Around Kings County

More homes for Lemoore

The City of Lemoore has received a site plan review application to construct 432 single family homes from big builder Woodside Homes. The new project would have 3 parks on approximately 115-acres located east of 18 ¾ Avenue and south of Lacey Blvd. The project requires annexation, pre-zoning, and general plan amendment.

Woodside Homes previously developed Alexandria Square in Lemoore located near Bush and D streets – which sold out.

Woodside Homes is a major American residential homebuilder founded in 1977. Having constructed more than 40,000 homes nationwide, the company is owned by Sekisui House, one of Japan’s largest homebuilders.

This year Woodside Homes in the Valley has started construction on 85 homes in Fowler and Tulare cities.

DR Horton has been the busiest builder in Kings County in 2026 with 92 homes under construction in Hanford.

Poultry Ranch will expand

Americans are eating more chicken and Sanger-based Pitman Farms is ready to serve it up.

Pitman Family Farms has received a county permit to expand an existing poultry farm from 250,000 chickens to a new total of approximately 911,000 chickens, almost a fourfold increase.
The project includes construction of 430,000 square feet of new poultry barns, totaling 16 structures, which would be 54’-0’’ wide and 500’-0’’ in length. The new poultry barns would be built in one phase along with two additional single-family residences for caretaker purposes. The project is valued at $5.5 million.

The expansion has been in the works since 2020. The project is located at 16433 Laurel Avenue near Stratford, CA.

Beef per pound averages $6.89 and choice sirloin steak reaches $14.59, while a whole fresh chicken averages $2.01 per pound and boneless, skinless chicken breast averages $4.15 per pound, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor .

Short pistachio crop pegged at 655mil pounds

California Farm Bureau reports a March heat wave and the natural tendency of pistachio trees to alternate-bear combined for a perfect storm that may reduce the 2026 harvest to less than half the record 2025 crop.

With harvest nearly finished, the 2026 crop appears to be about 655 million pounds, Nichols said, citing industry data. Pistachio quality looks good, with little insect damage or staining, although kernel size is small .

While the market has responded with higher grower prices, they may not make up for the short crop, said Jeff Nichols, vice president of supply chain and grower relations with Nichols Farms in Hanford.“It’s a challenge for the industry overall because the crop is half of what was expected, but the (grower) price isn’t going to double,” he said. “Overall, the crop revenue to the grower is going to decrease.”The family-owned Nichols Farms grows conventional and organic pistachios in the southern San Joaquin Valley and runs a hulling and processing facility in Hanford.

Describing the crop as “terrible,” Jason Giannelli, director of farming for R&G Fanucchi Inc. in Kern County, said the farm’s 150 acres of the Kerman pistachio variety yielded an average of just 200 pounds per acre.
Industrywide, yields can range from more than 3,000 pounds per acre during “on” years and about 2,000 pounds per acre during “off” years, according to American Pistachio Growers.

Giannelli said they shook the trees once compared to the industry standard of two times and plans to file a crop insurance claim.“It’s not ideal, but it’s the only way we can survive,” he said.Giannelli manages another 150 acres of the Golden Hills variety, and he said those trees averaged 2,800 pounds per acre, which he considered good this year. He blamed the Kerman variety’s poor set to timing of bloom during the heatwave.

“We still have to grow a crop for next year, hoping that the crop is going to be better than this year,” he said.