Almond growers report smaller yields, nut size, and shifting more water
By CnAgri
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“We’re moving right through (the harvest), and it looks like we won’t have down time between varieties,” he said, adding that, with an El Nino predicted, it will be good to have the nuts out of the orchard earlier to guard against rain damage.
Roque said the Nonpareil variety, an industry mainstay, appears to be off by 15 percent to 20 percent in yield.
Mike Kelley, president of the Central California Almond Growers Association, a Kerman huller-sheller, said kernel sizes started very small – “pee-wees” – and “the coloration didn’t look good,” but sizes have increased as harvest progresses.
“We’re cautiously optimistic things are starting to improve,” he said.
Kelley said he estimates yields could be off 10 percent.
“But the price of almonds has gone so high compared to last year that it will offset losses. It’s at $4.60 a pound. Last year it was a dollar less.”
The accumulative effects of the drought, resulting in two crops that fell short of recent bumper years, means “we can’t meet the demand that’s out there,” Kelley said.
Firebaugh grower Chester Andrew believes the USDA-NASS estimate of 1.8 billion pounds is “pretty close.”
“The crop isn’t as big,” he said. “Statewide, it may be lighter than that. It was at 2,200-2,500 pounds per acre in the past. We’re getting 1,800 pounds per acre. It’s off about 20 percent.”
He blames lower yields in part on inadequate chilling hours, and said younger orchards are doing “very well - anything 15 years or older is definitely off.”
Kern County grower Kent Stenderup also says a “lack of dormant weather” has posed a problem.
“In recent years, we’ve not had the cold, foggy winter days when the leaves come down and the trees can sleep for a while,” he said. “We had leaves on the trees in January.”
Stenderup said Navel orangeworm pressures are also high this year.
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Stenderup has lowered several wells and changed his cropping system, foregoing some double cropping to redirect water to his almonds.
“We’re not in the dire straits a lot of people are,’’ he said.
Stuart Woolf, president of Woolf Farming, said his company, which farms on the west side of Fresno County, has fallowed nearly 6,000 acres of row crops and is looking at crop rotations including onions, garlic, and processing tomatoes.
Woolf is a principal in a tomato processing company, he says, so it makes sense to have significant tomato acreage, but it may be necessary to adjust the amount of acreage going to other row crops.
He is also a principal in an almond processing plant.
Earlier this year, Woolf said the company pulled out 190 acres of older trees and expects to pull still more within a year or so.
“It’s important to decide where to use the last drop of water,” he said, adding that it may make sense to pull out older orchards five years earlier than would have been done in times when they were not facing the challenges of drought.
