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.
Preparing for wildfire State, federal agencies gear up for another intense season
Assessing theharvests Farmers report on sweet corn, mushrooms, leafy greens, more
Page 3
From the Fields, Pages 4-5
www.cfbf.com • www.agalert.com MAY 19, 2021
Field Crops ® Vegetables ®
s p e c i a l r e p o r t s
ByChristine Souza With very little water to spare this drought year, water districts struggling with limited or no supplies look to their counterparts in other districts to negoti- ate water transfers to add whatever flex- ibility they can. Districts on thewest side of theCentral Valley, both north and south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, face the prospect of receiving no water from the Central Valley Project. “Water transfers are absolutely criti- cal to preventing a disaster on the west side of the Sacramento Valley this year. Other than groundwater, it’s the onlywa- ter many of our folks have,” said Jeffrey Sutton, general manager of the Tehama- Colusa Canal Authority; the TCCA, a Irrigation districts look to transfers as water dwindles
See TRANSFERS, Page 15
Liz Elwood-Ponce, left, and her brother Kenny Elwood, owners of Lassen Canyon Nursery in Shasta County, look over a strawberry plant being grown as part of the company’s breeding program. Higher demand for strawberries has increased California acreage of the crop, boosting sales of transplants.
ByKevinHecteman Asmoreof California sinks intoextreme drought, Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked the Legislature to appropriate billions of dollars to address critical water needs. In the “May revise”—an update to the budgetproposalheinitiallysubmittedtothe Legislature in January—Newsomproposes tospendnearly$3.5billiononwater supply andresilienceprojects,withtotal investment reaching$5.1billionovermultipleyears. The revised budget lays out a number of water-related priorities: providing ac- cess to safe drinking water; building wa- ter-supply reliability and improving flood protection; immediate drought support; enabling improved data collection and monitoring; and restoring fish and wild- lifehabitat, reconnectingwildlifecorridors State proposes to add funding for water goals
High berry demand extends to transplants
ByChing Lee Fueledby increaseddemand,California farmers have devoted more acreage to strawberries this year. But limiting fac- tors such as availability of transplants and suitable land to grow the cropwill temper planting growth in the state—and how quickly farmers canreact tospikes insales. Farmers are looking for more ground
to expand strawberry acreage, said Mel Fernandez, a sales representative for LassenCanyonNursery inShastaCounty, which sells strawberry transplants to U.S. and foreign growers. He noted he has heard of strawberries being planted this year in areas that have not been used for the crop in 10 to 15 years, which has led to increased orders for transplants.
“This year for Lassen, we’ve got more business than we know what to do with,” he said. California strawberry acreage climbed to its highest level in five years, to 36,487 acres, up 3% froma year ago, according to the California Strawberry Commission. Every growing region in North America,
See BERRIES, Page 14
n e w s p a p e r
From the Fields........................ 4-5 Field Crops...................................7 Vegetables................................. 11 Classifieds........................... 18-19 Inside
Published by
See GOALS, Page 16
Forests need swift, decisive, strategic intervention ByDaveDaley
analysis intended to prevent negative out- comes haddelayedcritical activities. Restoring ecologies and making land- scapesmoreresilientmeanscultivatingex- perts in environmental analysis. It means supporting ranchers who are bringing home the next generation of agriculture and land managers. It means ensuring therearehealthy landscapes for futuregen- erations by investing in those who can do theboots-on-the-groundworkof reseeding and prescribed fire management. It is an all-of-the-aboveapproachthat rural stake- holdershavebeenbringing toCongress for years, inhopes thatCongresswould listen. Congress has been focused on the big picture, wallowing in the intransigence of theissue, rather thanpickingasolutionand makingitwork.Youimprovethehealthand resilienceofmillionsof acresof forest a few acresat a time, replicatedovermanyareas. There are options available to Congress andto federal agencies, if onlyyouwill avail yourselvesof them.Using“good” fire—pre- scribedfire—todecreasefuel loadingisone. Where conditions prevent the use of fire, prescribedgrazing should insteadbeused. I leave you with some of the closing words I shared during the worst days of recovery efforts on the Bear Fire: “And nowwe go on. What will happen? This is devastating emotionally and finan- cially. And I amnot sure of the next steps. I do know this: We must change our land management practices if we expect the West to survive.” (Excerpted from testimony before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands by Dave Daley, Butte County cat- tle rancher, chairman of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Federal Lands Committee and former California Cattlemen’s Association president.)
My family has spent five generations living, working and caring for the lands, waters andwildlife that inhabit our area— whilealsoensuringour communitieshave access to high-quality protein. From the beginning, stewardship of the landandactiveengagementwiththenatural
resources around mewas anecessary and inevitable out- come of our cattle operation. On pri- vate land, resource stewardship is ex- pected: You take care of the ground you own, not only because of pride in ownership, but also
The Bear Fire tore through Dave Daley’s grazing allotment in the Plumas National Forest last year. He says lack of active forest management has left forests vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires.
Dave Daley
The consequences of poor manage- ment, of poor adaptation tochangingcon- ditions have brought us to a place where weneedswift, decisive, strategic interven- tion to interrupt the current fire cycle that perpetuates negative impacts of drought, fire, loss of biodiversity, decrease inwater- shed health andmore. Unfortunately, this is not an academic exercise forme. In 2020, the Bear Fire consumed the mountains I have called home for my en- tire life. With it, the fire tookmy cattle, the hundred-year-old trees and the soil storeof nativeseedsforgrassesandshrubsthathold the topsoil, securestreambanksandare the forests’ lifesource. It tookdeerandbirdsand foxes. It destroyed homes and fences and outbuildings. For a time, it destroyedhope. I walked through smoldering trees and over hot ground, knowing the eco- system that had once been a thriving and complex system was now a hells- cape of ash and sterile dirt. Wemust do better, and often the ques-
tion is “how?” Those who want to protect forests, rangelands and grasslands have sought to do so at any cost. That protection has too oftenmeant preservation, which lim- its human interaction in an effort to keep ecosystems pristine. But that’s not how natureworks. Ecosystems are ever changing, influ- enced by actions and factors that may be miles—or years—away. Tokeepanecosys- temhealthy, it needs constant interaction and cultivation, the kind that takes coordi- nation among state, federal and non-gov- ernmental entities. This is the kindof coor- dinationandcooperationweseeongrazing allotments. It needs tobe replicated. After last year’s catastrophic fire season, California political officials, fire experts, natural resourcemanagersandprivateciti- zensfinallyagreedonafewbasicprinciples: Catastrophic fire conditions are pervasive, intervention isn’t optional, and thecurrent managementsystemhasfailed.Federaland state bureaucracy intended to be protec- tivehadbecomerestrictive.Environmental
becauseyourinputsdetermineyouroutput. Thesame is true forpublic landsgrazing allotments. Across theWest, federal agen- cies manage more than 250million acres for livestock grazing, with various levels authorized. These authorizations are based on robust environmental analysis and are adapted to ecosystemconditions. Livestock grazing is the only multiple use thatpays to improve the landscapeson which it occurs, leaving the resourcemore resilient.Moreover, thesegrazingactivities are the first line of defense against threats facing incredibly expansive ecosystems. Wildfire is chief among those threats. West-wide, ecosystems have changed. Overcautious policy to correct real or per- ceived wrongs in stewardship resulted in decreased active management of forests, grasslands and rangelands. The result : dense canopiesmore prone to fire, range- lands overgrown by invasive species after abnormally hot fires, and fires that seem impossible to stop.
VOL. 48, NO. 19
May 19, 2021
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2 Ag Alert May 19, 2021
State, federal agencies plan for intense wildfire season
tributing factor and increase that probabil- ity,” said Robert Spiegel, a California Farm Bureaupolicyadvocatewhoworksonwild- fire issues. “When you already have signifi- cantly dry fuel loads in the environment, coupledwith a greater propensity forwild- fire, it canbe theperfect storm, so to speak, for another record-breaking fire season.” In the face of these conditions, the May state budget revision allocates $1.24 billion in wildfire and forest-re- silience funding over two years. Of that, $536 million has already been allocated through Senate Bill 85, an early budget
bill enacted in mid-April. The revised budget proposes to spend the remaining $708million in five catego- ries: resilient forests and landscapes;wild- fire fuel breaks; community hardening; science-based management; and forest sector economic stimulus. Spiegel said the figure represents a significant state investment in wild- fire projects, noting that the California Forest Improvement Program, or CFIP, would receive $50 million in total; the
ByKevinHecteman Amid a drought and predictions of an above-average wildfire season, state and federal officialspledgedmoneyandatten- tion to try to avoid a California fire season suchas theone that burned4millionacres and killed 34 people in 2020. The May revi s ion to Gov. Gavin Newsom’sproposedbudget boosts spend- ing on various state wildfire projects to more than $1.2 billion. The need could be urgent. The direc- tor of the U.S. Department of the Interior OfficeofWildlandFire, JeffRupert,warned last week that widespread drought condi- tions, worse thanat this time in2020, “will soon lead to above-average fire potential acrossmany areas in theWest.” “Another difficult year is expected in California, due to extensive drought throughout the entire state,” Rupert said Finished-cattle discussions held At therequestof theLivestockMarketing Association, several farmandcattlegroups havemet todiscuss challenges involved in themarketing of finished cattle. Leaders of the American FarmBureau Federation, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Farmers Union, R-CALF USA and the United States Cattlemen’s Association convened this month in Phoenix, Arizona, to talk about topics including packer concentration; price transparency and discovery; pack- er oversight; Packers and Stockyards Act enforcement; level of captive supply; and packer capacity. The groups said Monday their goal is to bring about amore financially sustain- able situation for cattle feeders and cow- calf producers. They also said they have agreed to take action items to their respective organi- zations for consideration: expediting re- newal of U.S. Department of Agriculture Livestock Mandatory Reporting, includ- ing formula-based prices subject to the same reporting requirements as negoti- ated cash and the creation of a contract library; demanding the Department of Justice issue a public investigation status report and, as warranted, conduct joint DOJ andUSDA oversight of packer activ- ity; and encouraging investment in, and development of, new independent, local and regional packers. In their joint statement, the groups said themeetingbrought together diversepro- ducer organizations to identify issues and discusspotential solutions. The issues and action-item lists are not comprehensive, the groups said, adding that participat- ing organization representatives “were pleased to have reached consensus on many issues and are committed to the ul- timate goal of achieving a fair and trans- parent finished cattlemarketing system.”
during a news conference. More than94%of the statewas insevere drought or worse as of May 11, accord- ing to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Nearly three-quartersof it—73%—was inextreme or exceptional drought. “Whiledroughts don’t necessarilymean we will have larger wildfires in the state, drought conditions candefinitelybe a con-
See PREVENTION, Page 13
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May 19, 2021 Ag Alert 3
Celeste Alonzo RiversideCounty vegetable grower The COVID
clouds are finally, slowly starting to dissipate in the Coachella Valley. We were lucky to be one of the first places in the state to vacci-
THE NEXT DROUGHT IS COMING, PROTECT YOUR WATER SUPPLY…
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nate farm employees. With all the COVID measures in place, plus vaccinations, our employees feel more comfortable and at ease going to work. The weather really affected some crops this season. We had record winds. This led to stressed plants, fruit fall and a delayed harvest. Labor has been an issue as well; labor costs are very high. The markets have been hit or miss. Regardless of those obstacles, spring harvest is underway in the Coachella Valley. Junior Enterprises is currently harvesting sweet corn, eggplant and bell peppers. Colby Pereira MontereyCounty vegetable grower With the re-
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miles of valley floor are now a picturesque landscape of varying shades of greens, reds and purples—a wonderful depiction of the incredible variety of crops produced in this region. Colder weather and lack of rain had crops taking their time in maturing, but a stretch of warmer days has things picking up quickly. Pest and disease issues con- tinue to be on growers’ radar, particularly Pythium, thrips and INSV, which have unfor- tunately continued to appear widely here on the Central Coast. Coming off a dry winter certainly begs the question of whether or not it will be a “buggy” year. Speaking of a dry winter, water remains a hot topic. With the two large reservoirs at the south end of the valley and the Salinas River exhibiting marginal storage, producers will continue to monitor water supply and practice efficient irrigation, which is common practice already. As the day-to-day continues, our Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin is in the final stages of preparing a groundwater sustainability plan for the majority of our sub-basins that will be submitted prior to next January’s dead- line. The process has been a heavy lift and has certainly presented challenges, but is a work product our region can be proud of, having brought together various stakehold-
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ers from throughout the region to discuss and adopt a plan intended for long-term sustainability of groundwater in the region. We continue to evaluate local infrastruc- ture. The Highway 101 corridor that runs through the valley is certainly busier this time of year, with people, equipment and product being moved. Being the sole thor- oughfare for not only our local community and ag economy, but also a statewide route that moves product nationally, has local stakeholders evaluating improvements that will be necessary for the continued movement of goods in the future and, most importantly, a safe route for all motorists.
cardboard boxes have gone up. Anything that is a supply item has gone up like crazy. There’s been a shortage because the supply chain has been disrupted, and there’s things that we get from China that aren’t getting offloaded in time. We’re just happy to get what we can get, so we’ve been scrambling. Where we can, we have to cover our costs. Since prices of those items have gone up, we have to charge more, so people will start seeing a little uptick in pric- ing for things that require a lot of packaging. Also in 2021, labor costs have gone up across the board. Where normal (working) time used to be maybe 50 hours a week, this year it’s 45 hours. They’re trying to get agricultural workers overtime after eight hours, so that’s creating more of a cost for the farmer. It’s a benefit for the employee; I can understand that, but it’s a bigger cost for the farmers. For the summer, we’re scaling back. Mushrooms are a year-round product and it’s all grown indoors. We have employees that will leave around this time of year, because they’ll get paid higher wages (picking) berries or chilis, so we do have a little bit of a problem with labor. When I talk to other mushroom farmers, they’re saying they’re not picking what’s called the third break. When we do a crop, we grow it until it’s mature and then we pick them off. It grows back, and that’s the second break. Those get picked off, and then there’s a third break. People scale back by not pick- ing the third break because of lack of labor or there’s overtime costs involved. During the summer, there’s always a little bit of
scale-back, at least for us—not a whole lot, but maybe 5% to 10%. Once all the (other) crops are finished in September, then the workers all come back, because we’re one of the few crops that are here for the fall, winter and early spring. Joe Colace Imperial County farmer We grow a lot of melons this time
is more stable here. The one area that right now remains a little more inconsistent is labor availability, and when I say labor, I mean true, qualified labor. There’s been labor shortages, not just in the field harvest but also in the semi drivers who move product from the farm community into the different cities, so that’s made it a little more difficult. A year ago at this time during the pan- demic, the food-service sector was strug- gling. Now, your restaurants are starting to open up. The consumer last year was very focused on the grocery store. Currently, you are seeing more of the population returning to restaurants and some of what we might refer to as food-service items, but we do think retail has remained strong and are hopeful that that will be the case. We are up in acres from a year ago to this point. We’re probably up 10% to almost 15% on sweet corn acreage and probably up 5% to 8% in the melon category. We would like to believe we’re very close to upper management within the retail sector, and we try to maintain a very open line of communi- cation with them on what trends they see in what specific commodities or varieties, and then we try to react to that. To our readers: I f you wou l d l i ke t o be a contributor to From the Fields , please submi t your name, county and contact information in an email to agalert@cfbf.com.
of year, along with sweet corn. We’ve been in our sweet corn harvest go- ing into our sixth week; we started a couple of days
Christine Kubogamell SantaClaramushroomfarmer
It seems like demand has been picking up since the worst part of the pandemic over the holidays, when everything was shut down. Cafes and the
late for what we consider to be normal. The cooler spring had an effect, but our quality has been nice. We’re also now harvesting the melons—the cantaloupes, the honey- dews, the variety melons. All in all, we’re real pleased with how things have started with both production and quality. It’s all about weather, and right now the weather seems to be very favorable for the early summer crops, and that really has been exceptional for the quality—and very dry conditions. Of course, that’s kind of a double-edged sword. We need rain desper- ately in the western United States. Down here in the Imperial Valley, we receive Colorado River water. We’re one of the high-priority areas, based off our past water agreements that were estab- lished way back at the turn of the 20th century. With that, our water availability
places where you sit down, we’re starting to see some of those customers come back. We do have our retail side, and that definite- ly has been steady. With COVID, it changed people’s habits: Instead of dining out, they cooked at home. People are still kind of in that new habit. The demand is there, but the problem is that our costs have gone so high. For exam- ple, our tills for the grocery store baskets have gone up. Baskets have gone up. The
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May 19, 2021 Ag Alert 5
Farm Bureau seeks more flexibility for conservation ByDaveKranz
be included in emerging climate policy discussions,” he said. Johansson also emphasized the need to ensure sufficient disaster assistance for farmers and ranchers, such as the Wi ldf ire and Hurr icane Indemni ty ProgramPlus, or WHIP+. In encouraging long-term adoption of climate-smart agricultural practic- es, financial and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers must be “consis- tent, sustainable and long term,” he said. Technologies and conser vat ion practices that are “readily understood, scalable and easy to implement” will be most likely to be used on farms and ranches, Johansson said, adding that farmers must also have “a full under- standing” of any tradeoffs from pests, costs or regulatory ramifications. “This should be coupled with funding and emphasis on agricultural research and extension,” he said. “To further the adoption of on-farm climate-smart practices, we must not only compensate early adopters but also consider the economics of the farm and assist those being expected to do more,” Johansson said. “Only inworking togeth- er can we achieve solutions that make agriculture more climate resilient while remaining viable.” Inresponsetoaquestion,healsowarned that programsmust remain flexible. “As farmers, we get a lot of programs that start out as carrots and can end up as a stick,” Johansson said. “We have to re- member that, as the climate can change, so toocanconditionson the farm, in terms of what works andwhat doesn’t work.” Johansson was joined on the panel of presenters by Charles “CJ” Isbell Jr., a farmer from Virginia; Kimberly Ratcliff, a ranch manager from Texas; and Keith Paustian, a professor of soil and crop sci- ences fromColorado State University. (DaveKranz is editor of AgAlert.Hemay be contacted at dkranz@cfbf.com.) Projects seek better data on snowpack Measuring snow, and forecasting how much may be available for future water supply, has taken on increasing impor- tance—andtheU.S.BureauofReclamation will invest $2.5 million in improving its ability to assess the snowpack. Oneproject looks at betterways tomea- sure snow in the San Joaquin River water- shed, augmentingplannedAirborneSnow Observatory flights. “This information is critical to the oper- ations at Millerton Reservoir and the San Joaquin River Settlement when water is needed early in the runoff season to sup- port salmon restoration,” the bureau said. Other research supported by the grants will employ satellite technology andartifi- cial intelligence to improve snowpackand water-supply forecasting.
Land that produces food and farm products also provides crucial conser- vation and climate benefits—and feder- al conservation programs must focus on keeping working lands working, accord- ing to California FarmBureau testimony before a congressional subcommittee. California FarmBureauPresident Jamie Johanssontestifiedvirtuallylastweekbefore theU.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee onConservationandForestry. Johansson said the California Farm Bureau supports “enhancing and ex- panding” the ability of farmers, ranchers and foresters to participate in voluntary, climate-smart practices that sequester carbon, reduce greenhouse gas emis- sions and build climate resilience. “Our farmers and ranchers have a proven track record of doing more with less,” he said, noting farmer investments in water recharge, irrigation efficiency, energy conservation, cleaner-running farmequipment andnumerous other on- farm conservation practices. “With so much already happening at the field level, it is important to consider how new federal policies and programs will overlay with existing state climate programs and grower-led initiatives,” Johansson said. To achieve the best results, he said, fed- eral conservation programs must retain
California Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson testifies virtually about federal conservation programs before the U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry.
and enhance their flexibility to incorpo- rate all crop types and farm sizes. “The cost of productionper acre aswell as the value per acre of each crop will in- fluence which practices and which in- centives are most attractive,” Johansson said in a written statement supplement- ing his oral testimony. Because of that, he encouraged the subcommittee to focus on “broad and inclusive” practices that emphasize “a list of options as opposed to a prescrip- tive checklist.” “Every farm, every ranch and ev-
ery field has a different story to tell,” Johansson said. “Producers should be able to choose which outcome-based practices best fit their operation.” For example, he said, cover crops can be an effective tool, but might not be practical among all the 400 differ- ent crops and commodities produced in California, which are grown under a wide variety of cropping systems and farm sizes. “A one-size-fits-all approach, or em- phasizing only one or few practices, will not be thebest path forward for American agriculture, especially in states like California that produce large amounts of specialty crops,” Johansson said. Noting that he and his family have been forced to evacuate due to wild- f i res on three separate occas ions, Johansson urged the subcommittee to include forestry and grazing prac- tices as strategies to restore forest and rangeland health. “This makes it critically important that federal, state and private forest and rangeland stakeholders across owner- ship types, including grazing permittees,
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C A L I F O R N I A
FieldCrops A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®
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A drone hovers near a farm field during a University of California Cooperative Extension field day. Recent work by UC researchers shows the potential for using unmanned aerial vehicles to apply insecticides to control worm damage in alfalfa fields.
In test, drones apply insecticides to alfalfa fields ByBob Johnson
There have been other UC trials using drone application of crop protectionmaterials, with promising results. Giles described “good experience” with fungicide or insecticide applications in grapes, and “good deposition” with hull-split treatments in orchards. Giles is a specialist inengineering for pest control andplant protection, particularly the development of target sensing and sprayer control technology. The 2020 UC trials were conducted in two Yolo County alfalfa fields, with both drone andairplaneapplicationof the insecticidePrevathon, which is activeonchewing insects. Water-sensitive paper spray cardswere set in the alfalfa fields to compare coverage using the two applicationmethods. “The results of the spray cards showed that both thedrone andairplane insecticide ap- plicationmethods had equivalent spray coverage,” the researchers reported. “The drone applicationhad a bitmore variability in terms of depositionuniformity than the airplane application, but this was not due to inherent qualities of the drone, but instead that the drone-based spray technology needs to be fine-tuned.” Theairplanehadaminimumcoverageof 4.1%, ameancoverageof 8%andamaximum coverage of 12.9%. The drone provided aminimumcoverage of 2%, amean coverage of 9.8%and amaximumcoverage of 19.3%. The researchers reported“fewdifferences” in residue concentrations of the insecticide
Drones could prove to be a valuable tool for applying insecticides in situations where an infestation is too localized formanned aircraft tomake sense and employee shortag- es or field access issues make ground applications difficult, according to University of California research. The numbers are in fromworkUC researchers did last summer, comparing drone and airplane applications to control worms in alfalfa—and the drones looked promising. “Weevaluated theefficacyof drones compared toairplanes for applying insecticides for summer wormcontrol in alfalfa hay fields,” saidUCCooperative Extension farmadvisor Rachael LongandUCDavisprofessorof biological andagricultural engineeringKenGiles. “Therewerenodifferences inthesummerwormcountsbetweenthe twoaerial application methods, with both the drone and airplane applications significantly reducing summer worms compared to the untreated control.” Drones are alreadywidelyused for agricultural applications inother parts of theworld, they said, and likelywill be here too, once regulatory barriers are overcome. “Drone technology is being used in China and other areas in Southeast Asia, but not commonly intheU.S. yet,”Longsaid. “We’reconfident theywill beusedmore inthe future. Use of drones—UAV or unmanned aerial vehicles—for pesticide applications in agricul- tural crops is escalating and becoming a reality for farmproduction.”
See DRONES, Page 8
May 19, 2021 Ag Alert 7
Drones Continued from Page 7
plication of pesticides for pest control in alfalfa fields,” the researchers concluded, with“nosignificant differences” in insecti- cide coverage, residueandsummerworm control between the drone and airplane applicationmethods. Part of the minor differences in perfor- mancecouldbeattributedtotheshortperi- odof time inwhichresearchers andothers have been fine-tuning drone technology. “Airplanes have been used for applying pesticides for 60-plus years, and the tech- nology is refined,” the researchers noted.
“Dronesarenewandthere’sabitmorework that needs tobedone to fine-tune themfor optimumpestcontrol inagricultural fields.” One potential advantage of drone ap- plication, if the details can be worked out, would be the ability to control pests eco- nomically inarelativelysmallareaofafield, without having to treat the entire field. “Drone technology provides an addi- tional tool for growers to control pests on farms, supplementing traditional ground and aerial spraying practices,” Long said. “This could be especially helpful where
there’s a shortage of farm labor for apply- ingpesticides or for small, tough-to-reach places that require spot treatments.” In addition to refining the uniformity of application, drones face regulatory re- strictions that could delay their use. Giles said the federal government maintains a 55-pound weight limit on drone carrying capacity that severely restricts applica- tions—and he said that limit is unlikely to be changed easily or quickly, because the Federal Aviation Administration doesn’t have a blanket procedure for approval. “You’re going to be in line behind a lot of large commercial enterprises,” he said. “The good news is that they will probably blaze the trail and at least leave a process in the FAA.” There are also licensing requirements for drone pilots, but Giles said California is ahead of most states. “The California ag pilot unmanned li- cense is now an established process,” he said, adding that a pilot can take the ap- prentice unmanned ag pilot exam at any time“andstart theone-year clock. Inother words, it’s smart to do it now and get the clock going.” Gilesownscommercialmannedaircraft and journeymanmanned agricultural pi- lot licenses, andsaidtheapprenticeperiod can be productive and easily arranged. “You can get your 50 rotary-wing su- pervisedhours at any time in that year,”he said. “Apilot canmake the applications as an apprentice (under supervision), so it neednot necessarilybedead time forhim. You could perhaps get hired on at one of the currently licensed UAV spray oper- ations. They are often looking for pilots. Practically, inabusy season, youcouldget those 50 hours in aweek or 10 days.” ( Bo b J o hn s o n i s a r e p o r t e r i n Sacramento. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.) Easement protects Madera-area ranch Calling the biodiversity of the property “just stunning,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it had completed aconservationeasementonthe3,602-acre McKinney Ranch inMadera County. Th e USDA Na t u r a l Re s ou r c e s ConservationServiceCaliforniaofficesaid the Sierra Foothill Conservancy had part- nered with it, the California Department of Conservation and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamationtoacquire thevoluntaryease- ment on the ranch. NRCS State Conservationist Carlos Suarez described the ranch as “a unique rural landscapewitharichagriculturalher- itage,”whichalsocarriesecologicalbenefits including vernal pool wetlands, miles of winding creeks and hundreds of common and imperiledplant andwildlife species. The McKinney Ranch became the most recent California property protect- ed through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program-Agricultural Land Easements. NRCS said it holds 129 ease- ments in California through the program, totaling 56,189 acres.
on the alfalfa plants between drone and airplane applications, using both5-gallon and 10-gallon spray rates per acre. Moretothepoint, theysaid,bothapplica- tionmethods looked effective in knocking downpopulationsof summerwormpests. Beet and western yellow striped army- worms and alfalfa caterpillars were sam- pledusinga sweepnet inboth treatedand untreated areas of both fields. “Dronesareaviableoption for aerial ap-
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8 Ag Alert May 19, 2021
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Strawberries become eligible for new crop insurance California strawberry farmersmay now apply for a pilot crop insurance program. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said its Risk Management Agency now makes available to California farmers the Production and Revenue History Strawberry Pilot crop insurance program. Applicationshaveopenedandwillbeac- cepted through July 1 or Sept. 30, depend- ing on the planting period for the straw- berry crop. RMA said the coverage will be effective startingwith the 2022 crop year. The agency said the Production and RevenueHistorypolicywas developed for specialty-crop farmers. Under PRH, farm- ersmay purchase coverage basedon their own production and revenue histories, which RMA said “results in a more accu- rate and tailored insurance product.” For strawberries, thePRHpilotpolicyof- fers farmers a choice among yield protec- tion and two plans of revenue protection, known as Revenue or Revenue Plus. “The coverage accounts for each pro- ducer’s unique marketing practices, in- cluding any price premiums,” RMA said. The agency said the PRHprogramalso: • Enables farmers to insure their acre- age under a Catastrophic policy under the yield-protection plan, whichRMAde- scribedas “a lowlevel of coverageavailable for a single administrative fee payment.” • Offers optional units by geographic location, crop type, organic practice and planting period. • Provides for several planting periods: a summer planting period for Fresno and Mercedcounties; awinter plantingperiod forMontereyandSantaCruzcounties; and both a winter and summer planting peri- od for SantaBarbara, SanLuisObispoand Ventura counties. Crop insurance is sold and delivered through private insurance agents; a list of crop insuranceagents isavailableatUSDA Service Centers and online via the RMA Agent Locator: www.rma.usda.gov/en/ Information-Tools/Agent-Locator-Page.
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10 Ag Alert May 19, 2021
C A L I F O R N I A
Vegetables A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®
®
Warmer summertime temperatures forecast for California by 2050 could render some current tomato-growing regions too hot for the crop, according to University of California researchers who com- pared climate models with the growing-season temperature needs of key vegetable crops. UC says it will use the analysis to focus future research to help farmers adapt to the anticipated changes.
Analysts predict climate impact on vegetable crops ByBob Johnson
She discussed the team’s findings during awebinar sponsored by SeedCentral, a pub- lic-privatepartnershipthatbrings togetherUCDavis researchersandstudentswithprivate companies in the region, to help bring science tomarket faster. “Climate affects temperature, precipitation and greenhouse gases, and these interact to determine where different crops can be grown,”Marklein said. “This is critical for the food security of the country.” The researchers lookedat a rangeof climateprojections for different areas of California during thecourseof theyear in2050. They thencomparedtheprojectionswiththegrowing needsof fivevegetables forwhichCalifornia iscrucial tonational supply: tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, carrots and cantaloupe. The shift of suitablegrowingareas couldhavenational implications, becauseCalifornia farmersproduce94%ofU.S.-growncarrots, 90%of thebroccoli, 73%of the tomatoes, about two-thirds of the cantaloupes andmore than half of the lettuce. Marklein said four of the crops would require shifts in planting dates or growing areas, but thereshouldbe relatively littlechange inthe total productivegroundduring thecourse of the year. But tomatoes might face a rocky future, she said, because a warmer climate could leave much of the Central Valley too hot for the crop during the heart of the tradi-
Warmer temperatures couldmake somekeygrowingareas of theCentral Valley toohot for tomatoes in the summer by themiddleof the century, leaving ideal temperatures only during periods of the spring and fall that wouldbe too short to produce a crop, according to analysis by a teamof University of California researchers. Among other crops, lettuce could become subject to unacceptable levels of tip burn if temperaturesbecomeevena fewdegreeswarmer duringmuchof the traditional growing season in the San Joaquin Valley, desert region and even in areas of the Salinas Valley during thesummer—but researchsuggestswarmer temperatureswould increasesuitable ground near the coast during thewintermonths. In addition, the researchers said broccoli might benefit if warmer winters made for a longer growing season that extends through thewinter in some areas of the state. “Climate can affect where crops are grown, when they are grown, how they are grown andwhich varieties are grown,” saidAlisonMarklein, aUCRiverside project scientist. Marklein led the research team that compared climate models for different areas of the state up to the middle of the century with the growing-season temperature needs of key vegetables. The project aimed to anticipate shifts in where and when these crops could be grown, and to help focus research efforts to best aid vegetable farmers in adapting to warmer times.
See CLIMATE, Page 12
May 19, 2021 Ag Alert 11
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