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/Fred Greaves
Photo/Courtesy Frank Hilliker
Theresa Jeffreys Bright Colusa County pecan farmer
Frank Hilliker San Diego County egg producer
With the wet winter we had, the pecans did really well. I had some aphid activ- ity early on. I waited it out, and the beneficials came up enough to where I didn’t have to spray, which is what I really prefer because it is so expensive (to spray). The aphid population is down, and the beneficial population is up, so I think I should be able to weather the storm and not have any aphid damage this year. I have a fairly good pecan crop. My Pawnees, which hardly did anything last year, are probably pushing 2,000 pounds to the acre. The Wichitas are not quite as heavy this year. They’re probably down a thousand pounds to the acre. I am basically organic, even though I’m not certified. My customers are going for the most natural, most direct, farm-to-fork product. Because of hit or miss with the orchard, I’m probably going to only harvest a small portion of the pecans. I will be getting the orchard floor ready. I didn’t do weed spray or strip spraying this year. I am trying to do minimal cost management. In just those rows that have a significant crop, I’m doing selective grooming as a cost savings. I haven’t irrigated my orchard. The trees would probably have benefit- ed from it, but because of economics, I saved the water for the row-crop part of my operation that’s grown by a farm tenant. Everything’s going well with those crops. Fuel cost is way up. Interest rates are up. The interest rates are huge on a farming operation. Most farmers have a production credit line, so you borrow money in the spring to get planted and to do whatever cultural practices you need, and then hope to pay it off after harvest. When you’re having to pay that kind of interest, you’re crossing your fingers that harvest is going to be enough to cover those costs.
The big thing on our mind right now is this weather we’re going to get here in Southern California. We’re preparing for a hurricane. We’re getting all of our winter gear out—sandbags and water diversion things. We’re getting it ready, and we’ll start deploying it when it rains. We’re going to hope the roofs don’t fly off the chicken houses. The chickens will be nice and dry as long as the roof doesn’t fly off. Other than that, there’s not a whole lot going on. Everything is business as usual. We got our new flocks of chickens in. We’re starting to get them geared up laying eggs so we can get ready for the upcoming season. Our busier time is when school starts through about Easter. We’re making sure all our flocks are younger. We have all our chicken houses full in September, October and then push them straight through December, January, February. The price of eggs has gone down, but the cost (of production) continues to rise. We’re trying to pinch every penny we can. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot we can do. Typically this time of year (egg prices) are lower because it’s hotter and people don’t want to eat a lot of eggs in the summertime. But once we get into fall and everybody’s back to school, we’ll sell more eggs, and prices will go up. We follow the market, so we dropped the price at our own little farm store. We get people that come in every day and buy eggs, so we’re thankful. (Store traffic) is about average. We don’t have a crazy amount of customers like we did during the high-price times or during COVID, but we have our regulars, and we have a few new customers.
Joe Valente San Joaquin County winegrape and almond farmer
We’re probably two to three weeks behind normal in the vineyards. We’re anticipating starting har- vest the last week of August if not the first week of September. The same thing with almonds. They’re probably two to three weeks later than normal. Last year we were already harvesting at this time. There’s not too many work crews out. We’re doing some tying and training in the vineyards, but not a whole lot. It’s more anticipation of waiting to get the call to start harvest. If it’s a compacted season with all commodities, our concern would be trucking. If everyone has a shortened season, everyone will be competing for trucking and for labor at the same time. The tomato season seems to be late. A lot of times they start in early August, so we’re not all com- peting for the same trucking companies. If they’re stretched out and still trying to haul tomatoes and do some almonds and grapes, there are only so many trucks, and there’s only so many drivers. A lot of trucking firms have the equipment—the trucks and trailers—but not enough people to drive them. We have a good, steady workforce on our ranches that work year-round, and then some that don’t work year-round but tend to come back for harvest. We’re almost all mechanical harvesting in the winegrapes and the almonds. We don’t do a lot of hand-picking in the grapes at all, so that helps. We’re all looking at whether there are any forecasted rains. It’s always a concern during harvest. With the almonds, if they’re shook and on the ground and we get rain, it’s hard to get them dried, and you don’t want to get mold on them. The same thing with the grapes. If the sugar content is high enough and you get some early rains, you could start getting some decay on the grapes.
Ag Alert File Photo
4 Ag Alert August 23, 2023
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