Summer Days and Summer Nights

Another busy week on the farm. Summers are like that.

We've been killing weeds and running water in the almonds.
Waiting for the harvester to come and cut wheat.

Killed weeds and ran furrows in the cotton. Pipes are laid and we are ready to start 
water next week. The first bad bugs showed up.
   One field had some aphids last week. Not good. This week all I could find are Lady 
Bugs; they eat aphids. Go Lady Bugs Go!

   For those who are not aware, I reallllly don't like spraying pesticides. On top of your concerns, that stuff is really expensive. Some of these materials are $600/ gallon. That's not a typo, they are six hundred dollars per gallon. We put it on with an eye dropper and only when we reallllly have to.

   We practice Integrated Pest Management, or IPM.  The University of California and others have worked out the methods to decide when the most effective and economical time to treat our fields will be. We don't spray when we see the first bad bug. We let the beneficial bugs like our Lady Bug friends keep them under control as long as possible. We monitor our fields regularly and we learn the growth cycles of our crops and of the pests. Working hard and working smart. It keeps us productive and helps care for the environment. That's the kind of Win-Win I like.

Below is one of this week's radio pieces.

Summer Nights

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright June 2012

                I grew up in San Diego. Even though I have lived here over thirty years I still have not gotten used to July weather. So, I gotta tell you, when a friend said he was leaving for law school in LA and he would miss the summer heat I thought he’d been in the sun too long.
That’s crazy talk.

            But, then he clarified himself and said he would miss the warm summer nights. OK, that makes sense. I have enjoyed a lifetime of warm summer evenings: BBQs, weddings, fiestas, wine tastings, and evenings reading on the back patio. Those warm summer evenings are something special. 

            So, when you hear me complaining about the summer heat I want to clarify, I am whimpering about the heat from Noon to six or seven in the evening when it is a hundred bazillion degrees out there. After that I gotta admit summer evenings here are de-lightful.

There's nothing like a summer picnic under Half Dome.

We used to work cattle years ago. I saw a lot of sunsets like this from the saddle.

I hope Y'all have a great week.

P

Making Things Productive

   One of the things we try to balance is pushing the cotton plant to produce. If we water too early the plant goes to stalk, producing vegetative growth and not cotton bolls. I don't get paid for stalk, I get paid for bolls. So, we manage the plant for boll production. The first step is holding off the first irrigation until the plant starts setting fruit. This year the conditions have been so good and the plants are so vigorous that this week we have been applying a plant regulator to control height.

   As you can see the plants are  growing strong. Just four ounces will do the trick. That will keep them focusing their energy on growing fruit instead of bolting and growing tall. Next week we will cultivate and reform the beds. Then we will be ready for the second irrigation in a few weeks.

   In other news- this week the harvesting crew will come and cut the wheat. In the almonds we are irrigating and killing weeds.

Here are some thoughts from a recent radio bit-

We Need to Grow A Lot More Food- Fast

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright May 2012

At a recent regional economic summit, Ryan Jacobsen, Executive Director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau said, that in the next forty years we are going to have to increase the global food supply by 70% to meet demand. That’s a lot of food! Jacobsen’s estimate is we will have to grow more food in the next forty years than we have in the last five thousand years! You heard right-more food that we have grown since we began farming as a species.

As I have said before- we have a lot more people on this planet and we are losing farmland all over the world every year.

 We need to make each acre more productive not less productive. Even famed Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson, a hero of our enviro neighbors, would agree. Wilson sees this century as a bottle neck century. Our environmental problems have been caused by technology, so as Wilson sees it we have this century to leverage technology to solve our problems. The problem is his environmental disciples are working hard to make farming less productive. This has got to stop. We need to use the tools of technology to increase farm productivity. There are going to be a lot more mouths to feed in the coming years.

You can find the audio version at the link below-

http://www.940kyno.com/index.php?c=68

Click on June 4th.

I hope Y'all have a great week.!

P

Happy Fathers' Day Y'all!

   Well, the heat is on. Summer is back in town, the...never mind.
When we first moved up here some of the old timers told me the cotton likes the heat. I found out years later cotton and I like the same temps. Cotton starts growing at 65F and shuts down at 95F. That sounds just about right. The cotton physiologically shuts down after 95, and so do I.

   First irrigation is applied. The fields look good. We will cultivate weeds this next week. Also, take care of things in the orchard. The wheat is ready to be cut. The harvesting crew said they would be here the end of the week. We'll see.

   In honor of Fathers' Day I am posting a radio script about a joke Dad and I shared. He's been gone a few years now and I still pick up the phone to call him when something comes up that I think would interest him. Then I remember I can't do that any more.

Talking with Dad

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright June 2012

                I wish I was half the Dad my Dad was. He always encouraged me no matter what I was doing. It didn’t stop when I grew up. He didn’t understand why I wanted to farm, but he always had an encouraging word. I would call on weekends to chat. One call I was whimpering and whining about something or another. He would pat me on the back from over three hundred miles away.

            One time I told him, “You know, this reminds me of a story. A guy was talking to his friend about how hard his work was at the circus. They were on the road all the time. He was always cleaning up after the elephants. When he was in the parade, he wasn’t in the parade, he was walking behind cleaning up after the elephants.

            His friend said, “If it’s so bad, why don’t you quit?”

            The first guy was shocked, “What? and get out of show business?”

Well, farming isn’t show business, but I hang around because I am proud of what I do, I enjoy the challenge and I am waiting to see what’s going  to happen next.

I hope Y'all have a great week!

P

Irrigation started and Some Thoughts on Climate Change

   We have had forty mile an hour winds and a twenty degree swing in temps. Wow! The cotton has kept on growing. We got started on water. Even though we lost two days we got the first field watered. We'll start the second field on Monday.

   I am posting the full text for one of this week's radio pieces. It got snipped a bit because of length. The issue is too important for me to be misunderstood. Next year California will begin implementing AB 32, Schwarzenegger's Climate Change Initiative. He's gone and we are left holding the bag. To be honest, I am worried about this one.

Why I Question Global Warming

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright February, 2012

                I question Climate Change because of Science, not in spite of Science.

                There is a silliness that only scientific knuckle-draggers would doubt Global Warming. Well Science and Reason teach me to not accept things until they have a good rational basis. That is why I question Climate Change. I don’t see the Science there. The one solid fact is that we have higher concentrations of CO2 in the air since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. That makes sense, we have been pulling up fossil fuels that have been underground for ages.  But, we don’t know what this fact means.

                There are those that interpret the data to mean that global temperatures will rise over the next century. Are these the same people that can’t forecast the weather for next month?

                Another reason I question Global Climate Change is the Science has been politicized. There is an inherent bias.

                Twenty years ago I had lunch with a meteorologist. His presentation before lunch seemed skeptical about the issue of Global Warming. When I asked, “Why?” he said it was simple. If he asked for a research grant to prove Global Warming the check books were open. If he asked for a research grant to prove Global Warming wasn’t happening the checkbooks snapped shut. There is an inherent bias in funding the science. Michael Crichton addressed the bias in his 2004 novel, State of Fear. [Which, BTW, is a good read if you have the time.] Crichton called for  funding pure research, but that just isn’t realistic.

                I am a big fan of Reality. I’ll gladly settle for the facts when we know them. Let’s get the politics out and use our heads to solve real problems.

                Do you want to care of the planet? Then I’m your man.

                Do you want to up end the global economy because of your fears and incomplete Science?

Sorry, I can’t do that.

We have  on precious planet and the responsibility to take care of it. Bad laws wont help any more than ignoring the problem.

you can find the audio at-

http://www.940kyno.com/index.php?c=68

I hope Y'all have a great week.

P

To Water, or Not to Water, that is the question...

After thirty one years, the last remaining disagreement between Sheryl's Dad and I is when to apply the first irrigation in the cotton. His concern, and he is right this is important, is if we water too early then it will all go to stalk and not to making cotton. That would be bad. I am concerned that if we wait too long and the heat spikes some cotton will get BBQ'd before I can get around with the water.
    What we have worked out is how to time the first irrigation. There is an instrument called a pressure bomb. In stead of measuring the soil moisture the pressure bomb measures the plants actual water stress. So we have agreed on an objective measure to start irrigation.
    This is when things get tricky- I still have to anticipate the weather a couple of weeks ahead of time so we can have the field and the irrigation pipes ready. So we hit June 1st and the fields are ready. The problem? Instead of getting hotter, the forecast is for the temperature to drop twenty degrees in the next few days. If there is anything worse than being late with an irrigation it is watering cotton when it is too cold. Does it make sense why gambling in Reno or Vegas doesn't interest me? I get enough gambling as it is on the farm.
   Here's a picture of Ruben getting the field ready for irrigation.

I'll tell you next week how the weather works out.

Until then here's one of my radio pieces for this week-

My Pickup and I

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright May 2012

                Walking out to my pickup one morning I saw a few dings on the side in the glow of the early morning light and I realized my truck and I have a lot in common. For starters- we both have a lot of miles and a few dents.

            The dings and scratches break my heart because I try to be careful with my truck. It sure looked pretty on the show room floor, but a pickup isn’t made to sit and look pretty. It was made for work. At least it still cleans up well.

            My truck and I are both more functional than fancy. No chrome wheels or fancy paint. It’s four wheel drive so I can get where I need to go. The A/C works so I am a big fan in the summer time. The radio is stock and the sound is good. I wish it had a jack for my iPhone, but that option wasn’t available 300,000 miles ago.

            My tool boxes have what I need to do first aid on the tractors and equipment.

Like I said, My truck and I have a lot in common: a lot of miles and a few dings, nothin’ fancy.

And after all those miles, we still both clean up pretty well.

You can find the audio link at-

http://www.940kyno.com/index.php?c=68

I hope Y'all have a great week.

P