Farmers and Coffee Shops

   Another week and still no rain. Even city people are getting worried. We do appreciate the concern.

   Meanwhile back on the farm. The oats have been planted. Now we will start watering them up, since there is no rainfall. Because of the drought it seems there might be a shortage of alfalfa hay for dairies. As water gets shifted to permanent crops there will be less water available for hay. Prices will go up for dairymen. Does that mean there will be less milk? Or, it will cost more? Stay tuned. We will all find out together.

   We will finish pre-irrigating the first cotton field soon. In the trees the brush has been shredded. We are watering the almonds. This is a month earlier than normal. The ground is dry and we need to keep those tree rots moist.

Coffee Shops

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright December 2013

            Farmers are known for hanging out at the coffee shop. I can set my watch by some of my neighbors. If I drive by thinking it is four o’clock and they are not there, I need to check my watch.

            It is easy to think these guys are goofing off, and here is a lot of that going on. There is a lot of gossip and sports stories going on in a coffee shop. But, I have also learned a lot listening to these guys. Not just about farming.  Have even gotten good doctor recommendations from my neighbors. Once again, you can learn a lot by listening.

            There is also some deep community in the coffee shop. I know one group that graduated high school together forty years ago and still meet nearly every morning for coffee.

            In the daily rush to keep the farm going I only drop by once a week or so, but it is usually enlightening.

I hope you all have a great week.

P

Why Do Farmers Irrigate in Winter Time?

Discussion of drought is the big news around here. How much ground will be fallowed? What crops will be cut back? There are a lot of worried people out here. The guy who cuts our wheat told me this week he will be down 70% this year. He is losing sleep trying to figure out how to cover his fixed costs with only 30% of his normal income. This is serious.
   On our farm we are finishing pruning. I think the trees are getting confused. It is icy cold in the morning and 70 degrees in the afternoon. I know I'm confused. This next week we will plant oats in the field behind our home. We are fallowing the field for a year before planting a new orchard next year.

Winter Irrigation

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright January 2012

            Years ago Sheryl’s uncle asked a logical question- Why do farmers water fallow fields during the winter? That’s a fair question.

         You can think of winter irrigation as our water savings account. We put water in the ground now that the plants won’t use until next summer.

         The first thing to remember is we don’t just have summer corps here. Someone harvests something here every day of the year. That being said, we do a pre-irrigation of our cotton fields in the winter. Once the season starts, there is no way to get enough water to the plants and get our tractors in the field in a timely manner if we start with dry fields. So, we fill the root zone with water in the winter. Then during the hot days of summer we just refill the top of the soil profile to keep the plant roots healthy and growing.

         You can rest assured, every farmer knows water is too precious to waste a drop. When we irrigate fallow fields in the winter we do it with a purpose- we are getting ready for the hot days of summer.

I hope you all have a great week.

P

Biotechnology and Labels in Farming

I am easily confused. For a generation there are those who wanted farmers to use fewer farm chemicals. Biotechnology was created where we can keep our fields cleaner of bugs and weeds and the same people criticize that. They do not mind biotechnology in pharmaceuticals, but use the same technology on the farm and they start screaming about "Frankenfoods".

Here's a radio script from two years ago-

Labels
by Paul H. Betancourt
copyright May 2012

                  Do you remember Prop 65? The Nanny-government folks wanted labels on every building that contained cancer causing chemicals. That sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? What was the result? Nearly every commercial building in California  has a Prop 65 label on it. Do all those labels make us safer? I don’t think so.

                  Now the folks who want to scare you about your food are at it again. There will probably be a ballot measure in November to put labels on GMO food. GMO’s use the same technology used to create new medicines and splice genes in to seeds to kill bad bugs or make plants herbicide resistant. Now I am very happy people are concerned about the food we eat. That’s a good thing.

                  Here’s the irony as I see it- for a generation activists have wanted farmers to use less pesticides. We come up with a technology to that meets their demand they protest that. I don’t know where to go from there. I have seen zero evidence that says GMO’s are any threat to us.

                  I suspect the ballot proposition will pass. We will have new labels on our food that we will ignore and nothing will be accomplished except scaring people unnecessarily about their food. This proposition will not do anything about real food issues like getting excess fats and salts out of our diets.

That ballot proposition did fail. It was so poorly written it did not really address the issue of biotechnology on the farm. I am sure there will be another effort to label GMO's before too long. If they write a good enough proposition I may even support it. I do not think another label is going to matter at this point. It will get lost in the blur. But, my question will still remain-how can biotechnology be good in medicine and bad on the farm?

   Please understand, I want you to have full confidence in the safety of the food we grow for you. I just hate to see us lose a great tool when there are more people to feed and fewer farmers.

I hope you all have a great week!

P

2104 Projections

2014 Projections

by Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright December 2013

If it doesn’t start raining soon, it is going to get lonely out in farm country next summer. But, rainfall is just part of the equation. Apparently we do not have the will to create a stable water supply.

            I recently visited Israel for the first time. The Israelis have the will to get things done. Of course, they are essentially on a war footing. We need a similar sense of threat. We just do not realize how fragile our food system really is.

There are new regulations to restrict groundwater use. This is an old problem. That is why we built surface water supplies. First they took away our surface water, now they want to take away the groundwater. Where do they expect to get their food?

            We have one of the five Mediterranean growing areas in the world, but it will not grow anything unless we get serious and create a stable water supply.

            We still do not have a new Farm Bill. The federal Farm Bill is supposed to guide our agricultural policy. I don’t know why we even call it a Farm Bill any more. Food advocates get more grants than farmers do. The budget for food stamps dwarfs money available for farm programs. And ‘they’ still cannot pass the bill.

I wrote this last month when there was hope of passing a Farm Bill and immigration reform. I hate to be cynical, but this is an election year. I don't see much happening until after November. I hope I am wrong.

And, I hope you have an excellent week.