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/Ching Lee
Photo/Lori Eanes
Sean McCauley Contra Costa County olive and field crops farmer
Robert Criswell Santa Clara County Christmas tree farmer
I sold a lot of trees. A lot of people came out and had a lot of fun. We raised our price $10, but we’re still $20 below the national average for choose-and-cut farms. The weather was cooperative because we had dry weekends. I had the best selling crew I’ve ever had. I am going to stay in touch with them so they’ll come back next year. At times we could have had up to 400 or 500 people on the property at a time. The vast majority are well behaved. We had loads of Russians and Ukrainians. I talked to people from about four or five different parts of Russia, including Siberia. They celebrate Christmas on the 12th of January, so they’re coming out and getting a tree towards the end of my normal selling time. I think I sold my last tree a little bit before 3:30 in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. I left a couple of saws and put (the farm) on self-serve to where people can go out and cut a tree and then pass their payment through a slot in the window. Most people are very honest. A lot of people paid extra. I charged $80 a tree and often they would pay $100, which makes up for checks that were written on closed accounts or not sufficient funds. I made pages of notes and diagrams on how to improve things for next year. I used to think about starting to plant again in late January, early February, but I no longer have the space, and because I’ll be 80 years old in less than a month, I would be in my 90s by the time those trees got big enough to sell. If it weren’t raining, I’d be out collecting signs and putting them away. Instead, I’m playing hooky. I’m pretty dead tired. I usually take the whole month of January to relax and recharge.
We just finished harvesting our olive crop right before the rain. That was the last crop of the year that we brought in. It was a relatively good year. Tonnage- wise, we got in the upper quartile of what we typically get. We probably had 5% to 10% less tonnage than last year, which is not very much difference. But the crop was also later. We were probably two weeks to four weeks later on the har- vest schedule. This year was the latest to harvest. We had some challenges, but we got all the crop in. We had a good crop last year, but the fruit quality was just better this year. It was the best quality oil that we’ve had. In Northern California, we had a relatively mild summer. It didn’t get really hot for very long like it did last year, so our fruit didn’t ripen as fast. I believe we only had maybe three days in a row of hun- dred-degree weather, whereas last year, we were in hundred-degree weather for a month. Overall, the fruit ripened slower, and the quality of oil and polyphenol counts were higher. I think as the fruit ripened slower, it made a better quality oil. That was good news. Plus, the crop was decent. We believe weather and what went on in our climate this summer was a benefit for us. Last year, we planted about a thousand acres of wheat, which is the crop we harvested this year. Our problem was it was too wet. It was crazy rain. It was un- precedented up here. The amount of water we got was good, and the wheat that we got was good, but a lot of it got flooded out. We planted another thousand acres this year of dry-farm wheat. We’ll see what happens.
Jeremy Jensen Los Angeles County beekeeper
We are going through and grading all our beehives and getting ready for almond pollination. We have to go through and judge the size and quality of each colony so we can send the best quality colonies to the almond orchards. We’re starting to supplementally feed the bees to stimulate them. The bees can tell the days are get- ting longer, and they start growing. I’m excited about some new technology. There are sensors that can be put inside the beehives that try to re- motely predict hive strength. Some companies are even saying to the grower, “You can have a sensor in every beehive and know exactly how large the hives are before they even get to your orchard.” There are definitely a lot of skeptics. I’m interested to see what will pan out in a few years. Last year’s almond pollination season was horrendous. We had a long winter, so we got a late start and got out of the almonds later than usual. All of our pollination events, including almonds and avocados, took longer than anticipated because bloom was delayed. Because of the rain last year, the bees had a balanced diet and were healthier. We haven’t seen something like that in a decade. We had a great honey season. We harvested barrels of honey, and it was pedal to the met- al the whole way through. The almond sector has been having all kinds of issues, and this trickles down to beekeepers. We’ll see what happens this year because a lot of almond acres are going out of production. I’m not worried about performing pollination, but I am curious as to what the long-term outlook is for the almond industry in California. Pricing will be tricky this year because if the pollination rental price drops to $175 per hive, it may not be worth it for out-of- state beekeepers to truck bees across the country. We’re going to see how it all shakes out.
Photo/Courtesy of Jeremy Jensen
4 Ag Alert January 3, 2024
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