Ag Alert. April 12, 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.

Electric trucks EPA approves California mandate

Canning tomatoes Storms disrupt planting schedules

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www.cfbf.com • www.agalert.com APRIL 12, 2023

Trees & Vines ®

special report

By Christine Souza Local agencies for six San Joaquin Valley subbasins, facing possible state intervention after their groundwater sustainability plans were deemed inad- equate, learned more about next steps last week from California water officials. During a board meeting of the California State Water Resources Control Board, officials signaled a will- ingness to allow agencies to bring aqui- fer plans into compliance with state sustainability mandates. “The board’s role is intended to be temporary, so state intervention is not a replacement for a groundwater sus- tainability plan,” said Natalie Stork, state water board supervising engineering ge- ologist of the groundwater management program. “Our goal is to help get basins back on track with DWR (California Department of Water Resources), so it’s a temporary process.” The water board took no action on the issue but heard from staff about ways it could intervene in addressing inadequa- cy determinations for six rejected plans. They include plans for Chowchilla sub- basin, Delta-Mendota subbasin, Kaweah subbasin, Kern County subbasin, Tulare Lake subbasin and Tule subbasin. Under the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, the state intervention process begins with a de- termination by the board as to whether inadequacies identified by DWR warrant placing the basin in probationary status. The board makes its basin designations through a public process that includes notice and a public hearing. SGMA requires local agencies to adopt sustainability plans for high-priority and medium-priority groundwater basins. Local agencies must report annually and meet five-year milestones to bring aqui- fers into balance within 20 years. State officials said the six plans were missing information that the state needs See BASINS, Page 10 State water board weighs status of six aquifer plans

Mud and debris engulf an orchard in the Tulare County community of Exeter. Farmers in the state’s top citrus-growing region are undergoing cleanup during harvest. While more than 60% of the crop has been harvested, storms have disrupted some exports.

Tulare citrus farmers battle mud, debris

By Lisa McEwen Growers in Tulare County normally would be enjoying harvest and fragrant orange blossoms this time of year. But last month’s flooding is requiring an extensive cleanup operation and is a major challenge for the state’s top citrus-growing region. Flooding from multiple levee breaks in the east county Yokohl Creek carried

away newly planted trees, ripped out ir- rigation systems, washed away valuable topsoil and scattered debris across the farming landscape. Tulare County produces California’s largest share of navel and Valencia or- anges and mandarins. Now farmers there are dealing with standing wa- ter in groves, mucky sediment several

inches deep and chunks of driftwood strewn across their ranches. They continue shoring up banks and levees while, farther west, farmers and communities are faced with the resur- gence of Tulare Lake. The weather whiplash from prolonged

See CITRUS, Page 12

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How managing flood flows can help rescue aquifers By Thomas Harter, Mallika Nocco, Isaya Kisekka and Helen Dahlke As a changing climate stresses water supplies, a key focus for California is on how to manage flood flows in ways that store more water for drought years while reducing risk to life and infrastructure. A potential solution to this question is to enhance groundwater recharge, a nat- ural process in the water cycle that leaks water from rainfall, rivers or flooded areas into the subsurface. Natural recharge is no longer enough to refill our overtapped groundwater reserves. But intentional, managed aquifer recharge, or MAR, can help reduce flood risk and store more wa- ter for dry periods. enormous amount of equitable civic en- gagement. We must be creative and expe- ditious to improve water rights permitting for MAR and to facilitate joint reservoir and Flood-MAR operations. We need to modernize and increase the capacity of our water conveyance infrastructure to move much larger water amounts to managed recharge sites. Perhaps most importantly, we need to engage with a large number of landowners to fully realize the recharge potential of the agricultural and natural landscape on those few occasions when the opportunity arises.

Recent decisions by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California State Water Resources Control Board provide an opportunity for local water management agencies, groundwater sustainability agencies and landowners to proactively engage in finding creative solutions for more MAR, while increasing protection from unwant- ed floods. That helps in planning for the next wet winter for those MAR activities that need more time to build than we have at hand this spring. While a challenging undertaking, the lower cost compared to more surface water storage and the large benefits to the state’s water supply, ecosystems and communities make this a promising fu- ture. It will not solve all the state’s water problems, but managed aquifer recharge is the most promising approach to shift our water supply onto a sustainable path- way with more security. (Thomas Harter and Mallika Nocco are professors and Cooperative Extension specialists at the University of California, Davis, and Isaya Kisekka and Helen Dahlke are UC Davis professors. All study water management in agriculture. They may be contacted via thharter@ucdavis.edu.)

Following recent storms, University of California researchers flooded vineyards for managed aquifer recharge at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Fresno County.

Some MAR has been practiced in California for a hundred years by either in- jection of water directly into the aquifer or, more commonly, the diversion of stream water into percolation basins where wa- ter can seep into storage. To achieve rapid percolation of water from several inches up to several feet per day, managed re- charge basins need to be situated over portions of the aquifer that ensure water is quickly distributed underground into the broader aquifer system to avoid water “traffic jams.” California’s challenge is to greatly en- hance and modernize our existing MAR infrastructure. Under existing conditions, a landscape such as California’s Central Valley—covering 13 million acres, half of which are irrigated for agricultural produc- tion—provides between 5 million acre-feet in dry years to as much as 15 million acre- feet of recharge in the wettest years. To prepare for longer droughts with shorter, more intensive wet periods, California must find ways for storing ad- ditional millions of acre-feet of water into its aquifers in a matter of weeks to few

months while untapped flood supplies last. We need three pillars to achieve flood managed recharge, or “Flood-MAR,” infra- structure at this scale: 1. We need more “supercharging” re- charge sites. That involves identifying more places in the landscape that allow not only for rapid infiltration but also rapid distribution through natural underground sand and gravel channels that reach into the larger, less permeable parts of the aqui- fer system. In the Central Valley, so-called buried incised valley fills are among the most promising supercharging MAR sites. A hunt for those locations is ongoing, using 21st century aerial surveys of the under- ground and modern geophysical methods. 2. Our floodplains require reviving. Floodplains are natural places for MAR. They provide large tracts of land that are naturally accessible to flood flows when they occur. They also form living ecosys- tems to store water for weeks so water can percolate into the aquifer instead of

running to the ocean. 3. It is important to engage with our farmers to build healthy soils and use agricultural lands for MAR. Some san- dy farmland may be highly suitable as supercharging sites. Much agricultural land may lack such conditions. Instead, by their immense size of more than 9 mil- lion acres, California’s irrigated farmlands are key to facilitating the capture of large volumes of floodwater even if at mostly lower recharge rates, akin to millions of “trickle-charging” sites. Soil health prac- tices such as cover cropping can be used to help increase infiltration. We need to develop supercharging recharge sites as well as widespread, large-scale aquifer recharge in flood- plains and agricultural lands through a trickle-charging infrastructure that will increase current MAR rates 100- to 1,000- fold. Wet years occur only three to five times in 10 years on average. It will take investments in research, learning and an

VOL. 50, NO. 14

April 12, 2023

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2 Ag Alert April 12, 2023

Despite more water, most field crop plantings to drop

traditionally grown “a lot of cotton in the Tulare Lake bottom,” and with it being flooded, “there will be no cotton there this year.” “I doubt we hit 100,000 acres this year,” he said of cotton acreage. Wheat, most of it planted in the fall, is estimated at 355,000 acres this year, down from 380,000 acres in 2022. Acreage of durum wheat fell by 37.5%— from 40,000 in 2022 to a projected 25,000. If realized, total wheat acreage this year is among the lowest in state history and slightly higher than 2020’s 350,000 acres,

the lowest on record. Claudia Carter, executive director of the California Wheat Commission, said two factors may be pushing wheat acre- age down this year: increased plantings of triticale or other grain crops and planted wheat that has since been lost to flooding. She noted some flooded areas of Tulare had been used for growing wheat but is now “out of the picture.” “The positive note is that some dryland wheat grown in areas with some hills are

By Ching Lee Having more water this year has not necessarily boosted state plantings of field crops. Of the ones tracked by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, only three— corn, rice and dry beans—are projected to increase in acreage, according to the department’s prospective plantings re- port released on March 31. USDA made the acreage estimates based primarily on surveys conducted during the first two weeks of March. State corn acreage is expected to climb by 2.7%—from 370,000 last year to 380,000 this year. After water shortages forced vast swaths of Sacramento Valley rice ground to lay idle last year, the grain is expected to make a comeback this year, with 404,000 acres compared to 256,000 acres in 2022. USDA estimated medium-grain rice acreage will rise by 66%, while acreage of short-grain rice will go up 10%. California farmers also plan to grow 50% more dry beans, with 18,000 acres this year compared to 12,000 acres last year. Of dry beans, chickpea acreage is estimated to surge by more than 104%— from 2,200 acres in 2022 to 4,500 acres this year. In contrast, farmers nationwide are expected to grow 17% less chickpeas in 2023. Several crops are projected to see re- cord-low plantings, including barley, hay, sunflowers and upland cotton. Barley, with 40,000 acres in 2022, is ex- pected to drop to 35,000 acres this year. Hay of all types reached 830,000 acres during the past two years but is estimated to dip by nearly 5% this year with 790,000 acres. Farmers grew 33,500 acres of sun- flowers last year, but they expect to grow 31,000 acres this year. A surge in cotton prices last spring encouraged growers who had water to plant more acreage of the fiber, supplies of which had dwindled. But they chose to plant more pima cotton over the upland variety, acreage of which dropped 23% from 2021. This year, with upland prices back down to 2021 levels—about 83 cents a pound—farmers plan to grow even less upland. If realized, the 15,000 acres of up- land represent a record low for the state. Growers also plan to plant less pima this year—about 90,000 acres compared to 116,000 in 2022. Current pima prices— about $1.80 a pound—have plunged from their record high of $3.50 a pound seen last spring, according to Supima. Roger Isom, president and CEO of the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association, said he thinks weather may prevent more cotton from being grown this year, as it’s been too cold and wet to plant. Pima requires a longer growing season than upland. Competition for ground with process- ing tomatoes may also shrink cotton acreage, Isom said. Canners in January

agreed to pay growers a contract price of $138 per ton for tomatoes; that’s 31.4% more than last year’s price. In its January report, USDA project- ed state processing tomato acreage at 248,000 this year, up from 229,000 acres in 2022. (See related story on Page 14.) Isom noted that growers have

See PLANTINGS, Page 4

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April 12, 2023 Ag Alert 3

EPA allows California law phasing out diesel trucks By Caleb Hampton

federal Clean Air Act to set emission stan- dards for heavy-duty vehicles. “This is a big deal for climate action,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said after the EPA on March 31 gave California the greenlight to move forward with the rule. He added, “We’re getting more zero-emission heavy duty trucks on the roads, expanding our world-leading efforts to cut air pollution and protect public health.” Additionally, the air resources board is working on an Advanced Clean Fleets rule that would build on the ACT regulation, which focuses on manufacturers. The ACF rule sets deadlines for buses and trucking companies to transition their operations to electric vehicles over the next two decades. While the rules would curtail emissions, leaders in the trucking and agriculture sec- tors raised concerns about the readiness of the electrical grid, vehicle technology and charging infrastructure for such a large- scale transition to zero-emission trucks. “We are extremely concerned that the

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved California’s plan to phase out the sale of diesel-fueled heavy-duty trucks, including the big rigs that transport much of the state’s agricul- tural goods, in the state’s efforts to reduce pollution and carbon emissions. Under the state’s Advanced Clean Trucks rule, which was signed in 2020, half of all heavy-duty trucks sold in California will be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. The state plans to eliminate the sale of diesel-fueled trucks by 2045. The California Air Resources Board, which made the rule, emphasized that large diesel-powered trucks play an out- sized role in pollution and carbon emis- sions. The board said diesel trucks and buses represent around 3% of vehicles registered in California and produce more than half of its smog-forming gases and carcinogenic diesel pollutants. CARB had requested waivers from the

California air quality officials aim to accelerate the manufacture of electric trucks through clean air rules. So far, fewer than 2,000 medium-duty or heavy-duty electric vehicles are on California roads.

proposed ACF rule will be unworkable in the real world and could result in com- promising the delivery of essential goods and services to Californians,” a coalition of commercial, transportation and ag- ricultural organizations, including the California Farm Bureau, wrote last year in a letter to the air resources board. The rules would impact California farmers who have truck fleets, as well as all those who rely on trucking companies to transport livestock and fresh produce across the state. They say delays caused by charging issues could jeopardize ani- mal safety or the timely delivery of fruits and vegetables. “Our products are obviously perishable in nature, whether that be milk or toma- toes or livestock,” said Katie Little, policy advocate for the California Farm Bureau. “We certainly don’t want them on the road longer than they have to be.” Farm Bureau and other agricultural groups have raised questions about the lack of rural charging stations and the lim- ited range of zero-emission trucks. California has budgeted more than $5 billion for the transition to cleaner trucks and buses, but much of that work lies ahead. There are currently fewer than 2,000 zero-emission medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicles on California roads.

to plant some of these (field) crops,” Durst said. He planted less corn and more oat hay this year, “thinking if there was a drought, that I would be OK.” Durst planted wheat in the fall, but geese decimated the crop, so he replant- ed the field to barley in February. Though the geese are also eating the barley, he said it looks OK, as are his other crops in the foothills. With more water this year, Durst said he plans to plant his normal acres of rice, though there is now concern that growers won’t have enough time to plant all their ground due to oversaturated fields. In more typical years, farmers begin planting rice by April 20, he noted, but right now, there’s still standing water in the field. (Ching Lee is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.) “I’m all for going green, but let’s be re- alistic,” Martín Chávez, farmer relations director at Pacific Farm Management, a labor contractor in the Central Valley, said in a meeting with lawmakers last month. “When it comes to my commu- nity, we’re barely getting our first gas sta- tion in 2023.” There are other challenges for moving to electric vehicles. In California, the weight of a truck and its cargo cannot exceed 80,000 pounds. Batteries for electric big rigs can weigh up to 16,000 pounds, sig- nificantly cutting into the amount of cargo. “If your truck now weighs more, your load is smaller,” Little said. “That means more loads, because the same amount of product still needs to get somewhere, and you have to take more trips to do it.” Joe Antonini, owner of Stockton-based Antonini Freight Express, which trucks to- matoes, almonds, walnuts and olives, esti- mated his company may need 50% more vehicles to move its freight. Little noted there is an ongoing national truck driver shortage. She asked, “Are there going to be drivers to keep driving these trucks?” (Caleb Hampton is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at champton@cfbf.com.)

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seeing a great wheat crop thanks to the rain,” Carter said, adding that this may lend to more wheat grain being harvested for milling rather than livestock feed. As with other field crops in the state, wheat has been taking increasingly less acreage through the years as farmers switch to higher-value crops. Just 10 years ago, state wheat acreage reached 685,000—and this was during the state’s last major drought that lasted from 2012 to 2016. Yolo County farmer Fritz Durst said a lot of growers in his region planted wheat, but they are now taking it out to plant tomatoes because they have a full water supply. More and more ground has also been converted to permanent crops, he noted. “There’s just not as much land anymore

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4 Ag Alert April 12, 2023

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Pajaro Valley’s ‘King George’ built a growing legacy

By John Beck At 92, Guy George has heard it all. “A friend of mine likes to say, ‘There’s only one thing older than you, Guy, and that’s the dirt you farm,’” he said. He takes it as a compliment. Tilling the rich Pajaro Valley soil for the past “70 or so years,” he’s seen the produce business grow from small family farms to large operations that span the globe. Where once there were apricot and ap- ple orchards surrounding Watsonville, now there are sprawling berry farms and vegetable fields. Over the years, he learned the hard way that “a few things work and a lot of things don’t—that’s the nature of farm- ing.” In the ’60s, he sold cabbage under the “King George” label, with his name emblazoned on crates he drove past mid- night to deliver to Bay Area wholesale markets. In the ’80s, he turned to straw- berries and blackberries. He even tried his hand at organic farming. But, for the past 25 years, he’s been farming berries for Driscoll’s, and “it was by far the best decision I ever made,” he said. On a drive down San Juan Road in Watsonville, George and his Rancho Alitos business partner Arturo Diaz pulled over near a flower warehouse. In the distance, crews were working a 75- acre Rancho Alitos strawberry farm.

Guy George, left, farmed in Santa Cruz County for over 70 years, as small farms grew into global operations. He mentored numerous younger growers, including Arturo Diaz, walking beside him. “I learned things from him that I never thought I would learn,” Diaz said.

“I remember when this was all apples,” said George, standing in the dusty park- ing lot, his gold “Guy” belt buckle glis- tening in the sun. The flower warehouse was once an apple cannery where his fa- ther worked as a foreman. A few hundred

yards behind it, he and his family lived in a small house. “I was around 4 years old at the time, and I would run down to watch the freight trains go by. On top, there were hundreds of men traveling from one place to anoth- er because of the Great Depression. They were called ‘hobos,’ and they were from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee,” he recalled. “They would all wave to me. They were on the rails looking for a job. That’s when I realized how important this val- ley is that people came from all over to work here.” Born in Watsonville to first-generation Portuguese immigrants, George learned

early on that hard work was the key to success. At 12, he worked as a school jan- itor, later washing dishes in a local restau- rant. After graduating from Watsonville High School, he spent several years in the U.S. Navy before returning to farm the valley and take classes at San Jose State University, where he graduated with a business degree. He started out farming fruit trees, but it was cabbage that caught his attention early on. After several years of selling to suppliers, he decided to go out on his own and create King George cabbage, a royal idea suggested by the carton maker. “I had been struggling, not making See LEGACY, Page 16

2023 Annual Scholarship One Stanley W. Strew scholarship opportunity is available for students interested in careers in the pest management industry. This scholarship is sponsored by the California Association of Pest Control Advisers and administered by the Stanley W. Strew Educational Fund, Inc. The CAPCA scholarship will provide $3,000 to a selected college student. The scholarship recipient will be selected by the Stanley W. Strew Board of Trustees. Eligibility and Priority • Applications are available for students who are currently attending college in an agricultural/horticultural related field or who are entering or returning to college in an agricultural/horticultural related field in the fall of 2023. • Priority will be given to students at the junior or senior standing in the fall of 2023. • Master’s degree/ doctorate students are NOT eligible. • Students attending junior or community college ARE eligible. • Students who hold a DPR license (QAC, QAL, PCA etc.) ARE eligible. • Students who meet the eligibility requirements are invited to apply annually (even if they have received the scholarship previously). Applicants must submit a completed application form and copies of their transcripts. Applications must be postmarked by 5/5/23. Questions? Contact CAPCA at (916) 928-1625 or email scholarship@capca.com For more information, and to download an application, visit: CAPCA.com/Scholarships-Awards

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6 Ag Alert April 12, 2023

A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ® CALIFORNIA Trees & Vines ®

A patch of dried-out vines, often in brown or purple hues, is a symptom of a serious vineyard threat called sudden vine collapse. The grapevine disease has been detected in nine counties in California.

A vineyard pest spreads a destructive plant disease By Bob Johnson A little more than a decade ago, grapevines scattered throughout California began suffering from a malady called sudden vine collapse. Affected plants developed stunted shoot growth early. Later, some vines began dying off, leaving nothing but the trunks and bare cordons.

At the event organized by UCCE, Eskalen asked growers and vineyard managers if they had seen sudden vine collapse. About half of the attendees raised their hands. Eskalen said researchers have documented patches of dead vines in Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Tulare, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Stanislaus and Mariposa counties. He said examinations of afflicted plants revealed they suffered from a girdling of the graft between the rootstock and scion. Eskalen said it appeared that rootstocks vulnerable to the virus were trying to separate from infected scions. The ailment generally hits vines on rootstocks, such as Freedom, that are suscep- tible to viruses. “Girdling is the rootstock killing itself rather than be infected by the viruses,” Eskalen explained. The plants also suffered from root disorders that left them unable to take water and nutrients from the soil, he said. “The vines with this disease do not have the feeder roots that take up water and nutrients, but this is not a soil-borne disease,” Eskalen said. In healthy plants, fine feeder roots peak at bloom and again after harvest.

“You see stunted shoots early in the season, followed by sudden death of the vines in the summer,” said Akif Eskalen, a University of California Cooperative Extension plant pathology specialist. The viral diseases in plants suffering collapse have been in California vineyards for years without ever causing sudden vine collapse. Then a pest caused the threat to surge. “These pathogens were in the vineyards, and it was not a big deal until we had an effective vector, the vine mealybug,” Eskalen said. “Before the vine mealybug, there was no problem.” Eskalen, who has spent the past decade studying sudden vine collapse, discussed the vineyard threat last month during the Central Coast Wine Grape Seminar in Salinas. He described tracking the plant disease, investigating causes and devising management strategies for growers.

See COLLAPSE, Page 8

April 12, 2023 Ag Alert 7

Collapse Continued from Page 7

Soil-borne pathogens such as fusar- ium and macrophomina charcoal rot can cause young vine decline, which prevents new plants from ever becoming vigorous and productive. Mature vines suffering vine collapse did not have the diseases, Eskalen said. Researchers examined 405 vines suf- fering the malady. Some 96% tested pos- itive for grape leafroll virus. The vines generally also had other viruses. Once the vines have collapsed, Eskalen said, they will not recover, as damage from a cocktail of viruses just gets worse each year. A decade ago, a Southern California grower brought grape wood back from a trip to Israel. Researchers say the first vine mealybugs hitched a ride to California and steadily spread throughout the state. The vine mealybug is a particularly ef- fective insect vector. It hides from inspec- tion or insecticide applications, and it pro- duces three to seven generations a year. Often the most visible sign of a vine mealybug infestation is the honeydew that attracts ants, which can protect the vine mealybugs from predators. In 2020, Eskalen and fellow UCCE vi- ticulture farm advisors across the state produced a guide with management suggestions for sudden vine collapse.

Akif Eskalen, right, a University of California Cooperative Extension specialist in plant pathology, advises growers on managing sudden vine collapse. The disease is spread by the vine mealybug.

Their report, “Sudden Vine Collapse: Current Understanding of a Disease Complex,” may be found at ucanr.edu/ sites/eskalenlab/files/320825.pdf. In outlining the extent of sudden vine collapse in some areas of California, the

report noted, “In some cases, patches are so large that they can be seen via satellite images on Google Earth, with levels of loss that have caused growers to remove entire vineyards.” The report said Freedom rootstock, in particular, looks to be the most suscep- tible to sudden vine collapse. It recom- mended that, “in the case of replanting, farmers may want to start thinking about changing to less sensitive rootstocks.” The document also noted that the first step in a management program is to test suspect vines to confirm they have the complex of viruses that cause sudden vine collapse. If they test positive, the next step is to act decisively to make sure the infections are contained and do not spread to healthy areas of the vineyard. “Management for this emerging dis- ease should include tests to confirm co-infection of the viruses, removal of

infected grapevines and vector control,” Eskalen and fellow farm advisors wrote in the report. Containment may be difficult, howev- er, because nothing kills the viruses once they are in grapevines While growers can slow the spread and population increase of the vine mealybug, no one has found a way to eliminate this pest once it is established in a vineyard, Eskalen said. The answer may be to remove and re- place entire sections of the vineyard and to take care to minimize the danger of reinfection, researchers say. Unfortunately, Eskalen said, the only answer for some infected vineyards may be to write off the crop loss and just walk away from the problem. (Bob Johnson is a reporter in Monterey County. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)

2023 Health & Safety on the Farm and Ranch

California Farm Bureau is pleased to offer this year-long program of training sessions presented by Nationwide. Select topics will be presented in both English and Spanish. Members, enjoy access to free classes! Register for the upcoming training webinars. Trainings will be presented via Zoom. The Hazardous Agricultural Materials (HAM) training must be attended in person at a participating County Farm Bureau office or at the California Farm Bureau office in Sacramento. For a list of class dates and to register, visit cfbf.com/FBE or call (800) 698-FARM for assistance. You will receive a Zoom link and details two days prior to your selected webinar date.

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8 Ag Alert April 12, 2023

Tuolumne County ranchers process locally raised beef

By Caleb Hampton Leslie Hurst got an early start to cat- tle ranching. “My grandfather gave me my first calf when I was 6 years old,” she said. “I’ve been in the cattle business ever since.” As a small-scale rancher in Tuolumne County, she took pride in taking care of her cattle, running a hands-on ranch and raising all-natural grass-fed beef. “We’re out there feeding them and checking on them every day,” she said. Hurst, who retired from raising cattle in 2021, and a handful of other long- time ranchers in the area knew they had a product they wanted to market to local customers. “Instead of going to the grocery store and buying meat from Kansas, we wanted them to come to us and buy meat from Tuolumne County,” Hurst said. But regulations on the slaughter and sale of beef meant they had little choice but to put their cattle up for auction or sell them to various buyers. “It is really hard to raise your own cattle and take it from pas- ture to plate,” explained Lettie Beeman, another Tuolumne County rancher. Finally, in 2008, Rawhide Meats in Jamestown, the area’s only meat processing plant, went up for sale. Five

local ranching families, including Hurst and Beeman, bought it and went into business together. If they processed their own meat, they were allowed to sell it to customers. The owners started out processing some of their own meat, which they used themselves or sold at farmers markets, and providing cut-and-wrap services for ranchers and people raising animals on small farms or in their backyards. The locally raised meat was a hit and the business grew. “We just gradually ex- panded the retail side of it,” Beeman said. In 2014, when a pizzeria on Jamestown’s Main Street went out of business, Rawhide Meats rented the building and opened a retail store. Today, the same five families continue to operate the business—one part pro- cessing plant and one part retail store— located, as the crow flies, a few hundred yards from each other on either side of Table Mountain. While Rawhide Meats has grown, its primary selling point hasn’t changed. “Where did my food come from?” That’s a question co-owner Dick Gaiser said he hears more and more. At Rawhide Meats, “we can trace it every step of the way,” Gaiser said.

Co-owners Leslie Hurst, left, and Tricia Gardella work at Rawhide Meats in Jamestown. Five ranching families purchased the area’s only meat processing plant and went into business together.

While each of the co-owners does it a little differently, for the most part, their cattle are born on Jamestown and Sonora ranches and raised there, among low rolling hills and oak trees, until they are about 6 months old. At that point, Gaiser takes his cattle to the mountains to graze for a few months before bringing them back to the ranch to wean. “It’s all right here in this county,” he said. “People appreciate that.”

When the cattle are around 2 years old— or 1,800 pounds—the owners take six to eight head at a time to a slaughterhouse in Modesto. “I just realized there’s a time. If I can bring my calves up to that time, and I’ve given them two years of the best care they could possibly have, running free in a pasture,” Hurst said, “then I’ve done my part.”

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April 12, 2023 Ag Alert 9

Basins Continued from Page 1

to determine compliance. The plans must show a roadmap for how ground- water basins will achieve long-term sus- tainability by limiting overdraft, land sub- sidence and impacts to drinking water. Local groundwater sustainability plans, or GSAs, must implement near- term actions, such as expanding moni- toring programs, reporting annually on groundwater conditions, implementing aquifer recharge projects and design- ing allocation programs. Once plans are implemented locally, measures must continue even if basins are under state intervention. “With all of the deadlines that have come in on SGMA, agencies by and large have hit every deadline, which I think is a remarkable feat,” said Paul Gosselin, deputy director of DWR’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Office. “These are not easy plans to develop and work on, especially when there’s a lot of uncertainty and data gaps, which are in every basin.” Staff from the water board and DWR discussed the state intervention process by the board, which has the authority to step in to manage a basin if necessary. Stork explained that the board decides whether a probationary hearing is war- ranted. If so, a notice of a public hearing is issued and cities, counties and well

Local agencies in the San Joaquin Valley’s Delta-Mendota subbasin, which features the Delta-Mendota Canal, above, are working to fix deficiencies in state-mandated plans to bring groundwater supplies into balance within 20 years. The basin is one of six under scrutiny by state water officials.

owners are contacted. In the meantime, she said, the board collects data and fees while agencies work to fix deficiencies. “When the board puts a basin on pro- bation, it must identify deficiencies and actions to remedy those deficiencies,”

Stork said, adding that GSAs have time to address issues and continue to im- plement their plans during probation. “Any basin put on probation would have a minimum of one year before the board could (give) notice for the adoption of an interim plan.” One of the basins under scrutiny, the Delta-Mendota subbasin, spans six counties and has 23 groundwater sustainability agencies. “We’re fully committed to getting a groundwater sustainability plan that is not only adequate but that addresses sus- tainability into the future for our com- munities, our ecosystems, our farmers and our businesses,” said Jarrett Martin, chair of the Delta-Mendota subbasin and general manager of the Central California Irrigation District. “We do have a long history in our subbasin of working together, and with time, we will address these deficien- cies,” Martin said. “We’ve gone back to the drawing board, and we’re taking some honest criticism from DWR and making it a strong point for us to be very progressive and very active to get those deficiencies fixed.” Justin Fredrickson, California Farm Bureau environmental policy analyst, told the board he is encouraged by its “re- peated restatement of the board’s goal, recognizing that this (intervention) is a temporary process.” “Hopefully, state intervention in these various basins can be narrowly tailored and can build on the existing plans and work that has been done to date, and can line up as much as possible, so that we’re not wasting expense,” Fredrickson said. “The board and the state really need to be working together with the locals to get this right over the next 20 years.” For agencies put on probation, the board and staff discussed ways to get them back on the path to groundwater

sustainability, including by requir- ing meters on wells for more accurate extraction data. Matt Zidar, water resources manager for San Joaquin County, told the board that metering is not required under the statute. “It is going to be up to the state board to make some determinations based on good engineering evidence and science in terms of what would be appropriate,” he said. “Metering isn’t the only thing, and I get worried that when that is perceived as the hammer that is available to you, you are going to find that everything you encounter is going to need pounding, so I’d counsel on taking a look a little deeper beyond that,” Zidar added. “I think we can accomplish the same ends in terms of accurate volumetric reporting without requiring a meter.” Related to intervention, the board decided to meet again in two months to discuss the issue. E. Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the state water board, said, “There’s been an in- credible amount of progress actually that has been made.” “We need everyone to take these is- sues as seriously as I know everyone feels them to be, given how intense the drought has been these last years and how impactful they’ve been to so many of our communities,” he said. Of a total 94 groundwater basins re- quired to submit plans under SGMA, state water officials in March provided determinations for 24 basins and is re- viewing an additional 61 plans from 59 California high- and medium-priority basins submitted to DWR in January 2022. DWR said it anticipates issuing de- terminations for the remaining basins throughout 2023. (Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)

10 Ag Alert April 12, 2023

Study examines how to keep nitrates out of groundwater

process in which soil microbes transform nitrates into gaseous forms of nitrogen. “Those denitrifying microbes need to be stimulated to do the work,” said Dahlke. “What we have found is that if you do a little bit of irrigation before you start the flooding, increasing the soil moisture can get those microbes started, and they can take out more nitrate from the soil.” The timing and quantity of fertiliz- er applications are also major factors in reducing leaching. Although more growers are following high-frequency,

low-concentration practices to max- imize uptake by crops, Dahlke said there needs to be more emphasis on incorporating nitrogen transformation processes such as denitrification in the nutrient management guidelines that farmers follow. “Implementing thoughtful nutrient management plans will play a partic- ularly important role in participating farms,” Fidelibus added. (This article was originally published by the University of California, Davis, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)

With California enduring re- cord-breaking rain and snow and Gov. Gavin Newsom recently easing restric- tions on groundwater recharge, interest in “managed aquifer recharge” has nev- er been higher. One concern for farmers is ensuring that recharge doesn’t push nitrates from fertilizer into the ground- water supply. “Many growers want to provide farm- land to help recharge groundwater, but they don’t want to contribute to nitrate contamination of the ground- water, and they need to know how on- farm recharge practices might affect their crops,” said Matthew Fidelibus, a University of California Cooperative Extension specialist in the department of Viticulture and Enology. A recent study by UC scientists sheds new light on how nitrates move through an agricultural recharge site and how growers might reduce potential leach- ing. The study, published in the journal Science of the Environment, researchers analyzed data from two grape vineyards at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Fresno County—one flooded for two weeks, the other for four. A key factor in mitigating contamina- tion is understanding how much nitrate is in the soil at the outset, said study au- thor Helen Dahlke, a UC Davis hydrol- ogist and leader of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources’ strategic initiative on water. (See related commentary on groundwater recharge on Page 2.) In areas with little precipitation and cropping systems that require greater amounts of synthetic fertilizer, the accu- mulation of residual nitrate—resulting from nitrogen in the fertilizer not taken up by the plants—can be quite high. “The percentage of nitrates in some soils can really increase over the years, particularly if you have many dry years in a row where you don’t have access to irrigation water or natural precipitation flushing some of those nitrates out of the soil,” Dahlke said. While intense rains in recent weeks have helped dilute nitrate concentra- tions naturally, farmers looking to par- ticipate in recharge during the dry years ahead should consider flooding their fields with greater volumes of water. “If you’re doing this for the first time— on-farm recharge in the winter—check your residual soil nitrate levels because if they’re very high, you should apply a lot of water in order to make sure that the residual nitrate is diluted down,” said Dahlke, who added that growers should check their soil properties for suitability of recharge projects. She recommended using, as a “good first approximation,” the online Soil Agricultural Groundwater Banking Index map, a project led by Toby O’Geen, a UCCE soil resource specialist. Even before flooding the fields for recharge, there are several practices that

can lower initial nitrate levels and risk of leaching. Cover crops such as alfalfa and triticale, for example, can help take up residual nitrates that accumulate from fertilizing a main crop over time. Dahlke and Fidelibus—a co-author of the San Joaquin Valley vineyard study —both pointed to pre-flooding irriga- tion that encourages denitrification, a

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April 12, 2023 Ag Alert 11

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