Thanks to these girls Tulare County will likely retain top position as most productive farm county in the US. ( Tulare Co Photo)
Row crop land in the western environs of Tulare County saw a major idling of land in 2014 says Ag Commissioner Marilyn Kinoshita. “We saw 250,000 acres in the county go out of production this past year” says Kinoshita. Why? Lack of water.
Despite that – Tulare County is likely to retain the title as most productive farm county in the nation in 2014 with the annual Crop Report released this week, showing a 9.1% increase in value over 2013 reaching over $8 billion.
Even as land was idled – farmers planted 25,000 acres of permanent plantings in 2014 including nearly 9000 acres of new tangerine trees. Nut trees,almond,walnuts and pistachios, made up the rest – some 16,000 acres of new trees.
Almonds saw a huge increase in value based on the average price increasing from $6 thousand a ton in 2013 to $8000 ton in 2014,
Milk led the way to the record high values in 2014 to $2.53 billion,some half a billion more than 2013. The higher number came largely from an increase in the price of milk in2 014, a trend that has reversed big time in 2015. Dairymen got an average of $22 per hundredweight for their milk in 2014 compared to $18.40 per cwt in 2013. Those same dairymen that were smiling in 2014 are not so happy now – said to be getting under $15 per cwt this year.
Up in 2104 were sales of livestock, pushed higher by cattle sales as ranchers culled their herds due the drought.
Grape acreage declined by 1700 acres while tangerines hit the sweet spot becoming the number two citrus crop with 23,140 acres – now outpacing Valencia acreage at 16,300.
Pistachios were up more than $1000 a ton while the price of walnuts fell about $1000 per ton.
Cotton acres in Tulare County fell to 14,000 in 2014 and has dropped to just under 10,000 acres in 2015 as reported by the Pink Bolworm survey. Across the state, cotton is no longer king.
Olives had an off-year in 2014 with county plantings down to 11,700 acres and production of 1.5 tons per acre compared to 4.7 tons per acre the year before.
With a value of more than $8 billion the county will have wait a few weeks it see if like last year, our numbers beat out Fresno and Kern Counties. Both have larger westside acreage, hurt by a lack of water and far fewer milk cows. Fresno was $6.4 billion in 2014 and Kern County was $6.7 billion, number two in the ranking. Both report soon.
Tulare County would not mind keeping the bragging rights.