Outstanding Wheat Harvest

Jean and Skip Sagouspe, working as Triple J Partners, harvested this year's wheat crop using their John Deere 9600 Combine. The yield was the highest in Sturgeon farming history, at 3.59 tons per acre. For the non-Californians, that's 119.67 bushels per acre. The protein was high and the wheat was taken to ConAgra's flour mill in Oakland. Unfortunately, the price was low. Even counting in the U.S. Government's Loan Deficiency Payment, the wheat returned less than $120 per ton.

We trade wheat in California using tons and hundredweights instead of the 60 pound bushels used in the Eastern and Mid-Western parts of the United States, due to the early history of California agriculture. When wheat first became an important crop in California, just after the discovery of gold, most of that wheat was exported to the United Kingdom. The British traded wheat using hundredweights, and so Californians also traded wheat using hundredweights. The practice has continued ever since. Of course, with electronic calculators and computers, the conversion from bushels to hundredweights is a snap, so long as you can remember that a bushel of wheat weighs 60 pounds.

Pima Cotton Price Looks Promising

California farmers have greatly reduced their plantings of extra-long staple Pima cotton this season. This has resulted in much higher expected prices for Pima, with the magical $1.00/lb level no longer being unthinkable.

Acala Cotton Off to a Slow Start

Our tenant's Acala cotton received over an inch of rainfall five days after planting. This prevented the seedlings from emerging, forcing our tenant to replant on April 29th. Consequently, this cotton is late and small. Given a nice warm summer, there is still plenty of time to set and make a near-normal crop.

Robert Sturgeon
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rsturge@inreach.com
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