Valley Headlines

Tough time to be a farmer

Ag Alert. Low prices, other woes put squeeze on farm economy. 
Synopsis: Soaring production costs and lower prices for nuts and grapes due to crashing export demand are continuing to squeeze farmers. Add bird flu, and the Valley has real problems. The number of farms for sale is rising, from Butte County to Bakersfield, with vineyards especially cheap. Alexi Rodriguez of the Almond Alliance says the Trump trade war is “particularly untimely” for the almond sector, which has endured “three years of unsustainable losses.” While almond prices are edging up due to orchard removal, “larger crops continue to drag prices back down,” she said. Last month’s USDA objective estimate of 3.0 billion pounds led to a 55-cent price drop overnight, said Rodriguez. That put farmers “right back down into unprofitable territory.” The break-even number is $2.30 a pound, or around $5,000 per acre. But the five-year average is $1.77 a pound, meaning a loss of $1,400 per acre. It costs $4,000 an acre to remove an orchard, so farmers are left with bad and awful choices. It’s not just nut growers who are hurting. Michael Silva, director of ag for JS West, said bird flu has hurt the industry the past two years, leaving his company with a lot of empty barns. Statewide, 11.6 million laying hens had to be culled, cutting egg production 83%. It’s a similar story for meat chickens, turkey and ducks. Both dairy and egg producers want animal vaccines against H5N1; those who raise broilers fear vaccinated meat could not be exported.

Praising dairies for beef production

Ag Alert. Dairies use IVF to tap strong beef market. 
Synopsis: “Recent improvements in bovine reproductive technology” make it easier for dairy farms to produce calves for the beef market. Farmers have been transferring beef cattle embryos to “retired” dairy-cow surrogates. Dairymen are “becoming beef producers.” Especially prized are Angus calves, said Tulare farmer Sean Nicholson. San Joaquin County is seeing a similar movement, according to a vet. Three technologies have made this reality, said Alison Van Eenennaam of UC Davis: Genomic testing, sexed semen and IVF improvements resulting in higher pregnancy rates. Upfront costs are high, so this is a gamble. But with prices for beef calves at record levels, the incentive is obvious.

Blaming dairies for bad air

LA Times. CA has more feedlots than any other state, new map shows; why it matters.
Synopsis: There are 304 “feedlots” in California, mostly in dairy-heavy areas like Tulare County, covering 85,000 acres. A study by UC Santa Barbara and the Univ of Michigan mapped all of America’s feedlots using Google Earth. Researchers say their data will “allow local governments and non-governmental organizations to set targeted environmental, health and economic policies for their regions” – with special emphasis on social justice. Anja Raudabaugh of Western United Dairies said, “The researchers either don’t know or failed to inquire with the EPA or the local regulating air-quality authorities about existing guardrails.” Blaming dairies entirely for bad air trapped in the Valley’s natural bowl “is like saying LA has lots of cars and therefore a high homicide rate.” Folks at the anti-farming FarmForward were delighted with the study.

Bad news? Make it a double

SF Chronicle. US alcohol consumption drops to a 90-year low, poll finds. 
Synopsis: Only 54% of US adults reported drinking any alcohol so far in 2025, according to a Gallup survey. In 2022, the number was 67%; the previous low point was 55% in 1958. Another record low: Only 24% said they had consumed alcohol in the last 24 hours, down from 32% in 2023. Worse, 53% consider even “moderate drinking” (2 or fewer drinks per day) harmful. The percentage that believed drinking “makes no difference” to their health fell from 55% in 2018 to 37%. Only 6% said moderate drinking was “good for health.” This is considered a “cause for deep concern within CA’s $55 billion wine industry.” Consumers no longer believe that moderate wine consumption has health benefits. Only 50% of under-35 adults have consumed any alcohol at all in 2025.

SF Chronicle. CA wine region’s leading industry group is shutting down. 
Synopsis: The Monterey County Vintners & Growers Assn said that it no longer can “deliver value to our members” so is going out of business. The county has 349 vineyards and its harvest was valued at $152 million in 2024. But there are fewer than 60 wineries, with most of Monterey’s grapes sent to wineries elsewhere. Some of the county’s largest wineries decided to “stop paying their dues.” Wine organizations in other regions are also “scrambling to secure funding and continue their work.” Many growers and vintners no longer want to assess their customers a “tax” on each bottle sold in their tasting rooms.

Resnicks give away vine nursery

LA Times. CA’s richest agricultural family is shuttering a farm the UFW sought to unionize. 
Synopsis: Billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who live in Beverley Hills, are shutting down their tree and grape nursey in Wasco and donating the 1,400-acre farm to UC Davis. Wonderful Co. spokesman Seth Oster said the decision has nothing to do with the UFW’s years-long effort to organize workers there. The grape industry is a “major downturn,” meaning grape nurseries are seeing “significantly decreased sales and record losses.” UC Davis, roughly 275 miles north, is “grateful for the gift.”

Ag trade deficit sets record

Morning Ag Clips. Ag trade deficit hits record high in first half of 2025. 
Synopsis: Falling exports to China are a big factor in the largest ag-sector trade gap on record. Bloomberg reporters Gerson Freitas and Ilena Peng point to the $4.1 billion deficit in June alone, which is 14% higher than in June 2024. That pushed “the sector’s deficit to a staggering $28.6 billion for the first six months of the year.” That deficit widened the “historic reversal for the US agricultural sector, which for the past five decades has consistently run major trade surpluses.” The trend toward ag-sector deficits began in 2019. Politico reports the US exported $5.5 billion of farm goods to China through June compared to $11.8 billion in the first six months of 2024. China stopped buying soybeans and cut back on specialty crops.

Ag Daily. Record-breaking corn crop forecast spurs call for E15 legislation. 
Synopsis: With a 16.7-billion bushel harvest expected, the National Corn Growers Assn is getting louder in demanding legislation to allow for year-round sales of 15% ethanol-blend fuel and faster movement on tariff reductions. The USDA estimates growers will get 188.8 bushels per acre, by far the largest harvest on record set in 2023, when farmers produced 15.3 billion bushels. The estimate has caused corn prices to plummet. Said one grower: “My family survived the 1980s farm crisis. I don’t want my daughter to be talking about the 2020s farm crisis in 40 years. The situation is dire.”

Investing in young farmers

Turlock Journal. First grant from Leadership & Education in Ag Fund awarded.
Synopsis: The Stanislaus Community Foundation is awarding $100,000 to the San Joaquin A+ program. The program has invited 10 community leaders to sit on its board, including Ahlem Dairy, Stanislaus Foods, Martella Farms, the Farm Bureau and others. “It’s more than a grant,” said the Foundation’s chief philanthropy officer, Melissa Van Diepen. “It’s about building a future where local talent can thrive right here at home.”

Ag Daily. National FFA membership again hits a record number.
Synopsis: The FFA now has more than 1 million members, a first. Total membership is 1,042,245, a 1.5% increase over last year. There are 9,407 chapters across the nation. Texas has the largest membership at 181,939 members. CA is second at 108,143. It makes FFA one of the largest school activities in America, surpassing high school football’s 1,031,000 players expected this year.

Plan to pave ‘best farmland’

Ceres Courier. Riverbank threatens to pave over best farmland around. 
Synopsis: Denny Jackman, president of Voters for Farmland, writes a “letter to the editor” decrying the plans to leapfrog the Riverbank city limits and build thousands of homes along Hwy 108 just east of McHenry. He says such a development promises “more congestion, higher water and sewer rates and the high costs associated with police and fire services over many more acres.” He noted there is more than enough low-quality soil to accommodate any number of houses east of Riverbank while the land in question is the county’s finest.

Attack of the ‘relentless biters’

ABC10. Invasive mosquito species causing concerns in Sacramento, San Joaquin counties.
Synopsis: The Aedes aegypti mosquito is present in “every single city” in San Joaquin County, from Ripon to Galt. It is considered a “relentless biter” with the “potential to carry Zika, dengue and chikungunya” diseases, said Vector Control’s Aaron Devencenzi. A small bug, they bite throughout the day but are most active in mornings and evenings. Vector Control will do door-to-door visits in southeast Tracy looking for possible breeding areas.

Water for Diablo Grande?

SJV Water. Kern agency doesn’t shut door on water sale as possible solution for Diablo Grande.
Synopsis: Western Hills Water District, which serves the 600 homes in Diablo Grande, has written to Kern County Water Agency to resolve the dispute threatening to disrupt water deliveries. The community’s early developers contracted with KCWA to provide water for up to 5,000 homes and two golf courses. Only 600 homes were built and the one completed golf courses has been closed. But Western Hills fell behind in payments for all that water and now owes $13 million. Reporter Lois Henry writes: “Still to be sorted out, however, is how much KCWA earned from selling more than 61,000 acre feet of excess Western Hills water over the year.” Both Henry and Western Hills have asked for the figures, but Henry has yet to get a response.
MAD Take: The current price for an acre foot of CA groundwater is around $380 on the Veles index. That comes out to around $23 million – not quite double what KCWA says Western Hills owes it. 

How to ‘help’ rural clinics

Fresnoland. Would this make health care better or worse in Fresno County? Depends who you ask. 
Synopsis: The SEIU has backed a ballot measure to force rural healthcare clinics to require clinics to put 90% of their total revenue into “direct patient care and mission-related services.” The union says its goal is to “curb spending on bloated executive pay and other non-essentials.” Tulare’s Altura Community Clinic CEO Graciela Soto says the initiative will force closure of clinics and reduce services for people in far-flung communities. United Health Care CAO Miguel Rodriguez says the initiative would kill services such as transportation and case-management for those who struggle to deal with a complicated system. The SEIU points out the former United Health CEO was paid $1.2 million a year.

The champ and ‘The Jerm’

Ceres Courier. Flores wins national title. 
Synopsis: Damon Flores, 15, won his 14^th national championship, taking gold in the USA Boxing National Junior Golden Gloves of America tournament in Tennessee. Being the top-seeded boxer, he had a pass into the semifinals. He beat William Chavez of Virginia for gold. Damon is trained by his father, Damian, and is 90-12 in his amateur career. Damon will be home-schooled this year to better fit his training and tournament schedule.

Turlock Journal. ‘The Jerm’ returns.
Synopsis: Two years ago, Jeremie “The Jerm” Jourdan of Denair was declared the fittest 15-year-old in the world at the 2023 CrossFit Games. After that accolade, he decided to play football at Big Valley Christian, and stepped away from CrossFit. But this summer, “The Jerm” is back and next week will be heading off to Columbus, Ohio, for the 2025 CrossFit Games. “I actually wanted to be a teenager for once instead of training all the time, and I enjoyed it,” he said. Jeremie expects to play linebacker for the Lions next year.