The USDA's plans to provide up to $12 billion in relief for agricultural producers facing market disruption because of newly imposed foreign tariffs won't meet the needs of California citrus growers who export about 25 percent of their product, a commodity group says.

The two programs intended to support specialty crop producers involve purchasing excess inventory and trade promotion activities to help redirect volume that's normally exported to China and other destinations, California Citrus Mutual explains.

The commodity purchase program historically pays reduced prices for products not viable for domestic or export markets, the group adds.

"The potential revenue that could be generated via this program for growers is far less than export revenues, thus to assume it is a viable alternative would be incorrect," CCM president Joel Nelsen said in a statement. "A quick survey of the industry indicates that growers and shippers do not generally utilize this distribution channel."

The citrus industry is familiar with the Market Access Program (MAP), but MAP is typically limited to specific marketing campaigns aimed at spurring demand in a new market in which the product isn't well known, CCM explains in a news release. That means MAP funds are used in the offshore markets, not as payment to growers or shippers.

"While MAP does provide value to an industry over time, the benefits to growers are not instantaneous and would not necessarily provide immediate relief," Nelsen says. "For MAP to be beneficial in the context of trade mitigation, it would have to be modified so that fruit currently or soon to be in the market can be redirected, potentially to numerous destinations, immediately. We are talking about considerable tonnage and to assume one market, unless it is the domestic market, could absorb that tonnage is just wrong."

USDA is listening

CCM officials say they've asked how the fruit and sector losses could be rectified, and USDA officials have said they're eager to hear how specific modifications could benefit industries.

A USDA spokesperson told Western Farm Press in an email that the agency "is reaching out to grower groups to try to tailor our purchase program to the products most affected by trade retaliation."

Citrus Mutual's board reviewed the proposal from President Donald Trump's administration last week and called it "a noble effort to satisfy the president's statement that U.S. farmers will not be negatively impacted by his trade policies."

Likewise, California Farm Bureau Federation president Jamie Johannessen said in a statement that members "appreciate how USDA has worked to assemble this package quickly at a time of market uncertainty for farmers and ranchers." He says he hopes the USDA's bonus purchases of fruits, vegetables, nuts, meats and other products for food banks and other food aid programs will provide some immediate relief for farmers and ranchers.

However, while the package may provide some short-term relief, finding a long-term resolution to the U.S.  trade disputes remains urgent, he says.

"Ultimately, farmers and ranchers want what we have always wanted: to trade on a fair basis with customers around the world who want to buy our products," Johannessen says. "We will continue to urge the administration and our congressional delegation to resolve the trade disputes as quickly as possible."

The ag startup world is populated by a wide array of companies aiming to make farming better, more efficient and profitable. Adding to that list is Inari, a new firm started by Flagship Pioneering — creators of Indigo Ag — that aims to rethink the seed business.

What sets this startup apart in the seed world is the names involved: from Ponsi Trivisvavet, who was with Indigo Ag and before that headed up the seed division at Syngenta, and is the Inari CEO; to Michael Mack, former president of Syngenta, who is Inari’s board chairman.

But there’s more than a Syngenta background here. Trivisvavet was chief operating officer of Indigo Ag before coming to Inari, while Mack stepped down from Syngenta in 2015 and had time to consider the potential for the plant breeding business. The rest of the team includes a vast array of experts, both in finance and seed technology, aiming to move the needle on plant breeding innovation.

One name that may sound familiar is Julie Borlaug. Proud of her grandfather Norman and his work to create the Green Revolution, she’s the vice president of communications and public relations for the business. She recently talked with Farm Progress about the new company.

While Inari press releases talk about being a new approach to plant breeding, what does that mean? The company’s website shares some ideals and goals, but little more.

“That’s the whole point of the launch,” Borlaug said. “We want you curious. We were founded by Flagship Pioneering — it’s not a venture capital company, it’s a company that grows ideas from within.”

Borlaug explained that Inari is one of Flagship Pioneering’s newest companies, and “hopefully their largest.” Based in Cambridge, Mass., the new firm draws on the tech world as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is nearby.

But what sets this company apart? She noted that Inari will target the status quo of the seed business. “All of us at Inari think the agriculture model seems to be stuck in status quo, or a bit broken,” Borlaug said. “The negative stereotypes ag has, whether right or wrong, are a challenge.”

Instead, Inari leadership wants to create a new model and a new horizon for the plant breeding industry and take that culture through the company, she said.

Taking that new approach
Borlaug noted that Mack is excited about the potential of this new approach, which will merge the latest plant breeding technologies with the newest data analysis tools to bring top-performing plants to market faster. The company has a stated goal of reducing plant breeding time and cost, using what its press statement said is a “unique combination of biological and data sciences.”

In fact, Borlaug said the company is working to cut breeding time by two-thirds and reduce development costs by up to 90% for partners. Those are challenging targets to hit.

The company is already hard at work on its first products. Borlaug explained that the firm working on research and development in its Cambridge labs with 40-plus doctorate-level scientists on staff.

“We’re bringing four different scientific disciplines together — biology, agronomy, data science and software engineering,” she said. “What’s been done in the life sciences world we’re bringing to plant breeding, with innovative breakthroughs for agriculture.”

And the firm is already reaching out to partner with more players in the ag space. It’s already working with Texas A&M University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and “in the next few weeks, we’ll announce more international partners and seed partners,” Borlaug added. “We like to say that we can’t do it all alone. We’re not going to be one company that does everything; we have to have partners along the value chain to get where we need to go.”

Talk of revolutionizing plant breeding these days turns to gene editing, and Borlaug said Inari is using not only the popular CRISPR technology, but also other tools that are opening doors to small, new companies that can compete with larger firms. “Gene editing is part of the evolution of the genomic revolution,” she added.

Borlaug noted that Inari will stay on the plant breeding side of agriculture and aim to find solutions “not just for today’s challenges, but for those of the next 15 years,” she said. “We don’t have a past pipeline of science; we can look ahead.”

You can learn more about the company at inari.com.

Combined gross agricultural receipts were up 12 percent in Stanislaus County, Calif. in 2017, a trend that is starting to be seen in other farm counties in the state.

The county’s 4,243 farms combined to produce a gross $3.64 billion in products ranging from tree nuts, dairy and livestock, to vegetables and fruits. Though improved after a slide in values seen in 2015 and 2016, the new number is still significantly short of the $4.4 billion record set in 2014.

Part of this boost can be credited with organic food production, which doubled in value to nearly $200 million on acreage that remained little-changed at over 8,500.

The largest increase in a single commodity for 2017 was seen in almonds. A 3 percent boost in bearing acres to 188,000 and an 8.6 percent jump in per-acre yields to 2,260 pounds pushed overall almond values up by about $125 million, according to Stanislaus County Agricultural Commissioner Milton O’Haire.

The total almond value of $1.05 billion reflects gross sales of almond kernels, hulls and shells based on 212,000 tons of almond kernels. Grower prices were little-changed at about $2.42 per pound, on average. Almond hull and shell prices remained little-changed as well. Stanislaus County produces almost 14 percent of the state’s almond crop by volume.

Almonds overtook dairy in 2013 as the single-highest valued commodity. It has remained in the No. 1 spot ever since.

At No. 2 in value, milk production remained surprisingly stable given the precipitous decline in milk herds throughout the state as farmers complain about unprofitable dairy prices. Even so, milk prices from dairy cows rebounded $1.50 per hundredweight in 2017. Goat milk production and pricing fell significantly in 2017.

Stanislaus County is home to a large goat milk processor. Meyenberg Goat Milk produces a variety of products from goat dairies in the region.

Also seen in 2017:

• Chicken egg production was up by almost six million dozen as grower prices for a dozen eggs climbed 20 cents to $1.45;
• Silage crop acreage grew 6 percent as corn grown for silage saw a $2-per-ton increase to $41;
• Cherry farmers had a better year in 2017, harvesting 7,700 tons of the fruit from just over 3,000 acres of farmland. Prices were little-changed;
• Apricot yields were down slightly to 8.2 tons per acre with softer grower prices;
• Freestone peach prices improved to $1,674 per ton on 8,300 acres of production. Farmers also harvested 84,000 acres of cling peaches; and,
• Walnut acreage was little-changed as prices rose from 96 cents per pound to $1.20 per pound.

The Stanislaus County Crop Report is available online.

It is finished. With a global price tag of more than $9 billion, the closure of BASF’S acquisition of a range assets from Bayer is complete, says a BASF official Wednesday, Aug. 1, on a conference call.

“Today is a really important day for BASF,” says Paul Rea, BASF senior vice president of agriculture, who says BASF officially closed the transaction Wednesday morning. “We realize farmers need more weed control options, multiple modes of action. And we are very optimistic in the potential we will have to offer farmers a very broad solution beyond what’s available today, like through dicamba and glyphosate.”

Enablement’s BASF has secured with the Bayer acquisition, include:

• Existing Bayer platforms such as Liberty Link.
• Trait relationship and development partners such as the MS technology, which includes the LLGT27 line of traits for soybeans, as well available through Sygenta NGI (New Guinea Impatiens).
• Trait licenses to supporting traits such as Xtend, XtendFlex, that will complete the stacking options for its seed platform.

In October of 2017, BASF announce its acquisition was focused on non-selective herbicides and entry into the seed business with canola, cotton and soybeans seeds. Since then, Rea says the scope has expanded.

“We’re really excited with where we stand today with the additional portfolio additions we’ll have. We see tremendous growth and opportunity to expand this franchise through the long-term commitment to innovation, research and development, so that farmers have the right technology available that they need over the next many decades.”

The acquisition now includes the following Bayer developments:

• Global glufosinate-ammonium business
• Canola/oilseed rape, cotton, soy and vegetable* seed and trait businesses
• Research and Development platform for the hybrid wheat and canola-quality juncea
• A number of seed treatment products, including Poncho/VOTiVO, and iLeVO
• The complete digital farming format known as Xarvio.
• Future transactions: to acquire Bayer’s vegetable seed business globally

“As an indication of that commitment, our new combined R&D budget will expand past $1 billion U.S. dollars annually, and I think that will clearly demonstrate our commitment to invest in agriculture for the long term and grow in our new portfolio, so farmers will have the tools and solutions they need for the long term,” Rea explains.

“We also believe that this investment will mean that our customers will have access to an even greater range of tools, which we think will increase yield, crop quality and profitability.”

On a global scale, BASF’s revenue increase will be about $2.2 billion annually, of which the lions share is within North America, at $1.6 billion, states Rea. In addition, about 4,500 Bayer employees will be transferring to BASF, he adds.

“This is a major day in the history of BASF — very transformative to the tools and solutions we can provide farmers here in North America for the long term.”

Customer benefits

While BASF’s goal is to be the number one solutions provider in America, U.S. BASF vice president of agricultural solutions, Scott Kay, says the company has a plan to get there.

“We took an in-depth look at trends and opportunity in the agricultural industry, and what they are influenced by. We also looked at our portfolio and what farmers need to be successful today and in the future.

“The closing of this transaction means, we can provide farmers a balanced offering that gives them a real choice in a consolidating and changing industry. We also will become an even better partner, by strengthening our crop protection portfolio, providing differentiated seed and trait products, along with adding digital tools and expanding our experienced team to help farmers. All those things combined, add to the total of that solution,” he says.

On the forefront of growers minds this season, according to Kay, is, ‘How do I manage my resistance on the farm?’ He says, the addition of glufosinate to BASF’s herbicide portfolio, will provide farmers with complimentary crop protection and enable them to develop new formulations and mixtures for better resistance management.

“In addition, our new seed business in key crops such as canola, cotton, soybeans and wheat, gives farmers more options to high quality seeds,” says Kay. “I think in all aspects of their farming, or whatever crops they’re growing, we can add to that high-quality seed.“

And with the addition of digital farming applications, BASF believes they will be able to provide even better agronomic support and assistance.

“Our options may have changed but our market strategy will not. We will continue to help farmers grow smart with a personalized, customer experience from BASF and by that we are going to provide BASF experts an innovative portfolio design to help increase yields and profitability,” says Kay.

Question/Answer:

Q: What opportunities does BASF see for the InVigor canola business?

A: Scott Kay,“Canola is obviously important to our seed business, our seed strategy is looking at each crop, not just one, so I think the way to think about the seed business is, canola is very important and InVigor is very important to us, but our seed strategy is crop specific, in base, region and country, so we  are looking at each one. Each seed business we’ve acquired brings us different benefits, opportunities and challenges to our portfolio and we are developing a tailored approach for each, focusing on generating value and growth. I think that’s what’s going to be really important to farmers.”

Q: What are your plans to wrap up your sales force on the seed side of the business? Will you rely on retailers or build your own sales force?

A: Scott Kay,“Yes, we intend to invest in seed experts. We have seed advisors, is what we’ll call them in the U.S. We invested early in adding additional seed advisors, particularly in the Midwest but also in other parts of the country as well. We’ll have 70 seed advisors to represent seed across the U.S., so I think that to me should really put a spotlight on how committed we are to the growth of our seed business and providing options to our farmers. At the end of the day, it’s all about the decision. Having an expert in the field, with both growers and retailers, to help make those key decisions that they are going to have to make, I think is our commitment and what is going to be necessary in the future.”

Allen Gent, head of soybeans in the U.S., “When you look at it from a grower perspective, it’s about maximizing productivity and yield. Seed is a very emotional purchase at the farm and making sure you have that right hybrid variety is going to set up the farmer for better success.

“Having the seed expertise out on the market along with the technical expertise, we have hired agronomists as well, who will specialize in seed. They will be able to work with retailers to make sure as we approach the farm, that we are training the retailers and the growers, to where they put those products where they’re going to maximize productivity the best.”

Q: By adding Liberty herbicides and LibertyLink trait platforms, how does this change your approach to marketing Engenia herbicide?

A: Scott Kay,“After spending some time in recent weeks on farms, clearly farmers need new choices and choices to control weeds that are resistant to some of the technology that is out there, so our mission will very similar, in that having glyphosate dicamba provides the choice farmers need. Also, they are going to place seeds based on the yield quality aspirations they have, now they can also make decisions based on weeds that they need to control and how they need to go about controlling them. Our approach is going to be very similar as it is today, providing that choice, a total solution.”

The word “biological” just 10 years ago would have made many farmers roll their eyes. For some, these bio-based tools were not considered reliable due to issues with efficacy and consistence. How times have changed.

Today, major crop protection companies are investing in bio-based tools that bring new modes of action to market. One area of promise, and interest, is the idea of premixing a biological with a conventional product. There are challenges, however. A biological product, by its very nature, is a living thing which may not be in a jug with a conventional chemical. Yet progress has been made.

Guy Elitzur, CEO, STK bio-ag technologies, is making the hybrid product a reality. The company is already the maker of Timorex Gold, a biological-based fungicide widely used in specialty crops. The new product, with a hybrid formulation, is Regev. This product combines a botanically based product with a conventional triazole to create a new fungicide.

“We’re finding the synergy between our biological active ingredient and the chemical active ingredient,” Elitzur says. “This provides less residue on the crop and improves the performance of the product with greater results than either would produce alone.”

He points to biological values on plant health that farmers will see with the hybrid, noting that the product is better on the plant’s physiology, and the hybrid helps avoid resistance because of its different mode of action.

For a biological to be mated to a conventional product, and to work, the final product must have the identical shelf life to a conventional product. And storage and handling can’t be any different either, Elitzur says.

Better acceptance
Acceptance is a key word for biological products. On the farm side, Elitzur notes that higher efficacy and more consistent performance make a difference. For the consumer buyer, the concern about chemical residues on food is key, and a hybrid product can help reduce that, too.

“I think there’s an awareness growing that biologicals offer benefits,” Elitzur says. “The consumer is more aware, and more people are reading labels.”

In conventional farming, the hybrid product coming from STK — or other companies — can prolong the life of conventional chemistries by helping with resistance management. While STK has a growing business using biologicals in organic agriculture, the hybrid product for use in broadacre crops including soybeans offers significant potential, too.

“Farmers are going to be suspicious about the product, and they’ll want to check the performance,” Elitzur says. “As they see the product perform, there will be growing acceptance and adoption.”

Knowing the uphill climb biological products have, STK invests in field trials. “We do hundreds of trials with different crops, weather conditions, and we’re investing a lot of research into the mode of action and what happens in the plant.”

This is a growing industry, and Elitzur notes that farmers will see more biological-based product — fungicides and insecticides — coming to market from a number of players. “And we see more farmers open to adopting this type of technology,” he adds.

STK’s product is a new premix hybrid that can be sprayed like a conventional; however, many farmers have used biological-based modes of action in other forms. For example, Poncho/VOTiVO from Bayer uses a biological mode of action to control nematodes. The technology is advancing, and more tools will be offered from a range of companies in 2019 and beyond.

U.S. farmers will start seeing Regev in 2019 in some markets. For more information about the product, visit stk-ag.com.

For a third straight week, analysts anticipated USDA would lower its corn and soybean crop quality ratings in its weekly Crop Progress report. The agency held firm in its ratings for two weeks, however, but finally dropped quality ratings lower for the week ending August 5.

“Crop ratings deteriorated even more than we anticipated this week after dry conditions hit parts of the Midwest and Plains,” notes Farm Futures senior grain market analyst Bryce Knorr.

USDA moved corn’s quality ratings from 72% rated good-to-excellent down to 71%, a move that trade analysts largely anticipated. Crop quality is still relatively better than a year ago, when 60% of the crop was rated good-to-excellent at this time.

On a state-by-state basis, Nebraska continues to prove itself as a garden spot for 2018, with 85% of the state’s crops rated in good-to-excellent condition. The corn crops in North Dakota (85%), Illinois (81%), Wisconsin (81%) and Minnesota (77%) also have substantially above-average crop quality.

Overall corn yield potential still fell significantly from the prior week, Knorr says.

“Potential corn yield based on the ratings fell 1.3 bushels per acre nationwide, with steady to lower conditions seen west of the Mississippi River,” he says. “Our models put yields at 178.7 bpa to 179.4 bpa, though that’s still better than we found in our survey of growers. Farmers surveyed expect yields of 175.4 bpa.”

Physiologically, the 2018 corn crop has continued to progress more quickly than average. Last week, 96% of the crop was silking, up from 92% a year ago and a five-year average of 92%. Another 57% of the crop is at dough stage, up from last year’s pace of 39% and a five-year average of 37%. And 12% of the crop is now dented, up from last year’s pace and the five-year average, both at 6%.

Soybean crop condition tilted more sharply lower, according to USDA, which assessed the crop at 67% rated good-to-excellent as of August 5. That’s three points lower than the agency’s assessment of 70% the prior week, with analysts only expecting that number to retreat to 69%.

Statewide, many states are still in relatively good shape, although areas such as Missouri (34%), Kansas (43%) and North Carolina (45%) continue to struggle.

“Soybean yield potential was steady to lower in states outside the Delta or not adjacent to Lake Michigan,” Knorr says. “Overall yields were one-half to a full bushel per acre lower depending on the model followed, pointing to yields between 50 bpa to 51.1 bpa. The low end of that range is in line with our survey, which puts the nationwide yield at 49.8 bpa.”

Soybean crop progress continues to outpace efforts from recent years. Last week, 92% of the crop was blooming, up from 89% in 2017 and a five-year average of 86%. And 75% of the crop is setting pods – significantly higher than 2017’s pace of 63% and a five-year average of 58%.

Spring wheat crop condition tumbled even farther, with USDA assessing 74% of the crop in good-to-excellent condition versus the prior week’s total of 78%. Harvest has now reached 13%, up from 4% the prior week and in line with the five-year average of 14%.

“Overall yield potential slipped around three quarters of a bushel per acre, with the projections ranging from 49.9 bpa to 51.4 bpa,” Knorr says. “But both those yields would be significantly above projections made by the recent tour in North Dakota.”

Winter wheat harvest inches toward completion, meantime, reaching 90%. That’s slightly behind 2017’s pace of 93% and a five-year average of 92%.

A separate survey of industry analyst by Bloomberg ahead of Friday’s USDA report puts the corn yield at 176 bpa on average, with soybeans at 49.8. All-wheat production is expected to be down around 25 million bushels from the government’s July estimate.

Gross agricultural receipts nearly equal to each other in 2016 and 2017 fail to tell of the impacts the Thomas Fire will have for years to come as Ventura County rebuilds from the devastating fire that claimed farms, homes and crops in late 2017.

At nearly $2.1 billion in 2017, gross farm receipts in the southern California county were off less than a half-percent from the previous year’s value. Yet, the larger news will be how avocados and citrus recover from the conflagration that started Dec. 4 of that year.

While the annual crop report is full of raw data – acreage, yields and gross receipts – it’s the short stories printed within the document from farmers affected by the fire that tell a larger story of tragedy and resilience.

For avocado growers the fire impacted over 1,200 acres of groves and damaged about 20 million pounds of production, or approximately 5 percent of the preseason forecasted 2018 crop, according to information in the report from the California Avocado Commission.  Because new avocado trees take 3-5 years to reach full production, and nursery orders are now out to at least 2020, it will take some time for the county’s avocado industry to recover.

Avocado production was down 12 percent on the year to just over 54,000 tons from acreage that was almost 6 percent less than the previous year.

Strawberries remained the No. 1 crop by gross value, according to Acting Agricultural Commissioner Susan Johnson. Acreage was unchanged as yields improved more than 39 percent to over 34 tons per acre. Prices were off significantly, falling about $1,000 per ton or 27 percent for fresh market berries. Strawberries used for processing sold for 22 percent less than 2016 levels.

At No. 2 in total value, lemons saw improved production on softer prices. Over 293,000 tons of lemon production reflected yields nearly two tons per acre higher than 2016 as prices during the period fell just over $100 per ton to an average of $882.

Ongoing impacts remain of the Thomas Fire remain to be seen as early estimates put agricultural losses at over $170 million. Avocados, citrus and the cattle industries were hit the hardest, according to the report.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue will continue a three-day swing through California today and Wednesday by touring farms and talking to growers in the San Joaquin Valley and holding a roundtable discussion on fire resilience, readiness and recovery.

Perdue will be joined by California Reps. Jim Costa, a Democrat, and David Valadao and Jeff Denham, both Republicans, at various stops throughout the valley today, according to an itinerary provided by his office.

He will start his day with a town-hall meeting with local producers at Wenger Farms in Modesto, then tour Brichetto Ranch in Oakdale and hold a working lunch roundtable on agricultural issues at Joseph Gallo Farms in Atwater. He will then tour HMC Farms in Kingsburg and hold another roundtable discussion and then tour Sunview Vineyards in McFarland.

On Wednesday, he and Rep. Steve Knight, R-Calif., will host a roundtable talk on wildfires at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, Calif.

Perdue and U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke visited the Redding area on Monday to view devastation caused by the Carr Fire and meet with residents, local officials and fire crews.

Zinke arrived in the area on Sunday, touring damaged areas of the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area and near Keswick, Calif., with Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman and meeting affected residents.

By Lydia Mulvany

It may seem like Judgment Day has come for glyphosate, with a California jury slapping $289 million in damages on Monsanto Co. in a cancer trial, and a federal judge in Brazil halting use of the herbicide over health concerns -- all in the space of a week.

Dramatic headlines are par for the course for Monsanto, a company that activists have targeted for decades and which Germany’s Bayer AG just bought for $66 billion. Bayer shares tumbled Monday on concerns over a protracted legal battle, but Monsanto has weathered these kinds of storms ever since its herbicide and the genetically modified crops it’s used on became such a critical part of modern agriculture.

Upon appeal, damages and rulings will likely be overturned or reduced, said Chris Perrella, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

In the end, glyphosate is the world’s most popular and widely used weed killer for a reason. It has been good for the environment and good for farmers, and it’ll be needed as the global population expands by billions in the coming decades, Perrella said. The only alternatives to glyphosate are far “nastier” chemicals, or using diesel tractors to till fields, which creates a host of environmental problems, he said.

Soaring yields

Crop yields have soared in recent years thanks to advances in seed technology, pesticides, herbicides and other inputs. Booming world harvests have helped to keep food inflation relatively tame even as global climate change has brought increased risks from drought, heat and storms. At the same time, there’s been growing consumer distrust of crop chemicals and GMOs, helping to drive a surge in demand for organic food.

While regulators around the world, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, say that glyphosate doesn’t cause cancer, the France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organization, labeled the chemical a probable carcinogen in 2015, opening the door to such lawsuits.

The California trial was just the first of more than 2,000 similar cases are pending, according to Jonas Oxgaard, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Monsanto plans to appeal the jury’s verdict.

Anti-GMO onlookers rejoiced after the verdict. The Organic Consumers Association said it hoped this would be the “first of many defeats” for the “most evil corporation in the world.” Monsanto said in a statement that the case didn’t change the fact that “more than 800 scientific studies and reviews” indicate that glyphosate doesn’t cause cancer.

An Aug. 3 ruling by a federal judge in Brasilia suspended the use of glyphosate as the health ministry evaluates its toxicity. The Brazilian Soy Producers Association has promptly appealed.

“It’s as if the court just randomly said, you can’t use tractors, and we need to study the health effect of tractors,” Oxgaard said of the Brazilian ruling. “Ultimately, GMO haters have been spectacularly unsuccessful -- as much as they hate it and with the passion they hate it, penetration of GMOs keeps increasing every year.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Lydia Mulvany in Chicago at lmulvany2@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net Millie Munshi

This year’s U.S. corn crop quality has decreased again, according to the latest USDA Crop Progress report, released Monday afternoon and covering the week ending Aug. 19. Soybean quality ratings also dipped last week, according to the agency.

USDA downgraded corn crop quality from 70% rated good-to-excellent the prior week down to 68%, moving it even lower than analysts’ expectations of 69%. That marks several consecutive weeks the agency has lowered its corn quality assessment. Another 20% of the crop is rated fair (unchanged from a week ago), with the remaining 12% rated poor or very poor (up two points from a week ago).

Texas (29%), North Carolina (35%) and Missouri (28%) continue to represent the lowest statewide ratings of good-to-excellent corn. Other key production states continue to do very well, including Nebraska (84%), Ohio (77%), Illinois (76%) and Minnesota (74%).

“Today’s drop in corn ratings followed the pattern of below average precipitation seen last week in the northwestern part of the growing region, and cut yield potential significantly,” says Farm Futures senior grain market analyst Bryce Knorr. “The average of our two models fell 1.6 bushels per acre to an average of 176.5 bpa. The model based on the nationwide rating is down to 175.7 bpa while the estimate using state-by-state ratings is at 177.3 bpa.”

Overall, yield potential has dropped nearly four bushels per acre since USDA did its survey for its August 10 production estimate, Knorr adds.

Physiologically, corn is still tracking about a week ahead of normal, with 85% of the crop reaching dough stage, versus 74% a year ago and a five-year average of 72%. Another 44% of the crop has reached the dented stage, versus 27% a year ago and a five-year average of 26%.

USDA also lowered its assessment of the soybean crop, moving it from 66% to 65% in good-to-excellent condition. Analysts expected the agency to leave crop conditions unchanged this week. Another 24% of the crop is in fair condition (unchanged from a week ago), with the remaining 11% in poor or very poor condition (up one point from a week ago).

State-by-state, the U.S. soybean crop is exhibiting a wide range of quality variance, from Nebraska’s stellar crop (81% rated good-to-excellent) on down to struggling Missouri (34% rated good-to-excellent).

“Ratings eased along a somewhat similar pattern for soybeans, though conditions improved in Kansas and Missouri, drought-hit states that benefited from good rains last week,” Knorr says. “That helped keep our estimate based on state condition reports unchanged at 49.7 bpa, even though the nationwide model declined three-tenths of a bushel to 50.7 bpa. The average of the two models is 50.2, down almost a full bushel per acre from when USDA put together its August 10 estimate.”

Physiologically, this year’s soybean crop is maturing slightly faster than average, with 91% of the crop now setting pods versus last year’s pace of 86% and a five-year average of 83%.

This year’s spring wheat quality also moved lower, with USDA assessing 64% of the crop in good-to-excellent condition, down one point from the prior week. Another 21% of the crop is rated fair (up one point from a week ago), with the remaining 5% rated poor or very poor (unchanged from a week ago).

“Spring wheat ratings continue to be somewhat erratic, dropping a half bushel per acre as more harvest reports come in following a relative dry week on the Northern Plains,” Knorr says. “Our average yield based on the ratings is at 50.2 bpa, though the state-by-state estimate is moving closer to USDA.”

Spring wheat harvest reached 60% completion last week – a big jump from the prior week’s total of 35%. That puts the pace of 2018’s harvest slightly ahead of last year (55%) and moderately ahead of the five-year average of 44%.

The U.S. winter wheat harvest inched forward from 94% complete the prior week to 97%. That pace is in line with 2017’s progress and the five-year average, both at 98%.

Farther south, 17% of the U.S. cotton crop has open bolls, slightly ahead of 2017’s pace and the five-year average of 12%. This year’s embattled crop saw some quality improvement last week, moving two points higher to 42% rated good-to-excellent, but it’s still moderately behind 2017’s crop, which was rated 63% good-to-excellent at this point in the season last year.

Fresno County, Calif. crop values nearly returned to record territory in 2017, almost erasing nearly $1 billion in gross agricultural receipts starved from the economy the previous two years by severe drought.

Coming off a banner water year in the winter of 2016-17, Fresno County farmers grossed over $7.028 billion for the crops they produced, according to the annual crop report published by Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner Les Wright.

Wright’s annual report to county supervisors has a long tradition of trumpeting the economic input agriculture has to the county’s economy. As the only San Joaquin Valley county to stretch the width of the Valley, farmers here can produce about 400 different commodities, including fruits, vegetables, livestock, nuts and timber.

Long the nation’s leading agricultural county by gross receipts, Fresno County slipped to third place in 2014 behind Tulare and Kern counties due to several factors. Those included record-high milk prices that bolstered the value of Tulare County’s dairy industry, increases in pistachio and almond production that benefitted Kern County, and the regulatory constraints on surface irrigation that eroded western Fresno County’s vegetable and cotton plantings.

Beneath the large numbers remains an industry that daily and “unceremoniously” provides millions of meals to a global marketplace, says Fresno County Farm Bureau Chief Executive Officer Ryan Jacobson.

“Whether your job depends on agriculture or not, the consequences of this report affects your daily life,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson further noted that some growers in early 2017 were forced to idle some farmland as federal water officials failed to make water allocation predictions prior before planting decisions needed to be made.

Cattle industry

Each year Wright likes to highlight a segment of the agriculture industry in his report. This year that facet was the cattle industry, which can be traced back to the Spanish missions that settled California long before statehood was granted.

Mark Thompson, president of the Fresno-Kings Cattlemen’s Association, said the cattle industry in Fresno County remains a significant part of the county’s overall crop value with the inclusion of Harris Ranch on the western edge of the county. Cattle production in the county also requires locally-produced feed commodities, and is responsible for many jobs, Thompson said.

The combined value of dairy and beef cattle and calves sold in Fresno County in 2017 was over $420 million.

Top crops

Almonds, grapes and poultry top the list of most valuable commodities produced in the county. For the most part, poultry – turkeys, chickens, ducks, geese and gamebirds – are produced for their meat, though the crop report does list egg production under the category.

About 20 percent of the state’s almond crop is grown in Fresno County. The 258,000 tons of almonds grown there in 2017 sold for over $1.1 billion. Over one-quarter of that volume was exported to foreign markets.

Almond acreage climbed about 13,000 to over 228,000 acres. Almond yields in 2017 averaged 2,260 pounds per acre. Prices remained little-changed from the previous year.

In all cases, dollar values are listed as gross figures and do not reflect grower profits or economic impacts to the county.

Fresno is one of the few locations that grows grapes for wine, table and raisins. Much-improved grape prices from the previous year pushed the value of all grapes in the county to over $935 million.

Of those uses, wine grapes saw a 21 percent reduction in harvested acreage. Anecdotal reports among those in the grape industry suggest wine grape farmers are converting to almonds and pistachios, which yield better returns. Table grape acreage remained little-changed while those grown for raisins saw a slight increase in harvested acres.

Pistachios remain a popular crop for growers, though profitable returns there take longer to generate than with almonds as the first pistachio crop tends not to happen until seven years after planting.

Nevertheless, harvested acres of pistachios grew over 8 percent to more than 101,000 acres. Average yields were down 22 percent to 2,380 pounds per acre in the alternate-bearing crop as the average price was up 144 percent to $2.13 per pound to the grower.

At the Tuesday meeting where Wright presented his crop report, Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes said farmers able to harvest pistachios early this year could see bonus checks as the Wonderful Company recently indicated a shortage of pistachios and is willing to pay a premium to growers the first two weeks of harvest just to get nuts in the sales pipeline.

One nut marketer said the industry in general is currently short on good-quality pistachios and most processors are willing to pay an additional 3-5 cents per pound for early harvest nuts.

Pistachios and mandarins remain fast-risers on the crop report. At No. 4 in value ranking in 2017, pistachios moved up three spots from the previous year while mandarins made their first appearance in the top-10 at No. 6, pushing garlic out of the 10 highest-valued crops.

Mandarin acreage in 2017 climbed 27 percent to over 23,000, closing in on the total acreage of various orange varieties at 28,811 acres.

Most notable in mandarins was the 111 percent increase in price to over $1,600 per ton on 267,000 tons of total production.

The Fresno County Crop Report can be viewed online.

About 1,000 farmers, public school educators, farm employees and consumers from Tulare to Red Bluff descended on the State Capitol in Sacramento to protest State Water Resources Control Board (SCWRB) plans to force half the annual flows in several state rivers out to sea in a move purported to help declining fish populations in the Bay Delta region.

The protest on the Capitol steps was spearheaded by California Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, whose district covers Stanislaus and Merced counties and would be heavily impacted by the board’s decision.

That decision was to be made the following day by the SWRCB but was put on hold at the request of the California Natural Resources Agency. Gray said he was unsure why that decision was tabled, but suspects that the political pressure and planned protest the day before the meeting might have had something to do with it.

“The water board needs to scrap the plan it has,” Gray said. “They need to go back to the drawing board and meet with the local communities throughout the Central Valley to come up with a plan that’s sustainable for the future.”

Though the SWRCB is appointed by the Governor, Gray continued by saying that perhaps the Legislature can affect the outcome of this as it has general oversight of the water board, to include approving the agency’s budget.

One irony in the water board’s plan includes the suggestion that affected farmers and communities can simply pump more groundwater to make up for the difference, estimated to be somewhere between 350,000 and 1.7 million acre feet of water annually. The California Farm Water Coalition estimates the financial impact to Valley communities could be over $3 billion annually with 6,500 jobs lost as a result.

Modesto farmer Paul Wenger blasted the water board’s arrogance for suggesting such a move in the wake of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), a measure meant to prevent overdraft of groundwater resources in the state.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Wenger said. “They want to send more water to the ocean and tell us to simply pump more water, but we have SGMA telling us we can’t do that.”

Gray said the surface water taken from these communities, with no real substitute to replace it, will “decimate our local communities.”

Northern California rice grower Clark Becker says he and many of his Northstate peers attended the water rally because they know the water board will not stop with its plan on San Joaquin Valley rivers. Many at the water rally also pointed to the Sacramento and Feather rivers and the likelihood the state would take significant flows from those rivers as well to meet predetermined goals.

One of the issues here is the science the State Water Board used to come up with its decisions – science that is widely criticized through $24 million in studies paid for by irrigation districts in Stanislaus and Merced counties.

California Farm Bureau Federation President Jamie Johansson, an Oroville-area citrus and olive farmer, said he’s encouraged by the diversity of opposition to the water board’s plan. It’s not just the farmers who are critical of this plan, but cities including San Francisco and East Bay cities, school districts, health care leaders and others who all say the water board’s plan will destroy local communities, harm public health, and idle thousands of acres of farmland in one of the most productive growing regions in the world.

While not as widespread as in states to the southeast, Nebraska has seen its share of off-target dicamba injury in the last couple years. While total complaints this year declined compared to last year, estimates range from 25,000 to 50,000 acres of soybeans showing signs of dicamba injury — mostly in southeast through south-central Nebraska. Those estimates are only from the number of acres reported.

Unlike last year, there have been more complaints of dicamba injury on other sensitive crops, such as trees, alfalfa and grapes.

In many cases, it's difficult to say exactly where off-target movement originated. However, with the knowledge that after V1, a new trifoliolate-bearing main stem node appears on the soybean plant's main stem every 3.7 days until the plant reaches R5, researchers can count the number of main stem nodes on dicamba-injured plants to determine approximately when the damage occurred.

Growers can use the forensic method themselves to determine roughly when dicamba injury occurred. First, count number of nodes from the cotyledon (0) and unifoliolate (1) up to the last fully developed leaflets. Take this number times 3.7, and it should give you roughly the number of days since the soybean plant emerged. This provides an approximate calendar date for emergence. Then identify the first node where the injury occurred and count the nodes to the last fully developed leaflets.

For example, if it occurred on the fifth main stem node, and there are nine main stem nodes, take the remainder, four times 3.7., and it tells us the injury occurred roughly 14 or 15 days ago (assuming you collected the plant sample today).

Using this method, Jenny Rees Nebraska Extension educator in York and Seward counties, says it's apparent some cases of injury in her part of the state originated earlier in the year — sometimes from applications on corn acres.

"At first, in my part of the state, we were getting off-target movement from corn applications around the Memorial Day timeframe. The first injuries we were seeing were from corn," she says. "It wasn't until later that we started tracing injury back to post applications on soybeans, and on a more limited basis, pastures and railroad right-of-ways around mid- to late June."

"That's the challenging part. I don't think we can pin it all on applications on soybean fields," says Todd Whitney, Extension educator in Furnas, Gosper, Harlan and Phelps counties. "We can't say it's from one source, because dicamba can move through many application forms."

In many cases this year, injury likely came from movement through volatilization, with signs of injury, such as cupped leaves, being consistent across entire fields more often than not. However, it's important to double-check to make sure tank contamination wasn't an issue that contributed to the off-target movement.

Depending on the timing of application, the impact of dicamba injury on soybean yield can vary. And the impacts go beyond yield. With cupped leaves, soybean plants don't canopy as quickly, allowing sunlight to hit the exposed soil below to be intercepted by weeds.

The challenge is with the spread of glyphosate-resistant weeds like Palmer amaranth, growers need a new chemistry and site of action to control weeds, and dicamba products have provided the control they need.

"Dicamba has worked well so far in controlling Palmer amaranth in my part of the state. So it’s applied on corn, and in a week or two, we see soybeans cupping as a result of volatilization or drift. The plants grew out of injury symptoms due to rain and irrigation. Sometimes fields received a second off-target movement due to tank contamination, volatility due to temperature inversions, or drift from applying dicamba on soybeans, which made the soybeans cup again. Plants remain cupped longer when they are non-irrigated and under drought-stress," Rees says. "Some farmers have said, 'We're doing it to ourselves. We hate the fact that our soybeans don't canopy as quickly, yet we need the product for weed control in our crops.' It's a difficult situation."

Whitney adds steps also need to be taken to ensure dicamba remains effective as a control method, including rotating sites of action to prevent weeds from developing resistance.

"We do not want people to use dicamba exclusively, even though it is providing good control. It only takes four generations, or four years to develop dicamba resistance if you repeatedly expose weeds to dicamba," he says. "I think there's an acceptance that we're going to have to deal with a certain degree of injury, and we need to take a community-wide approach to mitigating injury, but we still have a way to go."

Seed singulation is something most farmers are aware of, but don't always pay attention to at the start of the year when preparing the planter to hit the field.

"If you went back 20 to 25 years, it was less important because hybrids could flex ear size and ear number more," said Darren Goebel, global director of agronomy and farm solutions at Agco. "Today, we're getting more fixed-ear-type hybrids that are getting the same length of ear, same number of kernels around the ear, no matter if they have a neighbor or not, so getting the spacing and singulation right is more important."

However, when singulation and spacing errors show up in the field, they mean an impact on yield at the end of the season. Over the last two years, Agco has researched corn seed singulation and spacing at plots across the Midwest. Traditionally, it's been difficult to test singulation and spacing without simultaneously affecting population, but Agco researchers have done so with some simple modifications to seed plates.

"We took a seed disk and drilled two holes in that seed disk and plugged two holes in that seed disk. This way we could have the exact same population no matter if I have a seed disk that's correct, or seed disks we call 'goof plates' that have been doctored," Goebel said. "We averaged 93.1% singulation out of that [incorrect] seed disk, compared to seed disks that were correct — 99.6%. Then we looked at the yield difference. For every 1% loss of singulation, we were losing a bushel per acre."

At a recent field day at one of these plots near Fremont, Neb., Goebel demonstrated just how singulation and spacing errors affect yield and profitability.

Counting off 1/1,000 of an acre, or 17 feet and 5 inches of a single 30-inch corn row planted using this "goof plate" meter, Goebel counted off the number of plants, doubles and skips on the plot — 26 plants, three pairs of doubles and six skips.

"In that 17.5-foot space, if we're missing one plant and multiply it out across the whole acre, missing that one plant or one ear equates to 7 bushels," he said.

"Don't these outside plants make up for the skips, because they put on a bigger ear? That used to be the case," Goebel said.

Counting kernels on the ears on plants just outside of skips and taking it times the number of plants per acre divided by the average number of kernels per bushel (560 × 26,000/90,000), these bigger ears had an estimated potential yield around 161 bushels per acre, compared to ears on normal plants in the same plot (448 × 26,000/90,000) at about 129 bushels — a difference of over 30 bushels.

"These [outside ears] at 160 bushels per acre are yielding about 20% more, but not enough to make up for the one or two additional ears that would be in between in the skip," Goebel added. "In general, 20% more yield on either ear is typical for a skip, and it's never going to make up for the ear or two that are missing."

Compared to skips, doubles are usually less costly. In the space of one plant, there are two plants — each contributing an ear. Research shows that on average, those two plants typically produce the equivalent of one ear, when the smaller ears produced on the double-planted stalks are combined. With above-average conditions, the yield potential increases. When ears are stressed under droughty conditions, yields suffer more compared to normal ears. So, having a normal, full-sized ear on a single plant is always preferable.

So, what can be done about it? One of the most obvious factors is the seed meter. Precision Planting vSet meters (equipped on White VE series planters) feature double eliminators that don’t need adjustment, a flat disk and recommended vacuum pressure settings. These meters usually have 99%-plus singulation with variable seed sizes in the same hopper.

For conventional vacuum seed meters, setting vacuum pressure too high can increase the risk of doubles. On the other hand, setting vacuum pressure too low can increase the occurrence of skips. Making sure seed size is consistent is also important — and that depends largely on the planter and its meter. With enough attention to detail and a good seed dealer that can get the seed size needed, it's possible to get good singulation with any seed meter.

A USDA grant will allow a group of California organic farmers to team up with researchers from the University of California, Chico State and Fresno State to determine whether tilling less soil on the farm will improve production of vegetable crops.

The aim is to duplicate the soil environment found in natural areas – typically concealed by plants, leaves and other organic debris – to improve agricultural soil health, increase production, reduce water use and avoid leaching nutrients out of the root zone.

“Tilling the soil is common on farms, but our research shows that it often isn't necessary, and can even be detrimental,” said Jeff Mitchell, UC Cooperative Extension agronomy specialist. “In nature, organic matter on the soil surface creates a protective layer and promotes biological activity that is beneficial to plants and the environment.”

The three-year project, funded with $380,000 from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's Conservation Innovation Grant program, involves six organic farmers who are already experimenting on their own with cover crops, compost and minimum tillage to grow high-quality organic produce.

“This is a group of outstanding farmers,” Mitchell said. “It's very encouraging to see this sort of care for the soil. They recognize that taking care of the soil biology is useful to produce crops.”

One of the participants, Scott Park of Meridian, Calif., 50 miles north of Sacramento, has been building the soil on his farm for 38 years.

'Some really good results'

“We put 10 to 15 tons of biomass on every acre every year,” Park said. “This has given me good soil structure, water percolation and water retention, and we're having some really good results.”

Park said he tweaks his farming practices each year. To date, he has tinkered with reduced tillage, but isn't sold on a no-till system.

“I'm doing minimum till now, but it can be better,” Park said.

Teasing out those improvements is a goal of the project, which includes trials on four farms and two 12-acre demonstration plots, one at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center in Five Points and the other on the Chico State campus.

“Each of us will be trying to get closer to the goal of reducing tillage to promote soil health. We all want to develop strategies that might work, and not repeat mistakes,” Mitchell said.

The USDA grant funds will enable the farmers and researchers to gather accurate data about the agronomic and economic impacts of the new farming systems and use state-of-the-art equipment and technologies as they experiment with new techniques.

Bringing in Spanish technology

For example, the team is working with a Salinas company that is bringing a Spanish transplanting technology to California. The company, Tanimura & Antle Produce, will allow a demonstration of a plant tape that holds sprouts spaced ideally for a broccoli field planting in the West Side REC plot. The technology holds promise for reducing tillage, cutting back on labor, using less seed, and bringing the crop into production earlier in the season.

Planting cover crops is another way farmers and researchers will seek to improve soil health, though this process is a challenge in organic farming systems. On conventional no-till and minimum-till farms, the cover crop may be sprayed with an herbicide before planting seedlings in the cover crop residue. Possible solutions are chopping up the cover crop or using a roller-crimper machine.

“These technologies would provide considerable advantages in organic systems, but very little research has been done to quantify how these practices might influence soil function and cropping system resilience in California,” Mitchell said.  

As part of the project, a farmer network will be developed for information sharing, 18 public extension events will be held, six videos will be created and curriculum will be developed to extend the research outcomes.

In a video here, researchers give an overview of transplanting technology developed in Spain that will be part of the soil building research.

For more information, contact Jeff Mitchell at jpmitchell@ucanr.edu, or (559) 303-9689.

Source: University of California Cooperative Extension

Earlier this week a water rally spearheaded by a California assemblyman drew an estimated 1,000 people to the north steps of the State Capitol. Not coincidentally, the event fell one day before the State Water Resources Control Board was set to take over one million acre feet of water from three California rivers for fish restoration in the Delta.

Since it’s been reported that a similar amount of water may be sent to southern California through the proposed twin tunnels that Gov. Brown wants to build, and Metropolitan Water District agreed to help fund, one can rightly say that the move is simply a shell-game akin to games the Legislature pays with new special taxes said to augment General Fund contributions to help fund things like roads and schools, but I digress.

I’m told the move by the water board was cooked up years ago, waiting for just the right time to be served. It doesn’t matter that within the past year farmers, irrigation districts, school districts, and others – armed with scientific and economic studies – complained in unison that the idea will “decimate local communities.”

Now it appears the water board has kicked the can again, conveniently until after the November election, to formalize its decision.

I spoke with Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, at the water rally. Gray hopes to gather enough support from colleagues to perhaps make a difference.

Though Gray belongs to the majority party in Sacramento, I’m also told that he does not always follow the party line. Several years ago Gray was pulled off a state committee by then-Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins after a committee vote on a water bill Gray sponsored apparently did not go as party leaders desired.

From the sounds of it, Gray rightly represents his constituents first – a novel idea in today’s world of politics.

While lawsuits are said to be pending the water board’s decision, the Trump Administration is now involved, according to The Sacramento Bee. Apparently the Bureau of Reclamation – until recently a curse-word used by federal water contractors denied irrigation water in the past several years – formally told California it wants to renegotiate a 1986 agreement between the state and feds on how water is moved and allocated.

According to The Bee, the feds want the state to pony up more water from the State Water Project for environmental restoration. How this impacts thirsty urban users in southern California and whether it provides more water to San Joaquin Valley farmers who now view 40 percent Central Valley Project deliveries as a full-allocation remains to be seen.

If this happens Lake Oroville may become a much larger player in Delta restoration flows, which could significantly impact Feather River flows currently used for irrigating northern California crops. At the very least California water officials should rethink how they manage the large reservoir, which they’ve let slip to 47 percent of capacity because of needed repairs to the spillway that failed in early 2017.

Stay tuned as I wade further into murky waters and chat with other water leaders on California’s water issues. As I learn more, so will you.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced that additional assistance has been made available for pecan growers to replant and replace trees through the Tree Assistance Program (TAP) as they recover from the impacts of 2017 weather events, which was made available by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018.

“Pecan orchards were hard hit in by storms in 2017. I saw first-hand the damage inflicted on communities, resources and the land.” said USDA Farm Production and Conservation Under Secretary Bill Northey. “These funds will help the industry recover and replace lost and damaged trees.”

Funding will be provided through the TAP, a program administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). Up to $15 million is available to eligible pecan orchardists or pecan nursery tree growers for certain mortality losses incurred during 2017. To be eligible, the grower must have suffered a mortality loss on a stand in excess of 7.5 percent, but less than 15 percent, adjusted for normal mortality.

In addition to TAP, growers and orchardists may be eligible for other 2014 Farm Bill programs. For example, pecan orchardists and nursery tree growers who suffered greater than a 15 percent mortality loss remain eligible under the regular TAP provisions. Under Secretary Northey urged those who may be eligible to work with their local state or county FSA office.

To qualify for a TAP payment for pecan tree losses, orchardists and nursery tree growers must have:

• planted, or be considered to have planted (by purchase before the loss of existing stock planted for commercial purposes) pecan trees for commercial purposes, or have a production history, for commercial purposes, of planted or existing trees;
• suffered a qualifying pecan tree loss in excess of 7.5 percent mortality (after adjustment for normal mortality), from Jan. 1, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2017; and
• continuously owned the stand from the time of the disaster until the time that the TAP application is submitted.

For more information about this or other FSA programs, contact your local FSA county office or USDA Service Center.

Source: USDA

Processing tomato growers are experiencing a rebound of sorts this year after the last couple of crops were intentionally smaller to pare down stockpiles  that were sitting in warehouses.

This year's contracted production is forecast at 11.8 million tons, or 13.4 percent more than the 2017 crop, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service in Sacramento. Production is expected to average 50.4 tons per acre.

The projected number of acres grown under contract is 234,000, an increase of 5.9 percent from last year, according to the agency.

This week's updated forecast comes as the harvest has been underway since early July after warm temperatures caused the crop to develop sooner than anticipated, NASS reports. The harvest started slowly but picked up by the third week, and yields were reported to be good and above contracted levels.

With a larger crop, sugars are expected to be lower compared to last season, NASS observes. Water availability hasn't been a concern this year and pest and disease pressure has been minimal.

Shipping reports published by the Processing Tomato Advisory Board showed that as of Aug. 25 shipments were running 8.5 percent ahead of last year's pace.

Last year marked the industry's lowest contracted production since 2006 as it tried to work through a glut of tomatoes brought on by record production in 2014 and 2015.

The processing tomato estimate is funded by the California League of Food Processors in cooperation with the state Department of Food and Agriculture.

Northern California wineries and farmers could be on the hook for higher utility costs if a bill now on Gov. Brown’s desk is signed. These costs come as legislators agreed to effectively bail out a large, public utility said to be complicit in conflagrations that destroyed homes, wineries and other property last year.

At the end of the day, PG&E ratepayers could be on the hook for billions of dollars in costs related to numerous fires within the utility’s coverage area – fires reportedly linked to poor maintenance efforts to keep trees and other flammable vegetation away from power lines. Those arguing for the legislation say the utility could go bankrupt if not afforded these protections.

California residents already pay some of the highest utility rates in the country, at nearly 20 cents per kilowatt hour, on average, or about 40 percent more than the national average.

Drive around California and you’ll see plenty of examples where farmers and commercial operations are trying to combat these higher costs through the utilization of solar. Homeowners who can afford it are also jumping on the bandwagon as California mandates that utilities charge tiered rates for electricity to encourage conservation.

I remember during the California energy crisis responsible for the first-ever recall of a sitting governor, an idea was offered that the state would move to a system whereby consumers could choose their utility provider, regardless of the district in which they lived. For instance, if I lived in a high-rate district but wanted instead to buy my power from lower-cost provider hundreds of miles away, I’d be able to do that – sort of like shopping the best price on a new vehicle, groceries or gasoline. This never materialized, leaving customers in the same monopolized system as before.

California’s costly, uncompetitive utility rates and increased regulatory costs cannot bode well for the sustainability of commercial agriculture as it continues to be asked to produce more food for a growing world population.

Nebraska growers are blessed with a resource that gives them an advantage over growers in other states: irrigation. With that comes options for not only watering crops, but also fertilizing in-season.

However, as more seed companies characterize hybrids based on factors like water-use efficiency, plant population and nitrogen-use efficiency, which hybrids are more suited to in-season fertigation?

It's a question posed by agronomists at Bayer's Water Utilization Learning Center near Gothenburg, Neb., as part of a study over the last two years testing response to nitrogen in different Dekalb hybrids. The goal, says agronomist Mark Reiman, is to determine how well different Dekalb products handle nitrogen stress upfront versus later in the season.

"It goes back to there's a product component and trying to understand what nitrogen product they like," Reiman says. "Fertigation can be a very good management practice. It's an opportunity we have in Nebraska that other states don't have."

This study tested 24 different Dekalb products with two different nitrogen treatments: one where all 240 pounds of nitrogen are applied at the start of the season, and one with 60 pounds applied up front, followed by 180 pounds applied throughout the season in 15-pound increments through fertigation. Last year, some of those treatments were as late as the last week of August.

The nitrogen, in the form of 32% UAN, is applied through a subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system, with drip tape buried 12 inches deep on 40-inch spacing. Rates were calculated based on soil tests and a 40-pound nitrogen credit from soybeans grown on the field in 2016.

This is the second year of the study. In 2017, all products on average saw a benefit from the in-season fertigation treatments, and on average, used 15 pounds less nitrogen.

"We found even though we had 15 pounds less nitrogen, we found we had a 9- to 10-bushel difference in yield across all Dekalb products in the study," Reiman says. "One product in the study we saw pretty much had even yield. We see up to 30 pounds difference in yield for one hybrid that preferred nitrogen at the end of the season."

However, the results get more interesting when looking at how individual products performed at different points in the growing season. In some cases, there were no significant yield differences from fertigation treatments — and in some cases, there was even a small yield decrease.

"In the field where we did everything upfront, early on the corn looked great. It had all the nitrogen it needed to really shoot up," Reiman says. Meanwhile, early on in the season, the corn in the fertigation treatment showed signs of nitrogen deficiency. "It is a growing-season-long process of nitrogen accumulation, and by the end of the year, you started to see nitrogen stress in the products where you applied everything upfront. Where you were fertigating, you corrected that early-season nitrogen deficiency and then at the end of the season you had darker-green, healthier-looking plants."

The question is: What causes some hybrids or products to prefer late-season nitrogen more than others? The answer, Reiman says, isn't clear. It isn't always higher-yielding hybrids, and it isn't always due to relative maturity. Some products, for whatever reason, just seem to prefer more nitrogen later in the season.

Of course, early-season rainfall may have been a factor last year. The Gothenburg area saw several 1-inch rainfall events in May and June 2017. With more nitrogen applied upfront, more is left open to loss through leaching or denitrification.

"This year, we didn't have those really heavy rainfall events. We've had really nice rains. We don't have a lot of moisture stress out there in the field at all even on dryland acres. Maybe we're not going to see a lot of leaching this year, maybe the response won't be quite as dramatic as what we saw last year," Reiman says.

"Overall, the yield potential looks really high,” he says. “We had a few plots last year reach that 280-, 290- to 300-bushel range. I think we're looking at those same yield numbers this year if not maybe even a little bit better just by looking at kernel depth and kernel count."