Ag Alert. May 3, 2023

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.

Wildfire risk Increased vegetation fuels growing concern

Asparagus season California farmers find niche in spring vegetable

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www.cfbf.com • www.agalert.com MAY 3, 2023

Vegetables ®

special report

By Caleb Hampton From small plots to vast ranches, California’s farmland attracts investment from all over the world. But as drought and climate change provoke anxiety over water and natural resources, state legisla- tors are proposing new restrictions. State Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, introduced a bill April 24 to bar foreign governments and government-con- trolled enterprises from purchasing agri- cultural land in California beginning next year. Senate Bill 224 would also require California to track foreign-government ownership of farmland in the state and publish the records in annual reports. In announcing the bill, Hurtado’s of- fice said it “puts California in control of its food-supply chain by preventing foreign governments from purchasing agricul- tural land, and sets reporting standards to gain a better understanding on foreign ownership of California’s resources.” Hurtado said the bill is needed to keep too many California farms from falling into the hands of foreign governments, which then control the water and energy resources that come with the land. In her Central Valley district, pressures such as onerous regulations and water scarcity have driven farmers to sell. “They were struggling to stay in farm- ing,” she said in an interview, adding that investors were “making offers that are just kind of hard to say no to.” Other U.S. states are considering similar measures, driven by height- ened concern around water supplies in Western states and national security risks posed by countries such as Russia and China. “This thing has exploded,” Micah Brown, staff attorney at the University of Arkansas’ National Agricultural Law Center, said at a March forum held by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “These bills are just dropping like crazy.” See FOREIGN, Page 12 Bill would restrict foreign purchase of local farmland

Tulare County dairy and citrus farmer Tom Barcellos takes stock of debris that he and others worked nonstop to clear from the Tule River, west of Porterville, to prevent further flooding and breaches. As temperatures warm, the state braces for more potential flooding during the spring and summer.

Flood worries resume as snowpack melts

By Christine Souza The onset of warm temperatures is ac- celerating snowmelt and triggering worries about continued flooding in the Central Valley from historic snowpack accumulat- ed during winter and spring storms. In Tulare County, farm fields have been inundated as floodwaters and, now, more rapidly melting snow fill lowlands of the former Tulare Lake.

Tulare County Agricultural Commissioner Jimmy Hook said flooding impacts in the county have affected 64,000 acres, causing $131 million in financial losses. He said he expects damages to extend to 115,000 acres and losses to grow to $300 million by the end of snowmelt. University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisors report that stand- ing water has caused problems for feed

crops, vegetables and tree crops in flood- affected counties. Richard Matoian, president of American Pistachio Growers, said 2,500 acres of pis- tachios were underwater, according to an early estimate by his association. “We’ve had some growers that have had levees break and had water and debris go

See SNOWPACK, Page 11

n e w s p a p e r

Comment.......................................2 From the Fields........................4-5 Vegetables................................ 7-8 Classifieds........................... 14-15 Inside

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Farm workplace tested by a side deal on unionizing By Bryan Little

We now know the broad strokes of California agriculture labor relations law going forward: unreliable majority-sup- port petitions for unions to demonstrate putative majority employee backing for union representation. AB 2183 also harbors another problem- atic provision that has been little discussed. For the first time, the ALRB will have au- thority to levy penalties up to $25,000 for unfair labor practices that previously war- ranted only remedial remedies such as back-pay. The highest penalty amounts will be reserved for unfair labor practices the board deems discriminatory or retaliatory. The new appeal bond requires an em- ployer to post a bond equivalent to the financial value of an ALRB’s order, includ- ing the new unfair labor practice penalties and back pay. The Legislature, many years ago, granted authority to ALRB to impose a collective bargaining agreement on an employer under certain circumstances. The costs of a three-year collective bar- gaining agreement imposed by the ALRB could be enormous, as could unfair labor practice penalties that could be assessed on an employee-by-employee basis. Employers would be required to post this appeal bond to be permitted to appeal the decisions of the quasi-judicial process at the ALRB. The Farm Employers Labor Service, which can be reached at 800-753-9073 or info@fels.net, can provide agricultural employers and supervisors resources and training on the ins and outs of card-check organizing. We can explain how to avoid common compliance problems that can encourage unnecessary unionization. (Bryan Little is director of employment policy for California Farm Bureau and chief operating officer of Farm Employers Labor Service (FELS). He may be contacted at blittle@cfbf.com.)

In late March, in a normally routine process to update the state budget to

conform to a law passed in a previ- ous legislative ses- sion, a California Assembly subcom- mittee approved a budget change pro- posal for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2023-24 state funding plan. This action marked

Bryan Little

a significant change in state policy on how labor relations in agriculture will be man- aged in the future. This action advanced a side deal between Newsom, the United Farm Workers and the California Labor Federation to ease unionization of agri- cultural workers, while eliminating re- quirements for secret-ballot elections for organizing. The governor initially signaled last year that he would not sign the mail-in ballot card-check legislation, Assembly Bill 2183. But then the governor and the labor groups agreed amongst themselves to amend the bill—and he reversed course and signed it into law. If the budget change proposal becomes law, it would amend and fortify card-check language in AB 2183 to aggressively pur- sue farm employees’ signatures on cards or petitions. As originally enacted, the bill provided for two paths for unions seeking to repre- sent agricultural employees. Under one, “labor peace” status, an employer may not express views against unionization and must allow organizers access to farm properties. Those who do not opt for labor peace are subject to unionization with the bill’s card check provisions.

Farm employees harvest cherries in San Joaquin County. Under a pending update to the state budget, farm employees may be subject to pressures to sign ballot cards or petitions from union organizers.

Guaranteed access by the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court as a violation of a farmer’s Fifth Amendment private property rights. Under labor peace, a union could claim majority status among employees of an ag- ricultural business with a mail-in ballot, with the ALRB providing and counting the ballots but unable to safeguard employees from union agent intimidation. In the time provided under AB 2183, no agricultural employer opted for labor peace status. Farm employers who opt out are still subject to unionization through card- check union organizing provisions. Long- standing national labor law allows em- ployers and unions to avail themselves of voluntary card-check. Employers could voluntarily recognize a union, and con- ceivably save on lawyers and consultants, if the union demonstrated majority support based on signed union authorization cards or petitions. This makes sense in an environment

where the employer sees benefit from a relationship with a union. Then again, this has seldom, if ever, been the case in California agriculture. Farm employees are likely to sign union cards just to get organizers to leave them alone. While UFW offers help with immigration issues and distributes some COVID, drought and flood relief funding, this provides opportunities to ask em- ployees to sign union cards or petitions. Up to a year later, the worker may find UFW using that signature to unionize an employer with whom they had no griev- ance whatsoever. In fact, he or she may not have known they would be working for the employer when signing the union organizer’s document. The budget change proposal stands to effectively make the agreement a rider to the 2023-24 state budget. No policy com- mittee will ever consider this change to state law. It’s certainly not the legislative process most of us learned about in our high school civics class.

VOL. 50, NO. 17

May 3, 2023

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2 Ag Alert May 3, 2023

Increased rain, vegetation set scene for wildfire season

like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” he said. “Those factors all add up to the potential for a significant fire season this year and next,” Lando said, adding vegetation main- tenance in open space and along roadways and evacuation routes remains “absolutely critical this year, maybe more so than ever.” May marks the beginning of Wildfire Preparedness Week in California, and Len Nielson, Cal Fire staff chief for prescribed fire, said the live moisture content in the veg- etation should allow more opportunities to do controlled burns to reduce fuels. It would

help remove dead and dying vegetation without burning what’s green. Nielson said Cal Fire’s goal is to reduce fuel on more than 100,000 acres a year. The department has met its goal during the past two years. So far this year, it has completed about 31,000 acres, with about 17,000 acres of broadcast burning and about 14,000 acres of thinning, pruning, mastication and fuel-break work. Increased grant funding has played a “big part” in Cal Fire being able to achieve

By Ching Lee Generous rainfall may have erased drought conditions for most of the state, but it has not necessarily eased concerns for a potentially aggressive fire season. Saturated grounds and warming tem- peratures have spurred a bumper crop of vegetation across the landscape, partic- ularly fast-growing grasses and invasive weeds that fuel wildfires when they turn brown. The wet spring may delay the start of California’s fire season, ecology and fire experts say, but it’s a matter of time before carpets of green become highly combusti- ble if they are not managed. “There’s a lot more vegetation this year, so people are very, very nervous about that as it starts to dry up,” said Andree Soares, a Merced County sheep and goat rancher who provides targeted grazing services for vegetation management. Because the rainy season lasted longer this year, Soares said most of her animals were just deployed about two weeks ago. Bigger projects such as for the East Bay Municipal Utility District typically start in March but did not begin until last week. Depending on the project, her contract grazing work typically runs through September, sometimes into October. The challenge this year, she said, is get- ting through all the vegetation, which she described as wetter, greener, longer and denser. With increased growth, it may take longer to graze each location. She said she’s also seeing different types of vege- tation on the landscape—some long-dor- mant plants that are now coming to life. Todd Lando, wildfire hazard mitiga- tion specialist for the Central Marin Fire Department, said he expects the extra rain- fall and snowpack will promote addition- al vegetation growth, leading to probably “one of the biggest grass crops of the last decade in California.” With all the rain, he said he’s “really fear- ful that Californians are going to think that they somehow have a year off from wild- fires. That’s just not the case.” A firefighter, forester and ecologist, Lando added, “I like to remind people that the 2017 fire season, which was devastating, followed an excep- tionally wet winter in 2016.” With more than 1.5 million acres burned and nearly 11,000 structures destroyed or damaged, the 2017 fire season was the most destructive in California at the time, according to Cal Fire. It was surpassed by the 2018 wildfire season, which saw near- ly 2 million acres burned and more than 24,000 structures destroyed or damaged. Fueled by high winds and record-break- ing heat, the 2020 wildfire year remains the state’s largest on record, with more than 4.3 million acres burned and more than 11,000 structures destroyed or damaged. Lando said even though this fire sea- son may start a little later, California’s Mediterranean climate and dry summers make the state prone to wildfires. In the coastal region, grasses are still green and growing, but that will change. “When we get into September and October each

year, California is ready to burn,” he said. As grasses dry out later in the summer, they become easy to ignite, and they can ig- nite other bigger fuels in their path, Lando said. He noted the “huge number of dead trees” from years of drought. Storms this year brought down more trees, with “an accu- mulation of dead vegetation on the ground

See VEGETATION, Page 10

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May 3, 2023 Ag Alert 3

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/Cody Wirz

Photo/Caleb Hampton

Pat Wirz San Benito County winegrape grower and cattle rancher

Tom Slater Yolo County winegrape and field crop farmer

In January, we had some wheat underwater from the heavy rainfall. We lost a little bit, but it has turned out better than we hoped. We had a record number of inches of rain, and for everything to look this good, I think we’re pretty lucky. In the vineyards, it’s been a late year in terms of starting our tractors because of the wet ground. We need the tractors to get in and disk the weeds and do some mechanical pruning. Things are a little further behind than in years past, but we’re catching up. It’s still a little early to predict crops. But for the most part, everything looks good. We haven’t had any frost. It was a year ago, April 12, when we had the major frost in the delta, Lodi and the foothills. We have escaped that to date. I think I’m safe in saying grape prices have not kept up with the cost of managing a vineyard—not just the development of a vineyard, but the day-to-day cost of raising the commodity. You look at planting a vineyard as a 25-year investment, but we are seeing diseases come in and disrupt that cycle, so all of a sudden, you’ve lost the vineyard before it has paid itself off. Most people believe (grape prices) should be much higher. The cost of labor has soared. We use labor contractors a lot, as do most grape producers, and we’ve been able to get by. Some of that is due to new mechani- cal equipment. More of that is needed to be able to move forward. Our California Association of Winegrape Growers is working very hard to try to get the Legislature and regulators to assist us with tractor automation. We really believe more money for mechanization will save this industry.

On winegrapes, we’re spraying our first round of sulfur for mildew protection. Our buds are just starting to break. They’re just opening up with about an inch and a half shoots. With all the nice rain that we had this year, everything’s coming out, and ev- erything’s pushing real hard. They’re saying we might get a cold front coming in this week. I’m a little bit concerned about frost damage, but I hope we can get by without getting a frost. Sometimes when we get those cold fronts the first of May or end of April, we will get dinged a little bit with frost because I’m in the Cienega Valley in San Benito County, and we’re about a thousand feet. We’re kind of a sheltered valley, so if there’s any cold air, it’ll sometimes affect us. As far as the cattle, the feed is just fantastic this year. We’ve got probably more feed this year than we’ve had for several years. Our normal rainfall is about 16 inches. This year we had 33 inches. We had a storm about the 10th of March, and we got 4 inches of rain overnight. The soil was so dry going into this winter that it soaked so much up. We’ve got a couple of reservoirs on one of our leased cattle pasture. All of our reservoirs are full this year and spilled over for the first time in probably four or five years. It’s what California needed. At least where we’re at, if we didn’t have this kind of a year, I’m afraid we would’ve been in pretty bad shape. Everything was so dry last year that it was getting pretty serious. I haven’t sold or shipped any of my calves yet, but I understand the price is pretty good because there’s a demand for cattle this year.

Greg Tesch Kern County farmer

We’re beginning lilac harvest. We’re one of the very few people in California that grow cut flowers anymore. We grow some in the southern valley near the Lamont area. We started 10 days later. There’ll be about a two-week season. Most of our lilac cut flowers end up in the grocery store distribution. Trader Joe’s is a heavy distributor of what we grow. The crop currently looks good, with no frost damage. We’re about to start cherries this week. Ripening cherries cause rain, and that seems to be every year right when we’re about to start harvest. We see a little bitty rainstorm on the forecast. For me, the cherry crop looks early. For the rest of the industry, it’s slightly later. Cherries, in general, are late by around two weeks. Some are late by three weeks. I’m on the front end of the lateness. We picked April 18 last year, so we’ll be exactly two weeks late. Everyone else is most likely in the same category from where they started last year. The very cold spring helped tremendously on the chilling, but it also delayed develop- ment of the fruit. We thought the crop, in general, was going to be light, but we actually have a variety that sets very well. It looks like the crop might have some periods of heavi- ness and lightness. We think that certain varieties might bunch up and have peaks and valleys as far as availability. We think the crop will be, in general, good, with some light pe- riods and some heavy periods, depending on the varieties, through the California season. Peaches appear to be a lighter than normal crop as far as the southern valley. It’s start- ing later by approximately two to three weeks.

Photo/Cecilia Parsons

4 Ag Alert May 3, 2023

Tom Ikeda San Luis Obispo vegetable grower

The wet winter and record rains set us back a month or longer on our groundwork. We were hoping to prepare for planting back in December, and just in the last few weeks we’ve been able to get into those fields. The delay has created a rush to get fields ready to plant. We need to work ground to continue our planting schedule, so it’s been hectic. The delay is going to have an impact on the rest of the year because our crops have a short season of about two or three months, so it is going to affect the next crop and possibly the following crop. Another impact due to the wet weather is our workers are working maybe 60% of their typical hours, so that is lost income. Due to the inconsistency in planting, supplies are going to be sporadic during the spring and summer, which is going to lead to higher prices for customers. If the timing is right, then we can hit those market spikes. That gives us opportunities to hit markets longer than we would in a normal year. Related to our planting schedule, the intervals between plantings are starting to short- en as the days get longer. Things are starting to get busy. We are heavy into planting and trying to get caught up with groundwork. We’re having to prioritize things. We’re starting to see better quality in a lot of our products. The lettuces, cabbages and cilantro are looking much better because we planted them later, so they didn’t go through as much bad weather. The earlier crops got hammered by the big rains. Supplies are picking up a little bit, but I don’t think it’s going to come back to normal springtime market levels because everybody has had a tough time trying to maintain planting schedules. We suspect there will be shortages throughout the season, which means higher prices in the stores.

Photo/Aubrey Aquino

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May 3, 2023 Ag Alert 5

Studies tout precise pesticide applications, drones By Bob Johnson

Current regulations require farmers to complete a time-consuming apprentice- ship program before they can be licensed to use drones for pesticide applications. Stehly said AB 1016 would give the California Department of Pesticide Regulation “direction and flexibility to craft a clearer path for farmers like me to get licensed without compromising the safety of field workers or the public.” The current standard method for ap- plying insecticides is to have a rig broad- cast the material to seed lines as it travels between crop rows or have workers apply insecticides from backpacks. Stehly said using drones can eliminate the need for a mist blower—“basically a leaf blower with a tank of chemicals, weighing about 60 pounds, fully load- ed, that is carried on the back of the field worker.” He added, “The field worker trudges through the vineyard, trying to maintain a uniform walking speed and application rate while climbing up and down hills, avoiding rocks and gopher holes. “With drone spray technology, we can not only remove the worker from the ap- plication area, we’re removing a heavy, gas-filled sprayer and chemical-filled tank from their back.” Researchers are focusing on multiple

Future farmers may benefit from insect control systems that are more precise, ef- ficient and safe than today’s pesticide ap- plications. The use of drones, in particular, could make for uniform and precise appli- cations, while allowing farm employees to maintain distance from spraying. Drones are already increasingly used to release beneficial insects in farm fields. For example, Braga Fresh, a producer of organic and conventional vegetables and salads, is using the technology—and a licensed drone operator—to administer pest-devouring bugs at its organic ranch in Soledad. University of California and U.S. Department of Agriculture trials showed that precision pesticide application provided su- perior control of aphids, thrips and a deadly plant virus that thrips have carried to lettuce in the Central Coast. Though the studies an- alyzed camera-based systems mounted on tractors, researchers say the technology is similar to that used in drone spraying. In 2020, UC researchers evaluating the efficiency of drones applying insecticides in alfalfa fields in Yolo County concluded the technology offered “a viable option for aerial application of pesticides.” “Many California farmers want the oppor- tunity to utilize this safe and accurate tech- nology,” said Al Stehly, a third-generation

A drone applies pesticides to an alfalfa field in Yolo County during trials conducted by University of California researchers in 2020. Proposed legislation could help facilitate drone use on farm fields.

farmer who grows avocados, citrus fruit and winegrapes in San Diego County and runs a custom applicator business. Stehly said the technology offers an aerial application tool for farmers in sit- uations in which helicopters or fixed- wing aircraft are neither efficient nor cost-effective. He said drones offer ef- fective remedies for small vineyards and farms as well as targeted treatments for larger properties.

Stehly testified before the state Assembly Committee on Agriculture on March 29 on behalf of legislation to adopt more flexible licensing requirements for farmers who want to use drones to apply insecticides and fungicides. Sponsored by the California Farm Bureau and in- troduced by Assembly Member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, the bill has advanced to the Assembly Appropriations Committee with bipartisan support.

See DRONES, Page 10

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Quotations are the latest available for the week ending April 28, 2023 Year Ago Week Ago Latest Week Livestock Slaughter Steers – 5-Area Average Select & Choice, 1150–1460 lbs., $ per cwt. 139 174.45 173 Hogs – Average hog, 51-52% lean, Iowa-Minn. market, $ per cwt. 99.81 69.56 77.56 Slaughter Lambs – $ per cwt. 125–175 lbs. National weekly live sales 196-249.50 151-170 114-165 Field crops – basis prompt shipment Barley – U.S. No. 2, $ per cwt. Truck, Stockton-Modesto-Oakdale-Turlock No Quote No Quote No Quote Cotton – ¢ per lb., Middling 1 3/32” Fresno spot market 98.04 79.16 78.10 Corn – U.S. No. 2 yellow $ per bu. trucked No Quote 8.82 8.26 Alfalfa Hay – $ per ton, quality*, FOB Region 1, Northern Inter-mountain 250 (F/G) 240 (F/G) 310 (S) Region 2, Sacramento Valley 360 (orchard mix) No Quote No Quote Region 3, Northern San Joaquin Valley 370-390 (P/S) No Quote No Quote Region 4, Central San Joaquin Valley No Quote No Quote 440 (S) Region 5, Southern California No Quote No Quote 23 (S, per bale) Region 6, Southeast Interior 365-380 (P/S) 325-330 (P/S) 330 (P) Oat Hay – $ per ton, quality*, FOB Northern California, dairy No Quote No Quote No Quote Oats – U.S. No. 2 white, $ per cwt. Statewide, trucked price No Quote No Quote No Quote

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Dry Beans – Grower FOB prices Baby Limas, $ per cwt, (sacked) Large Limas, $ per cwt. (sacked) Blackeye, $ per cwt. (sacked)

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Rice – Milled No. 1 Head, FOB No. Calif. mills Medium grain, $ per cwt. Wheat – U.S. No. 2 or better, winter, $ per cwt. 13% protein, Los Angeles, trucked price

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amz_r1_22_K142_4,75x6_Zoll_4c_ZA-TS_en_us.indd 1 6 Ag Alert May 3, 2023

22.08.22 10:42

CALIFORNIA

Vegetables A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®

Despite drop in acreage, asparagus still being grown By Nancy Vigran California asparagus production has diminished through the years due to competition from Mexico and expensive labor costs to harvest the crop. But some growers have maintained limited acreage of the spring vegetable.

the product coming in from Mexico at the time. Later, his farm began harvesting seven days a week. Durst said he didn’t expect a slowdown until hotter tempera- tures arrive. In mid-April, it was already hot in Mexico, he said, and “the quality suffered,” even though imports and sales of Mexican asparagus continued. But Durst said his custom- ers are accustomed to the quality of domestic asparagus, and that translates to higher demand for his crop compared to competing products from south of the border. Even on its limited scale, California asparagus production accounted for 30.6% of U.S. asparagus receipts in 2021, according to CDFA. Even though acreage was smaller in 2021 than in 2020, the state’s asparagus production rose by 21%. Still, Durst said his farm grows half of the 300 acres of asparagus it used to. His oper- ation sells nationally, but he said he prefers to target the West Coast. He said he is looking to add another 35 to 40 acres this year, with new emphasis on purple asparagus. He may idle an equal amount of older fields, he said. “Purple asparagus is a good crop this year,” Durst said. “It is not quite as productive as green, but it costs the same amount to grow, and the price is 30% higher.” He said purple asparagus “sells well in the food service industry as it is attractive on the plate.”

Not so long ago, there were thousands of acres of asparagus planted in the San Joaquin River Delta. These days, only one or two growers with perhaps 100 to 200 acres remain in production there, said Brenna Aegerter, University of California Cooperative farm advisor in San Joaquin County. What changed? California growers simply “cannot compete with Mexico,” Aegerter said. Asparagus as a crop is not necessarily expensive to grow, she said, but the cost of labor to harvest it is huge. Aegerter cited a study indicating labor accounts for about 80% of California costs. Over time, she said, California farmers scrambled to plant alternative crops. With Mexico being the largest supplier of the vegetable for the U.S., the California Asparagus Commission ended its marketing activities in 2019. California had a peak 36,000 acres of asparagus in 1999, and acreage dropped from 22,500 in 2006 to 2,800 in 2021, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. But these days, remaining asparagus growers, including Jim Durst of Durst Organic Growers in Esparto, stand by the crop’s place in California. Durst, who has about 150 acres dedicated to asparagus, said “we’ve pretty much sold out” what his farm has harvested since April 1. In some ways, Durst said, the storms earlier in the year helped him by delaying the start of harvest. “We probably would have gotten clobbered,” he said, citing vast quantities of

See ASPARAGUS, Page 8

May 3, 2023 Ag Alert 7

Asparagus Continued from Page 7 Durst said he keeps growing aspara- gus for a simple reason: He has all the equipment and the packaging for it, so it makes sense to continue. Also, he is banking on an improving market and said he doesn’t want to start all over should demand for locally grown as- paragus rise. “Who knows how the world is going to change in the next few years,” he said. In Firebaugh, Fresno County, A-Bar Ag Enterprises started harvesting aspara- gus about three weeks later than usual this year and is cutting every day, said co-owner Jake Barcellos. A-Bar Ag has been growing asparagus for about 12 years. While Barcellos is also wary of competition from farms in Mexico with lower labor costs, he is bullish on the caliber of local asparagus and touts it as California grown in his marketing. “Our quality is what we hang our hat on,” Barcellos said. Like Durst Organic Growers, A-Bar Ag dedicates a small amount, about 5 acres of its 226 asparagus acres to a purple va- riety. For now, Barcellos said, it remains a variety with niche demand for customers. Generally, A-Bar Ag annually fills about 250 28-pound boxes of asparagus per acre from a mature field. The ranch has one younger field generating about 150 boxes of the same weight.

Jake Barcellos of A-Bar Ag Enterprises, examines asparagus harvested in Firebaugh. In the face of competition from Mexico, he relies on the market appeal of California- grown asparagus.

biggest asparagus-producing region in the state. “If that doesn’t sound ridiculous, it is,” Smith said, noting that 25 years ago San Joaquin County was the county flourish- ing with asparagus fields. Beyond water issues and the weather, Smith said thrips are the largest chal- lenge when growing asparagus. As the

weather warms, thrips can come out. “They don’t contaminate it, but they do scar the shaft,” he said, “and it looks terrible.” Smith agrees it is reasonable to plant purple asparagus, and Turlock Fruit pro- duces a very limited amount. (Nancy Vigran is a reporter based in Placer County. She may be contacted via news@cfbf.com.)

Just how long the operation will keep harvesting depends upon the demand, the box count per acre and whether heat causes the asparagus to fern out, dimin- ishing quality. A-Bar Ag partners with Turlock Fruit Co. in the asparagus business. Don Smith, owner of the packer and market- er, said Fresno County has become the

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Drones Continued from Page 6

its goals, he said. Increased public interest in prescribed fire has also helped boost the department’s resources, he said, as private landowners form their own prescribed burn associations, get trained to become burn bosses and secure grant funding to conduct their own burn projects “with very little assistance from Cal Fire.” But Nielson acknowledged that sched- uling prescribed burns remains tricky. Cal Fire must still write the prescription, which predicts flame lengths, what direction the smoke will go and how much of the mate- rial vegetation will burn. Air temperature, wind speeds, relative humidity and fuel moisture must also be right. “When all of those are in alignment in our favor, then we can light the match,” he said. Vegetation Continued from Page 3 The researchers concluded in their report that precision sprays “minimize the material used, reduce material cost and reduce off-target movement.” In a separate project, they are now studying the use of widespread damage to lettuce crops. Pest control results were repeated in a second organic trial as the camera-based system of applying the four materials again killed more thrips and cut the rate at which the pests infected lettuce.

With everything still “super wet” in higher elevations of the state, Tom Getts, University of California Cooperative Extension weed ecology and cropping systems advisor for Lassen, Modoc and Plumas-Sierra counties, said there’s “plen- ty of time” to reduce fuels, particularly in high-risk areas such as roadsides. He noted many annual grasses in the in- termountain region haven’t even started to head. Young plants can be treated with herbicide. Plants that are flowering can be mowed. But the best time to control annu- al grasses is in the fall before it rains and before weeds germinate, he said, noting there are pre-emergent herbicides that are safe on perennial species. Grazing can help manage weeds such as cheatgrass, which is widespread in drones in releasing beneficial insects. This year, California State University, Fullerton, started the first public drone ap- prenticeship program in the country with exacting requirements. Students begin with 11 units of courses to satisfy Federal Aviation Administration and Occupational Safety and Health Administration require- ments. Apprentices must also complete 600 hours of on-the-job training. Stehly said AB 1016 would allow the

California. The invasive annual grass can be good forage for cattle early in the year when it’s coming out of the ground, but once it starts to head, animals don’t like to eat it, Getts said. Some grazing can also help control medusahead, but it’s another weed that’s not very palatable for animals. Gett said this would be a good year for land managers to keep all weedy species from going to seed and becoming more prolific, especially in areas that have been impacted by wildfire. “Weeds really have the ability to take ad- vantage of that disturbance,” he said. “In the open landscape, there’s potential, especially in a year like this, for them to produce a lot of seeds and really gain more of a foothold.” (Ching Lee is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.) DPR to craft requirements more suitable for farmers who want to add drones to their pest-control toolbox. “I truly believe that drone-spray tech- nology will make pesticide and fungicide applications safer for the workers and more effective than the ground-based ap- plication,” he said. (Bob Johnson is a reporter in Monterey County. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)

tools for precise pesticide applications. UC Cooperative Extension entomology specialist Ian Grettenberger and USDA entomologist Daniel Hasegawa supervised trials using the same camera-based system as auto weeder-thinners widely used in California and Arizona lettuce production. Cameras mounted on tractors identified plant doubles and weeds in seed lines, and a spray rig eliminated them by precisely applying herbicide on unwanted plants. Although Hasegawa and Grettenberger used weeder-thinner tractor rigs in which cameras distinguish the crop from plants to be removed, cameras are already used on drones to map vegetation and vigor dif- ferences within large fields and vineyards. Grettenberger and Hasegawa reported promising results from their trials during the California Leafy Greens Research Board’s annual research conference in March. They said the camera-based pre- cision applications of four organic insec- ticides were all significantly superior to broadcast applications in knocking down thrips populations. The improved thrips control with the more precise application cut the rate of deadly impatiens necrotic spot virus in half or more, they said. Managing the pests is particularly important in the Salinas Valley, where thrips have spread the deadly virus in recent years, causing

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10 Ag Alert May 3, 2023

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