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10 CapitalPress.com June 26, 2015 California Subscribe to our weekly California email newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters Harvests of Calif. FFA students build hog loading ramp for Shasta fair early-summer fruit gain momentum By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press REDDING, Calif. — Like virtually every California farm- er, tree fruit growers Robert and Karen Mills are facing challeng- es because of a lack of water. “It’s dry,” Karen Mills said as she sold apricots at a farmers’ market here. “We started water- ing about a month and a half or two months early.” Still, the Corning couple is finding the peach crop for which they’re popular in Northern Cali- fornia is developing nicely. “It is so good,” Karen Mills said. The picking and shipping of peaches, apricots, nectarines and plums are under way in Cali- fornia’s Central Valley as some fruit continues to develop in size, notes the National Agricultural Statistics Service office in Sac- ramento. The harvest of early canning peaches has started as drought is expected to take its toll on the overall peach crop this year, ac- cording to NASS. The agency’s forecasts of 260,000 tons of free- stone peaches and 306,000 tons of clingstone peaches are both 8 percent lower than last year’s totals, as many growers are hav- ing to offset reductions in surface water with more pumping from wells. With the warm and dry win- ter, growers reported that full bloom occurred about a week ahead of schedule and the fruit set was variable. Growers expect production to be good for the Extra Late and Late varieties but lighter for the Carson, Stanislaus and Klamath varieties, NASS re- ported. Peaches and other stone fruit are among many early-summer delectables in California that are gracing picnic baskets and banquet tables. The peak season is under way for strawberries Tim Hearden/Capital Press Grower Robert Mills of Corning, Calif., carries a box of apricots to a booth at a farmers’ market in Redding, Calif. The harvest of apricots and other summer fruits is under way in California. and other berries, as California’s strawberry production is exceed- ing last year’s pace again after briefly falling behind. As of June 17, growers in the Golden State had turned out 114.5 million flats of strawber- ries, up from 113.6 million flats produced at the same point last year, according to industry data compiled by the USDA’s Agri- cultural Marketing Service. Blueberry and raspber- ry production in California is slightly behind last year’s pace while blackberry harvests are well ahead of last season, with 585,589 flats produced as of June 17 compared to 371,636 flats during the same period last year. Meanwhile, workers are in the midst of pulling in an antici- pated 20-million-carton Valencia orange crop, which would be down from 22 million cartons last year. Typically demand for Valencias dips after school lets out for the summer but picks back up when classes resume in August, Bob Blakely of Califor- nia Citrus Mutual has said. ANDERSON, Calif. — With their local fair needing a new ramp to load hogs sold at auction onto trucks, Dalton Giles and his friends in FFA came to the rescue. Giles volunteered when sup- porters of the Shasta District Fair approached his club at West Valley High School near Cot- tonwood, Calif. “Their older one didn’t work,” said Giles, 18, explain- ing that its wide surface enticed hogs to turn around and made it difficult to load them onto semis. With some help from other FFA members, Giles spent about two months in his ag mechanics class working on the new ramp, whose materials were donated by the Friends of the Shasta Dis- trict Fair. “I think it’s cool,” he said of Tim Hearden/Capital Press From left, FFA members Dalton Giles, Wyatt Cook and Ethan To- pal stand next to the hog ramp they made for the Shasta District Fair in Anderson, Calif. The students at West Valley High School near Cottonwood, Calif., built the ramp after getting a request from a fair supporters’ group. the project. “It’s cool for me as a way of leaving my mark here … It’s something to be proud of.” The ramp project isn’t the first time that 4-H and FFA stu- dents have chipped in to help the fair, which has had to get creative in raising money since most state funds for local fairs were cut several years ago. For a couple of years, Bella Vista, Calif., 4-H member Lane Simmons donated the proceeds from one of his hog projects to the fair, raising more than $10,000 in the first year in 2011. The nonprofit Friends group has raffled preferred parking at the fair, ride packages for kids and preferred seating at the auto races in an effort to raise money. The group proposed the ramp project to Ron Hardin, who teach- es several agriculture classes at West Valley. The high school has three ag teachers and 320 kids in its FFA program, excelling in competitions for everything from welding to public speaking. “It’s nice that they have faith in us to do this kind of product,” Hardin said of the hog ramp. “These guys do good work.” Drought still stifling Calif. honey production By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press REDDING, Calif. — A fourth-straight year of drought is continuing to stifle honey production in California as bees can’t find enough flowers to pollinate. The state’s beekeepers may have a hard time surpassing the nearly 12.5 million pounds of honey produced in 320,000 colonies last year, said Gene Brandi, a Los Banos, Calif., bee produc- er and vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation. “We’ve been dealing with this for the last four years now,” Brandi said. “We’re starting to get used to it, al- though it’s not something we really want to get used to.” Redding, Calif., beekeeper Darryl Mincer’s honey booths are still a fix- ture at area farmers’ markets, but he lost about 70 percent of his bees during the dry winter months, he said. “We’re just now getting our boxes going good,” he said. Amid the dry conditions, the bees that make honey are finding a dearth of sage, buckwheat, toyon, alfalfa and even yellow starthistle to pollinate. Tim Hearden/Capital Press Redding, Calif., beekeeper and honey produc- er Darryl Mincer rleft) sells honey to a customer at a local farmers’ market. The drought has hampered honey production in California. “Most of our honey production up here (in Northern California) is wildland-type plants — cover and that sort of thing,” said Shannon Wooten, a bee breeder in Palo Cedro, Calif. “It just takes rain and we haven’t gotten any. A lot of times it just takes rain at the right time.” Honey production nationwide was up again last year, with producers with more than five hives turning out 178 million pounds, up 13 percent from 2013, according to the National Agricul- tural Statistics Service. Prices nation- wide increased to a record high last year of $2.16 per pound, up from $2.14 the previous year, the agency reported. California’s honey production re- bounded a bit last year after only 10.9 million pounds were produced in 2013, NASS reported. But production in the Golden State has still dropped precip- itously since 2010, when 410,000 col- onies churned out nearly 27.5 million pounds of honey, according to the agen- cy. The state’s best years were 1952, when 521,000 hives produced nearly 49 million pounds of honey, and 1993, when 45 million pounds of honey came from the Golden State. “There’s been years past when Cali- fornia has been the No. 1 honey produc- ing state in the nation,” Brandi said. “It certainly won’t be this year.” 26-2/#5 Van Cleve Associates 26-2/#18 800-228-4346 1720 Fescue St. SE Albany, OR 97322 www.brattain.com 26-2/#T2D Proud Supporter of Proud Sponsor of 4-H 26-2/#T2D THE TRACTOR STORE (541) 342-5464 5450 W. 11 th , Eugene, OR P.O. Box 307 • Canby, OR 97013 888-877-7665 www. stutzmanenvironmental .com 26-2/#T4D 530-906-3978 www. VanCleveRanches .com Proud Supporter of FAIRFIELD, Calif. — Maya Farris wowed judges at two different Solano County 4-H contests recently with her presentation of “monkey bread.” The 9-year-old, who’s in her second year in the Pleasants Valley 4-H Club in Vacaville, won a showmanship award at the Solano County 4-H Project Skills Day with her monkey bread entry and then entered the project in the Solano County 4-H Presentation Day. “We watched folks line up for a sample of her monkey bread at Project Skills Day, and then watched her expertly answer questions from judges at the presentation day,” Kathy Keatley Garvey wrote in a University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources blog post. Monkey bread is a sweet, sticky, gooey breakfast pastry made with biscuits, sugar, cinnamon and melted butter. The bread project is one of many for Maya, whose current projects are baking and bread making, arts and crafts, rabbits, poultry, goats and crocheting, according to Garvey. Her older sister is also involved in 4-H and is doing many projects. Pleasants Valley is one of 12 4-H clubs in Solano County, with a total of 500 members. The program is administered by the UC Cooperative Extension. More than two dozen 4-H’ers won gold medals at the annual Solano County Presentation Day earlier this spring at the Green Valley Middle School in Fairfield, presenting displays, illustrated talks, speeches, interpretive readings and other projects. The winners went on to a 14-county regional competition, which was hosted by Solano County 4-H. Proud Sponsor Of 4-H Maya Farris presents her Solano County contest entry. In other 4-H news in California: In Tehama County, Trinity Kingwell of Olive 4-H was announced as the 2015-2016 All-Star member. She accepted the opportunity to represent the county at the 2015 State Leadership Conference and will be attending local events, according to a 4-H newsletter. In addition, Russell Raschein of Bend Jelly 4-H was introduced as Tehama’s B.L.A.S.T. (Becoming Leaders All-Star Trainee) member. He will work with Trinity to support the county’s 4-H program. For the third year, Tehama’s 4-H office in Red Bluff will collect donations from area clubs for a gift basket for the first baby born during National 4-H Week Oct. 4-10. Contact Spring Severson or Cindy McClain at (530) 527-3101. www.capitalpress.biz/hosted/tractorstore At Arbor Grove Nursery , we ’ ve learned the importance of investing in the future. That ’ s why we support local 4-H chapters and their work to create a brighter future for themselves and the agriculture industry. We also apply this thinking to the work we do for our growers. By investing in new techniques and varieties, we grow plants that will lead to more successful futures for our customers. Find out more at AGNursery.com Let ’ s Grow Together! 26-2/#T4D Stockland Livestock Auction wants to thank and congratulate all the dedicated 4H groups making a difference. Your passion for agriculture is the future of our industry. CALL ANY TIME! FOR INFORMATION OR TO CONSIGN: ˚ We ll˚work˚hard˚for˚your˚business˚and˚harder˚to˚keep˚it. • Kale McGuinness 508-703-3981 • Jack Mcguinness 509-703-3982 • TOLL FREE 800-372-6845 26-2/#T4D Oregon - California Ranches 26-2/#13