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ryof the insureds, to reflect theproduction potential of the crops, and this program does not prevent growers fromobtaining crop insurance if they have had losses,” he said. “Crop-insurance policy provisions also allow insureds to increase coverage in subsequent years, and many do so to increase their safety net.” About 427,000acresofCaliforniagrapes participate in thecrop insuranceprogram. Todd Snider, a Bakersfield crop-insur- ance agent and a member of the Kern County Farm Bureau board of directors, said winegrape policies are created to be yield-protection insurance and can cover asmuch as 85%of historical production. Farmers claiming losses related to smoke will need to document that with evidence of a lab test for which samples were taken before harvest, Snider said. “The test is imperative to help us deter- mine if it should be a zero-production ac- count because there was, at that point, no goodproductdelivered—but youwouldn’t know that until after you received the re- sults of the test,” he said. The twomost commonmistakes grape growers make in smoke-related claims, Snider said, are taking too large of a sam- ple and failing to test multiple varietals. Sample sizes should be 200 berries at most, he said, and farmers withmultiple varietals should take samples from each one, and fromeach unit. For example, a grower with 10 acres in one place and 10 more 2 miles down the
road needs samples fromboth, as they’re more thanamileapart, Snider said, adding that samples should be drawn as close to harvest as possible. Inordinary times, the farmerwouldwait for the test results to come back—but with testing labs facing a weeks-long backlog, Snider said, a grower might try to salvage asmuch as possible. “You may decide to harvest if the win- ery’s going to take it and take the chance,” hesaid,addingthathe’sseeingwineriestak- ing grapes before the test results are in, and then either rejecting themor buying them at a steepdiscount once the results arrive. The testing backlog prompted the California Department of Food and AgricultureandtheUniversityofCalifornia, Davis, to announce last week that theywill conduct smoke testing onwinegrapes. CDFAsaiditcanprocess30to50samples per day with a turnaround time of three to fivedays—assuming its labsdon’t become backlogged. UC Davis is testing grapes through its Department of Viticulture and Enology and College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. For more infor- mation, contact CDFA at 916-228-6844 or www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/cac. TheUCDavis lab website is anlab.ucdavis.edu. Another federal programthat couldhelp wildfirevictimsistheWildfireandHurricane IndemnityProgramPlus, orWHIP+. Erin Huston, a California FarmBureau Federationpolicy consultant, saidWHIP+ does not cover this year’s disasters—only
those occurring through 2019. “Thatprogramisgoingtohavetobecon- gressionally extended in order to apply to our current fires,”Huston said, adding that CFBF President Jamie Johansson recently met with the administrator of the USDA Farm Service Agency, Richard Fordyce, andwill soonmeetwithRiskManagement Agency leaders. CFBF is working with congressional delegations in California, OregonandWashingtonstate, whichhave suffered severewildfire damage this year. “There’s a lot of interest in having this programreauthorized, not just in theWest but throughout the country,” saidHuston, noting recent Midwestern windstorms and hurricanes in Louisiana and Florida. “Based on the conversations we’ve had to date, we are optimistic theWHIP+ pro- gramwill be extended.” Huston said she expects Congress to take up the issue inDecember. The Napa County FarmBureau is part- nering with Clif FamilyWinery to provide groceries, clothing, gas andgift cards tobe delivereddirectly toevacuees through the Napa County Farm Bureau Foundation: www.napafarmbureau.org/glassfire. CFBFmaintainsaFarmandRuralDisaster Fundtoassistruralcommunitiesaffectedby natural disasters; formore information, see theCFBFhomepage at www.cfbf.comand followthe linkat the topof thepage. (Kevin Hecteman i s an ass i stant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)
tractorthatwasoutinthemiddleofthefield,” he said. The fire “stoppedat the crops, but itwent aroundusandwent totheneighbor’splace, andwent up the hill and took our orchard outandalmostgottheotherneighbor’splace up there, burnedall his fields.We lost every building, every piece of equipment, our re- frigeration, our threehomes, everything.” InneighboringNapaCounty, thecounty FarmBureauhasbeenpolling itsmembers to gauge the level of destruction. “I already knowat this point that it’s go- ing todramatically affect harvest this year, andtheway that everybodycontinueswith it,” county Farm Bureau Chief Executive RyanKlobas said. Farmers and ranchers who have crop insuranceandhavebeenaffectedbywild- fires “need to contact their crop insurance agent within 72 hours to file a Notice of Loss,” said Jeff Yasui, regional director of tthe U.S. Department of Agriculture unit that oversees crop insurance, the Risk Management Agency. He said farmers would then be contacted by a loss adjust- er from their insurance provider, and in- formed about what sorts of documents or other information they’ll need to provide. About 8.9 million acres of California farmland are covered under the crop-in- surance program, Yasui said. “For most crops, the insurance guaran- tee isbasedontheactualproductionhisto-
18 Ag Alert October 7, 2020
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