Industry News & Reports

An update on sales for the first half of 2024 and an early look at the latest crop. Explore the root causes of declining wine sales and how wineries can give themselves a direct-to-consumer boost.

10/22/24

California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) has taken effect and in some areas land values have drastically declined. Lenders have come calling.

10/15/24

The state saw 4.1 million acre-feet of managed groundwater recharge in the water year ending in September, and an 8.7 million acre-feet increase in groundwater storage, California’s Department of Water Resources said.

5/7/24

Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater.

5/1/24

California’s bearing almond acreage decreased slightly over the past year, according to a new report from Land IQ to the Almond Board of California (ABC). It is the first time since at least 1995 that the total of bearing acres has not grown.

4/26/24

Roughly half of California’s 30 million acres of farmland is protected from development by the California Land Conservation Act of 1965. Proposed state legislation to modify California’s longstanding farmland conservation law could pave the way for large swaths of farm acreage to be repurposed as sites for renewable energy projects.

4/17/24

State officials, for the first time, put a local groundwater basin on probation to stop overuse. The order triggers hefty fees and mandatory reporting of well use.

4/16/24

Cattle feeders are delaying marketings to allow cattle time to recover. This has started the seasonal spring rally and added resolve to feeders asking higher prices.

4/10/24

Margins are improving with lower feed costs, and new plants under construction are looking for milk supply. However, high expansion costs, expensive replacement heifers, and enticing beef-on-dairy cross revenues continue to hold back production growth at the national level.

3/30/24

Values for almond orchards in California are falling significantly as a result of an extended period of continued low almond prices, poor yields, input cost pressures, and higher interest rates.

3/26/24

Dissects wine market data for the crucial fourth quarter, reviews initial grape crush results and takes a hard look at the supply-demand imbalance in the grape market.

3/14/24

The USDA Census of Agriculture provides a breakdown of dairy operations by size in key milk-producing states. The number of U.S. dairies with more than 2,500 cows climbed to 834 in 2022, an increase of 17% from five years earlier.

3/13/24

Congress has given the green light for a significant boost to the Sites Reservoir Project, based on a recommendation from the Bureau of Reclamation. A total of $205.6 million in federal funds is being allocated.

3/13/24

California is currently in the throes of a budget mess—and that isn’t good news for the state’s critical agriculture sector. This year, the state is facing a $38 billion budget deficit that is expected to worsen. This is on top of a $31 billion fiscal deficit in 2023.

3/13/24

California farmers delivered one of the state’s largest tomato crops in recent years to processors last year. With bolstered inventory, processors contracted less tomato acreage from farms this year.

3/13/24

Fallout over the ever sinking Friant-Kern Canal could affect growers throughout the Tule subbasin regardless of whether they get water from the canal.

3/7/24

A once-in-a-generation downturn in the wine market is reshaping California’s grape-growing regions as farmers tear out vines to rebalance supply with declining demand.

3/6/24

Questioning SGMA's effectiveness at reducing water extractions by measuring evapotranspiration and not actual applications.

3/1/24

Small-scale farmers continue to struggle to stay in business in California and across the country, according to the results of the 2022 Census of Agriculture, which was released earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

2/28/24

Has the latest downturn in U.S. almond prices bottomed out, or are there still significant headwinds facing an industry capable of overproduction?

2/21/24

The 2023 crush totaled 3,728,923 tons, up 1.6% from the 2022 crush of 3,670,861 tons. Red wine varieties accounted for the largest share of all grapes crushed, at 1,959,024 tons, up 2.3% from 2022. White wine varieties crushed totaled 1,709,270 tons, up 15.3% from 2022. Tons crushed of raisin type varieties totaled 43,621, down 58.9% from 2022, and tons crushed of table type varieties totaled 17,008, down 89.9% from 2022.

2/9/24

A sharp decline in the number of dairy heifers available to replace older cows exiting the U.S. dairy herd could limit any meaningful growth in domestic milk production over the next few years.

2/7/24

Many growers in the Central Valley have removed walnut orchards in recent years as the industry confronts a variety of headwinds. The walnut industry’s unique challenges, combined with headwinds facing agriculture in the state more broadly, are likely to flatten California production and pricing going forward.

2/6/24

While the problem is far less acute than in the drier San Joaquin Valley to the south, many basins have issues to address. In this post, we explore how the plans envisage bringing their basins into balance.

12/11/23

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office is pressing forward with one of California’s most contentious water projects of the past half century, as it released a completed environmental review of the proposed 45-mile tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

12/8/23

This estimate is the result of extensive ground truthing and advanced remote sensing analytics to differentiate almond orchards from other tree and annual crops.

11/21/23

This policy brief examines how California’s water sector managed the unusually wet conditions of the 2023 water year and outlines priorities for action, drawing on discussions with experts from around the state.

11/2/23

Agrivoltaics—the practice of using the same piece of land simultaneously for agriculture and solar power generation—has enjoyed a lot of positive press lately.

10/3/23

Successful implementation of the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act is vital to the long-term health of the San Joaquin Valley’s communities, agriculture, environment, and economy.

9/15/23

California's 2023 almond production is forecast at 2.60 billion meat pounds, up 4% from May's subjective forecast and 1% higher than last year's crop of 2.57 billion meat pounds. The forecast is based on 1.38 million bearing acres.

7/12/23