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

Almost rain

   The big excitement on the ranch this week was the possibility of rain. Other than being a nuisance rain may not affect your day too much. The excitement for us was that we can use the rain to help fertilize the wheat. Like every crop wheat benefits from some nitrogen fertilizer. We can either apply it when we irrigate, which can take weeks. Or, of we can catch a rain we can get it all applied at once. The way we do it is to fly on dry fertilizer like you might use in your yard and then let the rain take into the soil. The problem is if we don't get at least a quarter inch of rain some of the fertilizer will volatilize off. That costs money and is a lost opportunity.Of course, three hundred acres of wheat is a little larger than your yard.
   Well, the short version of the story is we didn't get enough rain for this to work. Fortunately we didn't apply the fertilizer. So nothing was lost, except some time and energy trying to set things in motion.
   We will start another irrigation in a few weeks. If it hasn't rained by then we will apply fertilizer in the irrigation water. It is not uniform and it doesn't go on all at once, but it does get the job done.

   Other than that we have been busy with various projects in the shop and around the farm. We are getting things squared away for when things warm up.

Here's a recent radio piece-

Confusing Ends and Means

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright December 2012

                You have probably been somewhere and seen the sign, “Safety First!” That’s not really right is it? Don’t get me wrong safety is important, critically important. But, when people say, “Safety First!” they are making a classic philosophical mistake they are confusing the ends and the means.

            Let’s look at my farm. I don’t get paid to produce safety do I? I get paid to produce food and fiber. If I waited until everything was perfectly safe I’d never get anything done, and neither would you. Let’s be honest if we waited until everything was perfectly safe, we wouldn't even get out of bed. And, even staying in bed has its own dangers.

            The goods we produce or the services we provide are the ends- safety is the means to ‘get ‘er done.’

            I bring this up because we are confused on the issue and it is important. I am not saying safety is any less important, but what is important to remember is safety is not an end in itself, safety is the they way we get things done. If you think about it long enough I am sure you can think up other ways we confuse the ends and the means on many things.

I hope Y'all have a great week!

Still Cold in California

You know it's been cold when 60F feels warm.
   We are all breathing a sigh of relief after a long, cold week in the Golden State. I know, I know. Many of you have really good cold weather stories and we are being a bunch of light weights. But, this is California, we don't have to walk up hill in the snow, both directions, to get to school.

   While it has been cold, it has also been crystal clear in the mornings. This is what it looked like one morning when the dogs took me for a walk.
   It is warming up now. That cold spell was really good for the trees. It helped with the chilling hours they need during this dormant period. But, it is nice to feel a little warmth from the sun today. 
   We are done pruning. Hopefully the brush shredder guys will be here soon. We have some other work to do in the orchard and we need the brush out of our way.
   We'll finish pre-irrigating the first cotton field this week and switch to the next field.
   There is a storm approaching California. We'll keep an eye on it. If it brings some rain we will fly fertilizer on the wheat. If there isn't enough rain in the forecast we'll wait and put fertilizer on the next time we irrigate.

Since we have been talking about the weather I thought I would share an upcoming radio script-

Our ‘Mediterranean’ Climate

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright January 2013

                It’s probably time to explain what I mean when I say we have a ‘Mediterranean Climate.’ There are five areas in the world that have a Mediterranean Climate. The first would be--- the Mediterranean. The others are Chile and Peru in South America, Australia, Central Asia and here in the Valley.

            What does it mean to have a Mediterranean Climate? Here in the Valley it is cold now, but we aren’t shoveling five feet of snow are we? In the summer it gets very hot, but it’s not humid is it? That is what makes it an ideal growing climate. It is hot enough in the summer so we can grow corn, tomatoes and cotton, but we don’t have all the tropical bugs and diseases. It’s cold in the winter, but we don’t have to button up for months at a time like other areas.

            China, with all of its territory cannot grow almonds commercially because their areas that are warm enough in the summer aren’t cold enough in the winter. Their areas that are cold enough in the winter are too cool in the summer.

            We have an amazing and rare climate and that is the foundation of our agricultural production.

And just to show you can find interesting things just about anywhere-

these are some abandoned silos I drive by on the West side.

I hope Y'all have a great week.

P

This Is Cold---for Californians

My readers Back East and in Russia will laugh when I say it  has been cold this week. But, it has been cold, for Californians. 

   You should have seen the looks on the faces of our dogs and the horse yesterday morning when there was ice on the water trough. They were thirsty, that's where the water was, but they couldn't get a drink. [This is where we insert a sad face.] For the record, I did break up the ice so they could drink.

The wheat was growing like gang busters last month. Things were fairly warm. But, it has slowed back down to normal now.

   We are busy pre-irrigating the cotton ground. We are almost done pruning the almonds.

There have been two pieces on the radio this week about my book. This one has some quotes from the book.

Ten Reasons- II
By Paul H. Betancourt
Copyright December 2012

                Here are some excerpts from my new book, ‘Ten Reasons: Finding Balance on Environmental Issues.

            “What does this farmer thinks of the environment? I love it! One of the reasons I chose to farm was to be able to work in and with the natural world. Farmers don’t seem to be able to get enough of the outdoors. When we do get time off it is not unusual to find us hunting, fishing, water skiing or snow skiing. “

BALANCE

“The first principle in a safe and sane environmental policy is balance. We can neither let unrestrained pollution take place, nor can we let the Precautionary Principle strangle progress. The principle that must guide is as a healthy environment and a healthy economy.”

            “There are thousands of issues to address and conversations that must take place. I don’t pretend to solve all these problems in a few pages. But, the principles in this book can help is solving the problems we face.

Will you join me?”

The book is available on Amazon, Google Books and BarnesandNoble.com. There is a Kindle version. I am working to have it at Costco and Barnes and Nobel here in town. There is also a Facebook page- www.facebook.com/TenReasons .

Here's the link for the audio version-

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

I hope Y'all have a safe, and warm week.

P

Scarf Weather

Well, it has been kind of cold lately---for California.

This is the vineyard where I walk the dogs every morning. It has its own beauty.
     The wheat had been growing before Christmas, of course there was no real frost before Christmas. It's gotten a little colder and the wheat is fine, but it has not been growing as quickly lately.
   Of course, we have had some rain and snow. That is always appreciated this time of year. Without rain and snow now it will get very lonely out on the farm next summer.
   We have been celebrating the holidays with friends and family. We try to make the most of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Monday it will be time to go back to work. For now, we have one more weekend.

   I'll leave you with one of my radio bits for this week.

Scarf Weather

By Paul H. Betancourt

Copyright December 2012

                I know many of you hate the cold and fog and I can sympathize.

            But, I really look forward to what Sheryl and I call scarf weather. By the end of summer I feel I have sweat enough---for a life time. I enjoy putting on a warm sweater, scarf and coat then heading out because it’s a lot easier for me to warm up in winter than it is to cool off in summer.

            While irrigating can be cold work this time of year, I am glad we prune in the winter. It doesn’t take long to warm up even on a cold January morning when you are on the working end of a pruning saw. Winter is good welding weather too. I saved up building my corral as a winter project. Now that was a good idea.

            I know some of you suffer through the fog and get the blues when we haven’t seen the sun for a while. I really am sorry about that. But, summer will be back soon. For the moment I am going to enjoy the cold weather, the hot cider and all the things that make winter a pleasure.

I hope Y'all have a great week.

P