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/Christine Souza
Photo/Beatriz Indart
Gino Pedretti III Merced County farmer and dairy farmer
Ryan Indart Fresno County farmer and sheep rancher
We planted 70% pima and 30% acala cotton this year. We are a week to 10 days behind from where we would like to be. We got a better stand than I was anticipat- ing, so that’s positive. Now, as the crop is starting to mature, we’re spraying weeds and running cultivators. The pima price has been higher, and with all the flooding in the Corcoran area, there is talk that a lot of cotton ground may not get planted. Since pima is a niche market, I expect a high price come fall. We might lose a little yield having to plant later because of the cool, wet spring, but we’re hoping the price is high enough to make up for that. We’re starting our second cutting of alfalfa. We are cutting wheat hay, which is going to take some time to dry. We bale all our wheat. The market is down $75 to $100 a ton compared to the high last year. In the past few weeks, corn and soy- bean prices have dropped, so I’m hoping that feed costs come down. The cows love this mild weather and are milking well. Unfortunately, the milk price has come down, so everybody is worried. The price may not go back up until fall. On the processing side, creameries are hurting a little and seem to need more money from their members for cash flow, so margins are tight in dairying right now. We got a full supply of water this year in the Merced Irrigation District. Our area received floodwaters in January, February and March. The district wants to push as much water as it can to help with groundwater sustainability. We’re fortunate to have this wet year. It seems a lot of farmers are finally starting to understand what we need to do to be sustainable and are taking advantage of the excess water.
We already harvested our oranges back in February. The cherries are going to be harvested at the end of this week. We’re about two to three weeks behind schedule just because of the long, wet winter and the very cool spring. Same thing in the almonds. They were late to mature and develop. We had a lot of inclement weather in the spring, but we still managed to have some pretty good bloom days, so we have a decent crop. Our dryland wheat is still green. The heads are moving into the milk and dough stage. In heavy rain years east of Clovis, dry farming doesn’t do well because there’s so much hardpan out here that the dark-red clay gets saturated. The plants get suffocated because there’s not enough oxygen. A lot of our crop on the east side got stunted because it had too much water. It’ll make a crop. It just won’t be as big of a crop as in past average-rainfall years. Out on the west side by Cantua Creek where we also dryland farm, we have about 1,000 acres of barley. You need about 6 to 7 inches of rain to make a crop out there, and we got eight. We’re going to make a decent crop, which is great, be- cause we make a crop on the west side one out of every five or six years. We have an overabundance of feed this year. About six years ago, we started grazing large utility-scale solar projects. Solar companies hire us to manage veg- etation. They can’t afford to have fires, so we come in with sheep and graze under the panels to remove the fire danger—and they pay us for it. We have sheep all over the state now in large solar projects. It’s been a big help to our business. It’s allowed us to expand, and we’re continuing to grow.
Jay Ruskey Santa Barbara County farmer
When you farm on hillsides and get the rains like we have had in the last four months, the running water moves roads and soil, so it’s all about storm repairs. We’re getting irrigation up and running, checking soil moisture and working on weed control. We started fertilizing because a lot of nitrogen left the soil from copi- ous amounts of rain. A lot of times, long periods of no nutrition and lots of rain mean there’s not a lot of nitro- gen, so we are assessing how this long winter has impacted soil fertility. Avocados are in full bloom. With a strong set on the trees, it looks like we’re coming into an “on” year for the crop. We’ve had some cool nights, but we finally had some warm evenings, which will help with the avocado set. The ideal world for avocados is mildly warm days with mild nights and no wind, which help promote bee activity and fertilization of the flowers. Those are the conditions we’re all looking for, and it looks like a good, strong bloom. With avocados, it is harvest time for us. A lot of Southern California growers are trying to balance the prices that are different than last year with what is happening this year. I see a lot of avocado trucks moving around. Growers are working with their grower-packer-shippers to formulate a plan moving forward, while conversa- tions center around imports this year. Six months ago, we were worried about the availability of water this year, so the worries have definitely shifted. All of us are resting easier and assessing wells. As we turn on irrigation, we are measuring well performance. A lot of larger meteorological organizations are setting their eyes on the potential for a super El Niño. Are we going to get some extreme heat or extreme cold? I’m personally preparing for unpredictability. We’re some of the most resilient farmers on the planet in California.
Photo/Summer Staeb
4 Ag Alert May 17, 2023
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