Dennis Atkinson
Kern County alfalfa/nut/grape grower

In the southern San Joaquin Valley, Tejon Ranch is experiencing excellent weather. We started disking the fields for small grain planting. We started pruning the almond trees, and getting ready for the vineyards and pistachios.

We are making our last cutting of alfalfa over in the desert, in Los Angeles County. We're planting our three-way porridge mix.

Prices on all the commodities are up substantially and look like they're going to be strong for some time. Production was good and it looks like it's going to be a great year.

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Ann Beekman
Stanislaus County beekeeper

The varroa mite problem continues to express itself by taking its toll on the total number of colonies available for pollination as well as the quality of the hive. Beekeepers are doing everything possible to stop or reverse the impact of the mite. Examples include supplemental feeding with pollen and syrup, and continuing with various mite treatments, which is increasing the beekeeping costs considerably. Some bees are being moved to the coast to stimulate brood rearing from the eucalyptus and warmer temperatures. Honey production has been spotty with prices softening from last year's highs.

Currently, many hives are being brought in from out of state and placed in stockpile yards in preparation for almond pollination. With the bee shortage and increased prices, everyone should be more alert for potential theft problems.

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Chris Bunn
Monterey County vegetable grower

The Salinas Valley is springtime in the fall. This crazy weather has brought very little rainfall these past few weeks. These April showers in November are just enough to ruin the strawberries and make ground work for next year's crop sticky and frustrating. However, there is always a silver lining in the clouds. The markets are up for most crops and anybody who has late Romaine lettuce in the ground is a very happy farmer--the market is over $25 a carton! Other than that, everyone is leaving town and things are getting nice and quiet as the produce moves to the San Joaquin Valley and the desert. So we should all count our blessing and thank God for every gift which is always good!

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Michael Cox
Imperial County cotton grower

All 6,500 acres is ginned at Planters' Gin in Brawley, where gin manager Bob Bedwell reports an average yield of 2.5 bales per acre to date on the short-season fields with 90 percent premium micronaire, good length and grades. More than half the acreage remains to be harvested with some just now defoliating. About half the crop will be stripped this year; much of that is narrow row. We had two significant rains the last 10 days of October totaling over an inch, which may have caused some lint staining. The fields have now dried and harvest resumed two weeks ago on the full season acreage, which should raise the 2004 average above 3 bales/acre. The mandatory plowdown is January 1st so only a month remains, and any additional rains will put a squeeze on harvest and plowdown compliance.

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Ken Doty
Santa Barbara County avocado grower

Well, another year is drawing to a close. Here on the South Coast, early rains halted irrigation in our orchards for the last month. We're back at it now until more rain arrives. The grass has started well and will be green for Thanksgiving.

The year's lemon harvest is over. Season returns look to be very good. After last year's price disaster, it's encouraging to have lemons pulling their weight.

California's avocado crop is all but finished. Just a small amount of fruit remains to be picked in the northern growing area. Next year's crop estimate is down about 10 percent from the current year. While this formerly would have meant better prices, so much Chilean and Mexican fruit is now being imported during winter and spring months, that California's market window is shrinking. We are now reaching the point where total supply will begin driving grower returns down.

Many local growers are preparing to qualify for conditional discharge waivers here in Region 3. University of California Cooperative Extension water-quality short courses, proving 15 hours of education credit, are being offered thoughout our region. Completion of this course is a requirement of our region's conditional waiver program. Our local watershed coalition has been very active in outreach and educational efforts to help growers get up to speed on this issue.

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Tom Ellis
Colusa County alfalfa grower

Overall, 2004 was one of the best years I've had in the alfalfa hay business. We had no rain-damaged hay for all seven cuttings, which is incredible.

However, when we finished the last of our hay in mid-October, it rained that night. Since then, we have received greater-than-normal rainfall and I am behind in my ground work for planting wheat and alfalfa. Our area is wet! We could use some drying weather so we can get back in our fields.

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Al Medvitz
Solano County grain and sheep producer

We have decided to lease out our grain operation. We are at a stage that if we are to continue in wheat and barley we would need to invest heavily in a new (or at least ‘newish’) heavy tractor and hillside combine harvester. Even with our organic premium, these investments are not justified unless we can dramatically expand our land base for production or the price of grain at least doubles. Fortunately, our neighbor, Ian Anderson, can handle the additional 1,000 acres we have available and can take advantage of his economies of scale. Ian will do the grain production while we continue with increased focus on lamb and goats. The shift will also reduce our recurring labor costs.

As a side note, we are relieved not to go through the organic certification process again. With the establishment of the federal organic standards, the bureaucratic hurdles have increased dramatically as the certifying organizations and the state and county agencies learn the new ropes. We found few people in the system understood our farming system (dryland grain in a three-year rotation with livestock).

We finished marketing this year's lamb through Niman Ranch. Prices have been good, although, for inexplicable reasons, this year's crop was a little lighter in weight than we expected. Lambing has begun in earnest for next year's sales. We're about a third of the way through and the early rains and relatively warm weather should produce good feed in the hills. Our small but growing goat flock produced good returns when we marketed through the Escalon livestock auction.