CA Farm Bureau: Rain ruins farm yields, profits down, prices to rise

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Rain ruins farm yields
PROFITS DOWN, PRICES TO RISE
By Lisa M. Krieger
Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/14295929.htm

Seventeen million of Frank Muller's tomato plants wait in greenhouses in Oxnard. Millions, perhaps billions more are jammed into other nurseries around the state. With each rainy day, profits fall. Fields are too wet for planting. Plants aren't bearing fruit. Canneries want tomatoes, field hands want work and nurseries want the plants gone.

But there's not much Muller can do except wait, worry -- and watch for sun. ``There hasn't been a single sustained break in the weather,'' said Muller, a tomato grower from Woodland. ``I can pretty much count on one hand the number of hours of sunshine we've had.''

It's the same throughout the state, according to the California Farm Bureau: Soggy strawberries. Moldy lettuce. Tractors mired in mud. Rain delayed planting of Central Valley's rice and cotton. It has slowed the development of grapes and stone fruit in the Napa and Sonoma valleys. In the Sierra foothills, cattle ranchers worry about hoof rot.

This spring's unusually cool and wet weather is lowering yields and income, even as farmers' expenses climb. That could translate directly into shortages and higher prices for consumers into midsummer. ``Every week that goes by, the growing season gets shortened exponentially,'' said Jack Olsen, executive administrator with the San Mateo Farm Bureau. At this rate, California-grown tomatoes won't be on grocery shelves until after July 4.