The 2021 California table olive forecast is 55,000 tons, up considerably from last year’s crop of 23,200 tons, according to a survey conducted by the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Pacific Regional Office. Bearing acreage is estimated at 12,800, which results in a yield of 4.30 tons per acre.
The Manzanillo production forecast is 53,800 tons, Sevillano production forecast is 1,100 tons, and other varieties are expected to total 100 tons.
Growers reported variable crop yields by both variety and area. Manzanillo yields were reported to be higher and more consistent than the Sevillano variety yields. Sizes were reported to be smaller than normal due to high heat and lack of water availability.
Labor costs and marketing remains an issue for California olives growers, with many uncertain how much of their crop will be economical to harvest.
SURVEY SAMPLE
There were 309 growers sampled for the survey. Reports from 153 were used to establish this forecast. The sample is designed to provide a State estimate of all varieties; estimates by variety are less precise.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A special thanks goes to the many olive growers who participated in the survey. Time spent completing the survey is appreciated, and helpful in estimating current condition of the olive industry in California. The California Table Olive Forecast is funded by the California Olive Committee.
Organic producers and handlers can now apply for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funds to assist with the cost of receiving or maintaining organic certification. Applications for the Organic Certification Cost Share Program (OCCSP) are due Nov. 1, 2021.
“USDA is here to help all producers, including those who grow our nation’s organic food and fiber. Many farmers have told us that cost was a barrier to their ability to get an organic certification,” said Zach Ducheneaux, administrator of USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA). “By assisting with the costs, this program can help organic farmers get their certification along with the benefits that come with it.”
OCCSP provides cost-share assistance to producers and handlers of agricultural products for the costs of obtaining or maintaining organic certification under the USDA’s National Organic Program. Eligible producers include any certified producers or handlers who have paid organic certification fees to a USDA-accredited certifying agent during the 2021 and any subsequent program year. Producers can be reimbursed for expenses made between Oct. 1, 2020 and Sept. 30, 2021 including application fees, inspection costs, fees related to equivalency agreement and arrangement requirements, travel expenses for inspectors, user fees, sales assessments and postage.
For 2021, OCCSP will reimburse 50% of a certified operation’s allowable certification costs, up to a maximum of $500 for each of the following categories (or “scopes”):
crops
wild crops
livestock
processing/handling
State organic program fees
Organic farmers and ranchers may apply through an FSA county office or a participating state agency.
This funding will be complemented by an additional $20 million for organic and transitioning producers through the Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative. More information on that funding will be available in the coming weeks.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced today an investment of $69 million to address critical food and nutrition security needs of low-income communities enduring the pandemic, enhance the resilience of food and healthcare systems impacted by the pandemic, and maximize funds reaching participants. This is one of several key steps that USDA is taking to ensure access to healthy and nutritious food in all communities, so every American has a chance to live a productive life and reach their full potential.
Twenty awards totaling $61.5 million are for Nutrition Incentive Grants, and 15 awards totaling $7.5 million are for Produce Prescription Grants. These grants are all part of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program COVID Relief and Response (GusCRR) grants program.
“Bolstering nutrition security is one of our top goals in this Administration. The awards we are announcing today will help households in communities across the country – many hard-hit by the pandemic and the resulting economic challenges – be better equipped to purchase healthy fruits and vegetables. The organizations receiving this funding have demonstrated their ability to support vulnerable Americans with timely and impactful relief during this ongoing crisis,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Examples of organizations funded for Nutrition Incentive Grants include:
Wholesome Wave Georgia for its “Georgia Fresh for Less” program, providing over $3.6 million in fresh, local produce to Georgia’s food-insecure families. ($646,781)
The Food Basket, Inc., Hawai’i Island’s Food Bank, for “DA BUX Double Up Food Bucks” program, pioneering nutrition incentives to increase the purchase of Hawai’i grown produce among SNAP beneficiaries. ($5,000,000)
California Department of Food and Agriculture’s “California Nutrition Incentive Program” will empower state SNAP shoppers to purchase more fresh, healthy foods, increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables, and improve their food security and health outcomes while recovering from the pandemic and economic crisis. ($6,325,464)
Fair Food Network, Michigan will increase the reach and availability of “Double Up Food Bucks” to low-income communities in areas of the state hardest hit by the pandemic, and bring an additional $3.75M in fruits and vegetables to the tables of Michigan families across the two years of this grant. ($4,997,950)
Examples of organizations funded for Produce Prescription Grants include:
Fresh Approach of Concord, California, for its “Trauma-Informed VeggieRX” program to increase access to and consumption of healthy foods among low-income populations. ($129,019)
Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation (MCHC) of Whitesburg, Kentucky, for its “MCHC FARMACY” program to provide SNAP participants extra incentives to purchase fresh produce. ($619,681)
Community Outreach and Patient Empowerment Program, Inc., of Gallup, New Mexico, for its “Navajo Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program” to address rising food security needs among Navajo individuals and enhance food and health care systems in the Navajo Region. ($647,027)
Find out more about the impact and public value of NIFA’s research investments online https://nifa.usda.gov/impacts.
Pima cotton is the predominant variety of cotton grown in California. It’s ideal for making premium fabrics for clothing and bed sheets. But Fusarium wilt disease, caused by a soil-borne fungus, can devastate a cotton crop. It’s responsible for crop losses in several production regions in the U.S. and worldwide.
Researchers with the University of California, Davis, the USDA Agricultural Research Service and other groups have been working for nearly 18 years to identify sources of resistance to a specific strain of Fusarium, known as race 4, by field testing plant materials with different genetic backgrounds. They have now developed three Pima cotton cultivars that show improved resistance to the disease, which is a big step toward creating commercial varieties for cotton growers and producers.
Bob Hutmacher, Physiologist in Plant Sciences at UC Davis & Cooperative Extension Cotton Specialist
Bob Hutmacher, a physiologist in plant sciences at UC Davis and a Cooperative Extension cotton specialist, has been working on various aspects of this research since 2003. Hutmacher says various strains of Fusarium wilt disease have been a problem in California for decades. The newest Fusarium race 4 strain was initially discovered in the San Joaquin Valley in the early 2000s and has since been detected in cotton fields in other U.S. cotton production regions, including El Paso, Texas; and Las Cruces, New Mexico. In severely infected plants, leaves wilt and drop, resulting in bare stems. Plants affected by the disease can’t produce high yields of the white, fluffy bolls that grow on the stem, which contain the raw forms of cotton.
Disease could mean higher prices
Crops impacted by the disease could spell trouble for consumers. Hutmacher says when production suffers, that could potentially lead to higher costs for cotton products.
“It can be a very damaging disease in terms of greatly reducing yields, and to some extent, even making it uneconomical for production of cotton as a crop in a region,” Hutmacher said. “As it becomes more difficult to produce something economically, the only way to keep producing it is to have the cost of everything go up.”
Hutmacher says this type of fungal disease can likely survive in soil for decades and can easily move from place to place if infected soil particles get stuck on tractor tires, boots or shovels. Planting resistant varieties can help prevent the spread.
“It’s probably the most environmentally acceptable way of trying to figure out how to control a disease,” Hutmacher explained. “You’re basically looking for a solution that is already there and available in the plant’s genetics, and so it’s not dependent on a chemical, which may or may not have some other impact on the environment.”
This collaborative project also included work by researchers from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics at Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences. Together they will make genetic plant material, including seeds of the newly developed Pima cotton, available to cotton breeders, geneticists and researchers. The hope is that breeders and seed companies can create a product that can eventually make it onto farms and fields.
“That’s the next step you wish for with all these types of materials; you make them available, demonstrate that there is improved resistance to a disease, and then the companies can pick it up from there and turn it into a variety with good yields and good fiber quality characteristics, so it has a place in the market,” Hutmacher said. — By Tiffany Dobbyn, UC Davis
A crimson clover plant, which is generally recommended to grow in a mixture of grasses, which was used in this study (photo by Sandra Wayman)
Both chemical fertilizers and cover crops can help build the nitrogen content in soil. But cover crops come with many other benefits, like improving soil structure and boosting beneficial microbes. Researchers at Cornell University are looking at ways to help breed better cover crops, also known as green manures, that could help farmers in their quest to grow crops in the most sustainable way. Their results were published in Crop Science, a publication of the Crop Science Society of America.
Katherine Muller and her team are working on strategies to measure nitrogen fixation in breeding programs for two common cover crops: crimson clover and hairy vetch. Both crops can pull nitrogen from the air to help them grow. This is called nitrogen fixation.
“Green manures are crops used to improve soil fertility,” says Muller. “They help the soil by adding nutrients. We look at legumes, which bring nitrogen into the soil due to their symbiotic relationship with bacteria.”
The use of legume green manures has been around for thousands of years. However, after the 1950s, chemical fertilizers became the main nitrogen source for farmers in developed countries. This is because two scientists, Haber and Bosch, found a way to pull nitrogen from the air, and make chemical fertilizer.
Though this type of fertilizer is productive, it also takes energy to make it – and it can easily slip into water bodies if not managed correctly.
“Cover crops are important ecological management tools,” says Muller. “They foster microbial communities and put nutrients in the soil. Essentially, they help build fertile soil that can supply nutrients when plants need them.”
The use of cover crops can be risky to farmers because they cannot determine the exact amount of nitrogen supplied to the soil. Chemical fertilizers allow for the exact calculation of the amount of nitrogen applied to a crop. But how much nitrogen is provided by each type of cover crop isn’t a known number.
The amount of nitrogen supplied by a legume cover crop depends on how well it grows and how much of its nitrogen comes from fixation versus uptake from soil. Currently, cover crop seeds available do not have selective breeding for nitrogen fixation – a valuable trait.
Plant breeders are working to develop cover crop varieties that reduce the risks and increase benefits to farmers. They hope that better varieties will increase the use of cover crops as an alternative to chemical fertilizer. Nitrogen fixation is one of their top priorities for legume green manures.
“We aim to help plant breeders develop strategies to target nitrogen fixation in cover crops,” explains Muller. “Because nitrogen fixation is a complicated trait that changes as plants grow, the timing of measurements is important.”
A root system of a hairy vetch plant, with nodules that contain a symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria (Photo by Katherine Muller).
For farmers, the most important measurement of nitrogen fixation is when the crop is terminated. Legume green manures are usually terminated in the late flowering stage. Earlier termination means the crop is likely to resprout and become a weed. However, breeding programs for hairy vetch and crimson clover cannot take that measurement, as they need to remove the plant before cross-pollination.
“Our team did a field experiment with an active breeding program,” says Muller. “We collected plant tissues and measured nitrogen fixation. We were able to tell how much of the plant’s nitrogen comes from fixation versus the soil.”
The team tested three kinds of samples that a plant breeder may take to compare them to the sample most relevant to farmers. They then measured nitrogen fixation by sending their samples to a lab that measures total nitrogen content and the abundance of a naturally occurring stable isotope.
Nitrogen from soil usually has a higher abundance of the nitrogen stable isotope than nitrogen from fixation. This allows researchers to estimate the proportion of nitrogen a plant obtains from soil versus fixation.
“Our recommendation is to collect stems from each plant in the early flowering stage to measure the nitrogen fixation via stable isotopes,” says Muller. “This provides a good proxy for nitrogen fixation in whole plants, measured in the late flowering stage that is more relevant to farmers.”
According to Muller, if breeders are going to add one measurement, it should be this. The proportion of nitrogen obtained by fixation often does not correlate with plant size or other measurements.
“It is important to measure actual nitrogen fixed in the cover crop because it can vary,” says Muller. “Farmers want to know how much nitrogen they are bringing into their fields. We need to accurately measure and provide this information to help farmers make decisions. We hope our research will encourage more farmers to adopt legumes cover crops as a nitrogen source.”
Katherine Muller is a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University. This research was done in conjunction with the Legume Cover Crop Breeding Project, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture.
American Society of Agronomy, Soil Science Society of America, Crop Science Society of America: Collectively, these Societies represent more than 12,000 individual members around the world. Members are researchers and professionals in the areas of growing our world’s food supply while protecting our environment. Together we work toward solutions to advance scientific knowledge in the areas of agronomy, crop science, and soil science.
As wildfires rage across the western U.S., incinerating hundreds of thousands of acres, destroying entire communities, and polluting the air, Bill Pekny has a message: We need to get more educated on what causes these disasters. It’s the only way we’ll be able to reduce the devastation.
“There are a lot of misconceptions around wildfires,” says Pekny, author of A Tale of Two Climates: One Real, One Imaginary(Two Climates LLC, 2021, ISBN: 978-1-73493-960-6, $34.59). “One of the biggest is that they are 100 percent preventable. They aren’t, and in fact, prescribed burns are beneficial. Still, we can and should do certain things to lessen their frequency and severity.”
For example, says Pekny, we can take the following steps:
Use smart, strategic logging. Trees leave the forest in two ways: smoke or lumber. With judicious logging practices, we will also create much needed firebreaks and access roads in the process.
Build more dams and reservoirs, especially in drought and fire prone areas. Find ways to trap seasonal floodwater for drought, fire mitigation, and hydropower, rather than simply wasting the water by allowing it to flow unchecked into the oceans.
Relax regulations that stymie dam and reservoir construction, forest thinning, and removal of brush that fuel wildfires.
Insist that forest policy decisions be based on life-cycle cost-benefit analyses, in order to make the best use of our nation’s money.
Last but not least, keep learning. Teach ourselves and our children about forest safety and security.
Pekny says that in order to make these changes happen, we need to brush up on our understanding of wildfires. For example…
Two Facts About Wildfires
Humans cause most wildfires. Yes, lightning and high winds that down power lines sometimes play a role. But, humans—not weather or climate—actually ignite the majority of wildfires, whether they are set intentionally (e.g., arson or prescribed carefully controlled burns), or accidentally (e.g., bad camping habits, vehicle fires, and the like).
There are several major contributing causes that ramp up the intensity of wildfires…
Drought conditions that happen naturally and cyclically, in spite of 71 percent of the Earth’s surface being covered by water, as well as 67 percent cloud cover, on average.
Periodic, natural, downslope winds, such as the Santa Ana winds of Southern California and the Diablo winds in Northern California.
Maintenance issues that result in downed power lines and the fires they ignite.
Environmental and/or forest management policies that prevent or discourage the thinning or clearing of underbrush that fuel wildfires.
The bottom line?
“Let’s focus on what we can reasonably and affordably do to mitigate the devastation and pollution caused by any wildfire,” says Pekny. “And let’s do a better job of educating people on the causes of wildfires. The more we learn, the more likely we’ll be able to make needed changes.”
About the Author:
Bill Pekny is the author of A Tale of Two Climates: One Real, One Imaginary. He holds physics M.S. and B.S. degrees from Georgia Tech and DePaul University, plus graduate study in physical meteorology and numerical analysis at Florida State University and the University of Utah, and a visiting scholar appointment at the Ginzton Laboratory of Applied Physics at Stanford University.
Bill’s career in science spans over 50 years in the U.S. Armed Forces and the aerospace industry.
His career highlights include: Project Stormfury with the U.S. Navy Hurricane Hunters; applied atmospheric physics and meteorology research; LASER RADAR development; new product testing in various atmospheric environments; aviation optics and electronics; global climate research; and more.
The new Board of Directors of the Almond Board of California (ABC) took their seats on Wednesday with five voting members – three of them new to the board – beginning new terms to help oversee ABC’s support of one of California’s most important agricultural crops.
Board members, whose terms officially began Aug. 1, also elected Brian Wahlbrink as chair and George Goshgarian Jr. as vice chair.
“This is a knowledgeable, talented board,” Wahlbrink said. “Our board members come from across our industry and around our state. They bring a great energy and an impressive range of experience, and we’re all eager to continue moving California almonds forward as one of the state’s most valuable and important crops.”
The 10-member board of ABC has five grower members – three representing independent growers and two representing growers working with cooperatives – and five handler members, also with three independents and two co-op reps.
The new grower representatives are:
Paul Ewing, an independent from RPAC Almonds in Los Banos. He was re-elected and takes a 1-year term.
Joe Gardiner, an independent from Treehouse California Almonds in Earlimart. He was an alternative on the previous board and takes a 3-year term.
Christine Gemperle, a co-op grower from Gemperle Orchards in Ceres. She was also a former alternate and takes a 3-year term.
The new handler representatives are:
Darren Rigg, an independent handler from Minturn Nut Co in Le Grand. He was re-elected and takes a 1-year term.
Bob Silveria, an independent handler from Vann Family Orchards in Williams. He will serve a 3-year term.
In addition, the board has five new alternates:
Brandon Rebeiro, an independent grower from Gold Leaf Farming in Modesto.
Chris Bettencourt, an independent grower from Westley.
Kent Stenderup, a co-op grower from Stenderup Ag Partners in Bakersfield and former chair of the ABC Board.
Dexter Long, an independent handler from Hilltop Ranch in Ballico. He was re-elected as an alternate.
Chad DeRose, an independent handler from Famoso Nut Co. in McFarland. He was also re-elected as an alternate.
The ABC board sets policy and recommends budgets to the Secretary of Agriculture in major areas including production research, public relations and advertising, nutrition research, statistical reporting, quality control and food safety.
About the Almond Board of California
ABC is a Federal Marketing Order dedicated to promoting California almonds to domestic and international audiences through marketing efforts and by funding and promoting research about almonds’ health benefits, efficient and sustainable farming, food safety and more. ABC works on behalf of the more than 7,600 almond growers and processors in California, many of whom are multi-generational family operations.
The Calf Care & Quality Assurance (CCQA) program today published the first volume of its Animal Care Reference Manual. This manual assists farmers and ranchers who raise different breeds of male and female calves intended for dairy and/or beef production systems, encouraging calf raisers to approach management decisions with thoughtfulness and an appreciation for the responsibility they have to their animals, consumers and the broader cattle industries in the U.S.
“The Animal Care Reference Manual is a fantastic resource which highlights best management practices and recognizes the good work that calf raisers implement across the country,” said Beverly Hampton Phifer, Stakeholder Relations Manager for the FARM Program. “This inaugural CCQA resource deliverable was designed to help calf raisers continually improve animal care outcomes on the farm while providing assurances for the supply chain.”
In addition to the manual, the CCQA program also offers resources specific to the needs of calf raisers such as protocol templates and animal observation scoring reference guides. Online and in-person opportunities for individuals looking to be CCQA-certified, as well as a facility self-assessment, will be available later this fall.
The CCQA program is jointly led by the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) program, managed by the National Milk Producer’s Federation (NMPF) and NCBA’s Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program, funded by The Beef Checkoff. Support is also provided by the Dairy Calf and Heifer Association, and The Beef Checkoff-funded Veal Quality Assurance (VQA) program.
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), based in Arlington, VA, develops and carries out policies that advance dairy producers and the cooperatives they own. NMPF’s member cooperatives produce the majority of U.S. milk, making NMPF the voice of dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies.
Created by the National Milk Producers Federation in partnership with Dairy Management Inc, the National Dairy FARM (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) works with all U.S. dairy farmers, co-ops and processors, to demonstrate to dairy customers and consumers that the dairy industry is taking the very best care of cows and the environment, producing safe, wholesome milk and adhering to the highest standards of workforce development.
With many small farms still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, and deepening impacts felt from the drought, Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) is relaunching its California Family Farmer Emergency Fund for farmers in crisis.
The current drought is sending shock waves through California’s food system; as wells go dry, reservoirs sit empty, and the state begins shutting off access to water, thousands of farmers have begun fallowing their fields. And after more than a year of pandemic-induced market disruptions, from which many small businesses have yet to fully recover, the onset of yet another disaster has small farms questioning their future.
“It’s not just tractors that run the risk of breaking down; many of our farms are on the brink,” said Paul Towers, Executive Director of CAFF. “The pandemic was challenging enough. With the addition of drought and the prospect of wildfires, family farmers are wondering if they’ll make it to next season. Emergency fund efforts can make the difference between whether they stay in business or not, and that impacts all of us.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, California is already losing four farms per day on average. And despite record-high subsidies for agriculture–driven in large part by efforts to make up for recent trade wars and pandemic relief–a report by the Environmental Working Group shows that over the past few decades, the biggest 20% of farm subsidy recipients claimed over 90% of federal aid and the top 1% claimed more than a quarter. “This support,” says Towers, “is not finding its way to the folks showing up at your local farmers market.”
To make up for this disparity, CAFF’s fund will focus on smaller operations and those not served by existing assistance efforts, with at least 50% of the funds granted to farmers of color, immigrant and undocumented farmers.
“These funds provide temporary relief,” said Cheyenne Stone of the Big Pine Paiute Tribe and CAFF’s Policy Committee Co-Chair. “State and federal policymakers need to advance bolder policies to address the threats of climate change and invest in farm, water and fire resilience, starting with those historically underserved farmers,”
The twin funds — for pandemic and drought relief — are part of the larger California Family Farmer Emergency Fund, which may release a third category to provide wildfire relief to farmers in the coming weeks, as it has done in previous years. In 2020, the California Family Farmer Emergency Fund provided over $650,000 in total grants to 207 farmers, farmworkers and their families impacted by the pandemic or fire.
Diverse advisory committees are reviewing the applications on a rolling basis to get resources to the most vulnerable farmers and their families. The fund is housed at the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, and all grants, which will be $5,000, will be made through CAFF. Applications are due by August 31st, with potential additional rounds pending fundraising.
The UC Cooperative Extension, Washington State University and Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary have been working together this past year field testing five different formulations of biodegradable bed mulch in strawberry. See five types of soil-biodegradable mulches (BDMs) applied to strawberries in Salinas Valley. Learn what a BDM is, what it is made from, and comparative economics with traditional PE plastic mulch. See first-hand how it is performing in the field and learn from other farmers who are trialing it about their experiences and expectations. Learn about how plastic impacts soil health. For more information on the event, contact Jazmine Mejia-Muñoz at jazmine@californiamsf.org or call (661) 331-2612. Register HERE All local and state health guidelines will be enforced. If you have not received a Covid vaccine please wear a mask.
Location:
Strobel Ranch
1656 Castroville Road
Salinas, CA 93907
This event is supported by the ‘California Climate Investments’ program.
As wildfires rage across the western U.S., incinerating hundreds of thousands of acres, destroying entire communities, and polluting the air, Bill Pekny has a message: We need to get more educated on what causes these disasters. It’s the only way we’ll be able to reduce the devastation.
