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.
Desert harvest Vegetable farmers see strong yields, weak pricing
Organic optimism Demand for salads, berries shows promise
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www.cfbf.com • www.agalert.com JANUARY 10, 2024
Trees & Vines ®
special report
By Christine Souza Unlike early 2023, when nonstop atmo- spheric river storms built a deep Sierra Nevada snowpack, replenished depleted reservoirs and flooded parts of California, snowfall and rain is sharply diminished so far this year. But state water officials say there is plenty of winter left to accumulate more snow and precipitation. California Department of Water Resources State Climatologist Michael Anderson said accumulation of snowpack has just begun, pointing out that half the state’s annual precipitation typically occurs during December, January and February. “This period of really wet/really dry was definitely on display last year, but what we’re seeing this year is not quite the strength of either wet or dry, so everything is a little bit subdued,” Anderson said. In the days since DWR’s first Sierra Nevada snow survey of 2024 last week, storms added more snow, increasing the early January statewide snowpack figure of 25% of average to 36% of average as of Monday. At this time last year, the state’s snowpack measured 117% of average, which is more than half of the average yearly total. “It’s really still too early to determine what kind of year we’ll have in terms of wet or dry,” said DWR Snow Surveys Manager Sean de Guzman. “There can be so many things that happen with our storm systems between now and April, when we should see our peak snowpack.” See SNOWPACK, Page 10 Healthy reservoir levels offset scant snowpack depths
By Ching Lee Despite on-farm biosecurity efforts to protect the state’s poultry flocks, outbreaks of a highly contagious strain of avian in- fluenza have spiked markedly this winter, leading to the destruction of millions of birds to try to contain the deadly virus. Mounting losses from the disease have devastated impacted farms, which are re- quired to euthanize entire flocks to prevent spread. Since the H5N1 virus first surfaced in the U.S. in 2022, nearly 80 million birds across the nation have been destroyed, driving up prices of eggs, chicken and tur- keys as production plummeted. But until last fall, the disease appeared to have left California poultry farms relative- ly unscathed compared to farms in states such as Iowa, the nation’s largest egg pro- ducer and where nearly 19 million birds have been wiped out since 2022 due to AI. The first year of the outbreak, California bird losses totaled 751,680. The number jumped to more than 4.7 million in 2023, with most of the cases occurring since October, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “This year, it’s just a different story, and we’re very concerned about it,” said Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation. Commercial poultry farms in Merced and Sonoma counties, which did not re- cord any cases in 2022, have been hit par- ticularly hard this time, with more than 3.78 million birds destroyed so far between the two regions. “We’re still trying to put out a wild- fire here,” said Scott Weber, an owner of Petaluma-based Sunrise Farms. The Sonoma County egg producer has been grappling with impacts of the virus since late November, having been forced to eu- thanize all its birds. Weber said the farm has tried to keep all employees working during the cleanup process, which he expects will See OUTBREAK, Page 13 Farm flock losses climb as avian flu outbreak spreads
Sean de Guzman, right, manager of the California Department of Water Resources Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Unit, and water resources engineer Anthony Burdock measure snowpack Jan. 2 at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada. Statewide, the snowpack, as of Monday, measured 36% of average, with key precipitation months still to come.
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Can California reject a ‘scarcity mindset’ on water?
By Edward Ring During a 2022 press conference outside a desalination plant under construction in
new channel to allow water to flow through. Extensive study has already been per- formed on this proposal, promoted by the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley, a “coalition of San Joaquin Valley commu- nity leaders, businesses, water agencies, local governments and agricultural rep- resentatives.” The next step is to build a $1 million pilot project to serve as final proof of concept. The total project cost is around $5 billion for an infiltration channel, settling ponds, pumps and new aqueduct transport to aquifer storage with interties to major existing north-south aqueducts. During storm events, even in dry years, it would be possible to divert and store 2 million acre- feet annually and much more in wet years. The excessive flow through the delta during California’s atmospheric rivers is well doc- umented. This is hazardous, wasted flood- water. Diverting only an additional fraction of it will yield millions of acre-feet per year. Like all hypothetical ideas with great promise, its proof-of-concept pilot project should be built and tested immediately. A fish-friendly delta diversion project of this magnitude could be part of a larger project to harden the delta levees against earthquakes and severe storms. Bringing urban and agricultural water districts to- gether to seriously evaluate a new proposal to divert massive quantities of storm runoff from the delta may require the power and charisma of the governor’s office. Newsom, who seems to understand the problem in calling on us to abandon a “scarcity mindset,” has a tremendous op- portunity to make that a reality. (Edward Ring is a senior fellow with the California Policy Center and author of the “The Abundance Choice: Our Fight for More Water in California.” He may be contacted at ed@edwardring.com.)
Antioch, Gov. Gavin Newsom signaled a potential tec- tonic shift in how California address- es its water chal- lenges. In a hopeful sign, Newsom said Californians need to move “away from a scarcity mindset
Edward Ring
to one more of abundance.” Then last March, the governor issued an executive order to make it easier for local water agencies to capture runoff from that season’s epic storms to recharge aquifers. In November, he moved to shorten the review process for developing the planned Sites Reservoir north of Sacramento. These are welcome actions, but much more is needed. Without more investment and regu- latory relief, Californians face a future of chronic water scarcity. Our system of wa- ter storage and distribution is in trouble. We have depleted aquifers, nearly empty reservoirs on the Colorado River, and a precarious network of century-old levees that are one big earthquake away from cat- astrophic failure. Then there’s always the next severe drought. Even if the governor aggressively pushes for more investment in water supply in- frastructure and more regulatory relief so projects can go forward, the state is again staring down a budget deficit. Bonds to fund water infrastructure projects are go- ing to have a hard time getting approval from voters already overburdened with among the highest taxes in America. While creativity is demanded, Sacramento’s only consistent legislative
An agriculture, business and water-policy coalition is seeking a pilot project to study diverting Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta floodwaters to boost groundwater recharge for farms and cities.
solution is for us to use less water. In one egregious example, lawmakers in 2022 passed Senate Bill 1157 to restrict indoor water consumption to 42 gallons per person per day, and ration water for outdoor landscaping to conserve up to 450,000 acre-feet per year by 2030. Yet an independent analysis said implementa- tion, enforcement and needed system up- grades exceed the value of water savings, costing $7.4 billion over 10 years. To put things in perspective, California delivers about 7.5 million acre-feet for ur- ban consumption and about 30 million acre-feet for farm irrigation. Even in dry years, another 25 million acre-feet are di- verted and used to maintain aquatic eco- systems; in wet years, that number can soar to more than 60 million acre-feet. Spending money to enforce water ra- tioning on California’s urban residents will not deliver new water. But it will have a divi- sive impact. Resentful urban residents will
demand that farmers, who use much more water than cities, make proportional cuts. There is a better approach: urban water agencies and farm water agencies work- ing together to create abundant water for everyone. The potential implementation costs of SB 1157 may be enough to fund a fleet of desalination plants with 450,000 acre-feet per year of perennial output. But it is in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta where that money could be put to trans- formative use. Imagine allocating a mere 200 acres on an existing delta island to divert up to 30,000 acre-feet per day into aquifer stor- age for subsequent use by farms and cities. Because these islands are below sea level and protected by levees, infiltration beds of gravel covering perforated water-harvesting pipes could be built, with a parallel levee constructed to form a channel. Once that work is complete, openings could be cut into the existing levee on both ends of the
VOL. 51, NO. 2
January 10, 2024
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2 Ag Alert January 10, 2024
Desert farmers report strong harvest of winter vegetables
Farmers typically sell most leafy greens to shippers through contracts, with pric- es and quantities agreed before planting, which provides some protection from mar- ket fluctuations. But supply and demand still play a role in determining whether a season is profit- able. This year, Vessey & Co. is selling about 20% of its leafy greens on the open market. Iceberg lettuce from the Imperial and Coachella valleys was selling last week for $11.50 to $12.55 per carton, according to data from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service. Those rates are not far off prices seen in recent years, but well below the $34 to $37 a carton of lettuce from the region fetched last January after a plant virus devastated lettuce crops farther north. This year, “Everybody’s got great sup- plies,” Vessey said. Growers said the absence of win- ter storms in population hubs on the
By Caleb Hampton Winter vegetable harvest is in full swing in the Imperial Valley, and growers say the conditions this season have been close to perfect. “I’ve had a great growing season. Everything is on time and beautiful, with great yields,” said Jack Vessey of Vessey & Co., which grows romaine and ice- berg lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and other vegetables in the Imperial Valley. “That’s always nice as a grower.” Farmers in the Imperial Valley typi- cally begin planting winter vegetables in September and harvest them starting in November when production moves south from the Salinas Valley. Norm Groot, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau, said the Central Coast had a strong fall vegetable season, which ended in December for most crops in the region, despite initial concern that massive flooding last spring could cause gaps in production. “Growers and landowners were able to recover quickly during the late-spring months,” Groot said. “While some sched- ules were adjusted, the overall production levels met market expectations.” In the Imperial Valley, growers said a fall planting season without heat waves and a mild winter have created ideal conditions for leafy greens and vegetables. Last week, the valley saw highs in the 60s and over- night lows in the 30s and 40s. Ralph Strahm of Strahm Farms, which grows organic and conventional carrots and other crops in the Imperial Valley, said extreme heat can cause problems with the germination of carrots, and too cold a win- ter can slow their growth. “The weather has been extraordinarily good,” Strahm said. “We were able to get things going early and never looked back.” Crews began harvesting Strahm’s bunch carrots in late December and will finish at the end of this month. Harvest for processor carrots will begin in February. “Everything is like it should be,” Strahm said. Alex Jack of Jack Brothers grows lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and other crops in the Imperial Valley. “Our crops are look- ing fantastic,” Jack said. “We’re pretty much right on schedule.” While labor shortages have strained har- vest operations elsewhere in California, farmers in the Imperial Valley said the local workforce, largely comprising legal cross-border commuters from Mexicali, was sufficient to meet harvest needs. “Because of our location, it’s not as bad as other places in California,” Vessey said. The Imperial Valley, along with the near- by Coachella Valley and Yuma, Arizona, supply as much as 90% of the leafy greens, carrots and other fresh vegetables the U.S. consumes from Thanksgiving through St. Patrick’s Day.
This winter, growers have welcomed the bountiful harvest but have also seen it cut into profits. “Along with great weather comes excess supply, and therefore markets have been quite depressed throughout our harvest season,” Vessey said. “Demand seems to be there, but we’ve got oversupply.”
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U.S. organic produce sales reached $22 billion in 2022. In 2023, sales of organic berries, prepackaged salads, lettuce, onions and tomatoes saw gains compared to the previous year.
Demand grows for organic produce, despite inflation
By Bob Johnson The prospects for organic produce re- main strong in these inflationary times, according to leaders of some of the largest grower-shipper operations. Market strength varies, however, de- pending on which commodities growers are trying to sell. “The category is going to grow based on consumer demand,” said Nishan Moutafian, vice president of production at Driscoll’s in Watsonville. While organic berry growers enjoy strong demand, organic vegetable growers find demand varies depending on the product. “We feel there is a lot of opportunity on the value-added side,” said Joe Pezzini, se- nior director of agricultural operations at Taylor Farms in Salinas. “The value-added side will continue to grow; it depends on innovation. The commodity side is flat.” Moutafian and Pezzini made their re- marks during a grower roundtable on the state of organic farming during the Organic Grower Summit in Monterey last November. The summit was co-sponsored by Western Growers Association and the Organic Produce Network, a 6-year-old organization created to bring together or- ganic produce retailers and growers large enough to supply them. Statistics gathered by the Category Partners farm market data firm highlight- ed the strongest organic growth categories. The firm noted that organic berry sales in- creased nearly 7% in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the previous year, while organic prepackaged salads were up 5.4%.
Sales of organic lettuce, onions and to- matoes were all up less than 4% year over year, while sales of organic celery, squash and peaches were down. Taylor Farms already has a value-add- ed program in place, but shippers that are relatively new to the value-added category must navigate questions of how to invest. “During COVID, we saw a huge jump in value-added products,” said Briana Giampaoli, organic category manager at Merced County-based Live Oak Farms in LeGrand. “We’re looking at more val- ue-added products, but it requires risk at first to learn what equipment to buy.” Live Oak Farms grows and ships large volumes of tomatoes and peppers. Moutafian and Pezzini agreed that maintaining a reliable supply 12 months of the year is essential for strong sales. “The majority of consumers who buy organic are making that choice in the store,” Moutafian said. “Reliability is a key to getting good placement in the produce department.” Growers need cooperation of seed com- panies if they are to provide a steady supply of organic produce. “In some commodities, like spinach, a lot of effort has been put into disease resistance,” Pezzini said. “In some other commodities, we need the seed compa- nies to put more emphasis on disease and pest resistance.” Driscoll’s breeds its own berry varieties and conducts trials on organic ground to test disease resistance. “Our breeding for See ORGANIC, Page 12
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Richard Loquaci of Madera Agricultural Services checks on vine-dried raisins in the Central Valley. The Loquaci family manages farming of Selma Pete grapes for the Madera County raisin snack company Life’s Grape.
Grape variety is key to family’s vine-dried raisin snack By Linda DuBois An interest in healthy snacking has increased demand for many specialty crops grown in California, including vine-dried raisins.
one-third is exported to nearly 50 countries, with Asia and Europe being the top two export markets. In 2021, there were 829,000 bearing acres of grapes in vineyards across the Golden State, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Of that total, raisins account for 136,000 acres, enough to satisfy virtually all of the nation’s raisin demand. Traditionally, raisins are laid out on paper trays in the vineyard to dry, giving them the caramelized consistency most people are familiar with. Because Selma Pete grapes dry under the shade of the vines and leaves, the skins stay softer, Gillespie said. Her maternal grandparents, George and Lenna Wagner, started their first vineyard in the Madera-Fresno area in 1985, founding River Ranch Raisins, a multi-vineyard operation. For about the first 20 years, the family grew Thompson seedless grapes and pivoted to the Selma Pete in 2007. Now, their 2,185-acre business grows exclusively Selma Petes. The Life’s Grape raisins are processed and packaged into three size options—sin- gle-serve packs, 4 1/2-to-6-ounce bags and 10-to-13-ounce bags—at the River Ranch Raisins processing plant in Kerman. Family members purchased the facility in 2015 to handle their processing in-house. “We are a true family business,” Gillespie said. “My mother and I are the Life’s Grape founders, and my brother (Austin) and my dad (Troy) are more on the processing side.” For almost 40 years, another local family business, Madera Agricultural Services, has See RAISINS, Page 7
Raisins are the essential ingredients for a Madera County business venture known as Life’s Grape, which provides supermarket and online customers with flavored raisins coated with peanut butter, chocolate and more. “We call them nature’s gummy bears because they have a lot of meat to them. When you squish them, they bounce back,” said Courtney Gillespie, who founded Life’s Grape with her mother, Basia, in 2019. The key to the raisin’s plumpness, she said, is the Selma Pete , a grape variety developed by researchers at the University of California, Davis, by combining the Thompson seedless, Fiesta seedless and Muscat. It was released in 2001. The traditional raisin grape—the Thompson seedless—was becoming difficult to grow because of the availability of labor and water, and other challenges, explained Gillespie, who comes from a family of Central Valley raisin farmers. “They came up with this new variety that uses half the water and dries on the vine, which is a result of the Fiesta grape, and the Thompson maintained the characteristics of a tra- ditional raisin, and then the Muscat gave it some nice meatiness and juiciness,” she said. Two-thirds of the nation’s raisin production is consumed in the U.S. and Canada, while
6 Ag Alert January 10, 2024
Raisins Continued from Page 6 partnered with the Wagner-Gillespies by managing the farming of their grapes. The company was founded in 1984 by brothers Dave and Les Loquaci, who come from a longtime California farm family. Now, including the next generation of Loquacis, the company specializes in man- aging permanent crops in the San Joaquin Valley, including prunes, almonds and white grapes. It occasionally performs oth-
er services such as harvesting or disking. The Selma Pete variety was new to the Loquacis when they started growing the crop for the Gillespies. “New information was still coming out, so it was kind of learn as you go,” said Les Loquaci’s son, Richard. He added that the most noticeable dif- ference was the reduction in the number of employees needed at harvest. See RAISINS, Page 8
From a Central Valley farming family, Courtney Gillespie, left, and her mother Basia Gillespie, founded Life’s Grape, a Madera County business that coats its vine-dried Selma Pete raisins with chocolate and peanut butter.
Vegetables Continued from Page 3
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other side of the country was keeping demand steady. “If a blizzard goes through the East Coast, we feel it the next day” in the market for fresh vege- tables, Vessey said. Decades of drought in the Colorado River basin have put a spotlight in re- cent years on Imperial Valley growers who rely on the river’s diminished sup- plies to provide vegetables for much of the country. In December, the Imperial Irrigation District finalized an agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to conserve 100,000 acre-feet of water this year to re- plenish the river. The water reductions will come from an existing agreement through which Imperial Valley farmers are paid to install water-efficient irrigation systems in ex- change for sending a portion of their water allocation to the San Diego County Water Authority. Under the new agreement, in- stead of going to San Diego, some of that water will remain in Lake Mead. Another water conservation program called deficit irrigation pays Imperial Valley farmers to keep the irrigation gates on their alfalfa fields closed during the summer, when water use on forage crops is typically highest and yields lowest. “We’ll augment the water savings from the on-farm conservation program with the deficit irrigation,” said Mark McBroom, who farms in the Imperial Valley and chairs IID’s Agricultural Water Advisory Committee. Vegetable growers said the region’s water conservation obligations were not likely to impact this year’s or next year’s vegetable production. Many have partic- ipated in the on-farm conservation pro- gram for years. Jack said he has shifted most of his let- tuce to drip irrigation, a major investment he said has rewarded him with higher yields than standard furrow irrigation while using less water. “Our yields are through the roof,” he said, adding that his fields with drip irriga- tion were yielding as much as 45% more lettuce per acre than his other fields. “We’re trying to conserve as much water as possible at all times,” Vessey said. (Caleb Hampton is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at champton@cfbf.com.)
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January 10, 2024 Ag Alert 7
Raisins Continued from Page 7
“When we were farming the Thompson seedless for their parents, there would be years that my dad and my uncle would need anywhere from 800 to 1,200 pickers,” he said. The crew would handpick the grapes and lay them out on hundreds of paper trays on the ground along the vineyard rows, where they would dry in the sun for about three weeks, Loquaci said. Depending on the weather, workers were needed to turn the grapes to ensure they dried evenly on both sides. When the raisins were almost dry, a crew would roll up the raisins in each tray, Loquaci noted, and leave it in the vine- yard rows. This step created a solar-oven effect to equalize the moisture in the rai- sins. When the raisins were ready, another crew would gather the rolls throughout the vineyard and carry them to bins. Now, a harvesting machine handles nearly all those steps, Loquaci said. “The machine goes over the top of the vine, and when it hits the area where the raisins are, it just shakes them off, and they land on conveyors,” he said. Conveyors carry the raisins to a chute that drops the raisins into bins pulled by a tractor alongside the harvester in the adjacent row. The bins are loaded onto trucks and taken to the River Ranch Raisins processing facility.
Richard Loquaci holds raisins during harvest last fall at the farm he manages in Madera County. The grapes are vine-dried and used to make Life’s Grape’s raisin snacks.
Depending on weather conditions, harvest usually takes about three weeks to a month between late August and early October. Once the raisins are off the vines, farmers prepare for the next growing season. “Right after harvest, we irrigate, because when they’re drying, we don’t want mois- ture,” Loquaci said. In the winter, crews prune the vines and tie the canes to trellises. In the spring, they
focus on irrigating, managing pests and dis- eases, and fertilizing. In late July or August, when the grapes are ripe, up to 150 workers go through the vineyard and sever the canes from each vine but leave them tied to the trellises. The grapes are left to dry on the vine for about six to eight weeks, depending on the weather, until the fall harvest. Loquaci said he and his family enjoy eat- ing the fruits of his labor.
“I really like the (Life’s Grape) clas- sics on my salads, and I like the peanut butter for a little sweet snack,” he said. “They’re sweet, they’re plump, and they’re not hard or crunchy. They’re just great.” (Linda DuBois is assistant editor of California Bountiful ® magazine, where this article first appeared in the September/ October 2023 issue. She may be contacted at ldubois@californiabountiful.com.)
Agricultural Market Review
Quotations are the latest available for the week ending January 5, 2024
Year Ago Week Ago Latest Week
Livestock
Slaughter Steers – 5-Area Average Select & Choice, 1325–1630 lbs., $/cwt. Hogs – Average hog, 51-52% lean, Iowa-Minn. market, $/cwt. Slaughter Lambs – $ per cwt. 125–175 lbs. National weekly live sales Field crops – basis prompt shipment Cotton – ¢ per lb., Middling 1 3/32” Fresno spot market Corn – U.S. No. 2 yellow $/bu. trucked Alfalfa Hay – $ per ton, quality * , FOB Region 1, Northern Inter-mountain
157
No quote
172-173
75.54
64.09
65.43
123-180
146-216
186
82.13
79.37
79.35
No quote
No quote
6.52
No quote
No quote
No quote
Region 2, Sacramento Valley
No quote
No quote 16.50 (P, per bale)
Region 3, Northern San Joaquin Valley
No quote
No quote
218-220 (P)
Region 4, Central San Joaquin Valley
No quote
No quote
250 (P)
Region 5, Southern California
No quote
No quote 19.50 (P, per bale)
Region 6, Southeast Interior
No quote
No quote
190-210 (P)
Rice – Milled #1 Head, FOB No. Calif. mills Medium grain, $ per cwt.
No quote
No quote
No quote
Provided by the California Farm Bureau as a service to Farm Bureau members. Information supplied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Market News Branch.
*ADF=Acid detergent fiber; (S) = Supreme/<27%ADF; (P) = Premium/27-29; (G) = Good/29-32; (F) = Fair/32-35.
8 Ag Alert January 10, 2024
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in almonds last year. Pistachio growers are trying to navigate orchard cleanup. The sequence that typi- cally works best is pruning and shredding limbs, sanitizing trees, and sweeping, disking and mowing. Rain and fog definitely help loosen the mummies. The problem is rain and wind have been slow to materialize, so loosening the mummies naturally may not happen right away. At this point in 2024, seasonal rainfall is well be- low normal. If the weather turns bad, some opportunities for removal could be missed. With NOW levels so high in the 2023 season, growers need to be diligent with orchard sanitation to get the mummies out of the orchard. If growers don’t clean up, there could be a repeat of 2023, and that would be bad news.
Pistachios had an “on” year in 2023, meaning a big crop. Usually, this means there are a lot of leftover mummies in the orchards. It is easier to remove pistachios from the trees compared to almonds. Typically, they’re in clusters and come off easily. It’s the mummies on the ground that are the big problem. If the ground isn’t level and smooth, the mummies get stuck in every gopher hole and squirrel (nut) pile, and behind trees and irrigation lines. There were high navel orangeworm counts at the tail end of the second shake. Some growers saw 5% to 6% NOW in their second shakes. It was also a warm fall with temperatures in the 70s, so growers can expect mummies to be infested, which could lead to a big NOW population in 2024. No one wants to see the same damage in pistachios that was
PEST CONTROL ADVISOR
What are the risks of mummies left in pistachio orchards?
Justin Nay Integral Ag Services, Durham
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January 10, 2024 Ag Alert 9
Snowpack Continued from Page 1 Recorded on April 1, the state’s peak snowpack data is used in modeling by DWR to determine the amount of runoff the state can anticipate when snow melts in the spring and summer. The snow- pack supplies about 30% of the state’s water needs. “What we’re interested in is how much water is in the snowpack,” de Guzman said. Glenn County farmer Mike Vereschagin, who farms almonds and prunes in Orland, said he remains optimistic about the com- ing water year, especially with reservoirs at or above their historical capacity due to snow and water accumulated in 2023. DWR reported that statewide reservoir storage is about 115% of average. “As far as water supply this year, it is way too early to know what our allocation is going to be, but the positive thing is our water comes from Shasta Reservoir, and the reservoir level is above normal,” said Vereschagin, who serves as board presi- dent of the Orland-Artois Water District, which received 100% of its contracted wa- ter supplies last year. “Compared to two years ago (during the drought), it is a much better situation. As long as they conserve the supply and don’t just release it out of the dam, there should be enough water for a decent allocation.” A north-of-delta water contractor of the federal Central Valley Project, Orland-
Artois Water District receives 53,000 acre-feet of water annually and serves about 29,000 acres. As of Monday, Shasta Reservoir—the largest CVP reservoir—was at 69% of its 4.5 million-acre-foot capacity, or 115% of average, according to DWR. Most other reservoirs remain at above-average levels. Lake Oroville, the principal reservoir for the State Water Project, was at 69% of its 3.5 million- acre-foot capacity, or 128% of average. San Luis Reservoir, a south-of-delta reservoir shared by the CVP and SWP, stood at 57% of its 2 million-acre-foot capacity—88% of average. Fresno County farmer Justin Diener of Red Rock Ranch in Five Points, which grows grain, garlic, tomatoes, cotton and almonds, said the water outlook is positive. “This year, things look a lot better just on a relative basis because of the amount of water that is in storage in the reservoirs,” said Diener, who is on the board of direc- tors for Westlands Water District, a CVP water contractor. “It’s not raining as much as it did last year, but our reservoir storage is in a much better position.” The CVP portion of available water stored in San Luis Reservoir, a joint state-federal reservoir, he said, is about 80%. “For us on the west side, when there’s a strong, wet year, the following year we usually have a good water year, plus a mod- erate or average 40% to 60% allocation,”
Diener said. “We’re in a good a position.” With water in San Luis Reservoir, Diener said he was able to prepare for the growing season. “We have kept the same crop setup, where we’re growing quite a bit of grain and garlic because we will have water to some degree,” he said. “We don’t (yet) know how much water we’ll have into May and June, but it won’t require as much to finish those crops.” Even with a 100% water allocation last year, Westlands Water District farmers fal- lowed 198,700 acres, or about 35% of total acreage, according to the district’s 2023 crop report. The fallowed acres, Diener said, is likely due to timing of the allocation announcement. Since precipitation came late last year, many farmers did not have the opportunity to line up as many crop contracts by the time the full allocation was announced in late April. “In our area, a lot of the preparatory work and obtaining of contracts to grow crops takes place in the fall,” he said. Looking ahead, state water officials an- nounced last week that extreme weather events highlight the need for Californians to prepare for flood risk. DWR noted it is working with emergency response part- ners and reservoir operators to prepare flood infrastructure. As part of this effort, farmers hope to take advantage of flood flows for ground-
water recharge, such as in 2023, to re- plenish aquifers, which are required to reach sustainability by the 2040s under the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Vereschagin said last spring and summer, growers in his district took advantage of available floodwater for groundwater projects. “Our records show that we have made a difference,” Vereschagin said. “We did the recharge, and hopefully we can continue in the future because we have a long way to go to get back to historical levels.” Similarly, Westlands Water District “im- plemented several programs to encourage growers to recharge groundwater, both for the benefit of the collective district and of individual growers,” Diener said. The dis- trict recharged more than 200,000 acre- feet since last March, he added. “Hopefully, we’ll get 275,000 acre-feet to 300,000 acre-feet (of recharge). If we do that, going forward on our SGMA plan, we’ll have multiple years of sustainabili- ty in terms of averaging out the years we pump a lot and years we don’t pump or pump a moderate amount,” Diener said. “This is a real tool that we’ve been success- ful in using to move our groundwater basin more quickly towards sustainability.” The next DWR survey at Philips Station is scheduled for Feb. 4. (Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)
10 Ag Alert January 10, 2024
Farm Bureau at work California Farm Bureau’s government affairs team is at the Capitol, advocating for farmers, ranchers and agriculture’s future. Here are some key issues Farm Bureau is focused on this week.
Agricultural Employment California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health released a third and likely final revision of its proposed heat safety standards for employees working indoors. The 15-day period for public com- ment ends Jan. 12. The proposed Cal/OSHA rule would establish standards meant to prevent heat illness in employees working indoors at warehouses, restaurants and other types of facilities. The sole proposed revision is a tweak to the exposure exemptions in the regulation. The change initially seems to exempt work locations in vehicles with air condition- ing, or shipping or intermodal containers during loading or unloading operations, but only if employees are exposed to heat in excess of 82 degrees for less than 15 min- utes in any 60-minute period and less than 95 degrees at all times. Since it is likely that the interior of a parked vehicle or a shipping container could exceed 95 degrees, this change may offer little regulatory relief for employers who will have to comply with the standard. California Farm Bureau will offer com- ments expressing concern about this over- ly narrow exemption. The Indoor Heat Illness Standard is ex- pected to be approved in March. It could take effect as early as this spring. Pesticides The California Farm Bureau partici- pated in a last-minute meeting called by the California State Board of Food and Agriculture related to the Department of Pesticide Regulation’s pesticide noti- fication proposal. The focus of the meeting was to get input from the agricultural community so that the board might consider sending a letter to DPR outlining its concerns. During significant discussion, Farm Bureau outlined concerns related to data
Wildfire California Farm Bureau supports Assembly Bill 397, authored by Assembly Member Bill Essayli, R-Corona. The bill would require the California Air Resources Board consider the carbon out- put from wildfires in its updated scoping plan regarding the state’s greenhouse gas reduction strategy. To date, such carbon emissions are not considered by CARB.
The bill failed to get enough votes in 2023 but was granted reconsideration, making it a two-year bill. Another wildfire measure supported by Farm Bureau, Assembly Bill 1554, authored by Assembly Member Joe Patterson, R-Roseville, would add wildfire fuels re- duction projects to the list of exemptions related to the California Environmental Quality Act.
security, grower and worker protection from those who wish to prevent an appli- cation, and the need for this system when public access to all restricted-use materials applications already exists. At the conclusion of the public testimo- ny, the state board unanimously agreed to send a letter to DPR. Farm Bureau will con- tinue to engage on the issue with written comments, which are due Jan. 12.
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January 10, 2024 Ag Alert 11
Reclamation has new leader for Great Basin region Karl Stock is the new director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s California-Great Basin Region, which oversees management of the state’s fed- eral water infrastructure. University of Colorado, Denver, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brigham Young University. offstream storage facility. Stock will oversee Oregon’s Klamath Project, Nevada’s Truckee Storage projects, and California’s Orland, Solano, Cachuma and Ventura river projects.
Central Valley Project, which supplies wa- ter to one-third of California’s farmland. Major CVP projects include: Shasta Dam and Reservoir on the Sacramento River; Trinity Dam and Reservoir on the Trinity River; Folsom Dam and Reservoir on the American River; Friant Dam and Reservoir on the San Joaquin River; New Melones Dam and Reservoir on the Stanislaus River; and San Luis Reservoir, a joint federal-state
“I am honored to take on this respon- sibility and look forward to advancing Reclamation’s mission in the California- Great Basin Region by working collabora- tively with all of our partners,” Stock said in a statement. As regional director, Stock manages one of the nation’s largest water projects, the
After joining the bureau in 2001, Stock served in many leadership positions, including most recently as manager of the Reclamation Law Administration Division. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from the
Stock replaces Ernest Conant, who was appointed regional director in 2019. Conant, who comes from a farming fam- ily in Northern California, assumes the role of senior advisor to the bureau’s deputy commissioner for operations.
Organic Continued from Page 5
disease resistance is an important part of what we do at Driscoll’s,” Moutafian said. Cooperation with other innovators is important if organic produce is to remain competitive, producers said. “It’s worth it to take the time to let the innovators integrate with your operation,” Giampaoli said. “It will pay off.” Western Growers has made it a priority in recent years to serve as a facilitator be- tween technological startup firms, farmers who are willing to host trials and investors who are able to help small firms scale up their more promising ideas. During its annual Ag Sharks compe- tition, Western Growers gives startups a chance to compete before a panel of grow- ers and investors. The prize is investment capital of at least $250,000. The three finalists in the 2023 compe- tition included a company with a mo- bile biochar unit that can produce the soil amendment at a fraction of the cost. Another was a software company that can automate the process of producing re- ports required by regulators and buyers. The third was a firm producing material that protects fruit from sun, heat and wind damage by strengthening the cuticle, or microscopic layer encompassing the fruit. Despite inflationary pressure, the re- cent trend in organic produce sales has been promising. Walt Duflock, senior vice president of innovation at Western Growers, said the organic sector enjoyed $60 billion in sales nationally in 2022, $22 billion of that in produce. There has been a $10 billion in- crease in sales over four years, he noted. He also pointed to demographic factors that should help the organic produce mar- ket in the next few years. “Millennials and Gen Z are starting to build their families, and they prioritize health,” Giampaoli said. There must be a reliable supply of quali- ty organic produce if growers are to benefit from potential growth in the market. “We need to make sure consumers re- tain their confidence in the organic label,” Moutafian said. “If the consumer is going to spend that money, they want it to be for something they really want to eat. There is going to be more demand, and my job is to figure out how to supply that.” (Bob Johnson is a reporter in Monterey County. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)
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12 Ag Alert January 10, 2024
Outbreak Continued from Page 1
to practice strict biosecurity. That includes not allowing people onto the pasture and changing her boots and clothes whenever she goes out there. She said she recognizes her farm re- mains susceptible to AI, as infected birds could land on the farm’s chicken coop or eat from her birds’ feeder, passing the disease to her flock. “I just stay vigilant as much as possible,” Holbrook said. Jones said most of the farms impacted by the current outbreak have been “very bios- ecure.” Still, the disease has been “popping up like popcorn around the state.” With California’s last confirmed AI finding as recent as Dec. 28 in Marin and Sonoma counties, the state remains focused on controlling spread and eliminating the virus, she said. State epidemiologists will work to better understand the outbreak in the coming months. It remains unclear if the virus itself has become more virulent, if it is more prevalent in the environment or if there were breaks in farm biosecurity. “We hope to find the answer with more study,” Jones said. “But sometimes we nev- er get the answer to that important ques- tion: Was it bad luck or is there something that can be fixed to prevent future intro- ductions of virus?” Weber of Sunrise Farms expressed frus- tration that even though a new vaccine for AI is available, poultry producers do not have access to it. The vaccine is being used in a trial on the California condor to pro- tect the endangered bird. Weber said his
farm already vaccinates its birds for other diseases and that vaccinating for AI would be “a better solution than trying to fight an invisible wildfire.” Jones said use of the AI vaccine, which is regulated by USDA, remains “complicat- ed,” though there are “very active national discussions on the topic, and influenza control experts continue to look at indi- cations for use.” Mattos of the poultry fed- eration noted most countries ban poultry vaccinated for AI. Maurice Pitesky, a poultry specialist and expert in highly pathogenic avian influ- enza at the University of California, Davis, said vaccines are likely part of the solution, but they’re not a panacea. He said not al- lowing the AI vaccine for poultry appears to be more of a political decision than one based on science. “This is an example of where the science is ahead of the policy and economics,” he said. With millions of waterfowl arriving in California each fall during migration season, Pitesky said it’s clear poultry farmers need to do more than what they’ve done for years. He said biosecu- rity methods alone—including fencing, foot baths, vehicle washes and employ- ee training—have not been sufficient to keep out AI. “The reality is, if you have high water- fowl abundance around your farm and there’s AI in those waterfowl, there’s just no way that that physical operational bar- rier is good enough to prevent exposure
and infection,” he said. “We need to think outside the barn.” Pitesky is trying to get more farmers to also use prediction tools such as the Waterfowl Alert Network, a software subscription service that gives daily notifications to producers when wa- terfowl are close to their farms. Having this information, he said, would allow farmers to be more strategic about their biosecurity. He compared the tool to weather fore- casting that tells farmers when a storm is coming. If farmers know where high num- bers of waterfowl are roosting, for example, they could deploy water cannons or blast- ers or change the habitat around the farm to push birds away. Mattos said the poultry federation has helped Pitesky apply for a USDA grant that would allow the tool to be offered to producers on a pilot basis. Pitesky said his hope is for these types of technologies to be subsidized com- pletely by the government to encourage producers and other stakeholders to start using them. “We’re dealing with an existential issue for the commercial poultry industry, not just in the U.S. but globally,” Pitesky said. “(Poultry) is our primary source of animal protein, and we’re losing millions of birds a year if we keep on continuing down the same path.” (Ching Lee is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.)
continue for months. But with produc- tion at a standstill, he acknowledged the farm may need to lay off some of its workforce, even though “we’re trying our best not to do that.” He said it remains unclear how the farm contracted the virus, noting “we’ve done everything we can” to keep it out. Avian influenza is introduced primarily by wild birds such as waterfowl and shore- birds, which can carry the virus but not ap- pear sick. Infected birds shed the virus into the environment through their feces and secretions. Domestic poultry can catch AI directly from infected birds or indirectly through contaminated water, feed, cloth- ing and equipment. First identified in Europe in 2020, the H5N1 strain of the virus has circled the globe with outbreaks in 67 countries on five continents. In the U.S., the disease ripped through some of the largest poul- try farms in the Midwest and East Coast, sending egg prices to record levels in 2022 and early 2023. To protect commercial flocks, State Veterinarian Annette Jones has asked producers to keep their poultry indoors through June, including certified organic layers and meat birds that are required by law to have outdoor access. Sonoma County egg farmer Tiffany Holbrook, whose birds are raised on pasture, said she will not be moving her chickens indoors, though she continues
CIMIS REPORT | www.cimis.water.ca.gov
CALIFORNIA IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
For the week of Thursday, December 28, 2023 - Wednesday, January 3, 2024 ETO (INCHES/WEEK) THIS YEAR YEAR 3.0
2.5
LAST YEAR AVERAGE YEAR
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
MACDOEL II (236)
BIGGS (244)
DAVIS (06)
MANTECA (70)
FRESNO (80)
SALINAS-SOUTH (214)
FIVE POINTS (2)
SHAFTER (5)
IMPERIAL (87)
THIS YEAR LAST YEAR AVG. YEAR % FROM AVG.
0.12 0.14 0.22 -46
0.15 0.13 0.32 -52
0.20 0.21 0.25 -22
0.20 0.14 0.21 -10
0.23 0.18 0.22 -5
0.42 0.23 0.42 -1
0.26 0.18 0.28 -1
0.29 0.23 0.28 8
0.48 0.56 0.46 3
W eekly reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is the rate of water use (evapotranspiration—the sum of soil evaporation and crop transpiration) for healthy pasture grass. Multiplying ETo by the appropriate “crop coefficient” gives estimates of the ET for other crops. For example, assume ETo on June 15 is 0.267 inches and the crop coefficient for corn on that day is 1.1. Multiplying ETo by the coefficient (0.26 inches x 1.1) results in a corn ET of 0.29 inches. This
information is useful in determining the amount and timing of irriga- tion water. Contact Richard Snyder, UC Davis, for information on coefficients, 530-752-4628. The 10 graphs provide weekly ETo rates for selected areas for average year, last year and this year. The ETo information is provided by the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) of the California Department of Water Resources.
For information contact the DWR district office or DWR state headquarters:
SACRAMENTO HEADQUARTERS: 916-651-9679 • 916-651-7218
NORTHERN REGION: Red Bluff 530-529-7301
NORTH CENTRAL REGION: West Sacramento 916-376-9630
SOUTH CENTRAL REGION:
SOUTHERN REGION:
Fresno 559-230-3334
Glendale 818-500-1645 x247 or x243
January 10, 2024 Ag Alert 13
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