Orchard Sanitation is Critical This Season

Orchard Sanitation to Push Back on NOW Underscored

By Mike Stevens, Associate Editor

We are completing our coverage of the importance of orchard sanitation to push back on Navel Orangeworm (NOW) pressure for 2018.

We recently spoke with David Haviland, UC Cooperative Extension entomologist and farm advisor for Kern County. He spoke about how sanitation is the most important practice that needs to be implemented.

David Haviland

“Yes, 2017 was a really interesting year on NOW. It was a bad year overall. Several things led up to that. The first one was sanitation was an issue,” Haviland explained. “There is not much of an excuse in the southern half of the almond industry, but with all the rain up north and the flooded orchards, yes, it was very difficult to get in and do sanitation, and we know that that is the absolute backbone of navel orange worm programs.”

Pistachios were also a concern when it comes to NOW.

NOW was right on schedule in pistachios. The pistachio crop was a little behind and so it was common to do a normal monitoring, normal spray program, and set up for a normal harvest. But then the crops sat out there for another 10 days or two weeks, which, of course, makes it very vulnerable to NOW worm damage.

“The longer you get away from your insecticide sprays, the more damage that’s going to occur, and a lot of the crop was harvested after the fourth flight occurred,” Haviland said. “When you put in the concerns with sanitation this year, and with the increased degree day accumulation, there were plenty of moths and then the crop got delayed. The overall effect was that this was a worse than normal year.”

At the same time, the industry is full of examples of growers that had very acceptable damage.

“Growers that did follow in greater pest management practices … did get their sanitation done. They documented that those things are really important, they are very effective, and the growers that weren’t able to get that sanitation done hopefully got a case study, personal experience in the value of sanitation,” Haviland said.

Every grower needs to do their part by incorporating sanitation, noted Haviland. “Obviously, if you’re the only one sanitizing amidst a bunch of growers that aren’t, that’s a concern,” he said.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:57-07:00December 19th, 2017|

Navel Orangeworm Control Critical

Orchard Sanitation is Critical This Season To Lower NOW Numbers

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

Emily Symmes is the area Integrated Pest Management farm advisor for the Sacramento Valley in the statewide IPM program. She recently spoke to California Ag Today about the high level of Navel Orangeworm (NOW) damage in nut orchards throughout California this past season.

“We had a lot of unique circumstances. The amount of rainfall we got in late 2016 into 2017 was pretty unprecedented and really led us into a really bad navel orangeworm year because we couldn’t get out and sanitize our nut crops,” she said.

Emily Symmes

“NOW is ubiquitous, and there is an increased nut crop footprint in California, with more than one million acres of almonds, plus pistachios and walnuts,” Symmes explained. “All play host to NOW, as well as a host of natural plants. This thing isn’t going anywhere. And it was pretty bad in 2017 in terms of harvest damage.”

One of the key factors for higher navel orangeworm damage was not being able to get into the fields because of the standing water.

“There were a couple of other factors as well. Typically, rainfall and moist conditions can help NOW mortality in the winter. We tend to think that it can help rot the nuts and do us some favors, but we have to be able to get out and get the nuts shaken or get pulling crews in and get those things on the ground. And then them being on the ground is not always a sure thing. Sanitation was huge in terms of NOW problems this year,” Symmes said.

Heat units also played a part in the development of more NOW pressure. There were a lot of moths flying around longer and laying eggs.

“It got hot in mid to late June, and it seemed to just not let up. What that meant was, in terms of our degree-day models or the heat unit that drive insect development, it ended up getting pretty far out ahead of what is typical, if there is anything such as typical. But certainly ahead of the last couple of years,” Symmes explained.

By September, we were about two weeks ahead in degree-days and that means that the moths were out earlier. They’re flying around. They’re laying eggs on the nuts when they’re still on the trees.

Symmes stressed that the importance of sanitation is to minimize the site where the NOWs mature.

“It’s really important to remember that sanitation efforts aren’t just directly killing any worms that are over-wintering in your orchard. Yes, it does that. But it also minimizes those sites where your first and second generations are going to develop next year,” she said.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:58-07:00November 29th, 2017|

California Supplies Thanksgiving

California Feeds the Nation on Thanksgiving!

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

California ranks #8 in turkey production in the United States (2016), and we supply most of the western states from our poultry farms located in several areas in the state.

The famous Mrs. Cubbison’s Stuffing or “Dressing” originated from a ç, born in 1890 in the San Marcos area of San Diego County. In short, Cubbison graduated from California Polytechnical University in May 1920 with a degree in Home Economics having paid her way through school with the money she earned feeding the farm workers.

Cubbison created her popular stuffing in 1948 using broken pieces of the popular Melba toast and various seasonings. The factory in Commerce, California churns it out in mass quantities this time of year.

California farmers produce almonds, raisins, walnuts, prunes, figs, dates, apricots, pistachios, and pomegranates, right on up the food line.

These are all celebrated Thanksgiving foods.

Celery from the Oxnard and Ventura area completes the stuffing mix. Nutrient-dense carrots, lettuce and fresh spinach from Salinas now arrive, pre-washed and bagged, in your local produce department. Your Thanksgiving traditional green beans come from California growers.

An ample supply of freshly harvested oranges and kiwi fruit, table grapes, strawberries, and raspberries are shipped from many areas in the state. Seasonal features include sweet potatoes from the Merced, about an hour north of Fresno, plus all kinds and colors of potatoes and tomatoes, parsley, onions, and garlic—all crops are raised in California.

Nearly all the fruits, vegetables and nuts that are part of America’s Thanksgiving are sourced from California.

Don’t forget about the great varieties of wine grapes grown in the No. 1 agricultural state that are deftly crafted into delectable California wines.

Or the thirst-quenching Martinelli sparkling apple or grape cider from Watsonville California, near the Monterey Bay area. Local growers provide the tree-ripened fruit to the award-winning company that is still family-owned after almost 150 years and is managed by the founder’s grandson and great-grandson. Here’s something to discuss at your Thanksgiving meal: the company won its first Gold Medal at the 1890 California State Fair in Sacramento.

How about those heirloom and new apple varieties, plus those small round watermelons that we snack on or toss into a dessert fruit salad, topped with California pomegranate arils?

Of course, we raise poultry, and even California lamb, if you want to go that way. Here is a Did-you-know? challenge for your holiday meal: What are the most recent Presidental Thanksgiving Turkeys from California pardoned by United States presidents? (Answers are below.)

And by the way, you know that food-safety pop-up turkey timer that indicates when the turkey has reached the correct internal temperature? Public relations genius Leo Pearlstein and a turkey producer in Turlock, a small town north of Fresno in Stanislaus County, invented this Thanksgiving fixture.

Back in the 1960s, they were sitting in a room trying to solve the undercooked poultry challenge, when they looked up and noticed ceiling fire sprinklers. The sprinklers sprayed water when the room temperature became hot enough to melt a tiny piece of metal alloy in the mechanism. This innovative team of two applied the same concept to the pop-up timer!

With the exception of cranberries, our national day of giving thanks for a bountiful harvest is really a California Thanksgiving.

Here are some friendly topics for discussion at your Thanksgiving Table:

What is the name of the famous Thanksgiving stuffing that originated in California?
What beverage company that is still operating won its first Gold Medal at the 1890 California State Fair?
How was the pop-up timer invented and by whom?
How does high does California rank in U.S. turkey production?
What are the most recent Presidental Thanksgiving Turkeys from California pardoned by United States presidents?

In 2010, President Obama pardoned Apple, a 45-pound turkey from Modesto, California-based Foster Farms; and alternate bird Cider.

In 2015, President Obama pardoned Apple, a 45-pound turkey and an alternate 43-pound bird named Honest, again from Foster Farms.

The Presidential Turkey flock are Nicholas White turkeys, which originated in California’s Sonoma Valley in 1957. Today, the Nicholas White is the industry standard. (Foster Farms)

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:17:10-07:00November 20th, 2017|

Push Back NOW with Orchard Sanitation

Part One of a Series

Orchard Sanitation Critical This Season

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

We recently spoke with Emily Symmes, the UC Area Integrated Pest Management farm advisor for the Sacramento Valley in statewide IPM program. She told California Ag Today about few reasons as to why Navel Orangeworm damage was so devastating this year, costing tree nut growers at least $137 million.

UC Cooperative Extension Integrated Pest Management Advisor, Butte County

Emily Symmes, UC Cooperative Extension Integrated Pest Management Advisor, based Butte County.

NOW is ubiquitous. And the nut crop footprint in California is larger, with one million acres of almonds, along with pistachios and walnuts up and down the San Joaquin valley.

“The pest is not going anywhere,” Symmes said.

“We had a lot of unique circumstances. The amount of rainfall we got in late 2016 into 2017 was unprecedented and led us into a bad navel orange worm year because growers couldn’t get out and sanitize their orchards”

“Growers were not able to get into their orchards because of standing water,” Symmes explained.

Also, rainfall and moist conditions can help NOW mortality in the winter. “

We tend to think that it can help rot the nuts and do us some favors, but we have to be able to get the nuts shaken or get pulling crews in and get the mummies on the ground and destroyed,” Symmes said.

Heat units also played a part in the development of more NOW.

“It got hot. And it seemed to just not let up. Our degree-day models, or the heat unit that drive insect development, ended up getting pretty far out ahead of what is typical,” Symmes explained.

“By September, we were about two weeks ahead in degree-days, and that which meant moths were out earlier. They’re flying around. They’re laying eggs on the nuts when they’re still on the trees, and we are talking almonds, pistachios and to a lesser extent, walnuts.”

Symmes said the importance of sanitation is to minimize the site where the NOWs mature.

“It’s really important to remember that sanitation efforts aren’t just directly killing any worms that are over-wintering in your orchard. But the other thing that it does is it minimizes those sites where the first and second generations are going to develop next year,” she said.

Despite all these circumstances as to why NOW was serious this this year, it is critically important to start orchard sanitation as soon as possible. It may not be a good idea to wait for rain and fog to help loosen the nuts this season.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:58-07:00November 13th, 2017|

Pistachios Suffer Navel Orangeworm Damage

Overwintering NOW Population Must Be Reduced

By Robert H. Beede, UCCE Farm Advisor, Emeritus

The following is a special report by Robert H. Beede, UCCE Farm Advisor, Emeritus, on the state of the pistachio harvest and the fight against navel orangeworm damage.

Season Wrap Up: It looks like we wound up with about 600 million pounds. Only God knows how many million navel orangeworm got, but you all know it was a bunch! Processors have their hands full delivering the quality nut California is known for. Many growers I speak to ask, “What happened?” From my discussions with many crop consultants, what DIDN’T happen was sanitation! This was not only true for the pistachio growers, but almond producers as well.

Growers barked at me about the wet weather making orchard access difficult to impossible, the size of the trees making sanitation cost prohibitive, and the difficulty in getting the nuts out of the trees. These issues are all true. So, if you decide that you cannot sanitize, then you had best figure out how you are going to run the ranch on pistachios that are 30 to 40 cents less valuable than those with low worm damage.

I know I sound like the donkey’s behind with all the answers, but the pistachio industry needs to join forces with the almond guys to determine what we can collectively do to reduce the overwintering NOW population.

There has been millions spent studying NOW, and I have NEVER waivered on the fact that sanitation is the cornerstone to controlling this beast! I also still think that once we get the kinks out of mating disruption, that everyone should use it as a means to SUPPRESS the population. Note that I did NOT say, “Control it as a stand-alone program,” just in case someone out there wants to stuff words in my pie hole!

We are in DESPERATE need of an effective adult monitoring tool for NOW mating disruption. I hope this comes soon, in order to give pest managers a method of knowing when the pheromone is not reducing mating sufficiently. We also need more research on the cultural and environmental factors affecting the number of early split nuts, which become the NOW link to the new crop at harvest.

Sanitation: Now is the time to begin winter sanitation by removing the nuts that did not come off during harvest. Many of these nuts are blank, but do not assume that all of them are. Research by many good scientists has proven that winter sanitation is the key to breaking the overwintering NOW population cycle, which looms ever greater when the winter is warm and dry. Beginning the season with a large overwintering population simply reduces the effectiveness of your in-season sprays. Although the research has not been done, to my knowledge, the TIMING of sanitation may be a factor in its efficacy.

Nut removal and destruction early in the fall may be more effective, because the percentage of NOW larva in the early instar stages should be greater. This is due to the large peak in egg laying that occurs during hull degradation. Thus, they may be more susceptible to desiccation or fungal attack because of their smaller size. Disturbing their overwintering site from the tree onto the ground early also places more environmental pressure on their survival. This is just my opinion; it may be worthy of investigation.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:01:58-07:00November 8th, 2017|

Seat Belts Important to Farm Worker Safety

Year-Round Nut Harvest Safety – Part 2

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

Safety should be top priority on farms, especially during harvest. Most farm accidents and fatalities involve machinery and a busy atmosphere like harvest creates many opportunities for injury. However, farm worker safety is important year round. Paul Williams, a senior loss prevention consultant with the State Compensation Insurance Fund, talked to California Ag Today about the topic.

“Some things like wearing seat belts is critical. All the new farm equipment has seat belts, and workers should be encouraged to wear the seat belts because if they are unfortunate enough to get rear ended, that seat belt’s going to keep them in the equipment. You’re not going to get ejected out onto the road,” Williams said.

“A lot of it’s just simple common sense, but the whole idea of doing these before harvest is to remind people, that they are getting ready to enter a busy time of the year. And fatigue is always a factor when you’re working six days a week, 10-12 hours a day. It’s just natural that you get tired, and when you’re tired, you don’t always think clearly,” he said.

“Worker reaction times are slower so we just want to remind people, about safe work practices to follow. And they are good to follow year-round,” Williams noted.

It’s also important to consider safety when riding from one area of the farm to another.

“If there is not a seat and a seat belt, then there should not be a rider. And it does not matter if it is a tractor or bin trailer or a tractor pulling irrigation pipe,” Williams said.

“We’re all basically lazy; none of us like to walk any further than we have to. We don’t see any harm in hitching a ride, but we have a number of fatalities and serious injuries on California farms every year. We have way too many accidents occur where people are passengers on bin trailers and harvest, whether it’s in the vineyards or in the orchards.

“People jumping on a bin trailer where a tractor driver up front may be making a sharp turn to get out of a row. A lot of times there can be pinch points and that’s where people get pinched between that part of the trailer or that bin that they can’t always see. It’s a very dangerous place to be because all it takes is one bump, one hole in the ground or a rough spot to cause someone to be bounced off the tractor.

“The worst injury we see is not so much being bounced off, but just being caught in between row end or the poles at the end of a vineyard,” Williams said.

For more information on safety on the farm, go to: http://www.agsafe.org/

California Ag Today2017-09-03T00:23:27-07:00August 9th, 2017|

Innovative Biomass Conversion to Help Ag

New Biomass Conversion Idea Could Help Ag Industry

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Editor

A new biomass process will convert woody ag waste, including almond hulls and shells, into ethanol, which has a demand and makes the conversion possible.

Eric McAfee is Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Aemetis Inc., a Culpertino-based industrial biotechnology company producing renewable chemicals and fuels using patented microbes and processes.

The current bio-generations and biomass plants are shutting down left and right because they have lost their profit due to low electricity prices.

Eric McAffee is Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Aemetis

“The fundamental problem that we have is that the biomass energy business makes electricity, and that electricity is being replaced by solar energy and wind energy, which is funded by a 30 percent federal tax credit,” McAfee said.

“When the cost of energy is 30 percent lower because the federal government has supports, of course the biomass energy producers are challenged to compete with that lower cost source of energy,” McAfee explained.

Data shows that about 70 percent of the plants in California are already shut down, and more are shutting down each month.

That’s where Aemetis steps in. “Our view is that biomass in the form of orchard waste, vineyard waste – even forest waste, actually – has a very valuable opportunity to become the fuels that could go directly into California automobiles,” McAfee said. “Converting the biomass into fuels rather than biomass into electricity has been the missing link.”

Doing all the conversion work is a proprietary microbe. “It’s a little organism that acts sort of like yeast in that it takes in these wood molecules, and it converts them into different molecules in its body, and then it excretes ethanol as one of the products it makes,” McAfee said.

It’s similar to the wine industry, where the yeast takes sugar from the grape juice and converts it to alcohol.

“We’re taking orchard wood, and we’re producing liquid fuels that are very valuable in California because they’re high in oxygen, so they burn more cleanly than gasoline, and they’re high in octane, so they make the engine perform sort of like a high performance racing engine would. It’s very valuable as a fuel and good for the environment. The plant that will do all this is currently being built in Keyes, CA. We’re actually in initial engineering right now. We expect to have it up and running in … approximately 18 months,” McAfee said.

And McAfee noted that the conversion process is not just a theory. “This technology has been actually produced in six different plants around the world. Over 200 million dollars of investments have been made in the development of the technology,” he said.

“We’re essentially taking an agricultural waste, and we’re adding the additional volume of ethanol that’s mandated under California law. It’s a 10 percent blend in California, but the federal government has approved a 15 percent blend. I do expect over time that California will be at not only 15 percent, but even higher blends,” McAfee said.

“There’s a lot to work with – literally hundreds of thousands of tons of agricultural waste produced every year in addition to the removal of the orchard wood itself after its useful life of 20 to 30 years,” McAfee said.

And while several UC Cooperative farm advisors are working on orchard chipping and leaving it in the orchard – as well as bringing almond shells and hulls back into the orchard, which could be beneficial to the orchard soil – McAfee noted that the industry will figure out a balance.

“What we’re going to see over time is the right balance of the biomass that needs to go back into the field verses really true waste biomass that needs to be removed,” he said.

“There’s about a million acres of almonds in California, and over a 20 to 30 year lifespan, it means 40,000 to 50,000 acres a year of almonds gets removed. That’s a tremendous amount of biomass that has to be put somewhere, and right now, turning it into electricity in these large plants has been a solution, but we certainly think that turning it into liquid fuels and supplying California motorists is going to be an exciting future for these farmers,” McAfee said.

Again, the conversion plant should be operating by mid-2018. “We’re excited about it. It’s very good for the air quality in the Central Valley, because we don’t want to go back to the 1960s and ’70s and end up with these farmers basically having very few choices, and deciding that paying an air quality fine is the best of worst choices,” McAfee said. “I would suggest that, frankly, turning it into fuel in a very clean process, such as what we run, could be a big part of maintaining improved air quality in the Central Valley of California.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2017-04-06T03:48:06-07:00March 29th, 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|

Better Navel Orangeworm Spray Coverage

Navel Orangeworm Sprays Tough to Target

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

Naval orangeworm is the number one pest in almonds and pistachios, and there’s a lot of research going on to find ways to manage this pest. One important strategy is timely sprays, but Joel Siegel, a research entomologist with USDA Ag Research Service in Parlier, CA, said that it’s tough to get that spray on target.

Joel Siegel

“Spraying for naval orangeworm is learning to live with loss. Many years ago, my professor told me to assume that 90 percent of what you put out never goes where you want it to go. I didn’t know that he was being an optimist when he told me that,” he said.

To confirm this, Siegel set up a controlled experiment sponsored by DuPont. “Using the best setup of spray rigs at two miles per hour, we’re basically getting 10 percent of what we calculated in the tank was actually getting on the nut,” he said. “Then if you add the difficulty of saying, you want to get it in the suture on an early split almond, you’re probably getting about two percent of what’s in your tank actually on that suture zone, so you’re dealing with a 98 percent loss.”

Siegel said the spray is getting in the tree, but not on the nut or the suture of the nut. “I’m talking about just getting on target. It’s getting on the leaves, it’s getting on the bark, it might be getting on the ground.”

Siegel noted that it’s actually better to spray at night, when the naval orange worm adults are flying. “That way, some of the drift can actually contact the adults. The other advantage of night spraying is that the humidity is higher, so you’re not getting that loss of having the droplets evaporate.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2021-05-12T11:02:00-07:00December 29th, 2016|

Farm Advisor Culumber is in Awe

Catherine Culumber is Impressed by Big Production

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

Catherine Culumber is a UC Cooperative Extension Orchard Crops Farm Advisor in Fresno County. She has been on the job since June 30, and we wanted to catch up with her since she’s gotten her feet on the ground.

Catherine Culumber, UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor, Fresno County.

She came to the position with a Masters in Plant Science and a PhD in Soil Science.

“I’m so happy to be here, and it’s been great to get to know the network of people working in the University of California Cooperative Extension. There is endless amounts of resources and wealth of knowledge that I feel really fortunate to have.”

She is working with almond, walnut and pistachio growers, with the majority of her calls from almond producers.

Culumber was surprised with the vastness of Fresno County and all the production here. “My PhD research was in orchard systems at Utah State University, and it didn’t nearly prepare me for the infinite acreage that I saw upon arriving here,” she said.

She said that she has met some very innovative growers, and they all seem to be doing the best they can for the family farm.

“I think that farmers are very adaptable, and I can see that in recent years with the decrease in water availability, most people have adapted and gone to different micro-irrigation systems to increase their water use efficiency,” Culumber said. “The farmers are working hard to not only be sustainable, but they’re smart business people as well.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-12-27T12:38:59-08:00December 27th, 2016|