With record acreage of almonds coming into production in California, hullers and processors are going to need to find new/alternative uses for hulls & shells. The Almond Alliance is working with the Almond Board of California to come up with sustainable alternatives including almond biochar to increase the water holding capacity and bring nutrients back into the soil. Watch this video interview of Karen Lapsley from the Almond Board with California Ag Network as she talks about biochar and its potential for the industry.
Albany, Calif., (August 21, 2017) – The popularity of walnuts is growing among health-conscious consumers, but processing these nutrient-vitamin-rich nuts could use some tweaking. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have developed a method that uses infrared technology to improve commercial processing, particularly drying, to reduce energy costs and deliver high-quality products.
Walnut drying is expensive and energy intensive, according to ARS engineer Zhongli Pan in Albany, California. The current hot-air drying method takes more than 24 hours to dry walnuts and uses a significant amount of natural gas and electricity. Infrared—a form of intense light that’s felt, but not seen—dries walnuts faster and is less expensive. It’s a type of electromagnetic radiation—as are radio waves, ultraviolent radiation, X-rays and microwaves.
The new drying process, developed by Pan and his team at ARS’s Western Regional Research Center, includes three new steps: Hulled, in-shell walnuts are separated into two groups with different moisture contents; then pre-dried with infrared heating; and followed with regular hot air drying.
In experiments, the new process saved up to 25 percent of the natural gas and electricity needed to dry walnuts, according to Pan. In addition, the infrared drying process quickly removed moisture from the surface and shell of walnuts, reducing total drying time by 35 percent.
Walnuts have a broad range of moisture contents and get wet after washing, according to Pan. Currently they are hot-air dried for the same amount of time. This can cause under-drying or over-drying.
When the moisture content is too high, it causes mold, so facilities tend to over-dry walnuts to make sure they are safe to eat, Pan stated. But over-drying wastes a lot of energy and reduces walnut quality. Infrared drying improves quality by reducing both over-drying and under-drying, allowing walnut meat to maintain color and an exceptional polyunsaturated fat content.
This new infrared drying method also may be practical for other types of nuts, such as pistachios, according to Pan.
Read more about this research in the August 2017 issue of AgResearch magazine.
For more information contact Sandra Avant, ARS Office of Communications.
Sacramento, Calif., (August 1, 2017) – The weather last week was hot and dry across the State. The summer monsoon across the southwest desert helped trigger some showers across the deserts last week, while additional pockets of moisture found their way into the Sierras and managed to produce a few scattered showers throughout the week. Rainfall was limited to Monday through Thursday across the interior deserts and parts of the central and northern Sierras. A few monsoon showers and thunderstorms dropped up to half an inch of rain in places across the desert, with most areas receiving around a tenth of an inch. A stray thunderstorm near Alturas in the northeastern corner of the State dropped nearly half an inch of rain. Snow cover continued to dissipate across the State; however, some areas of the Lassen Volcanic National Park still had nearly ten feet of snow in some areas.
Temperature highs were in the 60s to 80s along the coast, 70s to 90s in the mountains, 90s to 100s, in the valley, and 90s to 110s in the desert. Temperature lows were in the 30s to 50s in the mountains, 50s to 60s along the coast, 60s to 70s in the valley, and 60s to 80s in the desert.
Wheat was harvested for grain and shaft baled for straw. Alfalfa fields were being irrigated, cut, and baled. Corn and sorghum for silage were cultivated and irrigated. The corn silage crop was in various stages of development, from already tasseling to developing ears. Cotton continued to be irrigated, cultivated, and was growing well. Cotton was blooming and forming bolls. Black-eyed beans continued to be irrigated and cultivated.
Mid-season peach, nectarine, pluot, and plum harvest continued. Some harvested stone fruit orchards were pruned and topped. Table grapes were harvested and vineyards irrigated. Wine grapes were maturing well. Valencia orange harvest continued but was winding down due to high temperatures and fruit availability.
Walnut, almond, and pistachio orchards continued to be irrigated. Mechanical and chemical weed control continued in orchards. Harvest preparation was underway in almond orchards. Almond harvest began in the warmer regions of Kern County. Pistachios were beginning to split. Navel Orange Worm sprays and fertilizers were applied to pistachios. Walnuts were sizing well.
In Colusa County, triple digit heat impacted the harvest of vegetables, including processing tomatoes and honeydew melons. The processing tomato harvest was somewhat erratic, interrupting the smooth flow of ripe tomatoes to the canneries. The melon packing sheds were affected by the inconsistent flow of fruit. In San Joaquin County, harvest was ongoing for honeydew melons, watermelons, cantaloupes, onions, and fresh vegetable crops. Farmers’ Market vegetables continued to be harvested and offered for sale. In Monterey County, mid-year harvest and production slowed for two weeks. It was expected to pick back up with more harvesting and preparation for the third or last rotation of the year. All commodities, lettuces, brassicas, and spinach were in production. Asparagus was finished and artichokes will pick up again in August. In Fresno County, harvest continued for both organic and conventional tomatoes with lower yields than expected. Quality was reported as very good. Onions, carrots, and lettuce seed were harvested. Soil was prepared for yellow peppers. In Tulare County, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and peppers were picked by certified producers and sold at the local Farmers’ Markets. Yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, Bell peppers, green chili peppers, and cucumbers were harvested and shipped domestically. Sweet corn harvest continued and was sold at roadside stands and local Farmers’ Markets. Melons were irrigated and prepared for the upcoming harvest. In Kings County, the tomato harvest continued with a decent harvest reported. Tomatoes were sprayed with fungicide and pesticide.
The decline in nutritional quality of rangeland grasses and forbs continued. Range and dryland pasture conditions across the state were reported as fair to very poor. Wildland fires burned some north state pastures and ranges. Elevated temperatures continued to impact milk production. Bees were active in melon and sunflower fields.
Tulare, Calif., (July 28, 2017) – Tulare and Kings Counties have over 200,000 combined acres of nuts, valued near $1 billion, approaching harvest. To promote worker and community safety during the harvest season, UCCE Tulare County joined with the Kings County Farm Bureau and the Tulare County Farm Bureau to host a Nut Harvest Safety Seminar at the Kings County Fairgrounds on July 19, 2017. The event, conducted in both English and Spanish, attracted over 100 attendees. Due to positive feedback and consistent annual attendance, the program has been offered for three consecutive years. Additional program sponsors include American Pistachio Growers and State Compensation Insurance Fund.
Topics covered include equipment and road safety, as well as chemical safety and prevention of heat stress. Course content was presented by Officers Chris Tuttle and Luis Guillen, California Highway Patrol, Martha Sanchez, Department of Pesticide Regulation, and Joe Zavala, Patrick Taylor, Paul Williams, and Annette Casares, State Compensation Insurance Fund.
Annette Casares led discussion on equipment safety.Officer Chris Tuttle educated attendees on the influence of alcohol consumption on physical performance.UCCE Farm Advisors Elizabeth Fichtner and Mohammad Yaghmour assisted with advertisement and registration.
Photo Credit: Barbara Martin, Kings County Farm Bureau Community Relations Coordinator
Folsom, Calif., (July 27, 2017) – The California Walnut Commission (CWC) is pleased to announce that walnuts were selected by the state of California as one of the official state nuts.
“On behalf of the California walnut industry, we’re thrilled to be named an official state nut of California,” said Bill Carriere, Chairperson for the California Walnut Commission. “Walnuts have a long and rich history in our state, having been first cultivated in California by the Franciscan Fathers in the late 1700s, followed by commercial walnut production beginning in the 1870’s.”
Today, the California walnut industry is made up of more than 4,000 walnut growers and more than 90 walnut handlers (processors), who harvest approximately 315,000 bearing acres of walnuts. Walnuts from California are more than 99 percent of the U.S. commercial supply and in the current 2016 crop year the California Walnut Board reported a record crop totaling 684,338 tons, with global shipments up 18% year-to-date.
“California walnuts are the 9th leading commodity grown in the state and the 3rd leading export, contributing nearly $1 billion to the state in annual farm gate revenue,” said California Assemblyman Adam Gray. “I am pleased that my colleagues and I at the Capital have been able to recognize the tremendous contribution the growers and handlers make to agriculture in our state.”
In addition to offering a broad range of culinary uses, walnuts also add essential nutrients to the daily diet. Unique among nuts, walnuts are the only nut to contain an excellent source of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), the plant-based omega-3 essential fatty acid required by the human body, with 2.5 grams per one-ounce serving. Walnuts also offer protein (4 grams per ounce) and fiber (2 grams per ounce).
For more than 25 years, the California Walnut Commission has supported scientific research on consumption of walnuts and outcomes in areas such as heart health, cognitive function, cancer, diabetes and metabolic syndrome, weight, and male reproductive health.
For more information about walnuts, including industry reports and nutritional information, visit www.walnuts.org.
Parlier, Calif., (July 26, 2017) – For centuries, farmers have used all the colors of the rainbow to assess their orchards: The bright pink of blossoms in springtime, the vibrant green of heathy leaves, the red blush on fruit ready to harvest.
However, there are wavelengths beyond what a typical human eye can see that also provide valuable information about the crop – including tree vigor, plant stress, water use and fertilizer needs.
UC Cooperative Extension agricultural engineering advisor Ali Pourreza is peering into these previously invisible colorations to create a virtual orchard that will quickly, easily and inexpensively allow farmers and scientists to manage orchards for optimum production.
To develop his first virtual orchards, Pourreza launched a camera-equipped drone over an orchard at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier. As the drone flies over the trees, it snaps thousands of photos and, using photogrammetry and software that stiches the images together, makes a three-dimensional point cloud model of the orchard.
A computer program can make colors that are invisible to the human eye – such as near infrared, red edge and ultraviolet – into imagery that illuminates key crop health indicators. Near infrared indicates the amount of healthy foliage, plant vigor and crop type. If the trees have low near infrared values, it means the plants are under stress. Red edge indicates plant stress and nitrogen content. High red edge values indicate nitrogen stress and low water content in plant tissues.
UCCE ag engineer Ali Pourreza views the virtual orchard on his computer.
“We are currently working on developing models to help growers determine their fertilization demands and have been contrasting the results from real orchards with the virtual orchard,” Brown said. “We have already utilized the approach to contrast the estimates of tree growth and yield with whole tree excavations and harvests to help validate the virtual approach and provide a more accurate estimate of tree nitrogen demand.”
Ultimately, Brown hopes to develop a way for growers to rapidly and cheaply estimate the nitrogen demand of their orchards, monitor the status of their orchards and manage nitrogen fertilizer applications.
In addition to the color variations brought to light by the virtual orchard, the system provides detailed data on other aspects of the crop development.
“We can learn canopy height and width, the spacing between the trees, total leaf area, canopy density and the amount of shaded area in the orchard,” Poureza said.
This data is of interest to scientists studying plant development, soil health and irrigation.
For example, UCCE agricultural water management specialist Daniele Zaccaria is researching the impact of soil-water salinity on water use by pistachio trees in the San Joaquin Valley.
“In our on-going research study we are characterizing the functional relationships between soil-water salinity, canopy size and density and evapotranspiration of pistachio trees through the light interception by the canopy,” Zaccaria said. “We plan to work with Ali to see how the virtual orchard approach can represent that and simulate the physical process of soil evaporation and tree transpiration as a result of different canopy sizes and densities intercepting different amounts of solar radiation.”
Zaccaria said he also plans to deploy a similar approach to understand how different canopy sizes, planting densities and row orientations found in commercial citrus orchards in the San Joaquin Valley – from navel oranges, to mandarins and lemons – can affect the citrus water demand and use.
In addition to the rich data that scientists can glean from the virtual technology, Pourreza envisions many applications of this technology for farmers, including yield forecasting, blossom mapping, variable pesticide application and robotic harvesting.
Sacramento, Calif., (July 25, 2017) – Another hot and mostly dry week across the State as a typical summertime weather pattern set up with mid-level ridging over the Great Basin brought dry air into most of the State. The summer monsoon began to ramp up last week, bringing some much-needed rainfall to parts of the southern and interior deserts. Scattered showers fell on parts of the desert on Tuesday and Wednesday, with most places receiving less than a quarter of an inch. A few isolated sprinkles fell in the central and southern Sierras on Sunday, along with more widespread showers in the southern deserts that dropped an additional quarter inch of rain in most places.
Hot temperatures continued to melt the snow in the mountains. Mt. Whitney was devoid of snow, while snow still blanketed parts of the Shasta Peak. A few isolated patchy snow fields still existed at elevations over 11,500 feet in the region of the Stanislaus National Forest.
Temperature highs were in the 60s to 80s along the coast, 70s to 90s in the mountains, 90s to 100s in the valley, and 90s to 110s in the desert. Temperature lows were in the 30s to 50s in the mountains, 50s to 60s along the coast, 60s to 70s in the valley, and 60s to 90s in the desert.
Barley harvest was completed. Alfalfa fields were being irrigated, cut, and baled. Corn and sorghum for silage were still being cultivated and irrigated. The corn silage crop was in various stages of development, from already tasseling to developing ears. Wheat harvest for grain was completed. Cotton continued to be irrigated, cultivated, and was growing well. Cotton was forming squares and blooming. Black-eyed beans continued to be irrigated and cultivated.
Mid-season peaches, nectarines, and plums continued to be picked and shipped to both domestic and foreign markets. Stone fruit continued to be exported. Summer pruning and topping of harvested stone fruit groves were occurring. Valencia orange harvest continued primarily for the domestic market. Regreening was becoming more common due to the higher temperatures. Olives continued to develop. Table grape were harvested. Wine grapes were maturing well and irrigation continued.
Walnut, almond, and pistachio orchards continued to be irrigated. Both mechanical and chemical weed control continued in orchards. New almond orchards were planted. Pistachios were fertilized. Walnuts were sizing well.
In Colusa County, the processing tomato harvest continued. In San Joaquin County, harvest was ongoing for cantaloupes, honeydew melons, watermelons, and fresh vegetable crops. The second planting of cantaloupe was underway for late summer and fall harvest. In Fresno County, harvest continued for tomatoes with lower yields than expected. Onions and garlic were harvested. Onion seed was dried. In Tulare County, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and peppers were picked by certified producers and sold at the local Farmers’ Markets. Yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, Bell peppers, green chili peppers, and cucumbers were harvested and shipped domestically. Sweet corn harvest continued and was sold at roadside stands and local Farmers’ Markets. Melons were irrigated and prepared for the upcoming harvest.
Low elevation rangeland continued as dry with conditions as fair to good, but quality continued to decrease. Cattle were moved to higher elevations; where higher elevations were providing more grass than in previous years. Feed cost for cattle remained high. Nursery shipments were slowing overall. Wholesale nursery shipments to Canada and domestic markets decreased due to the hot summer temperatures. Small amounts of citrus nursery stock continued to be sold.
Good news for our pistachio industry — the tariffs for pistachios from Iran coming into the US will remain in place. Richard Matoian from American Pistachio Growers reported this in an interview with California Ag Network, and provided some insights on how the 2017 crop is looking. Watch his brief interview, attend the upcoming pistachio luncheon on July 28th, and learn more by reading Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
MODESTO, Calif., July 6, 2017 – This year’s California almond crop is forecasted to exceed 2 billion pounds, according to the California Almond Objective Measurement Report announced today by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service — Pacific Regional Office (NASS/PRO).
Based on 1 million bearing acres, the objective forecast for the 2017 crop is 2.25 billion meat pounds. Almond Board of California funds the annual forecast administered by USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Following the Subjective Forecast each year, the Objective Report is the second and final forecast of almond production, providing almond growers and handlers information about the projected harvest size to direct business decisions for the year.
“Almond trees thrive in our state because California is home to the world’s most efficient almond growers, who continually improve farming practices through research and innovation,” said Richard Waycott, ABC president and CEO, in response to the announcement. “It’s one of the few places on earth with a Mediterranean climate perfect for growing them, so it’s no wonder we’ve been successfully growing them here for over 150 years.”
The National Agriculture Statistics Service said the latest crop forecast is up 2.3 percent compared to the May subjective forecast of 2.2 billion pounds. The estimate is up 5.1 percent from the 2016 crop production of 2.14 billion meat pounds.
The average nut set per tree is 5,714, down 7.2 percent from the 2016 almond crop. The Nonpareil average nut set is 5,717 up 2.4 percent compared to last year’s set. The average kernel weight for all varieties sampled was 1.57 grams, up 6.1 percent compared to the 2016 average weight of 1.48 grams.
Sacramento, Calif., (July 6, 2017) – A ridge of high pressure sat over the western United States, which resulted in another hot and dry week across the State. The only rain for the week was along the northern coast, where Eureka reported four hundredths of an inch for the week. A broken band of snow approximately 40 miles wide between Lake Tahoe and Sequoia National Forest still existed above 9,000 feet. Snow depths in this band were two to four feet at most. The peaks of Mt. Whitney, Mt. Lassen, and Mt. Shasta remained snow-capped.
Temperature highs were in the 50s to 80s along the coast, 70s to 90s in the mountains, 80s to 100s in the valley, and 90s to 110s in the desert. The temperature lows were in the 30s to 50s in the mountains, 50s to 60s along the coast and the valley, and 60s to 80s in the desert.
Alfalfa fields were making excellent progress and being irrigated. Corn and sorghum planting for silage were almost complete, but still being cultivated and irrigated. The corn silage crop was in various stages, from newly planted to already producing tassels, and the earliest planted corn was developing ears. Cotton continued to be irrigated, cultivated, and was growing well. Black-eyed beans continued to be irrigated and cultivated.
Peach, nectarine, apricot, and plum harvests continued. Fruit orchards and vineyards were irrigated. Some apple orchards used overhead cooling systems to mitigate the impact of the heat. Late Navel orange harvest was complete for the season. Valencia orange harvest continued. With high temperatures, regreening in citrus has become more common, and packers were color sorting to compensate. Ruby Red grapefruit were harvested.
Walnut, almond, and pistachio orchards were irrigated. Mechanical and chemical weed control continued in nut orchards. Pistachios were fertilized. In some locations walnut growers applied sunburn preventive materials.
In Tulare County certified producers were picking tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and peppers for sale at the local Farmers’ Markets. Italian squash, eggplant, and cucumbers continued to be harvested. Blueberry and strawberry harvests slowed down and were expected to come to a close with hot weather. Sweet corn harvest began with a few roadside stands opening and sales at the local Farmers’ markets. Carrot harvest had slowed down. In Fresno County, carrots harvest was reaching its end. Pepper harvest was completed with good yields. Dehydrated onion left to dry. Fresh onions harvest was half completed. Roughly one-third of the onion harvest had been completed. Onion seed drying out. In Monterey County, celery harvest began and was picking up. In Imperial County, spring melons and sweet corn were harvested. Some growers reported exceptional yields. Many farmers were finished with melon harvest and were plowing fields. In Colusa, Sacramento, Solano, and Yolo Counties, tomato crops were progressing, even though the recent heat wave slowed crop development.
Non-irrigated grasses and forbs continued to dry out as the dry days of summer continued. Rangeland was reported to be in good to very poor condition depending on elevation, aspect and soil moisture. Foothill watering holes were drying up. Cattle continued to be moved to higher elevation range. Milk production was impacted by the high heat. Livestock deaths increased due to the extended elevated temperatures. Sheep grazed on retired pasture and dormant alfalfa. Bees were active in melon and vegetable fields.
