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/Courtesy Tim Sanders
Photo/Courtesy Daniel Jones
Tim Sanders Stanislaus County almond farmer
Daniel Jones Solano County farmer
There’s always something to do when you’ve got almonds. We’re cutting up dead limbs and doing spot spraying on the weeds, preparing the orchard for harvest, which is just around the corner. I’m working on some of the equipment, putting a new sand belt on my pickup machine, just normal everyday things you do during the summer. The crop is a little bit lighter. On my late varieties, the Butte/Padres look better than my nonpareils and Carmels. This was a year I wanted to see how the self-fer- tile varieties would do. I’ve got a block of Independence, and they look pretty good, so I think the self-fertile varieties did better this year than the nonpareils. But it’s real spotty. You can look in one part of the orchard, and it looks pretty good, and then the other part of the orchard, there’s hardly anything. I’ve got a young orchard that I take care of for a lady in Turlock. They’re third- leaf trees, and we put some bees out there, but I didn’t see a bee for a week when the almonds were in full bloom. The owner said, “I don’t think there’s enough nuts to harvest.” The weather this spring just wasn’t inducive to having a big crop. Rainy and cold—it just wasn’t very good pollination weather. I’m surprised we have the crop that we do have. It’s touch and go, but it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The third-leaf trees that didn’t set a crop—the nonpareils and Montereys—I’m not too concerned about that because we’re going to have a stronger tree overall. We don’t have to worry about water this year, so that’s a plus. We’re thankful that we’ve got the snow and the rain, and we’re thankful that the weather hasn’t been real hot. The snow is melting at a reasonable rate, so we can capture what we can. My outlook is positive.
Many walnut orchards are being ripped out due to high input costs and low re- turns. The gentleman who owns the walnut orchards I manage is going to keep his Tulares and Chandlers. The idea is that we survive this low-price storm. Granted, you can only be in survival mode for so long. A lot of walnut orchards, at least in this area, were planted on Class 1 soils. They’ve been converted to higher-earning crops, such as processing tomatoes. Prices are at an all-time high for processing tomatoes, so a lot of the ground that was formerly orchards is going back to row crops. I am happy to see the Class 1 soils used for the highest and best possible use. Urban development and urban encroachment along the Interstate 80 corridor have pushed into some of the prime growing ground. That’s always a concern. Development should happen at a controlled pace. I’ve hired out for both large baling and small baling, and this year, I purchased a small baler and started making bales on my own. In the summertime, we grow a winter forage mix. This year, we cut a lot of volunteer grasses that were just nat- urally occurring on open fields. We did this on highway frontage property for fire prevention and to clean things up. This irrigation season is in full swing across all crops and commodities. In Glenn County, we have a cow-calf operation that has been lucrative this year. It is a great time to be a livestock producer. Pricing has been up across all weight categories. Hay prices have fallen after the good winter, and there’s grass in the hills, so there’s plenty of hay around. That’s a really good combination that doesn’t happen too often for California producers. We bring in our cattle to sort and wean calves in early summer, so we’re gearing up to do that this week.
Domenic Carinalli Sonoma County winegrape grower and organic dairy farmer
The grapes are looking good, and they’re growing good. We have pinot, chardonnay and pinot grigio. They are a little behind normal because of all the rain and wet weather, but they’re growing great and are now in full bloom. We are getting a little warmer weather now, which is nice. We need the heat for sure because we haven’t seen much of it. Last month, we only had a few days of sunshine, and the rest of the time, it was overcast. We are getting the land cleaned up from the winter. We are spraying the winegrapes and pulling the suckers off the vines. I have the same crew that I’ve had the last couple of years, and they are a very good group, so that is great. Everything is decent at the dairy. We have lots of grass; the grass is really good. I am producing organic, and we got on with Clover, which is a new pro- cessor for us. We were shipping to another outfit that had lost their organic certification, so we weren’t getting paid organic (prices) for a long time. Now, Clover is paying organic, which is substantially higher. They’re good people to ship to, and we’re very happy with them. We are looking forward to a lot of good weather. The hay crop is coming in, and the alfalfa will be getting here before long.
Photo/Ching Lee
4 Ag Alert June 21, 2023
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