Archives

Visitor Counter

322652
Visit Today : 123
Visit Yesterday : 165
This Month : 1665
This Year : 9955
Total Visit : 322652
Hits Today : 145
Total Hits : 1071678
Who's Online : 2
Your IP Address: 44.222.169.53
Server Time: 24-03-29

Ag Beat… Tulare/Kings Dairy Woes / Pumped Up Pistachios / More Solar


some hope…a wet corn belt for a change

Pistachio Plantings Surge: Fresno County will over Tulare County as the number 2 pistachio producing county predicts Bob Klein, Manager at the Administrative Committee For Pistachios. Kern is far and away number one.Klein expects farmers to plant 20,000 new acres of pistachio trees this year – up from 13,710 in 2012 and the highest since 2007.It takes 6 year for the trees to come into full production.Right now there is 200,000 bearing acres and 75,000 non bearing clustered in the south Valley. The plantings in western Fresno ,where cotton was once king, have drawn number one processor Paramount to build a new plant in Firebaugh that will process nuts this fall. Abut 65% of the nut crop is exported with declining competition worldwide. Klein says California’s crop at 555 million pounds last year is on pace to nearly double to 1 billion pounds by 2020 with demand by the growing middle class around the global very bullish.

More Local Dairies Selling Out
: If it is boom time for nuts – it’s  gloom time for the milk producers. Last month it was another”complete dispersal” auction held at the 57 year strong Atsma-Cameron dairy next to 198 at the Kings /Tulare line – who watched their 850 cow milk cow herd being sold off. Mary Cameron, 82, has run her dairy east of Hanford with her sons since her husband died in 1965. This month it is Graceland Dairy – near Tulare  -where and auction happened March 15 selling off one of several dairies- including all the rolling stock – owned by John Visser of Strathmore who like  other dairymen locally is going through the painful bankruptcy  process.

These complete selloffs are now more common as long-time farmers say they have no choice but to throw in the towel.

“We’ve basically been doing about two [complete dispersals] every month since November,” said Nick Martella, co-owner of A & M Livestock Auction, Inc. in Hanford – speaking to the Hanford newspaper recently.
Several of the Visser dairy farm properties are for sale including the Visser Ranch on Ave 208 in Strathmore,a large calf ranch in operation for the past 25 years on almost 1000 acres. The property is for sale for $17.5 million.

Diary broker John Grimmius of Visalia says when he takes a drive “west of Tulare 10 miles out,down one road and back another, I count  7 vacant dairies. Grimmius adds “the question is with all these closures – will there be enough milk?

Figures for January 2013 show Tulare county dairy farms pumped out 2.6% less milk than in January 2012 and in Kings County milk volume is down 6.2%.

On the plus side,two trends. First,the Midwest where most  of our feed comes from looks wet so far and that could help this fall’s corn crop. Second, its very dry in New Zealand,our competitor on the world market, and that could help boost US dairy prices.

Dinuba’s Family Tree Farms is installing a $1.8 million ground- mounted solar system on 3.65 acres next to their packing and cold storage facility says Brian Peterson,the company’s purchasing manager.”This will offset 76% of our power bill for our largest meter “says Peterson – noting the solar panels will generate 1 MW of power. Peterson says timing was right for the  investment considering  that rebates are going away and the attractive price of solar these days. “We want to credit the good work of JKB Development” the contractor on the project who also doing the same at several  other ag enterprises. Power will get turned on in May.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *