June 16, 2017
CapitalPress.com
Subscribe to our weekly California email
newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters
9
California
Weather could complicate rebound for prune crop
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
RED BLUFF, Calif. — A
sense of nervous optimism
prevails in California’s prune
industry as this year’s yields
are expected to rebound from
the weather-impacted short
crop of 2016.
This year’s prune crop
is forecast at 105,000 tons,
more than double the 51,000
tons that came out of dryers
in 2016, according to the Na-
tional Agricultural Statistics
Service office in Sacramento.
Plum trees for prunes took
advantage of breaks in the
rainy weather this spring to
achieve decent pollination, un-
like last year, when late-season
storms spoiled much of the
crop. Growers expect a heavier
crop this year with good fruit
size, NASS reports.
“The prune crop looks
great,” said Michael Vasey,
general manager of Lindauer
River Ranch in Red Bluff. “I
think most everyone’s pret-
ty excited about it. We had a
good enough break that we
had a good bloom.”
Still, much will depend
Tim Hearden/Capital Press FIle
Miguel Gillien operates a receiver during last year’s plum harvest at Edwards Ranch near Red Bluff,
Calif. The crop is expected to rebound this year after the 2016 crop was drastically reduced because
of storms during the bloom.
on how the crop progresses
this summer, cautions Greg
Thompson, general manager
of the Yuba City-based Prune
Bargaining Association. Al-
ready, “a lot more” fruit is
dropping to the ground than
normal, he said.
Thompson recalls the big
El Nino winter of 1997-98.
That year, prune producers
were expecting a 170,000-ton
crop, but the rain and gloomy
skies that extended into the
summer led to a crop of only
102,000 tons.
Actual results often differ
from pre-harvest crop esti-
mates, but this year’s estimate
could end up being off by as
much as 20 percent, he said.
“We don’t know what this
crop’s going to end up with be-
cause of this crazy weather pat-
tern we’re in,” he said. “This
seems to be more like an El
Nino year than last year, which
was officially an El Nino. …
We’re seeing a little bit of the
same kind of pattern out in the
orchard this year with the fruit
crop (as in 1998).”
Thompson spoke as anoth-
er weather system was spritz-
ing the Sacramento Valley on
June 8 and bringing unseason-
ably low temperatures. Some
areas were expecting up to a
half-inch of rain.
The uncertainty comes as
the industry has been trying to
market California prunes as a
higher-quality alternative to
those from competitors such
as Chile and Argentina.
Thompson contends that
South American growers’
practice of sun-drying plums
rather than putting them in
dryers produces prunes that
are smaller, less sweet and less
nutritious, but they can be sold
for about half the price of Cal-
ifornia prunes.
Though the state’s growers
are taking measures to differ-
entiate their product, such as
thinning trees to enhance fruit
size, the cheaper prunes flood-
ing the marketplace affect ev-
eryone.
“The pricing is not great,”
Vasey said. “They (prune mar-
keters) haven’t had the sales
they expected. Even though
we had a short crop last year
… the price, if anything, might
have come down a little be-
cause they had a big crop in
South America.”
With environmental and
labor costs rising, a producer
in the Golden State needs to
receive at least $2,000 per dry
ton to break even, Thompson
said. Prices have been edg-
ing downward in recent years
from the $2,630-per-ton aver-
age payments that producers
received for the 2014 crop.
“We need $2,500 a ton to
make it interesting (to grow-
ers), especially with what
we’re trying to do with our
labor” and with California’s
more rigorous environmental
regulations, Thompson said.
“If you can’t get $2,500 a ton,
growers may say, ‘I’m going
to push these out and grow
something that doesn’t take so
much labor.’”
Bearing acreage of plums
for prunes has been steadi-
ly decreasing from a high of
86,000 in 2001. In all, 44,000
acres of prunes are projected
this year, down from 45,000
acres in 2016, according to
NASS. The French prune va-
riety accounts for virtually all
dried plum acreage in Califor-
nia.
FFA Opens Doors to Ag Career
ORLAND, Calif. -- FFA member Cooper Deitz
already has his future mapped out ahead of him. A
student at Orland High School, Deitz, 15, is working
for a local hay producer, driving heavy equipment and
doing general farm labor. His goal is to attend the
Caterpillar Dealer Service Technician Program at San
Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, where students take
classes and do an apprenticeship for the heavy
equipment dealer.
“All the classes they do are integrated with the
equipment,” said Deitz, who was at the Glenn County
Fair in Orland in late May. His long-term goal is to
work in agriculture, he said.
“My dad, when he was a kid, farmed,” Deitz said. “I
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
like
farming.”
FFA member Cooper Deitz of Orland, Calif., tries out the cab of
a Caterpillar at the Glenn County Fair in Orland in late May.
Deitz developed a love for agriculture in 4-H and,
He wants to go to a college program that specializes in heavy
later,
FFA. He took several animals to the fair, with his
equipment.
heifer taking second place and his heifer calf winning
its class.
He started as a youngster showing dairy calves and
then lambs, and brought his first steer to the fair as a sixth-grader.
“I’d always wanted to show a steer,” he said.
More recently, Deitz began raising hay, using his school’s farm and placing second and third,
respectively, in a contest conducted by
Butte College in Oroville.
“I’m trying to expand and get more
ground,” he said.
The Caterpillar program is a four-year,
state-approved apprenticeship program that
provides training through San Joaquin
Delta’s Heavy Equipment and Diesel
Technology Department, according to its
website.
Through the program, students can earn
an Associate of Science and two years of
credit toward a state journey-level
certificate. In the next two years, the
students work as full-time apprentice
technicians at sponsoring Caterpillar
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
dealerships and earn journey-level
FFA member Cooper Deitz of Orland, Calif., walks with one of his entries in the
Glenn County Fair in Orland in late May. He wants to pursue an agriculture-
certification, the website explains.
related career, he said.
24-1/#13