Almond Bloom is Beginning!

   The little almond blossoms are just starting to pop out. I am sorry this is not a great picture. It is a little hard to keep the image sharp in twenty mile an hour winds. That just illustrates one of our challenges at this point in time. 
    Do you think the bees are flying in twenty mile an hour winds?

   The good news is the forecast for the next week looks pretty good- warmer, sunny and calm. I couldn't ask for more.

   We finished irrigating the wheat this week. It looks really happy after some water and fertilizer. It is lush and green.
   The oats are coming out of the ground. that took a while. I was starting to worry.

Here's a link to another video clip. This was done last year by the California Forward folks who were campaigning for Proposition 31.

Here's one of this week's radio pieces-

Success is not a 9-5 Proposition

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright January 2013

                I know farmers aren’t the only ones to work long, hard hours. In fact long, hard hours seem to be one of the main ingredients for success.

            I sometimes see people who punch in late and leave early envying those who have stuff they want. They can’t seem to understand there is a connection with extra effort and the rewards of success.

            I couldn’t succeed in school if I was goofing off all the time, and that doesn’t work in the work world either. Sure, physicians make a lot of money, but they have to go through six or eight years of school—after college to get to that point.

            My point is, success is not a 9-5 proposition. There are no guarantees that hard work will pay off. I have seen a whole seasons work get washed away in one afternoon’s rainstorm. But, there is an old saying that luck seems to favor those who are prepared. There’s truth to that.

            If I tried to limit all my effort to an eight hour day I would never get anywhere.  Farming and life take everything we’ve got.

I hope Y'all have a great week.

P 

Unstable Weather

   I surely won't complain about last week's weather- it was warm and sunny. Great weather for the farm show. My concern---OK, this will sound like complaining---is that there is still plenty of poor weather ahead, and the almonds are getting ready to bloom. Case in point? The weather man is promising a twenty degree drop in temps and there is a 70+ chance of rain tomorrow. Can you see why gambling in Vegas hold no interest?
   The World Ag Expo in Tulare was great fun this past week. I should have taken some photos. How about this, I'll place one of last week's radio pieces at the end of this post.

  On the farm this week? We lost a motor on one of the wells. This motor was old when I got here thirty years ago, so I can't complain too much. Still it will cost money and we'll have to wait until next week for the repair. Uff da. Fortunately it's not a 110 degrees outside. We'll have to wait, but nothing will get burned up.

In the meantime, we will wait, and fertilize, and water the other trees.
   We will finish watering and fertilizing the wheat this week. Off to a god start. Of course, the weeds have started to rear their ugly heads and we will have to deal with that.

A few weeks ago I did an interview for a local news show on my new book, Ten Reasons: Finding Balance on Environmental Issues. Here's a link to a You Tube clip of the interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IznKN2qiLY

And as promised, from this week on the radio!

It’s Farm Show Time Again

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright February 2013

                It’s farm show time again, and a young farmer’s thoughts turn to --- new toys. OK, even old farmer’s thoughts turn to new toys.

            The farm show is one of the first signs of Spring. You know I like cooler weather, but by now most of us are thinking that’s enough of that, it’s time for warming up. Here in the Valley the farm show is one of the first signs of Spring. Next, the almond and fruit trees will start blooming. There is a lot of unsettled weather ahead, but the days are getting longer and Spring is on its way.

            Farm equipment is pretty amazing. The engineers and inventors who create new farm equipment are some of the most creative problem solvers in the world. We all owe them a lot. They have eliminated a lot of drudge work. They have helped increase our food supply as well as the variety of food available to us. They are true innovators and my hat’s off to them.

So, it’s time to head to Tulare, look at new equipment and find some good Barbecue. You don’t think we go just for the tractors do you?

For audio on this and other pieces please cook on the link below-

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

I hope Y'all have a fabulous week!

P

It's Getting Cold---for California

OK, I know we don't have to shovel anything like our friends and family Back East. But, 28F is still cold. Spring is right around the corner here and things are starting to wake up. The early fruit trees are starting to bloom and frost can wipe out a crop before you even get started. My almonds won't bloom for a few weeks yet, but you can bet we are going to keep our eyes on the weather from here on out.
   We got a little surprise rain in the last twenty four hours. The weather man said no more than a tenth of an inch. We had a quarter inch before I even went to bed last night. I wish I could get paid that much to be that wrong that often. No harm this time, but if I had know I would have put a little fertilizer on the wheat.

On the radio this week-

Fly Over Country. Really?

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright January 2013

                I don’t get offended easily, or often, but I gotta admit when some folks make snarky comments about ‘fly over’ country, it gets my goat.

            These are folks who are obsessed with what there is to ‘do’ in New York or LA. They seem more focused on play than work. They tend to have an opinion about everything, and their opinion of me and my fellow farmers is generally not that high.

            Since I don’t spend my days trying to impress people, that doesn’t bother me too much. But, I do have a couple of questions.

            These people who make fun of ‘fly over’ country probably generally think of themselves as good environmentalists. A lot of what they ‘fly over’ is natural open spaces. If they like nature that much, why make fun of it?

            The other question is- where do they think their food comes from? The local organic food co-op? It takes farmland, a lot of farmland, miles and miles of farmland- to grow the food for those big cities on the coasts.

            I am glad those cities are there. They are good customers for the things we grow on the farm and I like visiting them once in a while, but I don’t make fun of them.

I hope Y'all have a great week.

P

Sowing Our Oats

   A friend from town asked what we were doing on the farm this week and I said we were spreading oats that day. I realized as soon as I said that that an explanation was in order. We were not 'sowing our wild oats', we were actually planting domesticated oats.

   This is what oat seed looks like before it is steel cut and cooked as oatmeal. For you literary buffs there is a funny definition of oats. Samuel Johnson is credited with writing the first dictionary of the English language. As an Englishman he was not terribly fond of the Scots. In his dictionary Johnson defines oats as, "A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland appears to support the people."
Now before my Scottish friends and family members get worked up, I am a big fans of oats. I especially love my oatmeal, with brown sugar, on the cold mornings we have this time of year.
   Back to the farm- we planted twenty acres of oats to help build up the soil. We are waiting for trees from the nursery. But, there is so much demand for almond trees right now, we will have to wait until this time next year to plant. So this year we have the oats.

   It has been a little frustrating on the farm this week. I have not used district irrigation water since last August. The day we start water to pre-irrigate a cotton field the district shuts the line down for emergency repairs. Arrgh. I know they are doing their best and I appreciate it. But, the irony was killing me. If they had made the repairs nearly any time in the last four months I wouldn't have noticed. The good new is that we are back up and running.

   Speaking of irony, two of my recent radio pieces highlight ironies in agriculture.

Isn't It Ironic?

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright January 2013

                Isn't it ironic? Everyone says they support family farms, but environmental and government policy are squeezing out family farmers.

            I make my living producing food and fiber, not going to meetings or filling out forms. But, thanks to government agencies and our environmental friends I get to spend time doing both when I should be out in the field or the shop.

            Large farms can afford to hire environmental compliance officers. I have a friend that does that for a large operation south of here. It works pretty well for them. He takes care of the environmental paperwork, and it is a full time job. But, he works for the same kind of large farming operation everyone says we want to avoid.  

            I am not saying that these things are bad. What I am trying to say is that some of our government regulations and some of our environmental friends are making it harder and harder for family farms to survive. Just keeping the farm going can take everything you've got. Adding new stuff to make paper pushers happy can push smaller farmers over the edge. The land will still be farmed- but now it will be by larger operations. Isn't that ironic?

You can find the audio for my radio bits at the link below.

I hope Y'all have a great week.

P