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
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April 12, 2023 Ag Alert 3
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