GREEN PRICE IS $75 PER TON LOWER THAN LAST YEAR

Gallo Sets Thompson Price at $250 a Ton

While the California raisin industry is still trying to negotiate a per ton price, E & J Gallo Winery has come out with a $250 per ton offer for any Thompsons that are harvested green for the winery, noted Nat DiBuduo, president and CEO if Allied Grape Growers in Fresno

The price is down from last year’s $325 a ton price.  It will most likely mean that many raisin producers will opt for raisin production instead of for juice.

DiBuduo said that he was somewhat surprised by the price drop, but added that crop is 25 percent larger this year.

2016-05-31T19:45:21-07:00August 31st, 2013|

PROGRAM FOR METHYL BROMIDE ALTERNATIVES

UC Researches Alternatives to 
Banned Methyl Bromide 


Pamela Kan-Rice, Assistant Director, UC ANR, reportedon August 29, 2013 that California growers have used methyl bromide, a soil fumigant, to effectively sterilize pre-planted fields since the 1960s. But now methyl bromide is about to be phased out under an international ban.

Methyl bromide contributes to ozone depletion high in the atmosphere and was banned by developed countries in 2005 under the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty to protect the stratospheric ozone layer. Since then, the treaty has allowed limited use of methyl bromide for certain crops, but many of these exemptions are gone and the rest will end soon.




Rootstocks for almonds and stone fruits were tested for resistance to Prunus replant disease complex near Parlier. (Photo credit: UC ANR)

To help growers find workable substitutes, University of California researchers are part of a team working to optimize methyl bromide alternatives for western crops including almonds, strawberries and nursery stock.

The Pacific Area-Wide Pest Management Program for Integrated Methyl Bromide Alternatives (PAW-MBA), funded by a$5 million, five-year USDA grant, is developing and evaluating alternatives to methyl bromide for production crops such as grapes, strawberries and tree nuts as well as nursery crops such as cut flowers, forest trees and sweet potatoes.

“One goal of the program, conducted by a team of UC and U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers, was to identify methyl bromide alternatives that were immediately useful and economically feasible,” says Greg Browne, a USDA plant pathologist at UC Davis who coordinates the PAW-MBA program. “Another was to foster development of nonfumigant strategies for managing soilborne pests.”

The team has identified methyl bromide alternatives that are both effective and economical for key California crops. When the best alternative is another fumigant, the researchers found ways to use less and to cut emissions. In addition, the researchers are developing alternatives that go beyond fumigants, including steam sterilization and other nontoxic approaches.

Summaries of projects:

TIF film, substrates and nonfumigant soil disinfestation maintain fruit yields
Strawberry growers use methyl bromide primarily to control soilborne diseases. Now, new UC research shows that this crop can be grown without fumigants at small scales. Three nontoxic methods — nonsoil substrates, anaerobic soil disinfestation and steam disinfestation — produced strawberry yields as high as those in conventionally fumigated soil.

“Instead of understanding soil, we’ve just been fumigating it,” says Steve Fennimore, a UC Cooperative Extension specialist in Salinas who led this team. “Using physical tools is a different approach.” Researchers will next evaluate whether these alternative methods can be scaled up to commercial production fields, and whether they work in different strawberry production areas of California.

Managing almond and stone fruit replant disease complex with less soil fumigant
Almond and stone fruit growers need methyl bromide alternatives to control nematodes and Prunus replant disease, a soilborne disorder that stunts new orchards and cuts yields. UC and USDA researchers tested alternative fumigants, spot and strip fumigation and nonfumigant methods including rotating orchards with sudangrass and using nematode-resistant rootstock.

“Spot treatments provided adequate control of Prunus replant disease and may be very helpful to growers needing to use less fumigant for costs savings or regulatory restrictions,” Browne says. In addition, integrating the various treatments tested may also help control the replant disease with less fumigant use.

Preplant 1,3-D treatments test well for perennial crop nurseries, with challenges
California supplies nursery stock to the state’s fruit, nut and vineyard industries, as well as more than 60 percent of the rose plants and fruit and nut trees sold nationwide. This perennial nursery stock must be completely nematode-free, and growers use methyl bromide primarily to control these tiny soilborne worms.

However, alternative fumigants such as 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) don’t work as well in fine soils. “We asked how we could make them work better,” says Brad Hanson, a UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. The researchers showed that 1,3-D controlled nematodes in fine soil when they tilled it deeper, injected the fumigant deeper and used tarps that kept more of the fumigant in the soil.

Fumigant emission reductions with TIF warrant regulatory changes
Fumigants are regulated partly because they help make smog. Totally impermeable film (TIF) can help keep fumigants in the soil and out of the air. New UC research shows that fumigant emissions can drop 64 percent when fields are tarped with TIF for twice as long as usual (10 days instead of 5).

“We’re now working on safe use,” says Suduan Gao, a USDA soil scientist in Parlier who led the team. “The goal is to keep the fumigant under the tarp long enough that there won’t be a surge in emissions when it’s cut open.” This work gives regulatory agencies a new way to let growers keep using enough fumigant to control pests and diseases while minimizing the smog-forming emissions.

2016-05-31T19:45:21-07:00August 31st, 2013|

California Bills Affecting Agriculture Approved Today

Bills Moving Towards Votes in Legislature

The Monterey County Farm Bureau provided the following information:

The Assembly Appropriations Committee recently took up their Suspense File on Friday, August 30th, consisting of 152 bills that proposed to spend approximately $600 million. The committee chair, Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles), announced that the committee was prepared to send 110 of the measures to the floor and, with the committee’s amendments, the total cost would be $17 million. He said that continuing to safeguard state spending was his committee’s top priority to help ensure the state’s continued economic recovery.

All of the following, except SB 404 (Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara), were approved and sent to the Assembly:

SB 1 (Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento) would reinstitute the Community Redevelopment Law under the guise of Sustainable Communities Investment Authorities. The bill was amended, at the request of the author, to limit the bill’s potential impact on farmland. Unfortunately, the specific language of the amendments will not be available until next week. We are gratified that the author has agreed to limit the potential of eminent domain to take productive farmland for a subsequent private development project but Farm Bureau remains opposed to SB 1.

SB 485 (Ron Calderon, D-Montebello) would require junk dealers and recyclers to provide documentation of the necessary permits and business practices to prove they are operating legally prior to obtaining a weighmaster certificate from a County Agricultural Commissioner and Sealer. It also allows an additional $500 fee to be charged to cover the costs of these inspections. The intent of this bill is to ensure that recyclers and junk dealers are complying with current law and are properly permitted to operate their businesses. There is a proliferation of “illegal” recyclers and this bill will help stop those activities. Farm Bureau supports.


SB 749 (Lois Wolk, D-Davis) would extend the sunset for the provision that allows accidental take for ongoing and routine farming and ranching activities under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA). It also clarifies where lease revenues generated from agricultural leases on lands owned by the Department of Fish and Wildlife are deposited. SB 749 ensures that these revenues can be used to support the maintenance and operations of the Department’s lands, and it clarifies when the administrative record is closed for purposes of listing species under CESA. The bill was recently amended to also clarify that farmers transferring water can maintain non-irrigated cover crops so long as the water used by those crops does not diminish the amount being transferred. This bill is co-sponsored by Farm Bureau, the California Cattlemen’s Association, and the California Waterfowl Association.

SB 404 (Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara) includes “familial status” as a protected classification under the California Fair Housing and Employment Act. “Familial status” is a very broad term that will sweep in a massive number of employees and their relationships, such that virtually any employee could be covered by it. As a result, nearly any adverse employment decision by an employer could be construed as discriminatory if SB 404 becomes law. SB 404 was held on the Assembly Appropriations suspense file. Farm Bureau opposes.

The Senate Appropriations Committee did not provide the fiscal impact details of their Suspense File as provided by the Assembly. Bills that were approved by the committee and sent to the Senate floor for a vote in the next two weeks include:

AB 8 (Henry Perea, D-Fresno and Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley) continues the authority through 2023 to fund several air quality improvement programs. They include the Carl Moyer Program, widely used by the agricultural community, and the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Programs. SB 11 (Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres and Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) is basically the same bill and was sent to the Assembly floor. Farm Bureau supports.

AB 263 (Roger Hernandez, D-West Covina) would forbid employers from engaging in a series of “unfair immigration-related practices”. This includes requesting more immigration documents than required under federal law, using E-Verify in a manner not required by federal law and threatening to contact immigration authorities. Farm Bureau and other business groups lifted opposition on the basis of amendments accepted by the author substantially reducing the possible penalties for the unfair immigration-related practices prohibited by the bill.

AB 1165 (Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley) would change current law so that abatement of a serious, willful, or repeated violation of a Cal/OSHA standard, or a failure to abate a prior violation cannot be delayed by an appeal of the citation by the employer. Farm Bureau and other employer groups are opposed.

AB 199 (Chris Holden, D-Pasadena) would encourage state institutions to purchase California grown agricultural products. Originally, the bill would have required state institutions to purchase California grown agricultural products as long as the price was within five percent of out of state agricultural products. However, state institutions raised concerns in the Assembly Appropriations Committee and the bill was narrowed to only require the purchase, to the extent possible. Farm Bureau supports.

AB 10 by Assembly Member Luis Alejo (D-Salinas) will increase the California minimum wage to $10 on January 1, 2018. AB 10 was removed from the Senate appropriations suspense file and re-referred to the Senate Rules committee instead of the Senate floor. The Department of Finance had previously indicated that passage of AB 10 would incur significant enforcement costs to the Department of Industrial Relations and significant salary and employment tax costs to the state government as a whole. Farm Bureau is opposed.

SB 753 (Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento) that increases enforcement authority for the Central Valley Flood Protection Board was approved by the Assembly along party lines on a 52-25 vote. The measure would grant additional enforcement authority to the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, including cease and desist and fine authority.

Farm Bureau worked with the Flood Protection Board and the author to define a clear path early in the informal phase of the enforcement process to allow a landowner to fix any encroachment violations prior to the Flood Board imposing penalties. This path includes a well defined structure for penalty actions and amounts and a fair and reasonable process to address the removal of existing lawful encroachment permits approved by the Flood Board, as opposed to “illegal encroachments.” With earlier amendments Farm Bureau removed opposition.

AB 1331 (Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife) was amended this week to modify the $11.14 billion Safe, Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2014 (Water Bond). The Climate Change Response for Clean and Safe Drinking Water Act of 2014 (AB 1331) would authorize the issuance of $6.5 billion in general obligation bonds in five separate categories. Four of the five categories would require legislative authority to appropriate the funds. The fifth category, water storage funding, would be continuously appropriated. The five categories include $1 billion for Water Quality and Clean and Safe Drinking Water, $1.5 billion for Protecting Rivers, Lakes, Streams and Watersheds, $1.5 billion for Climate Change Preparedness for Regional Security, $1 billion for Delta Sustainability, and $1.5 billion continuously appropriated for Water Storage for Climate Change. Farm Bureau is actively engaged in the process and is emphasizing the need for increased water storage, area of origin water rights protections, continuous appropriation for water storage dollars and we are highlighting farmers continued actions to implement even more efficient use of water in recent years. Farm Bureau has a support position for the current water bond as approved in 2009 and will continue to monitor this and all efforts to impact the size and structure of the water bond.

SB 168 (Bill Monning, D-Carmel) seeks to end the practice of subsequent “sham” formation of Farm Labor Contractor businesses in order to deprive workers of their rightful wages. Farm Bureau and other agricultural groups were initially opposed, but have since lifted opposition after the author accepted amendments addressing Farm Bureau’s concerns. The Senate concurred in those amendments on August 30 and SB 168 now goes to the governor for his consideration.

2016-05-31T19:45:21-07:00August 31st, 2013|

NEXT WEEK RAISIN HARVEST WILL BE BIG ON A RECORD CROP

No Labor Shortages Yet in Raisin Vineyards

Sun-dried grapes will soon be raisins.


By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

According to Glen Goto, Chief Executive Officer for the Fresno-based Raisin Bargaining Association, there has been no reported labor shortage in raisin vineyards so far this season.

“The season started earlier, which may have spread the labor out, or growers are using less labor to harvest their vineyards, which means the labor will be working for more hours in those vineyards,” Goto said.

Tray counts are often noted on the end posts.
So far this season’s cost per tray is 30 cents, which is where it ended up at the end of last season. “We are seeing a little price inflation, which means growers are paying more per tray,” said Goto.

Goto noted that after Sept. 1, the harvest will be going strong, and that’s when labor shortages may start to be noticed.

Hand harvested raisins must be on the trays by Sept. 20 to qualify for raisin rain insurance. For machine-harvested raisins, they must be on the continuous tray by Sept. 25.

The raisin-type variety grape forecast is 2.40 million tons, up 25.5 percent from the 2012 final production. Based on the objective measurement survey, bunches per vine totaled a record 47.7 compared to 29.1 in 2012. This could be a record harvest year.

2016-05-31T19:45:21-07:00August 31st, 2013|

PISTACHIO GROWERS GATHER TO SEE DAMAGE

      Today Pistachio growers heard from David Haviland about Gill’s Mealybug
pressure and control timing.

Gill’s Mealybug Field Meeting
Focuses On Damage and Treatments

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

Today, pistachio growers, PCA and others gathered in a Tulare County Pistachio orchard owned by Dennis Burner who is cooperating in a Gill’s mealybug control trial with UC Farm Advisors. Attendees saw mealybug pressure on trees and heard about the best time to treat for the pest.

Gill’s mealybug is a relatively new pest of pistachios in California. “It was first recognized in the late 1990s in a an orchard near Tulare. It has now spread up to Colusa County and has move down to Kern County,” said David Haviland, UC Cooperative Extension Kern County, who organized the field day with Elizabeth Fichtner, UC Cooperative Extension Tulare County.

Tulare County is a hot spot with most pistachio orchards having the bug, which has three generations per year. “Right about harvest time there are a whole bunch of mealybug crawlers hatching, and then they overwinter and become adults in May. These adults will produce an enormous amount of new crawlers the first week of June, which is an important treatment time, right when those crawlers come out,” said Haviland. “The ones that are born the first week of June will become adults in about mid-to-late July, which is the second generation. The mealybugs that are in the tree now are the start of the third generation when they become adults then hatch more young bugs at harvest.”

David Haviland
“Population-wise, growers will get millions of crawlers at harvest, but if you come back to the tree in the spring, you will see maybe one or two per pistachio cluster, so there is a huge winter mortality,” said Haviland.

Haviland stood by a tree that had only about one mealybug per 10 clusters in the May, but now the untreated trees in the trial have clusters that are covered with honeydew, and now blackened with sooty mold, with 30 or 40 adults on the clusters. The lower leaves on the trees were turning black from the sooty mold.

 

Gill’s Mealybug on pistachio clusters
Causing a sooty mold mess.

“Typically growers go out in their orchards April and May and see about one mealybug for every 10 clusters. In fact they might not even notice it. But that mealy bug produces about 20 live young, which increases the count to about one per cluster, but now those adults give rise to 15 or 20 crawlers per cluster which causes clusters to be moist and black,” said Haviland. “So the point is that one or two per cluster can cause many more per cluster near harvest time, so May is the time to be thinking about spraying the first of June.”

Haviland looked back at the tree he was standing next to, and said: “If you have tree that looks like this, with a lot of mealybugs and sooty mold, let it go; you can’t do anything about it. Come back the first week of June 2014 and treat it with an insecticide and you should be clean at harvest next year. It’s really that simple.

Insecticide timing is important, but there is a widow. Of all the products registered, they are most effective on crawlers. “So you really want to get them the first week of June when the crawlers are out regardless of which product your using,” Haviland said.

During the upcoming harvest season, Haviland warn growers to ask the harvest crew to wash down the harvesting equipment and make sure no tree debris from another orchard is on the equipment. “And if growers have an orchard with mealybug, please inform the harvest crews so that they clean the equipment before moving to another site, which may not have mealybug.

“The harvest crew should blow off all leaf trash and hose the equipment down before it goes from property to property. Growers should insist upon this,” Haviland said.

2016-05-31T19:45:21-07:00August 30th, 2013|

RECORD SHIPMENTS FOR CALIFORNIA GRAPES

Grapes Are in High Demand Everywhere

The month of August has seen record shipments for grapes from California, posting TODAY week-ending totals of over 4 million boxes three weeks in a row.
 

A Table Grape Worker Packs Grapes in Fresno
County. There was high demand in August.

“The crop is moving at what could be a record-setting pace,” said Kathleen Nave, president of the Fresno-based California Table Grape Commission.

According to USDA data, more than 28 million boxes of California table grapes have been shipped through Friday, August 23, 2013. The 2013 year-to-date total is threepercent ahead of last year, which saw a record-high season total volume that surpassed the 100 million 19-pound box equivalent mark for the first time in history.

Earlier this year, a study conducted by The NPD Group found that fresh fruit is the top snack food and the fastest growing snack food in America. The fruit category is continuing to grow in the U.S. Figures for the 52-week period ending in the middle of July 2013 showed a gain of fruit sales and volume over last year, according to data from FreshLook Marketing.

“Shoppers are becoming more health conscious about the food they buy for themselves and their families,” said Nave. “As one of the top-selling fruit categories, grapes are a good fit for today’s shopper.”

Grapes from California are available around the world, with over 40 percent of the crop exported. The 2013 season started in May 2013 and will continue through January 2014. Over 60 percent of the crop is shipped after August 31.

2016-05-31T19:45:21-07:00August 30th, 2013|

CALIFORNIA FAMERS INVEST IN DRIP TO CONSERVE WATER

California Farmers Praised in Article

Scientific American has published a story on how over pumping threatens to deplete the U.S. High Plains groundwater aquifer. In the story, the writer Erin Brodwin mentions Central California agriculture and how farmers are conserving water. The following is a quick comment on the story from the California Farm Water Coalition in Sacramento

It is important to note that San Joaquin Valley farmers, contrary to statements made in this article, do not use water from the Colorado River basin to irrigate their crops.

The article is correct, however, in describing the enormous increase in water use efficiency achieved by San Joaquin Valley farmers. Since 2003 more than $2.1 billion has been invested in upgrading irrigation systems on more than 1.8 million acres. One of the results of that kind of investment is that crop production has increased more than 89 percent on about the same amount of applied water per acre in years past.

2016-05-31T19:45:21-07:00August 28th, 2013|

RIM FIRE DESTROYS CATTLE THAT COULD HAVE PREVENTED IT

Rim Fire Reportedly Kills
Hundreds of Head of Cattle

By Laurie Greene, Associate Editor

The California Farm Bureau Federation reports that as firefighters work to slow the Rim Fire in the Sierra Nevada, ranchers and timberland owners are trying to assess the extent of their losses.

Officials are calling the Rim Fire one of biggest known wildfires in California. As of 7 pm PST today, the Incident Information System (InciWeb) assessed the fire to be 20% contained with extreme growth potential.

Cattle ranchers rescued as many of their animals as possible, but cattle still perished in the flames that also destroyed their grazing lands. Tuolumne County Farm Bureau is organizing efforts to provide hay for cattle and displaced livestock. Thousands of acres of timberland have also burned.

Stevie Ipsen, Director of Communications for the California Cattlemen’s Association, explained that the ranchers she has spoken with report cattle in herds of 25 to 30 have died, and estimates are in the hundreds of head of cattle. It is unknown whether the fire suddenly shifted causing the calamity, but Ipsen said it appears that ranchers did not have enough time. Some have lost their homes or cabins as well.

Ipsen commented, “Some ranchers have insurance, but the reimbursement is nowhere near the real market value.”

Several livestock facilities have been established for ranchers to take their cattle to safety.


Most cattle are not in the mountains; rather, they are on valley-floor ranchland. Ipsen said, “Ranchers bring their cattle up the mountain to graze at the discretion of the U.S. Forest Service. Ranchers really provide a public service because the cattle help the Forest Service manage overgrowth that becomes fuel for fire.”

“Recently, overgrowth on public forest land grazing areas has been improperly managed due to increased public pressure to cease the practice and less frequent annual NEPA (Bureau of Land Management’s National Environmental Policy Act) assessments that enable the Forest Service to dictate the locations, length of time and herd size of cattle allowed up the mountain. “If NEPA assessments are not done fast enough, fewer cattle are allotted for grazing.”

U.S. Congress House Report (112-596-part 1) claims that project delays due to the NEPA process are caused by the overly cumbersome program, which causes a lengthy decision-making process for Federal agencies. Basically, lagging NEPA assessments are due to long preparation time needed for NEPA-required document preparation and litigation challenging the documents.

“All California forests are in danger,” Ipsen asserted. “It’s a perfect storm—overgrowth and dryness.”

We’ll post updates as they come in.

2016-05-31T19:45:21-07:00August 28th, 2013|

WGA EXPANDS COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT

Jeff Janas Is New Communications Manager

Jeff Janas

Today, Western Growers (WG) announced the appointment of Jeff Janas as its new communications manager in its Irvine office.

Jeff comes to WG from Arizona where he served as vice president of public affairs and communication at the Arizona Charter Schools Association.  He has extensive experience in government and communications having served previously as an appointee at the Ohio Department of Insurance in former Ohio Governor George Voinovich’s Administration and for eleven years as a congressional staffer at the U.S. House of Representatives. 

During his congressional career, Jeff served as director of committee operations at the House Administration Committee and also covered a multitude of topics including agriculture, insurance and transportation issues.

“We are very happy to welcome Jeff to the Western Growers staff,” said Sr. Director of Communications Wendy Fink-Weber. “He has a great deal of experience in government affairs and communications and will make significant contributions to our efforts to advance the public policy goals of our members.”

Jeff is an Ohio native and graduate of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where he earned a B.S. in Communications degree.  He will edit WG’s twice-weekly electronic newsletter, Spotlight, handle news monitoring, and contribute to issues management, social media, media relations and several writing and editing projects.  

2016-05-31T19:45:22-07:00August 27th, 2013|

RESOLUTIONS TO BE READ TO PUT LEGISLATURE ON NOTICE

Counties and Cities Prepare For Resolutions

Today the Kings County Board of Supervisor will read a formal resolution on where they draw the line on the Water Bond and the need for storage.

According to Mario Santoyo, assistant general manager of the Friant Water Authority “Essentially the resolutions will say: ‘We reaffirm our support for the 2010 Water Bond, and we are open to a modified bond. However it better have $3 billion in continuous appropriation for storage, $2.25 Billion for the Delta and some regional projects, otherwise we are not going to support any modify bond.’”

It’s reported that the City of Fresno will also adopt the Resolution in the coming weeks. More cities and counties are also proposing the Resolution.

2016-05-31T19:45:22-07:00August 27th, 2013|
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