The California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association in collaboration with other ag organizations will be conducting the Tractor Train-the-Trainer Workshops. These workshops are for Owners, Farmers, Managers Supervisors and those who are responsible to conduct training on forklifts.  The training will review what is needed for the trainer to effectively train their tractor operators at their facility.  Be sure to visit our website www.agprocessors.org for registration.  If you have any questions, please contact our office at (559) 252-0684.

At this past weekend’s Annual Meeting of the National Cotton Council (NCC), preliminary forecast for cotton acreage in California reflected an expected overall 10% drop in acreage.  Pima acreage was forecast at 197,000 acres, down from 205,000 acres in 2019 reflecting about a 4% drop in acres.  Upland was expected to be at 38,000 acres, down from 55,000 acres in 2019 representing approximately a 31% drop in acreage.  Total acreage is predicted to be 235,000 acres, down from 260,000 acres in 2020 meaning an overall predicted reduction in acreage of approximately 10%.  The Association has just sent their Annual Predicted cotton acreage survey to all gins and hope to have expected numbers by mid-March.

This past week the Association, along with several agricultural organizations hosted State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and his staff.  This meeting was a follow-up to a meeting the Association had with the Commissioner late last year, where the Association warned the Commissioner of skyrocketing rates for property and casualty insurance as well as stock insurance for our agricultural products.  In some cases, the have been more than 200% increases in rates or even unwillingness to cover agricultural commodities for the full value.  Some of our members have had to get multiple policies just to cover onsite inventories of product.  Much of this is related to the devastating losses associated with the catastrophic wildfires over the past two years, and a couple of very expensive losses at a couple of specific agricultural facilities.  With a couple of firms leaving the state, rates have skyrocketed and our members are feeling the impact.  There was a lot of good discussion defining the issues.  A more specific follow-up meeting will be held in the next month or two to explore potential solutions to help reduce or at least control costs.  Joining the Association at this meeting were California Citrus Mutual, California Fresh Fruit Association, and the Nisei Farmers League.

After months of waiting, a new I-9 form has been released.  Employers are still allowed to use the previous version of the I-9 until April 30^th, 2020.  After that date, the new version of the I-9 must be utilized.  A significant change to the original form includes the ability for an employer to designate an “Authorized Representative” to assist in completing the employer requirement of the forms.  This Authorized Representative is responsible for completing Section 2 of the I-9 which includes examining evidence of identity and employment authorization on behalf of the employer.  Additionally, clarification to the list of “Acceptable Documents” have been made, and a full list of those accepted documents are available on the last page of the I-9 forms.  We have attached copies of both the I-9 forms as well as the I-9 instructions for your review and utilization.  If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out the Association.

Have you changed the crops, acres or practices on your farm in the past few years?  If so, you most likely need to update your Conservation Management Practice (CMP) Plan.  As you may recall, farms located in the San Joaquin Valley in excess of 100 acres must complete a CMP Plan and keep it regularly updated.  To aid in the effort to ensure farms are keeping up to date on their CMP Plans, the Association along with several other agricultural organizations is partnering with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to host several CMP Workshops throughout the San Joaquin Valley including at least one workshop in every county.  The workshops will occurs as per the following schedule:

If you plan on attending, please bring the following:

• A list of crops grown and how many acres are devoted to each
• Plot plan/map that contains the location of each agricultural parcel on the agricultural operation site
• Total number of animals at the animal feeding operation
• Internal combustion engines: make, model, horsepower, fuel and annual hours used for all engines over 50 horsepower
• For existing CMP Plans, please bring the CMP Plan ID (Example: C-1234) 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our office.

This past week Governor Gavin Newsom released his proposed 2020-2021 Budget for the State of California. While we are encouraged by the Governor’s proposed investment in rural communities through food and education programs, the Governor’s budget proposal falls woefully short in delivering necessary funds to the San Joaquin Valley for programs to improve air quality.  Specifically, the budget proposal calls for only $50 million in FARMER incentive funding to replace old farm equipment such as tractors and harvesters with new low emission equipment.

The use of the FARMER Program incentives has proven to be hugely successful with the replacement of farm equipment having already achieve significant reductions of NOx emissions in the first three years of implementation.

FARMER received $75 million in 2019-20 and $130 million in 2018-19.  Last month, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) called for a minimum of $193 million per year in FARMER funding as the only way to achieve attainment of the State’s air quality standards.  The proposed $50 million in the 2020 budget is inadequate to reach the State’s emissions reduction goals and assures that the San Joaquin Valley, which faces some of the worst air quality in the Nation, will not achieve the standard.

The FARMER program is an example of industry and government working together to provide solutions for a significant challenge facing our rural communities and is worthy of continued investment.

With rising farm equipment prices, increasing fuel prices, and ever growing labor costs coupled with stagnant commodity prices, a mandatory farm equipment regulation will be overwhelming to the agricultural industry in the San Joaquin Valley.

For the health of the San Joaquin Valley and all who live and work here, we call on our Central Valley legislators to see that funding for the FARMER program is fully restored and increased to the necessary level.

Last night Association President/CEO Roger Isom attended and participated in the Chlorpyrifos Alternatives Work Group Public Roundtable.  Unfortunately, the meeting was a complete travesty.  The stated purpose of the meeting was to present the group’s preliminary recommendations to the public and listen to the public’s reactions and comments.

What followed was an utter farce.  The presentation did not include any list or hint of alternatives, and instead what was a presentation of how the agencies could conduct better outreach, carryout applied research and determine alternative approaches to pest management.  None of these will solve the immediately problem of the loss of chlorpyrifos in the short term.  Then the meeting was broke into small workgroups with the intent to hear comments on the proposed recommendations, discuss how farmers, workers and communities can protect a thriving agricultural industry in California while increasing the use of safety pest management tools, and finally, what the audience thought where more funding should be placed to create a more sustainable and healthy agricultural system.  While these are good questions, they had little to do with the task at hand which is to find immediate alternatives to the loss of chlorpyrifos.  Furthermore, the pesticide and environmental justice activists seized the opportunity to lambast farmers with accusations of corporate greed and spraying indiscriminately, and attack county agricultural commissioners for not actively enforcing the regulations.  And while participants were repeatedly told to keep the comments on point and limit their time, the activists were given free reign to comment on anything they wanted, which they did in attacking agriculture on all aspects from pesticides to air quality.  In one of the most revealing moments of the night, a prominent local environmental justice activist was seen co-moderating one of the Spanish sessions, in a clear conflict of interest.

In the end, the meeting did nothing it was intended to do.  Rather it is clear that this event was only done to check the box that the agencies had outreached to the community, and nothing meaningful was ever intended to come of it.

More than 230 farmers and farmworkers attended the inaugural Spray Safe event for Fresno and Madera Counties.  Senator Melissa Hurtado kicked off the successful event by congratulating the industry for coming together to promote worker safety.  Senator Hurtado was followed by US EPA Region IX Administrator Mike Stoker, and then the Fresno and Madera County Ag Commissioners, who provided regulation updates to attendees.  In the main section of the event participants were educated on Paraquat regulation changes for 2020, Hazmat preparedness, herbicide/insecticide equipment calibration, Personal protective equipment (PPE), and respiratory protection.  The training and education was provided in both English and Spanish.  The event is modeled after the very successful and long running event in Kern County and a similar event is being held this week in Tulare for Tulare and Kings Counties.  The Association is a sponsor and supporter of both events.  Additional sponsors and supporters included the Western Plant Health Association, California Association of Pest Control Advisors, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Department of Pesticide Regulation, Brandt, Simplot Grower Solutions, TriCal, Bayer, Simplot Agribusiness, California Citrus Mutual, Syngenta, California Fresh Fruit Association, Verdegaal Brothers, Wilbur Ellis Agribusiness, Madera County Farm Bureau, Fresno County Farm Bureau, American Pistachio Growers, Big W Sales, Nichino America, Green Valley Farm Supply, Stanislaus Farm Supply, Nutrien Ag Solutions, and Mid Valley Agricultural Services.

Late last year, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) released the revised Biological Opinions (BiOps) for the analyzing the operation of the Federal Central Valley Project (CVP) and the California State Water Project (SWP). Following the release of the BiOps, there have been numerous mischaracterizations of the opinions. The California Farm Water Coalition has developed a document that spells out the myths versus facts on the BiOps, and we have attached that summary here.

We just wanted to provide a friendly reminder that the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Truck and Bus reporting system for heavy duty diesel trucks is now open.  The Truck and Bus Regulation is set to sunset in 2023, at that point, all vehicles older than 2010 must be retired, junked or sold out of the state.  Over the past year, CARB has sent out over 50,000 enforcement letters to non-compliant fleet/truck owners, forcing them to comply with mileage limitations or sell the equipment outright and pay a significant fine for being out of compliance.  Please note that there are changes to the current mileage limitations for agricultural compliance options.  The significant changes include the Low Use Exemption being lowered from 5,000 miles per year down to 1,000 miles per year, and the Agricultural Mileage Extension dropping from 10,000 miles per year down to 5,000 miles per year.   If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Chris McGlothlin with CCGGA at (559)-252-0684, or by email at chris@ccgga.org.