelieves thiswill also affect theoperationof hiscommercialwal- nut dryer, which typically runs six days a week during harvest. “The walnut dryer is affected big time,” Lauenroth said, adding that he believes

due to lackof volumehiswalnut dryermay only run one day a week. “Many affected walnut orchards do not have a crop. The crop is really light; it’smaybe 50%.” Ken Mitchell, who grows walnuts in Sacramento County, said he has ob- served only minor damage to his walnut trees this year. “Our damage is 3-5% damage. The tree dies except all of the way down to the stump, and then the tree comes back as just wild growth,” said Mitchell, adding

ByChristine Souza Farmers are walking orchards and as- sessingdamage towalnut treesandpoten- tially this year’s crop, which farmadvisors say stems from periods of extreme cold that occurred last fall. University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisors in several coun- tieswherewalnutsaregrowncommercial- ly report that “winter dieback” or “winter kill,” brought on by below-freezing tem- peratures lastNovember, has affectedwal- nut trees young and old. “Some trees are really wiped out and only had some leaf-out in spring from the bottomof the tree, and in other orchards symptoms might have some shoot die- back at the very tops of the tree,” said Luke Milliron, UCCE farm advisor for Butte, Glenn and Tehama counties. “In many orchards, damage has really delayed leaf- out and the leaves are really small, which means that these orchards are at a real risk Ag Innovation Challenge open for applications TheAmericanFarmBureauFederation’s Ag Innovation Challenge seeks rural en- trepreneurs who could win as much as $50,000 for their startupbusinesses. The challenge is intended as a show- case for rural startups seeking to ad- dress issues facing farmers, ranchers and rural communities. Emma Larson, AFBF assistant director of industry relations, said the challenge presents an opportunity for startups to get noticed. “The Ag innovation Challenge pro- vides entrepreneurs across the nation the exposure at a national level for our con- vention in January, the ability to network withagribusinesses, the rural business in- vestment community within the USDA,” Larson said. “We’re really excited to offer them those opportunities, in addition to the funds that they can invest into their businesses, into their communities, scale up and reallymake an impact.” A total of $165,000 in startup funds will be awarded to 10 businesses. “The Ag Innovation Challenge winner will be awarded $50,000 and some brag- ging rights,” Larson said. The contest has added a second-place runner-up, who will win $20,000, and the People’s Choice team, which is selected by apublic vote andwill winanadditional $5,000, she said. Entrantsmust be U.S. for-profit compa- nies andmust be FarmBureaumembers. Deadline to enter is Aug. 20. Semifinalists will be announced in October, and the top 10 will compete at the AFBF Annual Convention in January. Formore informationand to signup, go to fb.org/challenge.

of sunburnwith the extreme heat.” Organicwalnut grower Paul Lauenroth, whohasabout 50acresofwalnuts, pointed out thatdamage tocountywalnutorchards is widespread. “I’ve rode around intodifferent areas of Lake County ,and I was quite surprised. Some orchards are fair and other or- chards are definitely not worth picking.

See WALNUTS, Page 15

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July 21, 2021 Ag Alert 3

Nick Rocca FresnoCounty almondand raisin grower Green field prices for grapes are higher than

JOIN US IN CULTIVATING THE FUTURE OF CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE.

normal, so a lot of farmers that nor- mally grow grapes to be made into raisins are elect- ing—because it’s

an early year—to sell grapes for early-variety champagne or sell to a dehydrator to make golden raisins instead of laying them down on the ground and drying them. This, cou- pled with more acres that have been pulled out, means that the crop size for raisins will be lower again. That seems to be the trend. Harvest is going to be early this year. We’ll start cutting canes in mid-August, and then harvest will likely happen at the end of August. Coming out of COVID, people are now finally deciding to get back to work, but that’s compounded with people making more money staying at home. We have 80 acres of almonds, and be- cause I don’t have enough acreage to own the equipment to harvest just my ranch, we hire a harvesting company to come in and harvest our almonds. For harvesting al- monds, some growers offered to pay more for harvesters, and that’s been driving up the hourly price for other farmers. The extra markup on labor is because no one can find anyone that wants to work, so the ones that want to work, they’re given extra.

Chris Capaul Sutter County farmer

I cut back 100 acres on

the baby limas. They were just planted. They’re about a 70- to 90-day bean, so you plant them in June, July. On

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dry beans, the market is so terrible. Since COVID, the Japanese haven’t been buying like they used to, because their country has been shut down. They use baby limas to make more of a confectionary-type product. They sell a lot of it to tourists. They’re not having parties and there’s not a lot of travel over there. The whole bean market in California is about half of what it was last year. The price is not good and the competition of other crops that are better I think has made a dif- ference there. I know in my area, there are only two or three people that are growing the baby limas. Most of them switched to black-eyes. The black-eyed market looks better in price, but there’s still not as much grown in the state. People aren’t growing them because the price isn’t that great, and there’s not a big demand at the moment.

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4 Ag Alert July 21, 2021

On some of my fields, water was cut back 25%. Half of my rice acreage was 100% (cut back). I couldn’t grow all my acres of rice because I don’t have enough water. I’m being creative with water, running a well and recirculating every little bit. One field I left completely out. I had to do the preventive planting insurance route on that. The other field we drilled the well, and it’s a struggle. In hindsight I probably should have never done it. To try to keep it covered, the wells just can’t do it because the ditches every- where are dry. You try to make an effort in whatever you can do. You don’t want to put it all under insurance, and you’ve got to make decisions at certain times. Those de- cisions were tough this year to make. I’ve done a lot to get planted what I could. The beans were planted in fields that didn’t require any water now. We pre-irrigated them and planted the dry beans. Those fields take less water, so I could move that over to my rice acres. David Roberti Plumas County rancher and farmer

we can. Our biggest challenge coming in this year is managing feed for cows from pasture because there’s no growth from lack of rain. We’re still OK with irrigation water. We do have several deep wells that we’re pumping from, but our surface-water allocation got cut about 50%, so that hurt things some- what. Our biggest problem is the pasture lands and the lack of any dryland hay ground. We use that hay for our winter feed. We’re going to be really short on that, too. On the positive side of things, hay prices and hay demand are way up because of the lack of production across the West. At least hay prices are up to help offset a lot of the added costs of electrical pumping. We do have a little bit of hemp planted again this year. Like with everybody that tried to grow hemp, it’s not turning out near- ly as well as everybody thought it would. We haven’t completely given up on it, but we’ve scaled back quite a bit. Right after we got planted the first week of June, we had a couple of pretty good windstorms. We lost probably about 30% of what was planted, but we had some extra plants, so we replanted some of that. We use all feminized seed for the hemp. This year we tried some other stuff. We’ve actually got it genetically changed to where if a plant does produce pollen, it will not be able to be received by many of the plants. They’ve got it built into the seed now, so it’s pretty interesting how they’re modifying this stuff to control pollination problems. Finding a market is really tough. A cou- ple of years ago, there was pretty heavy

supply, especially for what’s called the crude-oil process to make the CBD oil. There was so much hemp grown and so much oil produced that one year that shelves were just full of CBD crude oil, so it’s taken a while for that to dry up and for markets to get established. We just had this Beckwourth wildfire, which is right in our backyard. It didn’t damage any of the agriculture too badly, other than a lot of rangeland that was in the mountain areas; it did burn a lot of that up. The entire area of Frenchman Lake, where we get quite a bit of our surface water, was burned. We’re not sure what’s going to hap- pen with that watershed and what kind of environmental impacts will come out of that. It’s been a pretty devastating fire. Jim Spinetta Amador Countywinegrape grower In the Sierra

growers up here. A lot of the water is runoff in this area and it’s just not available, so we don’t have the water this year to water the grapes. We’re keeping whatever grass is there short, dropping the crop on the young vines and thinning it on the older vines. Sometimes we get hotter in the Sierra foothills because it’s inversion. It gets really hot in the day, then it gets really cold at night. That’s why the Italian grapes do good in our region because of the hot days and cold nights versus down in Sonoma. Down in that area, all the French varietals do good because they get that delta breeze that comes in. The good thing is that our grapes are Italian varietals, so they are acclimated for the dry conditions. Plus, we only have drip systems, so it’s very efficient. Over the years we do very few drip water, so the roots are down deep. We do have 7 feet of decomposed granite, so those roots are deep down there. We use St. George root- stock. They’re very drought-tolerant vines. We graft our scion on top of that, whether it’s zinfandel, barbera or muscat. We’re not going to get the quantity, but there’s always something positive in the grape industry. We’re going to get hopeful- ly better quality this year, because a grape only has so much flavor. The more water you add to it, the more you dilute that quality. It should be an exceptional year as far as quality. It’s definitely going to be an early harvest. We’re planning on mid- to early August for harvest this year because the yields are just so low—and the earliest on record.

foothills, it’s dry just like every- where else in the state. We’re only about 40% normal of precipitation. The stress is already showing

Drought is our biggest prob- lem. A lot of our dryland fields and pastures are probably drying up three months early. Where we should have

in our winegrapes—lots of zinfandel, lots of barbera. They’re showing stress now in July like they would end of August, close to harvest. We’re actually already seeing some veraison, which is when they go from green to purple. We see the grapes already turning color just out of stress because it’s so early. There’s no water source for several

pastures until the first of November, they’re just about gone already. We’re selling off some cows to try to stretch things as far as

With Ag in the Classroom’s resources, we have an opportunity to provide kids with exposure to food and farming they would not otherwise have. It’s a win-win both for the students and our state—now and in the future!

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July 21, 2021 Ag Alert 5

Water Continued from Page 1

conveyance facilitiesandbuildnewones.” As part of a comprehensive waterman- agement portfolio, thecoalition identified: • More than $13 billion in Bureau of Reclamation water infrastructure needs over the next 10 years, including storage and conveyance, dam safety, rural water, water-smart technologies, and water re- cycling and reuse projects. • $34 billion for U.S. Department of Agriculture toundertake forest restoration, watershed protection and flood preven- tion projects. • $1.75 bi l l ion for Army Corps of Engineers water storage projects and en- vironmental infrastructure. The coalition concluded the letter with

a call for Congress to streamline regula- tionandpermitting processes, alongwith other reforms, to ensure the timely con- struction of federal water projects as part of President Biden’s jobs and economic recovery plan. The coalition includes more than 220 organizations from 15 states that collec- tively represent $120 billion inagricultural production—nearly one-third of all agri-

cultural production in the country—and manyof the local andregionalpublicwater agencies that supply water to more than 75million urban, suburban and rural res- idents. California FarmBureau helps lead thecoalitionand its strategicefforts aspart of the steering committee. (Chr i s t ine Souza i s an ass i s tant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)

Member John Barrasso, stating federal investment inadiversifiedwatermanage- ment portfolio that serves a broad range of water uses must be included as essen- tial infrastructure in the next legislative package,” said Sara Arsenault, California Farm Bureau director of federal policy. “The coalition warned that changing hydrological conditions and an expand- ing population in the West raise serious concerns about the future viability of the nation’s water infrastructure. “Tokeepwater flowing to farms, ranches, citiesandtheenvironment,thecoalitionem- phasizedthatsubstantial federal investment isneededtobolsterdeterioratingstorageand

Livestock producers can apply for pandemic relief

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Livestock and poultry farmers who suf- fered losses during the pandemic due to insufficient access toprocessingmay apply forassistancefor thoselossesandthecostof depopulationanddisposal of theanimals. The 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act authorized payments to farmers for losses of livestock or poultry depopulat- ed fromMarch 1 through Dec. 26, 2020. Part of theU.S. Department of Agriculture PandemicAssistance for Producers initia- tive, the Pandemic Livestock Indemnity Programmakes payments based on 80% of the fairmarket valueof the livestockand poultry and for the cost of depopulation and disposal of the animal. Eligible livestock and poultry include swine, chickens and turkeys, but pork producers are expected to be the primary recipients of the assistance, according to USDA. Packers, live poultry dealers and contract growers are not eligible. Applicationswillbeacceptedthroughthe USDAFarmServiceAgencyuntil Sept. 17. USDA previously proposed pandemic assistance using flat rates, which the de- partment said does not take into account thedifferent levels of harmfelt bydifferent farmers. Thedepartment noted that small hog producers, especially those who sell on the spot market or negotiate prices, bear a disproportionate share of losses due to disruptions in processing capacity. USDAsaidithasexaminedthedifference between thenegotiatedprices for hogs and the five-year average, and documented a significant drop during April through Septemberof2020duetothepandemic.The

79983 department has set aside up to $50million inpandemicassistancefundstoprovidead- ditional assistance for small hogproducers thatuse thespotmarketornegotiateprices. Detailsontheadditional targetedassistance areexpected tobeavailable this summer. Payments compensate producers for 80%of both the loss of the eligible livestock or poultry and for the cost of depopulation and disposal based on a single payment rate per head. Payments will be calculated bymultiplyingthenumberofheadofeligible livestockor poultryby thepayment rateper head, and then subtracting the amount of anypaymentstheeligiblelivestockorpoultry owner has received for disposal of the live- stockorpoultryundertheNaturalResources ConservationServiceEnvironmentalQuality IncentivesProgramorastateprogram. 79983 To be eligible, a person or legal entity must have an average adjusted gross in- come of less than $900,000 for tax years 2016, 2017 and 2018. 79983 Eligible livestock and poultry produc- ersmay apply by completing the FSA-620, Pandemic Livestock Indemnity Program application and submitting it to any FSA county office. Additional documentation maybe required. Visit farmers.gov/plip for acopyof theNoticeof FundingAvailability andmore information onhow to apply. Applications may be submitted to the FSA office at any USDA Service Center nationwide by mail, fax, hand delivery or via electronic means. To find a local FSA office, visit farmers.gov/service-locator. Livestock andpoultryproducersmay also call 877-508-8364 for assistance.

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JOB #: 65871-2 CLIENT: AGCO CLIENT CODE: AGCO03 DOCUMENT NAME: FT20N005CM-track-tractor-grow-bold-track-star-full-page.indd FILE PATH: Macintosh HD:Users:nielsen:Documents:WFH_Work_in_Progress:65871-2_AGC_Fendt_Track_Tractor_Print_Ad:_renamed_for_client:FT20N005CM-track-tractor-grow-bold-track-star-full-page.indd PUB(S): - Bleed: 10.5" x 12.25" Trim: 10.25" x 12" Live: 9.25" x 11" Cyan Magenta Yellow Black DATE: 9-10-2020 1:56 PM USER NAME: Nielsen, Kara NOTES: 65871-2_AGC_Fendt_AD_ TrackStar_XX_10.25x12_v6 Track star Like all great track stars, this one puts up game-changing numbers. It’s the new 1100 Vario MT ™ . And it’s here to up your operation’s efficiency. How? For starters, our Smart Ride ™ load-leveling system paired with our low-rev engine makes it a performance powerhouse. Then there’s the VarioDrive CVT drivetrain — helping you minimize slip, decrease soil compaction and maximize fuel economy for up to 10% in savings a year. All of it backed by Gold Star Customer Care for three years of confident coverage. All numbers that prove the 1100 Vario MT will transform how you grow bold. GROW BOLD AT FENDT.COM/US GCD: John Neerland AD: Daniel Linnihan CW: Zach DeBlaey AE: Bryan Munsell SANTA MARIA QUINN COMPANY 805-925-8611 www.quinncompany.com WILLOWS HOLT AG SOLUTIONS 888-717-9045 www.holtags.com WOODLAND HOLT AG SOLUTIONS 888-717-9045 www.holtags.com YUBA CITY HOLT AG SOLUTIONS 888-717-9045 www.holtags.com 6 1 Track star Like all great track stars, this one puts up game-changing numbers. It’s the new 1100 Vario MT ™ . And it’s here to up your operation’s efficiency. How? For starters, our Smart Ride ™ load-leveling system paired with our low-rev engine makes it a performance powerhouse. Then there’s the VarioDrive CVT drivetrain — helping you minimize slip, decrease soil compaction and maximize fuel economy for up to 10% in savings a year. All of it backed by Gold Star Customer Care for three years of confident coverage. All numbers that prove the 1100 Vario MT will transform how you grow bold. GROW BOLD AT FENDT.COM/US © 2020 AGCO Corporation. Fendt is a worldwide brand of AGCO Corporation. AGCO and Fendt are trademarks of AGCO. All rights reserved. FT20N005CM ALBANY HOLT AG SOLUTIONS 888-717-9045 www.holtags.com BAKERSFIELD QUINN AG PRODUCTS 661-393-5800 www.quinncompany.com FRESNO QUINN COMPANY 559-896-4040 www.quinncompany.com LOS ANGELES QUINN COMPANY 562-463-4000 www.quinncompany.com OXNARD QUINN COMPANY 805-485-2171 www.quinncompany.com RIVERSIDE QUINN AG PRODUCTS 951-686-4560 www.quinncompany.com SALIDA HOLT AG SOLUTIONS 888-717-9045 www.holtags.com SALINAS QUINN COMPANY 831-758-8461 www.quinncompany.com

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6 Ag Alert July 21, 2021

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JOB #: 65871-2 DOCUMENT NAME: FT20N005CM-track-tractor-grow-bold-track-star-full-page.indd FILE PATH: Macintosh HD:Users:nielsen:Documents:WFH_Work_in_Progress:65871-2_AGC_Fendt_Track_Tractor_Print_Ad:_renamed_for_client:FT20N005CM-track-tractor-grow-bold-track-star-full-page.indd PUB(S): - DATE: 9-10-2020 1:56 PM GCD: John Neerland

23910062_PM_Ultium_8x10.5_AD_v2_4 PM: Allie Quinnell

6

C A L I F O R N I A

Vegetables A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®

®

Salinas Valley lettuce farmers and researchers are teaming up to combat impatiens necrotic stunt virus, or INSV, which can leave even surviving plants unfit for market. Current research is focusing on learning where the virus overwinters and which host plants are likeliest to harbor the virus.

Lettuce growers go all out to fight off viral disease ByBob Johnson

ease,” Hasegawa said. “Our strongest area is fromSalinas toGonzales, but we have four sampling sites in the Salinas Valley.” He made his remarks during this year’s California Leafy Greens Board Annual Research Conference as researchers discussed how to contain INSV by identifying and managing important weed hosts, targeting efforts to reduce the western flower thrips that carry the virus to lettuce, and breeding varieties with better resistance to the disease. “INSV is the hot topic right now,” said Leafy Greens Research Board Executive Director Jennifer Clarke. “Growers are really looking for solutions.” The virus has an unusually broad host range that includes many weeds commonly found in the Salinas Valley, and researchers are beginning to document which of these weeds are themost important reservoirs of the disease at different times of the year and in different areas of the Salinas Valley. “The female thrip has to lay her eggs on an infected host,” Hasegawa said. “We need to knowwhich infected hosts the thrips are laying their eggs on. In the winter, we have high populations of weeds hosting this virus.” Plants are ranked by multiplying how frequently they test positive for INSV by the intensity of the pathogens.

The lettuce industry is waging a broad campaign tomanage a persistent viral disease that strikes many Salinas Valley lettuce fields, causing the crop to brown, dry out, and leaving even plants that survive unfit tomarket. Some researchers are looking for genetic resistance to impatiens necrotic stunt virus, or INSV, and others formore targeted control of thewestern flower thrips that transmit the disease. But the key to management could be identifying where the pathogen survives Dec. 7-21, Monterey County’s annual lettuce-free period enacted decades ago to break the cycle of lettuce mosaic virus. “We sampled for INSV during the lettuce-free period to see where the virus is when there is no lettuce in the Salinas Valley,” said Daniel Hasegawa, U.S. Department of Agriculture research entomologist based in Salinas. “We’re starting to build our data base and the top 10 host list changes as we gather more information.” Because many plant varieties can host this virus, researchers took more than 3,200 samples from 42 different weed species at strategic locations over the past 15 months from north of Salinas to as far south as Soledad, to build their list of where the virus lives at different times of the year. “We decided to come up with a list of the most important regional hosts for the dis-

See LETTUCE, Page 8

July 21, 2021 Ag Alert 7

Lettuce Continued from Page 7

While the effort to identify the most important host plants continues, other researchers are working to discover ge- netic sources that could produce lettuce varieties with resistance to the disease. “We are looking at INSV resistance; we looked at 36 varieties and 78 breed- ing lines,” said Kelly Richardson, a U.S. Department of Agriculture research ge- neticist based in Salinas. “We planted on Aug. 19 to catch the maximum thrips and disease pressure. Seventy percent of

the plants in our experiment were show- ing symptoms.” Although the USDA greenhouse tests and field surveys have shown some lettuce varieties to be better able than others to withstand INSV, the resistance tends to be inconsistent. “Red varieties show less disease un- der low to moderate pressure, but that difference largely disappears as the pressure reaches a peak,” Richardson said. “Closed head varieties also show

less disease under low pressure but that difference, too, disappears under high pressure.” There are a few promising variet- ies that have suffered disease dam- age less frequently than others in the USDA screens. “The leaf varietiesCavalryandEruption and the romaine variety Rubens Red are still showing low disease incidences un- derhighpressure,”Richardsonsaid. “They show the lowest severity and the lowest disease incidence.” While USDA researchers continue to look for greater genetic resistance, they have released some germplasm they think could help the seed companies. “We have some material we are ready to release,” Richardson said. “We were able to find material that looked good under both growth room and green- house conditions. In late season plant- ing, look for something with closed ar- chitecture, which seem to have a lower incidence of INSV.” Researchers can also benefit from their store of knowledge about anoth- er viral disease with which they are more familiar. “INSV is related to tomato bushy s t unt v i r us , abou t wh i ch a l o t i s known,” said Richard Michelmore, di- rector of the University of California, Davis genome center. “We can build on that knowledge.” Tomato bushy stunt virus, like INSV, is vectored by thrips and causes similar symptoms on infected lettuce plants. Researchers are also looking to see if they can apply some of the most ad- vanced microbiological tools to man- agement of western flower thrips and the disease it carries. “We are working on RNA approaches to both thrips and INSV,” Hasegawa said. ( Bo b J o hn s o n i s a r e p o r t e r i n Sacramento. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)

The top 10 Salinas Valley INSV weed hosts are little mallow, shortpod mus- tard, annual sowthist le, net t leleaf goosefoot, mare’s tail, field bindweed, shepherd’s purse, common purslane, hairy fleabane and burning nettle. During the annual lettuce-free pe- riod the most important virus hosts look to be, according to the sam- pling, chickweed, hairy fleabane and annual sowthistle.

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8 Ag Alert July 21, 2021

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Avocados Continued from Page 1

are smaller in size. And the seasonal output is dramatically lower. Santa Ana winds that struck avocado-growing re- gions in January also have been a factor. Ken Melban, vice president of indus- try affairs for the California Avocado Commission, said everyone has been dealing with the effects of low rainfall to- tals over the past few years. “Growers who have groundwater are typically in a stronger position, and gen- erally speaking, growers in the south are dependent on district water, so they re- ally feel the impacts from low rainfall,” Melban said. Avocado farmers have a variety of ways todeal withwater shortages, saidConnor Huser, regional grower relationsmanager at Mission Produce in Oxnard. “Growers are responding to the drought conditions in their particular areas by using various tools, such as crop-specific calculations, soil moisture sensors, plant stress sensors and local weather stations to implement informed irrigation scheduling,”Huser said. “These tools, in conjunctionwithmonitoring the physical appearance of the soil and trees, allowgrowers to obtainmaximumyields

The California Avocado Commission’s April survey of growers and handlers shows a pro- jected 2021 harvest of about 265 million pounds. The 2020 crop came in at 375.5 million pounds.

trees, but beyond that, trees do need a minimum amount of water to maintain their health.” Rainfal l and groundwater are al l Pidduck has in Ventura County, and winter rain “helps recharge the ground- water,” he said. “It helps push salts past the root zone so the tree starts the spring in a better place, and it helps size the fruit that’s on the tree.” Irrigation water doesn’t do the same thing nomatter how much is used, he noted. The lack of rain forced Pidduck to fire up the irrigation systems early. “If we had a normal rainfall season, we may not have to start irrigating until April,” Pidduck said. “We were irrigat- ing in December, November, January, February. It’s a big difference, and the trees don’t look as good as they usually do, because we didn’t get that rainfall.” The end result : smaller fruit and a lighter harvest. “I’ve already harvested everything, and we had a very light year this year,” said Pidduck, who started aroundMarch and April and wrapped at the start of July. “Quality was fine, but the size was a lot smaller than normal, and that was completely due to lack of rainfall.” The ideal size is the 48—representing the number of avocados it would take to fill a carton—but this year, Pidduck said, “wewere heavier in the 60s thanwewere in the 48s.” As for the markets, “we were looking in the $1.15-$1.25 range for a lot of stuff we picked, but we were so light on fruit as far as pounds per acre this season,” he noted. In a good year, he’d have 15,000 to 20,000 pounds per acre, “and this year, we’re looking at a couple of thousand pounds an acre.” The avocadomarket has remained sta- ble this season with good demand, said Jan DeLyser, the avocado commission’s vice president of marketing. “Although the food-service channel continues to deal with challenges relat- ed to the pandemic, particularly with la- bor, we have seenmany of our customers working to recover,” DeLyser said. “We have been pleased with the promotional activity this seasonwith food-service op- erators calling out the California origin.

Retail demand for California avocados has been strong as well.” T h e C a l i f o r n i a A v o c a d o Commission’s April projection, based on grower and handler surveys, fore- cast a harvest of 265 million pounds this season, compared to 375.5 million pounds last year. As of the week ending July 11, 190.6 million pounds of avoca- dos have been harvested in the season that officially began Nov. 1, according to commission figures. California was home to 47,000 acres of avocado groves in the 2018-2019 crop year, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The top two avocado-producing coun- ties remain Ventura and San Diego; Ventura County had 16,491 acres of av- ocado groves in 2019, while San Diego had 14,946 acres, according to the 2019 county crop reports. Avocado farmers and packers are “hoping for a milder end to the summer months, followed by plentiful winter rains and lowwinds,” Huser said. Meanwhile, Melban said, “growers continue to look for opportunities to im- prove theirwater use efficiencies through technologies that ensure they are opti- mizing their water use in time of day, irri- gation set duration,” anddelivery systems such as microsprinklers. Huser said these methods can help growers get the most out of the water they can get. “ P r e s su r e - compens a t i ng mi n i sprinklers, or drippers, installed in conjunction with pressure regulating risers or field valves help maximize distribution uniformity, thus saving valuable irrigation water,” Huser said. “Variable frequency pump drives are encouraged to match block demand needs with optimal electrical output to limit energy use.” There’s one problem that hasn’t yet been solved. “Trees still need water to grow and produce fruit,”Melban said. “We haven’t found a way around that just yet.” (Kevin Hecteman i s an ass i stant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)

withminimumwater usage.” When the heat is on—as it was inmid- June and early July—the commission sends an advisory to growers “encourag- ing themto irrigate their trees in advance of the high temps and to provide daily pulses of irrigation tomaintain the trees’ water status,”Melban said. “Growers can do significant pruning and/or stumping if they want to reduce the water to the

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10 Ag Alert July 21, 2021

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