Dry days, sleepless nights for farmers [Stockton Record]
With
2013 San Joaquin County's driest year on record, and January - typically one of
the highest rain months - coming to an end with no measurable rain, area
farmers are increasingly worried. The drought has already taken a heavy toll on
those who depend on fall rains, mostly ranchers whose grazing animals can't
find feed on the dry, brown pastures. But even farmers with sources of
irrigation, whether well water or available surface water, are facing higher
costs and mineral buildup in the soil. "It just depends on the crop and
the commodity," said Brent Holtz, director of the University of California
Cooperative Extension in Stockton.
Kern cattle ranchers
look to the skies for rain -- and hope [Bakersfield Californian]
Fifth-generation
cattle rancher Nathan Carver coaxed his flatbed Dodge into low gear, opened the
driver's door and stepped out onto the parched landscape…."In most years,
it would already be green out here," Carver said, looking around at the
dirt-brown hills. "We did have green -- but it didn't last." Instead,
Carver and scores of other ranchers in Kern County are in survival
mode.…Ranchers from the Temblor Range to the Tehachapis are digging into their
reserve funds, turning to banks for loans, or if they're lucky, securing
emergency funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency
-- all to buy hay and feed for their cows: their livlihoods, their lives….At
the junction of Highway 99 and Famoso Road north of Bakersfield, Justin Mebane
was in the saddle Thursday morning, working with a group of cowboys to separate
"pairs" -- cow and calf -- from a herd being readied for sale.
Mebane, owner-manager of Famoso-Western Stockman's Market, said he's seen a
jump in the number of cattle being placed on the auction block. But if the
rains and mountain snows don't return, the young cattleman said he's expecting
a much more radical spike in sales activity.
Stormy seas ahead for
the California water debate [Sacramento Bee]
The
California drought will soon expose the geographic, political, personal and
institutional divisions that complicate meaningful congressional action. Forget
farmers versus environmentalists, that classic California plot. These divisions
go deeper, and could easily kill the legislative fixes House Republicans vowed
to make at a Bakersfield-area farm last week. In the state’s Central Valley,
the potential farmer-against-farmer conflict could pit East Side versus West
Side and North versus South. On Capitol Hill, besides the never-ending clash
between Republicans and Democrats, unresolved tensions divide House from
Senate. One on one, bad blood divides certain key lawmakers.
Farm Bill agreement
expected this week, with final passage within days [Washington Post]
A
final version of the Farm Bill, legislation that accounts for billions of
dollars in federal spending and has lingered on the congressional to-do list
for two years, is expected to be unveiled as early as Monday, with final
passage likely in the coming days, according to several aides familiar with the
talks. If an agreement is finalized Monday, senior House aides said that
Republican leaders will bring the measure up for a vote in the House, where
they believe it will pass with sufficient bipartisan support. The bill would then
move to the Senate and likely be approved before a mid-February recess.
"We remain optimistic that we can reach agreement in time to be on the
floor next week," House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank D. Lucas
(R-Okla.) said in a message to his colleagues sent over the weekend. The
message asked members working on the legislation to return to Washington in
time for a possible meeting Monday morning. Aides later said that signatures of
support for the compromise were being collected in case not enough lawmakers
returned in time.
House Republicans to
offer broad immigration plan [New York Times]
House
Republicans are preparing to unveil their own broad template for overhauling
the nation’s immigration system this week, potentially offering a small opening
for President Obama and congressional Democrats to pass bipartisan legislation
before the end of the year. Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and other
Republican leaders are expected to release a one-page statement of immigration
principles this week at their annual retreat in Cambridge, Md., according to
aides with knowledge of the plan. The document is expected to call for border
security and enforcement measures, as well as providing a path to legal status
— but not citizenship — for many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in
the country, the aides said….But heading into the three-day Republican retreat,
even some of the most ardent conservatives say consensus is forming around an
immigration package that would include several separate bills on border
security; a clampdown against the hiring of undocumented workers; expanded
guest-worker programs; a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants brought to
the country as children; and a path to legal status for undocumented workers
with family ties to citizens or employer sponsors.
A new push to prevent
produce pilfering [San Diego Union-Tribune]
…With
22,000 acres of avocado groves in the county — many off dark and rural roads in
North County — the dollar losses from theft easily reach into the millions each
year. Exact numbers are difficult to quantify because some theft goes
unreported, said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm
Bureau.
Ag
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