Posts Tagged: farms

California Ag Statistics for Review

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has released the 2015-2016 California Agricultural Statistics Review. The Review provides an overview of the state's agricultural statistics and weather highlights, as well as county-specific and crop-specific data. Overall, California continues to lead the nation as the largest agricultural producer and exporter despite the challenges posed by a fourth consecutive year of drought.

Highlights from the report are as follows:

• California's agriculture sales decreased by 16.8 percent between the 2014 and 2015 crop years for a total of $47.1 billion in cash receipts.
• California continues to lead the nation in exports, at $20.7 billion.
• California exported nearly 26 percent of its agricultural volume. Overall, California's agricultural exports have grown more than 120 percent during the past decade.
• Fruit and nut crops accounted for 36 percent of gross cash volume in 2015.
• California is the leading agricultural producer in the U.S., representing nearly 13 percent of the U.S. total.
• In 2015, California was home to 77,500 farms, with an average 329 acres — which is smaller than the national average of 441 acres.
• Nearly 27 percent of California farms generate more than $100,000 in commodity sales; the national average is 20 percent.
• The top five agricultural counties in California were Tulare, Kern, Fresno, Monterey and Stanislaus.
• California is ranked as the number one producer of avocados in the U.S. and produced between 60 and 75 percent of the national production of avocados, which accounted for 93 percent of U.S. receipts.
• California avocados ranked 28^th in the state based on total value. 

The entire California Agricultural Statistics Review is available online. 

Ca drought

California Small Farm Conference

California Small Farm Conference

Registration is now open for the California Small Farm Conference - the state's  premier gathering for small-scale farmers and ranchers, farm employees, farmers' market managers,  researchers, federal and state agriculture agencies, agriculture students, food policy advocates, consumers and others. The goal of the Conference is to promote the success and viability of small and family owned farming  operations and farmers markets through short courses, field tours and workshops.

This year's California Small Farm Conference (CSFC), featuring opening plenary speaker, A.G. Kawamura, will be held at the San Diego Marriott Mission Valley in southern California on March 7 - 10, 2015.

Keep updated on all activities by liking us on  Facebook and signing up for our E-Newsletter. We hope some of you will join UC Small Farm Program staff on the Agritourism Field Course or the Alternatives in Marketing Field Course.

 

Small Farm Blogs

 

small farm conference

Introduction - Gabe Gold - Growing Up on a Farm

My name is Gabe Gold. I am a new social media intern for the UC ANR Blog.  With my first blog I will be describing myself and how I became interested in agriculture.

I am a modern day farm boy.  I grew up on a small blood orange orchard in Somis, Ca called Old Gold Farms.  When growing up I looked at the farm as a limiting factor in my life, I wanted to be able to walk to my friends’ houses or even to school.  Instead, I had very few neighbors under the age of 50 (all of which were a minimum of 25 acres away) and my drive to school lasted about 25 minutes.  When my friends asked me where I lived no one had even heard of the city of Somis! While my friends were biking and skateboarding I was in the orchard picking oranges, juicing oranges, or riding our farm vehicles. 

Eventually, I relished in my non-conventionality.  I began selling our delicious produce at local farmer’s markets.  I suddenly felt at home, other people knew what the farm life was like. It wasn’t just the other vendors that I related with, it was also the customers.  Never before in my life had I seen people care about the quality of food that they purchased.  It was a beautiful change, the work that was put in to our fruit and/or juice was appreciated without question.  Many people impressed me with their extreme knowledge of blood oranges, but I much preferred teaching the others who had no idea what they were. 

I now know what a great treat it is to live on a farm.  In the spring time I wake up to an overwhelming, but great smell of orange blossoms and in the winter I look out of my bedroom window and see rows of fruit bearing trees just 20 feet away.  Anytime my mother needs lemons in the kitchen, my father jokes around “I’ll go run to the store” and we walk to the lemon area of our farm and pick a 10 pound bag of the freshest smelling lemons.

I am now in my senior year of high school eager to learn more and more about agriculture and as I do I will post what I learn to this blog.

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