California
farm belt shrivels [Wall Street Journal]
Two
years of dry weather and regulatory water cuts are taking a mounting toll on
California's giant farm belt, forcing farmers to idle more fields and workers
even as much of the rest of the Golden State continues to recover from a
debilitating recession. As they did last year after a dry winter forced state
and federal water managers to cut their allotments, farmers here in the Central
Valley again this year are letting fields go fallow after being advised they
would receive as little as 20% of their contracted supplies of water from the
mountains of Northern California….Farmers blame the water shortages on a system
they say exacerbates the impact of periodic dry spells, such as when flows are
shut off in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta because of federal restrictions to
protect species such as the endangered smelt.…For now, farmers are making do
the best they can. On his family's 3,600-acre farm near here, Dan Errotabere
recently drove his truck past some of the 600 acres of fields he is letting go
fallow this year—almost twice as much as last year.
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Drought
conditions threaten Sacramento River salmon [Sacramento Bee]
In
a sign of growing drought in California, state officials recently took the
unusual step of loosening environmental water quality rules in hopes of
protecting salmon in the Sacramento River.…The problem is that Shasta Lake, the
largest in the state, risks running out of cold water before salmon migrate
upriver from the ocean for their fall and winter spawning runs….The state board
also allowed Reclamation to meet water quality standards in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta that apply to a "critically dry" year, one notch worse
than the "dry" conditions that had prevailed….This may be a problem
for some Delta farmers, who draw irrigation water directly from the estuary and
often lose crop productivity when the water gets saltier.
Fields
of dreams? [New Times San Luis Obispo]
…What
the industry has long understood—and what the Washington beltway is beginning
to admit—is that increased border enforcement needs to be paired with legal
ways for workers to enter the country....Ryan Talley, partner at Talley Farms
in Arroyo Grande, is a third-generation farmer….In the last few years, it’s
been harder to secure enough seasonal workers during these months, Talley told
New Times. “Last year we were down 20 percent as far as labor was concerned,”
he said. “We lost some peppers in the ground that we weren’t able to
harvest.…Farmers across the Central Coast have seen similar labor shortages.
This has meant some crop loss—usually minimal—but growers have mostly been
adjusting in anticipation that when the peak season hits, there won’t be enough
hands for the harvest….This area is no special case; the entire state’s
agriculture industry has seen a labor shortage, especially since 70 percent of
farmworkers in California and Arizona are undocumented, according to the
Western Growers Association. Last year, the California Farm Bureau Federation
conducted a survey of its members, publishing the results in a 2012 report
titled “Walking the Tightrope: California Farmers Struggle With Employee
Shortages.” The report compared non-labor-intensive crops and labor-intensive
crops, and 61 percent of all respondents reported experiencing worker
shortages. Of those with labor-intensive crops, 71 percent saw shortages….For
Greg France, one of the largest strawberry producers in San Luis Obispo County
and the Santa Maria Valley, it has meant some tough decisions. This year he
chose not to plant 120 of his 400 acres, he said, instead leasing to a
vegetable grower.
Tulare
County dairies squeezed by high feed costs, low milk price [Visalia
Times-Delta]
Central
California dairy farmers are continuing to feel a budgetary squeeze brought on
by high feed costs coupled with low milk prices. The failure of the farm bill
in the House of Representatives last week will not help their situation….The
latest pricing has spurred on a conversation that the industry has been having
already for about a year and a half — joining the Federal Milk Marketing
Order….Currently, a large majority of the nation’s milk producers belong to the
FMMO, with California being one of a few states that still operates its own
system….But the path to joining the FMMO is problematic, says Michael Marsh,
CEO of Western United Dairymen, a voluntary membership organization which
represents about 60 percent of the state’s milk producers.
Tulare
Co. cheese plant closing, 144 layoffs [Fresno Business Journal]
Mozzarella
Fresca is closing its Tipton plant and laying off 144 workers.Mozzarella Fresca
is closing its Tipton plant and laying off 144 workers.Mozzarella Fresca in
Tipton will close its Italian cheese manufacturing plant in September, laying
off 144 workers.…The plant is owned by Lactalis American Group, the North
American division of Groupe Lactalis, the French dairy corporation regarded as
the largest in the world. Lactalis American Group has invested $40 million in a
new mozzarella plant in Nampa, Idaho that has now expanded and hired new
workers….At that March 2007 hearing, then-Mozzarella Fresca Corporate
Controller Jay Wilverding told a CDFA panel that the high price of milk in
California had already caused the company to transfer some 6 percent of its
cheese production to the Idaho plant, and that future investment in the small
Tipton plant was in doubt because of the regulatory atmosphere in California.
The company also closed a plant in Turlock.
There’s
a lot of planting going on at county vineyards [San Luis Obispo Tribune]
Demand
for high-quality California wine grapes among foreign and domestic consumers is
fueling the planting of new vines at San Luis Obispo County vineyards. “There
are some large plantings going on, larger than we’ve seen in a number of
years,” said John Duarte, president of Duarte Nursery near Modesto, which sells
vines to North County wine-grape growers. “There’s definitely going to be
additional expansion.”…Although no one knows for sure how many acres of North
County wine grapes could be planted in the near future, those familiar with the
local wine industry say estimates range from 3,000 to 8,000 acres of new vines.
Ag
Today is distributed to county Farm Bureaus, CFBF directors and CFBF staff, for
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