A Diversified Farmer Delivers For All



By Patrick Cavanaugh

George Ayerza is with A & A Farms, and the last three weeks have been rushed with harvest work that not only helps feed consumers, but clothe them as well.

George Ayerza, following a long day in the fields.

He just finished up harvesting 220 acres of cannery tomatoes on the West Side of Fresno County near San Joaquin.  “We had good production of around 50 tons per acre,” he noted. “The quality of the crop was excellent too.”

Ayerza noted that they had only one of three fields that was lightly impacted from Curly Top Virus. Curly Top was very bad for many growers across the county this year.

Ayerza’s Cannery Tomatoes being harvested.

Over the last few days, he started shaking his 160 acres of almonds beginning with his Nonpareil variety.  “So far, production looks good, although the almonds look a little smaller than last year, probably due to the excessive heat we had in July,” Ayerza assessed. “Harvest will continue over the next few weeks.”

“This week, we will also be starting to harvest our seed alfalfa,” Ayerza said.

Ayerza will also be harvesting his dehy onions. The crop will be dug and loaded into trucks for delivery to a dehy processor.

His cotton is flowering beautifully. “We hope to set a great crop,” said Ayerza. “We plan to harvest the cotton in late October; everything is about two weeks early this year.”