The nuts in Borba Farms' West Side almond orchards were looking pretty good by the second week of April. The varieties Nonpareil, Aldrich, Monterey , Fritz, Wood Colony, Butte, and Padre grow on one-fourth of the operation’s 9,000 acres of farm land near Huron, Calif.
Like many almond growers this year, Mark Borba was surprised by an early Monterey nut drop. This followed what appeared to be a well-coordinated bloom, concentrated within just a 10-day period, between the Nonpareil and the two or three pollinator varieties in each orchard, allowing for good pollination, Borba says.
To explain the unusual Monterey nut drop, Borba doubts it was caused by poor bee performance in his orchards.
Meanwhile, he is focused on bringing his young crop to maturity.
Borba says, “Now we need to find adequate water to make this happen.”
Borba and other growers in the 600,000-acre Westlands Water District, located south of the Delta, were more than a little dismayed to learn in early April that, after receiving no surface water from the federal Central Valley Project for the past two years and despite the El Nino rains of this past winter, they can expect to receive just 5 percent of their full allotment.
“The 5 percent allocation is just a token,” Borba says. “It’s very frustrating.”
Increasing salinity of the ground water is also a concern to growers. Borba’s sampling of soils from depths of 1, 3, and 5 feet deep show salinity levels are increasing.
“I’m seeing salt burn around the edges of leaves in some varieties more sensitive to saline conditions than others.”
Borba says, “So far we haven’t seen any decline in nut set or nut yields from higher soil salinity. However, I anticipate this will happen eventually without higher quality surface water.”
Meanwhile, Borba and his neighbors have benefited from some welcome help from Mother Nature. During the second weekend in April, his almond orchards received about one-third to one-half inch of rain. He notes that some fields not far away received about 2.5 inches.
Rainfall in his area has totaled about 8-8.5 inches since the first of October.
“We’ve had good rains that were pretty evenly spaced and helped leach salts out of the root zone.”
In addition to his drip-irrigated almond orchards, Borba Farms also includes tomatoes, garlic, lettuce, melons, and Pima cotton. This combination helps spread out the demand for water which allows well use for the crops at different times of the year.
Borba sees signs that almond prices, which plunged to just half or more since last August, are headed higher.
Based on a report received from his packer in mid-April, Borba says that although shipments of almonds to buyers in March were down 15 percent from a year earlier that total shipments to date for this marketing year are down just 7 percent.
“Rather than looking at the volume of almonds that have been shipped, I’m looking at the amount sold, even if not yet shipped,” Borba says. “Those sales are up 21 percent over last year. I don’t think the market outlook is as bleak as many growers seem to think.”
Source: westernfarmpress.com