Kern crop report shows 7% drop in farm receipts

Sep. 11—Kern farmers took in 7% less money from crop sales last year than they did in 2021, according to a new county report that people in the industry interpreted Monday as a wake-up call about risks to the local economy.

The decline following a 9% increase in 2021 was a rare instance of local grower receipts falling from one year to the next. It reflects financial harm from low commodity prices and impacts from limited water supplies during what was an unusually hot year.

The annual crop report offers only a partial view of the industry's financial condition because it includes only revenue, not expenses like labor, water and pesticides. Because such costs have generally increased, observers say the situation on the ground is actually worse than the document suggests.

"This might be the first canary in the coal mine," said owner and agent Todd Snider at Western Ag Crop Insurance Services. "People need to start paying attention to the severity of what we're going to see if the trajectory continues and these farmers go out of business."

Revenue to growers of some crops was down more steeply that the overall figure suggests. For example, growers of table grapes, which again led the county by total receipts, grossed a little less than $1.4 billion — a quarter less money than the crop brought in the year before.

Other commodities brought in more money last year than in 2021. For instance, Kern dairies reported milk-related revenue of $947 million, or 38% more than the year before. The report said the county's ag producers bought in $7.7 billion overall in 2022.

Kern County Agricultural Commissioner Glenn Fankhauser said the year-over-year decline in revenue appeared to be unique in the 20 years he has worked in the county.

"It seems to me like, in our memory, we usually go up some amount each year," he said, adding he was unaware of the reason for the drop.

John C. Moore III, former president of the Kern County Farm Bureau, pointed to several contributing factors, from bad weather during the pistachio bloom and the crop's alternating years of production, to depressed prices for almonds and table grapes.

The relatively strong dollar cut into local exports last year, he said, while California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act continued to limit how much water is available for irrigation.

"This is what happens when we make swift and overreaching judgments on groundwater, and this is what happens when you have a tightening money supply," said Moore, who works as an associate at Tech Ag Financial Group. "I think 2023 is going to show the same thing."

To Moore's list Snider added shipping problems and other complications left over from the COVID-19 pandemic. Farmers also paid more for fuel, pesticides, nutritional supplements and packing materials.

Some growers he knows cut back substantially in the amount of farmland they planted in the 2022 crop year. Entire orchards and vineyards were uprooted, he said.

He told of a cotton grower who normally plants on 500 acres but had to cut back to 250.

"They were prevented from planting because of a lack of irrigation supply," Snider said.