From the Fields - Joe Valente

By Joe Valente, San Joaquin County winegrape and tree crop farmer 

We had a lot of rain, and we are above average in terms of water supply. On the almond side, we are waiting for bloom. Honeybee colonies have been in position for a couple of weeks. The almond trees are at popcorn stage, but if the weather stays warm, we expect bloom to arrive very soon.

Regarding potential removal of almond trees, I haven’t seen that happening as much in San Joaquin County. We still have a pretty stable water supply, so water availability does not affect us as much as it does for farmers further south. Typically, the trees or vines that get pulled out are those with marginal returns due to low yields. We’re not sure what the almond crop size is going to be. Last year, there was some frost that hit in the springtime. A lot of things can happen to affect your crop. It is hard to predict.

On the grape side of things, as far as pruning, it seems like everything is moving pretty well. Applying our herbicide sprays got delayed due to the rain and the wet weather. We were waiting for the soil to dry out, so we just got started with that. There are some vineyards that are still wet, and some of them are OK to start our herbicide sprays. We have enough people, and we haven’t been short of employees yet. We expect to finish pruning in a few weeks.

The grape market has become stagnate. Everything seems to cost so much more, so we’re trying to look at ways to cut costs. You can’t cut too much because you have to still farm. The commodity prices are not the greatest, so many farmers are trying to figure out how to make it work.