June 9, 2017
CapitalPress.com
11
California
Subscribe to our weekly California email
newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters
Workshop offers tips on preventing wolf-livestock conflicts
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
California Valencia oranges.
Navel orange
harvest wraps
up early,
making way
for Valencias
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
EXETER, Calif. — The
navel orange harvest in Cal-
ifornia is wrapping up early,
giving the Valencia crop a
unique opportunity to make
gains in the marketplace in the
next several weeks.
Navel orange growers are
mostly finished with field
work and are shipping the last
of their season’s oranges, put-
ting a lid on a crop that came
in even lighter than expected.
Going into the season,
farms were expecting an 81
million-carton crop, down
from 88 million cartons pro-
duced last season, according
to the National Agricultural
Statistics Service.
A smaller crop was expect-
ed considering last season’s
big crop and drought-related
water shortages during the
bloom. But it turned out to
be a steeper decline, although
final figures aren’t available
yet, California Citrus Mutual
vice president Bob Blakely
said.
“The demand and pric-
es were good all through the
season,” Blakely said. “When
you have a small crop, de-
mand tends to exceed supply
and you see better prices.
Growers really need to get
their per-acre return back,
because it costs them just as
much to produce a small crop
as it does a big crop.”
Prices for mid-size navels,
which make up the bulk of the
crop, have risen to between
$15 and $17 per 40-pound
carton, up from $10 to $11 in
December, Blakely said.
“All in all, our growers
feel like they had a pret-
ty good year, even with the
smaller crop,” he said. “We
had good quality, high utiliza-
tion and good prices most of
the season, which equates to
pretty good returns back to the
grove. Most of them are going
to feel like this season was a
success.”
Valencias have the mar-
ket largely to themselves for
the next several weeks, as
other summer fruits have yet
to come on line and imports
of navels from the Southern
Hemisphere have yet to pick
up, Blakely said.
Valencia growers, too, are
expecting a smaller crop. A
NASS objective measurement
report in March projected
a 15.6-million-carton crop,
down from 17.4 million car-
tons in 2016.
It would be the seventh
straight production decline
for Valencias, whose 30,000
bearing acres are down from
50,000 in 2006, according to
NASS.
But growers are reporting
good size on Valencias this
summer, and the larger ones
stay in the domestic market
because export destinations
tend to like the smaller ones,
Blakely said.
Valencias are currently
shipping for between $14 and
$16 a carton, up from the $10
to $11 range that they typi-
cally bring at midsummer, he
said.
“I think we’re probably
going to see some opportu-
nity for pretty good Valencia
movement domestically for a
few weeks before we get re-
ally heavy volumes of South-
ern Hemisphere navels and
the other summer fruit starts
coming in,” he said.
“Right now there’s a bit
of a gap that we don’t usually
have, and we’re seeing some
good demand for Valencias
right now,” he said.
HAT CREEK, Calif. — A
June 14 workshop will give
ranchers updates on the state’s
wolf management plan and
more tips on how to prevent
conflicts between the preda-
tors and livestock.
Officials from the USDA’s
Animal and Plant Health In-
spection Service, the state
Department of Fish and Wild-
life and others will discuss
wolves’ return to California
and how ranchers can prepare.
The 9 a.m. workshop at the
Hat Creek Volunteer Fire De-
partment Hall will include ad-
vice on what to do in the case
of a depredation and how to
use range riders to determine
if wolves are in the area.
The event will also feature
demonstrations of how to in-
stall fencing, flashing lights
and other devices to protect
livestock, said Paul Kjos,
Shasta County’s agriculture
commissioner.
“There was a request from
a number of producers who
Courtesy Calif. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
A gray wolf in Siskiyou County in Northern California. An upcoming workshop will help prepare ranch-
ers for dealing with wolves as they continue to move into the state.
wanted a little more detail”
about mitigation measures,
Kjos said.
“A lot of folks are asking
‘What do we do?’” he said.
“This gives them … some
definite tools you can use to try
to keep the separation between
predators and livestock.”
The county is joined in
hosting the workshop by
APHIS, Defenders of Wildlife,
the Natural Resources Defense
Council, the Shasta County
Cattlemen’s Association, the
Shasta County Farm Bureau
and the Pacific Wolf Coali-
tion.
The workshop is similar
to a series of meetings held
last year in Northeastern Cal-
ifornia to teach ranchers how
to prevent depredation. The
meetings sought to merge
ranchers’ expertise about their
livestock and land with sci-
ence-based knowledge of wolf
biology and behavior, organiz-
ers said.
State and federal protec-
tions make it illegal to kill
or hunt wolves in California,
even in the case of livestock
depredation. Wolf advocates
and state officials have been
promoting nonlethal means of
warding off wolves, including
using guard dogs, motion-sen-
sor lights, brightly colored
flags or range riders or provid-
ing supplemental feed to live-
stock to keep them away from
grazing areas when wolves are
known to be present.
Range riders go out sev-
eral times a week looking for
tracks, scat or other signs of
wolves or other wildlife that
could harm cattle. The idea
is that a human presence can
divert wolves away from cat-
tle or move cattle away from
wolves if possible, riders have
said.
The latest workshop comes
as California finalized its wolf
management plan in Decem-
ber, guiding conservation and
management efforts as a wolf
population takes hold. The
month marked the five-year
anniversary of the arrival of
OR-7, the first known gray
wolf in California in 87 years.
OR-7 now lives in Oregon.
The all-day workshop at
Hat Creek is free and includes
lunch, but an RSVP is re-
quired. Call (530) 224-4949.
California has best cherry harvest in years
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
California growers are wrap-
ping up perhaps their best and
largest sweet cherry harvest ever
as Washington’s harvest gets un-
derway.
“This is by far one of the best
crops in history on all fronts. Qual-
ity is awesome and as of today
we’re almost 8.3 million boxes,”
Chris Zanobini, executive director
of the California Cherry Advisory
Board in Sacramento, said.
The crop will end up at nearly 9
million, 18-pound boxes, possibly
surpassing the 8.7 million box re-
cord crop of 2008, he said. It was
5.1 million boxes last year after los-
ing about 3 million boxes to rain.
California’s cherry industry
has had many disappointments in
recent years. Rain or heat signifi-
cantly reduced crops several sea-
sons. Inadequate winter chill led to
poor fruit set in 2014 and a crop of
just 2.7 million boxes. And 2005
and 2006 were at 3 million boxes
or less.
Roger Pepperl, marketing direc-
tor of Stemilt Growers, Wenatchee,
Wash., said California’s weath-
er has been “impeccable” and its
cherry crop the “best ever.”
Stemilt is a large cherry produc-
er, packer and marketer in Wash-
ington and operates in California
through its company, Chinchiolo
Stemilt California, in Stockton.
“It’s diminished volume now,
but it’s been super high quality in
color and sugar. Consumers are
turned on and the table is set for
a great Washington deal,” Pepperl
said.
The Pacific Northwest crop is
forecast at 22.7 million boxes with
Washington harvesting 81 percent
of that. The Northwest counts by
22-pound boxes and California by
18-pound boxes.
Washington harvest began with
the Chelan variety at Doebler Or-
chard near Mattawa on June 6.
The day before, John Doebler was
removing Extenday reflective fab-
ric between rows used to hasten
ripening and was placing picker
bins.
“We probably have eight or nine
days on Chelans. Volume looks de-
cent. It’s a nice crop,” Doebler said.
Stemilt would start packing the
fruit in Wenatchee on June 7, he
said.
Never short of pickers in the
beginning, his biggest worry
was the weather and a 70 percent
chance of rain showers on June
8. He has already called in a heli-
copter once to dry the crop.
Courtesy of John Doebler
Ryan Doebler shows the first cherries of the 2017 sea-
son picked in Washington state, at Mattawa on June 6.
They are following on the heels of a California harvest
that is the best in years.
John Deere Dealers
See one of these dealers for a demonstration
23-1/#4N