California’s agriculture is also a source of demand for both annual and perennial plants and trees, e.g., vegetable transplants, strawberry plants, seeds of all kinds, root stock for trees, and young nursery stock for new plantings and replacements of vines, tree fruits, and nuts. The types of firms producing nursery products vary widely, including extensive field operations, outdoor nurseries, and intensive greenhouse operations.Consumer demand for lettuce is relatively inelastic, and prices vary widely for this perishable commodity depending on acreage and weather-dependent supply conditions. Large grower-shippers operate in the several production areas in California and Arizona, moving with the seasons. The nation’s “salad bowl” is the Salinas Valley in Monterey County, where lettuce is harvested from April through early November. Other coastal areas produce during the same period. The Imperial Valley and other desert areas ship from early December until mid-March. Production on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley fills the market niches between the two major production areas. Field packing, vacuum cooling, and refrigerated transportation are key components requiring coordination for moving lettuce from the field to the consumer with minimal post-harvest loss in quality. Development of value-added pre-package salad greens has reduced shipments of “Iceberg” head lettuce and effectively increased the demand for other greens, including romaine and leaf lettuce.Almost all breeds of beef cattle are raised in California. The dairy sector also contributes a significant quantity of steers, culled cows,hydroponic nft and bulls as animals marketed for beef. Cattle and calves were California’s #1 agricultural commodity until 1980, when the number one position was taken by milk and cream. Later, grapes and nursery products moved ahead of cattle and calves.
Lettuce became the fourth most important crop in 2000. Cattle and calves are now California’s #5 agricultural commodity. More than two-thirds of the state’s land area is essentially non-tillable because of steep slopes or poor soils. These areas are typically used as rangeland for cattle. In addition, cattle are raised an irrigated pasture lands in the foothill areas and on marginal agricultural lands in the Central Valley. The cattle feeding industry is located primarily in the Imperial and San Joaquin Valleys. Cattle are also shipped out of state to feed lots closer to midwest feed supplies. Climate, topography, and overall conditions vary widely within the state, as do the sizes and types of cattle operations. Some are purely cow-calf operations, while others buy and sell animals as stockers, replacements, or feeders to fit the carrying capacity of owned and leased lands. All areas present separate and distinct challenges to cattle production in terms of rainfall, temperature patterns, topography, breeding and calving conditions, transportation, marketing, urban development, and cattle rustling and vandalism.Hay as a commodity category includes alfalfa hay, grain hay, green chop, sudan hay, and wild hay, but alfalfa is by far the most important component, contributing about 85 percent of the value of all hay production. Alfalfa hay acreage in California has averaged about a million acres, but is influenced by profitability of alternative annual crops , trees, and vines. The demand for alfalfa hay is determined to a large part by the size of the state’s dairy herd, which consumes about 70 percent of the supply. Horses consume about 20 percent. Alfalfa hay is grown in every climatic zone of the state. Climate determines the number of cuttings of hay. In the low desert there are as many as eight to ten cuttings per year; in the cool northern intermountain region, farmers harvest only two to four cuttings a year. Most of the crop is not used on the farm where it is produced, but is usually baled and shipped to end users. Pellets and cubes are other forms for equines and export markets. Alfalfa, a perennial crop with a three- to five-year economic life, does best when planted on well drained, deep, medium-textured soils.
Because it is a highly water intensive crop, its production cost will be directly affected by higher water prices and pumping costs, reducing the long-term profitability of the crop in the state’s crop mix.Flowers and greens are sold in cut and in potted forms. The major areas of production are the coastal counties where the typical mild climate permits outdoor production and lower-cost greenhouse operations. The major production areas of cut flowers are in the counties surrounding San Francisco Bay, extending southwest to Salinas, and in the coastal regions of San Diego and Santa Barbara Counties. The marketing of cut flowers in California is extremely intricate and complex. Although air shipments are used for transcontinental deliveries, most cut flowers are now precooled and shipped by refrigerated trucks. Increased imports, particularly from Columbia and Mexico, are a concern to California greenhouse growers of the three main cut flowers—roses, chrysanthemums, and carnations. The three have historically accounted for as much as two-thirds of the annual income from cut flowers and cut greens. Potted plants, including the seasonal items—poinsettias, lilies and hydrangeas are favored as consumers bring flowers and greenery into residences and offices. There are now more than 250 species and varieties of foliage plants being offered for sale in the trade.About three-quarters of the California strawberry crop is sold fresh; the remainder is sold for processing. Production of California strawberries runs from mid-February through mid-November and occurs in several growing areas along the southern and central coast. Even though strawberry plants are perennials, growers replant annually to obtain maximum yields and the best quality of fruit. Development of new varieties from an industry-supported fruit breeding program at the University of California has been important to the growth of the California strawberry industry.In 1950, California production of 2 million tons of processing tomatoes accounted for only 36 percent of U.S. production. The combination of favorable climate, good soils, ample water, an excellent highway system, applied technology, and research and development has fostered the growth of the processing industry in California which now produces 9 to 10 million tons annually, and as much as 12.2 million tons in 1999. Prices have fallen, as has acreage, while the industry is undergoing structural changes and reduced profitability. Tomato production is specialized and capital-intensive. Processing has changed from consumer products produced at multi-product plants to now include single product production at specialized “industrial plants” where tomato paste product is packaged in aseptic plastic containers in boxes and drums and shipped throughout the year to end users. Paste is simply a commodity bought and further processed into final consumer products—catsup, sauces, soups, etc.
Processing tomatoes are produced from the Mexican border to the northern Sacramento Valley. Harvest begins in the desert valleys in mid-June and continues northward in the Central Valley through September. A late harvest ends in the southern coastal counties in November. All processing tomatoes are harvested mechanically.California agriculture is large, diverse, complex and dynamic. This chapter documents the industry and its relationship to the rest of the economy. It also provides an overview of unifying forces and trends. Our aim is to supply a convenient compilation of facts and figures from a variety of sources, and to help the reader interpret the wide array of data presented.2 California agriculture is far larger, measured by sales, than that of any other state. California agriculture produces more value than most countries and is larger than, for example, such major agricultural producers as Canada or Australia.California is part of the national and international agricultural markets. Californians consume food that is produced in the state, as well as food that is imported from other states and countries. Agriculture in California is the largest among the states, and produces a variety of animals and animal products, fruit, tree-nuts, vegetables, field crops,hydroponic channel and nursery and floriculture products. The Central Valley accounts for more than half of the State’s gross value of agricultural production.About 93 percent of California’s 101.5 million acres is in rural uses. This rural area is divided evenly between federal and non-federal ownership. The federal land mostly includes national forests, national parks and wildlife areas, and “other land,” such as marshes, open swamps, and bare rock deserts. Roughly 11 percent of the federal rural land is grassland pasture and range used for agriculture. Of California’s 53 million acres of non-federal land, about 80 percent is grassland pasture and range, forest land, and cropland. About 5.5 million acres of California’s non-federal land are defined by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture as “developed” for residential, industrial, and commercial use. However, the intensity of use varies widely, with much of this land relatively unpopulated. The California Department of Conservation Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program defines 3.1 million acres of California’s non-federal land as “urban and built-up,” that is, land occupied by structures with a building density of at least one unit to one and one-half acres.
This suggests that roughly 2.4 million acres of “developed” land in the NRCS survey are still relatively rural, or not mapped by FMMP. In total, about 27.7 million acres, including 5 million acres of federal grazing land, are used for agriculture in California. More than half is pasture and range, about 39 percent is cropland, and the remainder is divided between woodland and other land.Conversion of agricultural land to urban uses continues to be a public policy issue in the United States and in California. In California between 1988 and 2000, according to the California Department of Conservation Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program , about 549,000 acres were converted to urban and built-up uses. At these conversion rates, about 4.2 million acres would be converted in the next 100 years. Of the total acres converted from 1988-2000, 213,000 were formerly cropland and 100,000 were formerly grazing land. Another 235,000 acres were formerly “other land,” as classified by the FMMP. A significant portion of the “other land” was idled farmland previously removed from agricultural production in anticipation of development. This indicates that the figures for cropland and grazing land conversion may be understated. Farmland conversion is a topic of particular interest in the Central Valley, which has over half of the state’s agricultural land and 64 percent of the cropland. The Central Valley has had a lower proportion of its cropland and grazing land converted than the rest of the state. The Valley recorded 43 percent of statewide cropland conversion between 1988 and 2000. Similarly, the Central Valley grazing land, about 44 percent of the state total, contributed only 25 percent of the total grazing land conversions.Farmland conversion to urban uses is associated with population growth. California’s population increased by about 76 percent between 1970 and 2002, while the Central Valley’s population doubled. There is general agreement that state population growth will continue, but little consensus on precise projections of future growth rates. The Bureau of the Census estimates that the state population will be about 50 million by 2025.Nationwide, over the last half-century, the number of farms and the total land in farms have decreased, while the size of an average farm has increased. This trend has been less pronounced in California. While the average U.S. farm doubled in acreage between 1954 and 2002, the average California farm increased by about 13 percent. The official definition of a “farm” was changed in 1954, 1959, and 1974, to remove many of the smallest “farms” from census statistics. Each of these definitional changes decreased the reported number of farms and increased the average farm size. Since1974 a “farm” has been defined in the Census of Agriculture as a place that generates agricultural sales of at least $1,000 annually. Under the current Census of Agriculture definition, the average acreage of California farms decreased by 30 percent between 1974 and 2002. The 2002 Census introduced a new methodology for estimating total number of farms and operators’ demographics. The Census has been conducted via mail returns, and coverage has been always below 100 percent, especially among very small operations. The 2002 methodology accounts for all farms. In 2002, about 80 percent of California farms were less than 180 acres, yet the “average farm” size was 347 acres. These two statistics highlight the fact that a small percent of large farms account for a large percent of total acreage. These large farms include ranches that graze livestock and may generate relatively little total revenue.