Our tenant's wheat crop is progressing nicely. The insect and weed pressures have been modest and easily controlled with pesticide applications. Our tenant sold most of the crop for $275 per ton. Naturally, the price increased immediately after he sold. The remainder of the crop should bring quite a bit more.

Cotton News

Our tenant intends to plant 52 acres of Pima cotton and 47 acres of Acala cotton. The Acala cotton will be "Roundup Ready Flex," meaning that he can spray Roundup systemic herbicide on it even after it starts growing. This will help reduce the huge hand labor costs he had last year. The "Flex" part of the designation refers to the latest Roundup Ready cotton's enhanced resistance to Roundup, allowing the herbicide to be applied much later in the growing season, thus allowing even better weed control.

Prices, Costs Much Higher

Not only are the prices our tenant is receiving for his crops higher, but the costs involved in farming are also higher. Those costs are for the full range of inputs: fuel and oil; fertilizer; planting seed; pesticides; labor; repairs and maintenance; electricity; whiskey - everything needed to continue farming.

Unusual Late Snow

This photo was taken on March 14. It shows snow in the nearby Diablo Range. This is a late date for snow in these mountains. The Global Warming people would surely blame this unusual weather occurrence on Global Warming, just as they would blame the absence of snow earlier in the year (if that had happened) on Global Warming. Global Warming causes everything weather-related nowadays. Before we had Global Warming, we just had the occasional unusual weather.

Robert Sturgeon
Publisher, Editor, Reporter, Ace Photographer, Newsroom Flunky, Webmaster
rsturge@inreach.com
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