In 2008 the California Almond market saw 1.61 billion pounds of almonds. Getting close this year, with more than a 10 million pound difference from 2009, California Almond Growers will be happy to see the 1.53 billion pounds of nuts come out this year, according to federal farm officials.
While the feds say one thing, many county growers in San Joaquin disagree with such numbers, considering they produce 80% of the world’s supply of almonds. In 2008 San Joaquin County boasted $175 million.
Marginal weather including heavy spring rains is why some growers don’t seem as optimistic as the farm officials. With expecting almost .6 billion less in harvest, it is a question as to what will come out of 2010 almonds. With some saying the southern part of CA is receiving a higher, more bountiful crop, time will tell if CA is able to hold true to its high hoped predictions.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
California and Water Conservation in 2010
When it comes to water, the world generally doesn’t consider that we are in a problem. Unfortunately, only small areas of our country are realizing the crisis that is going on.
California, the nation’s leader in agricultural production also happens to rank as the nation’s top water user. While looking back on history, many different issues have been brought to attention over the years. One we have never really been concerned about until recently is our water. With the United States using approximately 400 billion gallons of water per day, it isn’t any wonder why we are now asking ourselves, “Where will it all come from?”
Out of that 400 billion gallons of water, about half, is allocated to create energy. With using this water for such uses, is then returned to its source be it river or reservoir.
Currently, Agriculture is the nation’s leading user in water consumption. Using more than 80 billion gallons per day, it is our main source to cut back from. How can we be more efficient? How can we use less? How can we reuse what we have already used? How can we hold rainfall that isn’t being used affectively? These are all questions on the minds of many government leaders and agricultural dependants.
While looking into history, we can see many things that indicate a quality improvement in water consumption, yet it still is not enough. Between 1980 and 2000 the California Farm Bureau Federation reported that crop production increased by a whopping 35%. Seeing these production increases it would only make sense that water allocation would need to be increased, but this is not the case. With growers moving to more economical and efficient irrigation systems, along with using different types of fertilizer products like Ferticell, they have proved that they will succeed through tough times.
That being said, it does eliminate us from the leering loss of water supply. We must still be active to conserve as much water and rainfall as possible to eliminate the risk of even higher spikes in water cost.
If you are interested on how to get more out of your water allocations by increasing your yields, give us a call at (602) 233-2223.
California, the nation’s leader in agricultural production also happens to rank as the nation’s top water user. While looking back on history, many different issues have been brought to attention over the years. One we have never really been concerned about until recently is our water. With the United States using approximately 400 billion gallons of water per day, it isn’t any wonder why we are now asking ourselves, “Where will it all come from?”
Out of that 400 billion gallons of water, about half, is allocated to create energy. With using this water for such uses, is then returned to its source be it river or reservoir.
Currently, Agriculture is the nation’s leading user in water consumption. Using more than 80 billion gallons per day, it is our main source to cut back from. How can we be more efficient? How can we use less? How can we reuse what we have already used? How can we hold rainfall that isn’t being used affectively? These are all questions on the minds of many government leaders and agricultural dependants.
While looking into history, we can see many things that indicate a quality improvement in water consumption, yet it still is not enough. Between 1980 and 2000 the California Farm Bureau Federation reported that crop production increased by a whopping 35%. Seeing these production increases it would only make sense that water allocation would need to be increased, but this is not the case. With growers moving to more economical and efficient irrigation systems, along with using different types of fertilizer products like Ferticell, they have proved that they will succeed through tough times.
That being said, it does eliminate us from the leering loss of water supply. We must still be active to conserve as much water and rainfall as possible to eliminate the risk of even higher spikes in water cost.
If you are interested on how to get more out of your water allocations by increasing your yields, give us a call at (602) 233-2223.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
California Agriculture Teams Up with the MVD
With all of the support surrounding the California Agricultural community, its suprising to not have seen this sooner, but it could come at not a better time. With agricultural interests in the younger generation dwindling by, some step of assistance is needed. CDFA Kawamura has induced a new specialized license plate reading, “California Agriculture”.
The license plate will be used to generate educational interests through leadership development and career awareness activities. General registration fees will be lower than the California Ag plate costing $50 to start and $40 per year to renew the plate. Farmers and citizens alike can help support their agricultural followers by putting their California Agriculture plate on autos, commercial vehicles, and trailers.
Unfortunately the demand must be present prior to having the DMV product the plate. A minimum amount of 7500 registrants must apply prior. So please, Californians, get to your DMV and support the youth of tomorrow by getting your Calfornia Agriculture License Plate.
If you are looking for more information about the plate, you can visit www.calagplate.com.
The license plate will be used to generate educational interests through leadership development and career awareness activities. General registration fees will be lower than the California Ag plate costing $50 to start and $40 per year to renew the plate. Farmers and citizens alike can help support their agricultural followers by putting their California Agriculture plate on autos, commercial vehicles, and trailers.
Unfortunately the demand must be present prior to having the DMV product the plate. A minimum amount of 7500 registrants must apply prior. So please, Californians, get to your DMV and support the youth of tomorrow by getting your Calfornia Agriculture License Plate.
If you are looking for more information about the plate, you can visit www.calagplate.com.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Santa Barbara County Boasts Big Growth
From 2008 to 2009, many families, farms, and business saw terrible drops in wages, sales, and a raise in unemployment. One county though, pushed through recession bound California with flying colors. Santa Barbara County, which reported a 9.1% growth netted a little over $1.2 billion in agricultural production.
Santa Barbara’s cash cow, the strawberry, which rose $35 million since 2008 to $1.2 billion is by far the leading crop for the area. With such a calm climate, Santa Barbara produces a high amount of different crops as well, which has reached higher production. While Broccoli, which dropped $10 million, their wine grapes rose $51 million.
Along with other crops rising in production like Cauliflower, Avocados, Leaf lettuce, and cut flowers, it is nice to see somewhere in CA making a quality profit. Agroplasma says keep it up Santa Barbara!
Santa Barbara’s cash cow, the strawberry, which rose $35 million since 2008 to $1.2 billion is by far the leading crop for the area. With such a calm climate, Santa Barbara produces a high amount of different crops as well, which has reached higher production. While Broccoli, which dropped $10 million, their wine grapes rose $51 million.
Along with other crops rising in production like Cauliflower, Avocados, Leaf lettuce, and cut flowers, it is nice to see somewhere in CA making a quality profit. Agroplasma says keep it up Santa Barbara!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Farmers Voices Heard Via AgChat
Nowadays, it seems ever so important for farmers to express their voice in the world. Recognizing this need, one group has come together to help that voice become heard.
AgChat, the only foundation of its kind is out helping farmers deliver their message. Via the connection of Social Media, AgChat Foundation offers services to enable growers to learn how to access agricultural online communities through social media sectors such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, or where the group originated, Twitter where AgChat holds weekly discussions.
The AgChat Foundation has four program areas focused on social media. First is the Agvocacy 2.0 Training: Which is designed to educate farmers through basic, mid-level & expert training to move mindsets up the technology ladder. They also have Strategic Agvocacy Coordination: which empowers agricultural voices through coordinated industry-wide efforts. They then have Data Analysis to provide tools to assist agvocates with targeted community efforts, and to top it off they also provide Technology Scholarships in order to equip farmers with infrastructure to enable full use of social media.
Last Friday, about 300 people sent tweets (Twitter message) and over 1,500 people accessed AgChat.org and reached over 1.4 million impressions.
Thank these ground breaking accomplishments to the growers/farmers and these board of directors.
• Chris Chinn, Farmer
• Jeff Fowle, Rancher
• Mark Gale, Agribusiness Liaison
• Eliz Greene, Consumer & Healthcare
• Darin Grimm, Farmer
• Mike Haley, Farmer
• Shaun Haney, Seedsman
• Michele Payn-Knoper, #AgChat Founder
• Ray Prock, Farmer
• Dr. Chris Raines, Extension
• Dr. Katherine Swift, Veterinarian
• Tricia Braid Terry, Check-off Representative
• Chuck Zimmerman, Agribusiness Liaison
For more information on the AgChat Foundation, visit www.agchat.org.
AgChat, the only foundation of its kind is out helping farmers deliver their message. Via the connection of Social Media, AgChat Foundation offers services to enable growers to learn how to access agricultural online communities through social media sectors such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, or where the group originated, Twitter where AgChat holds weekly discussions.
The AgChat Foundation has four program areas focused on social media. First is the Agvocacy 2.0 Training: Which is designed to educate farmers through basic, mid-level & expert training to move mindsets up the technology ladder. They also have Strategic Agvocacy Coordination: which empowers agricultural voices through coordinated industry-wide efforts. They then have Data Analysis to provide tools to assist agvocates with targeted community efforts, and to top it off they also provide Technology Scholarships in order to equip farmers with infrastructure to enable full use of social media.
Last Friday, about 300 people sent tweets (Twitter message) and over 1,500 people accessed AgChat.org and reached over 1.4 million impressions.
Thank these ground breaking accomplishments to the growers/farmers and these board of directors.
• Chris Chinn, Farmer
• Jeff Fowle, Rancher
• Mark Gale, Agribusiness Liaison
• Eliz Greene, Consumer & Healthcare
• Darin Grimm, Farmer
• Mike Haley, Farmer
• Shaun Haney, Seedsman
• Michele Payn-Knoper, #AgChat Founder
• Ray Prock, Farmer
• Dr. Chris Raines, Extension
• Dr. Katherine Swift, Veterinarian
• Tricia Braid Terry, Check-off Representative
• Chuck Zimmerman, Agribusiness Liaison
For more information on the AgChat Foundation, visit www.agchat.org.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Water Delivery Discussion: Stand Up for Agriculture
On Wednesday, March 24th, 2010, some of the top agricultural water specialists will be meeting to help sort out some of the largest issues with the California Water Delivery. After limping through the last three years, water conservation is at the top of every discussion, media board, and farmer’s mind.
With so many farm workers losing their jobs and farmers going belly-up, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has scheduled a meeting this week to discuss the federal and state water delivery allocations.
Representatives from the Westlands Water District, San Luis and Delta Mendota Water Authority, Australian Water Officials from the State of Victoria, Department of Sustainability and Environment, and Northern Victoria Irrigation Renewal Project all plan on attending and will provide presentations of some sort.
It’s important to note that this meeting will be open to the public and the media. Anyone concerned with this issue, which is every farmer in California, in our opinion should attend to put out the voice for California Agriculture. A large attendance of California farmers would be a large voice as to say, “We’re standing up for Ag!”
The meeting will be held March 24th, 2010 from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the California Department of Food and Agriculture at 1220 ‘N’ Streeet., Main Auditorium, Sacramento, CA 95814. [Link to Google Maps]
If you do attend, feel free to leave a comment detailing how the meeting went in your own opinion!
With so many farm workers losing their jobs and farmers going belly-up, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has scheduled a meeting this week to discuss the federal and state water delivery allocations.
Representatives from the Westlands Water District, San Luis and Delta Mendota Water Authority, Australian Water Officials from the State of Victoria, Department of Sustainability and Environment, and Northern Victoria Irrigation Renewal Project all plan on attending and will provide presentations of some sort.
It’s important to note that this meeting will be open to the public and the media. Anyone concerned with this issue, which is every farmer in California, in our opinion should attend to put out the voice for California Agriculture. A large attendance of California farmers would be a large voice as to say, “We’re standing up for Ag!”
The meeting will be held March 24th, 2010 from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the California Department of Food and Agriculture at 1220 ‘N’ Streeet., Main Auditorium, Sacramento, CA 95814. [Link to Google Maps]
If you do attend, feel free to leave a comment detailing how the meeting went in your own opinion!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Arizona SRP: Election Time Is Around the Corner
As many know, a large amount of Arizona citizens depend on SRP, Salt River Project, to receive electricity and water. What many don’t know, is that coming soon this spring, an election will be held to decide who will be making the decisions that will affect our everyday life. The cost of air quality, how we get our water, and the ever soaring price of electricity all falls on the back of some of the largest agricultural foundations in the great state of Arizona. With a little over 2 million using water and electricity through SRP, it will be a much more important election than what the voter results will entail.
This year’s election, will decide 9 seats on the SRP’s board. SRP, since being established in 1903, was actually here before Arizona had been inducted. Still being run by large growers, farmers, and ranchers has had an impact on AZ for more than a century.
Originally, SRP was established as a water-users association, while the votes are still weighted by how many acres a property owner holds, 682,000 property owners will be eligible to vote for the Salt River Project’s board, including president and vice president.
While many large landowners have sold to housing districts, urbanizing the state has not diminished the direct affect on Arizonians that the SRP board holds. Unfortunately, this will not be grasped as essential as it should considering the drastic changes that are possible with the increases in water cost and electricity.
With the most important decisions being brought before board this year, electricity and water-routing will be of the utmost essential this year. With the average household paying approximately $1500 annually for electricity, this year, those rates may rise.
Thankfully, for the last century we have seen that rates have stayed manageable mostly in-part to having agricultural families in direct control of how those rates are handled. Agriculture has played a large part in Arizona’s history, and while many farms are going by the way side, it’s nice to see that we can depend on such a substantial portion of our state to assist rural AZ in keeping these rates affordable.
With Arizona rates for electricity staying 5% below the state average, we can only hope that when the votes are cast this March 22nd-April 6th we see a continuous effort in keeping with Arizona’s previous grand track record on water and electricity conservation.
For more information, or to find your voting center refer to http://www.srpnet.com/elections/district.aspx.
This year’s election, will decide 9 seats on the SRP’s board. SRP, since being established in 1903, was actually here before Arizona had been inducted. Still being run by large growers, farmers, and ranchers has had an impact on AZ for more than a century.
Originally, SRP was established as a water-users association, while the votes are still weighted by how many acres a property owner holds, 682,000 property owners will be eligible to vote for the Salt River Project’s board, including president and vice president.
While many large landowners have sold to housing districts, urbanizing the state has not diminished the direct affect on Arizonians that the SRP board holds. Unfortunately, this will not be grasped as essential as it should considering the drastic changes that are possible with the increases in water cost and electricity.
With the most important decisions being brought before board this year, electricity and water-routing will be of the utmost essential this year. With the average household paying approximately $1500 annually for electricity, this year, those rates may rise.
Thankfully, for the last century we have seen that rates have stayed manageable mostly in-part to having agricultural families in direct control of how those rates are handled. Agriculture has played a large part in Arizona’s history, and while many farms are going by the way side, it’s nice to see that we can depend on such a substantial portion of our state to assist rural AZ in keeping these rates affordable.
With Arizona rates for electricity staying 5% below the state average, we can only hope that when the votes are cast this March 22nd-April 6th we see a continuous effort in keeping with Arizona’s previous grand track record on water and electricity conservation.
For more information, or to find your voting center refer to http://www.srpnet.com/elections/district.aspx.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
