Dairy and Cattle Archives - Page 3 of 13 - California Agriculture News Today

2017 Tulare County Crop Report Tops $7 Billion

Tulare Crop Report Shows 10 Percent Growth in Single Year

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

Big numbers announced today from Tulare County Ag Commissioner Marilyn Wright on the 2017 crop year.

“Our value is 10.5 percent up from last year, at 7,039,929,000. So, that’s 669 million more than the previous year,” Wright said.

Marilyn Kinoshita, Tulare County Ag Commissioner

Marilyn Wright, Tulare County Ag Commissioner

And, of course, more water in the system probably helped, as it did in Fresno County, which announced $7.028 billion in its 2017 Crop Report, released earlier this month.

The dairy industry, which is prominent in Tulare County, came in number one again, representing 25 percent of the total value.

“Milk prices were stronger in early 2017, but they went down later in the year. And they continue to go down, but still it was a big part of the Tulare County ag receipts in 2017,” Wright said.

Following dairy were grape products—including juice grapes, raisins, and table grapes. Table grapes had a stellar year.

Navel and Valencia oranges were next. Cattle and calves ranked fourth, down from category number three in 2016, because cattle prices were off last year.

Tangerines, also known as mandarins, were number five, followed by almonds, cling peaches, and freestone peaches.

Lemons, were ninth on the crop list.

“We only have just over 10,000 acres of lemons in the County,” Wright said.

Wright said the value of this year’s crop report, $7.39 billion, is the third highest value Tulare County has ever reported.

California Ag Today2018-09-18T16:39:21-07:00September 18th, 2018|

Hilmar Cheese Company Unveils Largest Dairy Mural in the U.S.

Scoop it Forward Event Collects Food for Hilmar Helping Hands

News Release

Hilmar Helping Hands received thousands of food items on July 13 as part of a “Scoop it Forward” event to celebrate the official unveiling of the largest hand-painted dairy mural in the United States at the Hilmar Cheese Company Visitor Center.

Hilmar Cheese Company owners, employees, local officials and the community brought non-perishable food items to donate in exchange for a scoop of delicious ice cream made with Real California Milk as part of the mural celebration, which honors the partnership between the dairy industry and the local community.

“Dairy farm families are the backbone of many of our local communities,” said Jenny Lester Moffitt, California Department of Food and Ag Undersecretary. “But their impact goes well beyond that. They benefit the entire state—economically and by providing wholesome, affordable dairy foods.”

The mural is part of a national effort to celebrate the contribution of dairy farms and farm families to local communities. The Hilmar Cheese Company Visitor Center was selected by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy as one of seven locations across the nation to feature a custom mural as part of the Undeniably Dairy campaign. Undeniably Dairy is an industry-wide, national campaign that aims to increase consumer trust in the practices, principles, and people behind the dairy foods people know and love.

Standing 32 feet tall by 60 feet wide, the mural is a creation of muralist Ed Trask of Richmond, Va. The mural creation used 22 gallons of paint and 273 different colors. It depicts the Hilmar Cheese Company’s founding principles of farmers, family, community and faith—and its passion for Jersey cows. It also depicts a child’s journey from experiencing the visitor center as a youth and showing cows to discovering her devotion to dairy and pursuing a career in dairy innovation and research.

“This mural represents our values and foundation,” said Jim Ahlem, chairman of the Hilmar Cheese Company Board of Directors. “We are grateful to our local communities, our employees, the wholesome dairy foods we produce, the next generation of agricultural leaders developed through 4-H and FFA, and of course, the dairy farm families who ship their milk to us and the Jersey cows that produce it.”

“We appreciate that we were selected as one of the mural locations,” added David Ahlem, CEO and President of Hilmar Cheese Company. “We have thousands of families and school children visit each year. It’s important that people understand where their food comes from, and we hope this mural will bring a new connection to dairy.”

California Ag Today2018-07-19T15:31:50-07:00July 19th, 2018|

Increased Chinese Tariffs Could put California Producers in a Tight Spot

There is Fear China Could Turn to Other Countries For Ag Products

By Mikenzi Meyers, Associate Editor

The ongoing threat of Chinese tariffs on American agriculture has recently been the topic of conversation for agriculturalists. With China posing a possible 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans back in April, it seems this conversation is here to stay. The added tariff could drive Chinese buyers to choose other markets on many California commodities, including walnuts, tree fruit and beef.

Matt Lantz, vice president of global access for Bryant Christie Inc., deals with international trade, and these issues on a daily basis. Bryant Christie is an international affairs management firm that is based in Sacramento and Seattle, where they help U.S. commodity groups and agricultural companies with their international trade issues in order to export their products.

Lantz explained that this new threat is a major concern for California agriculture.

“China is an incredibly important market for California fruit and vegetable exploiters, and any tariff or increased inspection makes it more difficult to export,” he said.

Making matters worse, Lantz pointed out that buyers are going to turn to the countries without the tariff—which can be bad news for producers.

California Ag Today2018-06-28T16:49:05-07:00June 28th, 2018|

Young Dairy Owner Plans to Thrive in Future

Nevin Lemos Prefers Jersey Cows

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

Nevin Lemos could be the youngest person to own a dairy in California. The 21–year-old owns Lemos Jerseys in Stanislaus County.

Lemos is a fourth-generation dairyman east of Modesto in the community of Lockwood. He grew up on his family’s dairy, and now he’s on his own. His family’s dairy is Lockwood III dairy, which is about five miles from his dairy.

“I’m 21 years old, and I decided to start my own. I wanted to expand the business, and get a little bigger so we can all stay in business, be competitive,” Lemos said.

“We have a plan someday to consolidate the two, and this was our way to grow.”

“It’s my baby here, my business, my passion here,” Lemos explained.

He thinks that it’s a good time to get into the dairy business.

“I’ve had some dairyman that I look up to, and they gave me some advice that even though the milk price is down, this is the best time to get started,” he said.

“That’s if you can … weather through some of the bad times because it’s a long-term investment. This is not a business that you get into for a short while, so if you can buy the cattle at a reasonable price and keep that input down, you’re in pretty good shape,” Lemos said.

His operation is 400 Jersey cow dairy with a double six-herringbone parlor.

“You know, my parents have the Holsteins. I’ve grown up around the Holsteins all my life. I showed Holsteins in 4-H growing up and love the Holstein breed but decided to go with the jerseys for a few reasons. One is they’re high in fat and protein components. I ship to Hilmar Cheese, so there’s good incentive there to get a premium off the fat and protein. Also with the reproduction, the Jerseys breed back so well.”

Lemos said he gets a 30% pregnancy rate.

A lot of the dairy cow feed is grown around the dairy operation.

“My landlord farms the 50 acres with the dairy. And I purchase the feed from them,” Lemos said. “Of course, that’s one of the significant inputs into the dairy. Feed is a bit of a high right now with exports. I put all my corn silage in Ag-Bags … to minimize my shrink, and that’s been going pretty well.

Lemos said in June, he can say he’s been going after it and his dairy for one year, and he knows he’s going to keep on going.

“I will most definitely keep going. Just getting started is the most challenging part, especially in a year like this year. I’m breaking even … if not slightly in the black. But I look forward to seeing what it does in years to come,” Lemos said.

Just building the herd and establishing it, Lemos is going to sit on some money for a little while before he starts to see it again.

Still, he said of operating his own dairy at 21 years old, “It’s the dream, my passion, it’s really what I love, and I would not have it any other way.”

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:17:09-07:00April 24th, 2018|

Trade Must be Fair for America

Ray Starling, Special Assistant to Trump, on Trade

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

Ray Starling is Special Assistant to President Trump for Agriculture Trade and Food Assistance. He was the keynote speaker at the 2018 Citrus Showcase hosted by California Citrus Mutual.

He spoke about addressing imbalance in trade.

Ray Starling, left, with Joel Nelsen of California Citrus Mutual.

“The thing that the president wants to do is to address some of the imbalance that we have. We go out and negotiate these agreements,” Starling said. “We say that we’re all agreeing to the rules of the road and then all of a sudden in the middle of trading, when we will have almonds on a boat or we’ll have pork on a boat or have fruit on a boat and all of a sudden, we find out the rules have changed. That is not the kind of trade we’re talking about. We want to sort of fix those inequities, if you will.”

NAFTA also needs to be looked at closely.

“There are a number of chapters in the agreement and a lot of the things that we need to fix on agriculture, we have worked out,” Starling explained. “Some of those are things that are never going to make the news. They are agreements and understandings about maximum residue levels of pesticides. Their understanding about what is the tolerance of foreign matter in material that we may be shipping to Mexico or Canada.”

“But on the big issues for ag that we’ve still got to make progress on: One of those is with Canada, and it deals with the dairy issues,” Starling said. “They supposedly have a supply management system where they limit the amount that they produce in the country to get a higher price, but yet a lot of their products still ends up on the international market, so our point is if you’re going to have a supply management system, it’d be great if you actually manage your supply and then didn’t dump that product out on the world market to compete with American product out there.”

Enforcement is also a concern, noted Starling.

“I wouldn’t say that it has to be a sequential process like that. I mean, we’re always going to look for new agreements and new opportunities, but I think that often when we look at the way we’re resolving disagreements about trade, it’s a very long process,” he said.

“It takes years to go to the WTO and to get a successful outcome, and we’ve gotten many successful outcomes at the WTO, which some would argue is actually a sign that that system is not that successful because notwithstanding the fact that we keep winning there, we keep having to go there to get these solutions,” Starling explained.

Photo Credit: Port of Oakland

California Ag Today2018-03-17T12:35:22-07:00March 16th, 2018|

Latino Workers Appreciated on Dairies

Campaign Targeting Latino Community for Dairy Workers

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

Western United Dairymen, based in Modesto, is launching a Spanish language campaign to educate the Latino community about working for California dairies, according to Anja Raudabaugh, chief executive officer of the organization.

“We’re basically going to be offering a lot of benefits for Latino employees and their families to stay working for dairies or to come to work for dairies,” she said. “We’re going to be doing quite a bit of immigration services, free of charge for those families. We want to elevate the status of women on the dairy farm because they tend to do really well with the cows and the calves.”

The campaign is known as Lecheros Unidos de California.

“We are really targeted and branding, with the dairy community and not just Western United Dairy,” Raudabaugh said.

The campaign will be heard throughout the San Joaquin Valley on Spanish radio and television. The California dairy industry compensates Latino workers well beyond minimum wage to get the work done.

“This is a effort to strengthen the connection that the Latino community has with the dairy industry,” Raudabaugh. “We want them to know that we care for the community and count on them to work in our industry.”

California Ag Today2018-02-06T17:03:01-08:00February 5th, 2018|

Real California Dairy Stories Told

California Milk Advisory Board Rolls Out New Social Media Series

By Aiden Glaspey, Editorial Intern

The California Milk Advisory Board, based in Tracy, recently released a new social media series called Real California Dairy Stories. California Ag Today spoke to Jennifer Giambroni, the director of communications with the California Milk Advisory Board, about the project.

“It’s a series of short, analyzed videos with our dairy families because when we talk to consumers, it’s really sharing the story, not just about the food, but about the families. So it’s all about returning to real. Real foods from real families, kissed by the California sun.”

Giambroni said the dairy food story is easy to tell.

“Obviously everyone loves dairy products. They love dairy foods. But we really want to get to know the farmers behind the seal. Why do you care if you buy that Real California Milk product? It’s because you’re supporting actual dairy families.”

“So Real California Dairy Stories goes into the field with our California Dairy Families, and just tells little ‘moment in time’ stories. We just launched this on our social media platforms. They’re all on our YouTube channel at Real California Milk,” Giambroni said.

And another place to view those unique videos is at the RealCaliforniaMilk.com website.

California Ag Today2017-09-02T23:11:57-07:00September 1st, 2017|

Sorghum May Be Alternative to Corn

Researcher Looks to Sorghum to Replace Corn Silage in Dry Years

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

Water has been a big issue in California for the last couple of years, and many dairy producers are looking for an alternative to corn silage for when water is scarce. Sorghum silage may be a viable alternative to corn. California Ag Today met with Jennifer Heguy, a farm advisor with the UC Cooperative Extension in Merced County who is working on a project, funded by the University of California, to research sorghum.

Heguy’s project consists of looking at sorghum silage to see if it is a good replacement for dairies when California does not have enough water to grow corn. Heguy said this is, “not a good time to talk about sorghum right now because we’ve had a really wet winter and we had this devastating sugar cane aphid last year, which just decimated sorghum crops, but we are continuing to work on sorghum silage.”

With the recent emergence of the sugar cane aphid last year, the sorghum crop in California took a big hit, but the project continues. Some of these projects can take two to three years to determine if it is a good fit into the California feeding systems.

“So this year, we are going to be taking a deeper look at the sorghum quality in terms of nutrition, fermentation characteristics, how people are putting this silage up, and how they are actually feeding it out,” Heguy said.

Photo Courtesy of University of California

Patrick Cavanaugh2021-05-12T11:05:16-07:00June 15th, 2017|

Doug Mederos to be Named Tulare’s 57th Farmer of the Year

Doug Mederos to be Tulare’s Farmer of the Year

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

On March 29, the Kiwanis Club of Tulare County will recognize Doug Mederos as the 57th Farmer of the Year. Mederos – a diversified farmer and owner of Doug Les Farms in Tulare County – grows almonds, pistachios, cotton, silage corn and black-eyed peas. Mederos farms 600 acres and manages another 300 acres for his brother.

Mederos told California Ag Today the award caught him by surprise. “It is pretty humbling,” he said, “especially when you see the list of growers they picked [in prior years], and you always wonder, ‘Do I fit in this list or not?’”

Mederos’ family has been farming for several generations. “My grandfather came over in 1920 and started a dairy, P & M Farms, with his brother. When my father got out of the military, he joined the partnership with my grandfather and my uncle and my uncle’s son, Larry Pires.

“Along the way, my two brothers and my cousin’s sister, Loretta, all worked at the farm. My cousin Larry and I eventually became partners in the Pires and Mederos Dairy operation after we graduated from college.

The partners decided to move the dairy out of California and chose South Dakota. Mederos explained, “I stayed here farming in California, and I’ve been pretty fortunate over the years. We’ve had good years and bad years, but the majority of them have been good. Hopefully continuing on so that at some point I get to retire.”

Mederos’ children may continue their family’s legacy of farming in the Central Valley. “Probably my son or somebody will take over,” Mederos said. “He’s going to go off to Fresno State and to major in Ag business, so hopefully in a few years, he’ll be back here. Who knows, maybe it will be my daughter who comes around and ends up running the farm. You never know.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2017-04-20T13:11:02-07:00March 27th, 2017|

Caution Advised on USDA Proposal

California Dairies Cautious On USDA Proposal

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

California Ag Today met recently with Kevin Abernathy, the general manager for Milk Producers Council. Milk Producer’s Council is an advocacy organization trying to make sure the dairies in California are being treated correctly. The MPC has been working for a long time to ensure that the California dairies are well taken care of. Especially when it comes to the USDA proposal to add the California dairy industry into the Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO).

Kevin Abernathy, Manager of Milk Producers Council

“MPC has been an advocacy group on behalf of California dairy families since 1949. This FMMO process is something we have been akin to since the start of it,” Abernathy said. “It was the early leadership of MPC that started the process of adding twenty-some odd years ago. Then the work evolved into work done by Sye Vanderdusson, Jeffery Vandenheuvel and Rob Vandenheuvel, with their growth management plans, which lead to the Holstein plan, which got evolved into the Foundation For The Future plan, which ultimately ended up where we’re at today.”

It is said that CDFA still has the upper hand in the situation concerning quotas and pay. The MPC is taking a look into these concerns.

“If this was something that was announced by CDFA because we have the experience in working in the California system, it is easy for us to calculate and the compute the outcomes. … So that is the process that we are going through right now and understanding how this thing works,” Abernathy said.

Patrick Cavanaugh2021-05-12T11:17:10-07:00March 20th, 2017|