March 2021 - 8

WATER
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demand, " he said. " That would mitigate
the price increases, because high prices
would encourage more acres. That may
not be the case in the future. Row crops
may have more variability. Continued
water innovation will be the rule. "
The family business
In addition to row crops, the
Errotabere family grows about
640-800 acres of tomatoes, 160 acres
of winegrapes, 320-480 acres of garlic,
640 acres of garbanzo beans and about
1,500 acres of pistachios and almonds.
The farm has also grown cantaloupes,
cotton, romaine lettuce in the past.
While his brother Jean heads up
the agronomy side of the operations
and brother Remi oversees the
farm equipment, Daniel Errotabere
administers the office.
" I do the business side of farming, so
I'm in the office probably more than I
am in the field, " he said. His leadership
roles in the industry also mean
attending many meetings.
He's also one of the principal partners
in El Dorado, a company built to allow
" like-minded " almond growers to plug
into the marketplace.
" We're about 10 years into it, "
Errotabere said. " It allows us to
get into the market for marketing
knowledge, price point consideration
and availability of sales. It's worked well
for us. "
The Central Valley offers a growing
opportunity like few other places in
the world, he said, with class one soils
in Mediterranean-style climate, with
low rains and long summers. But even
growers in the Valley aren't immune to
modern business climates.
" The dynamic of farming is moving
away from family farming and that's not
unique to California, " Errotabere said.
Institutional farmers have a different
cost structure than family farms like
Errotabere Ranches, he said. " The
consumer needs to know that's going on. "
Regulations like SGMA -
which calls for new groundwater
sustainability agencies to manage
water resources - will indirectly
influence what crops growers will
plant, he said.
" SGMA is going to play a big role,
and a defining role in Central Valley
agriculture, " he said. " All those will
play into the planting landscape of the
Central Valley that will decide which
crops get planted. "
A time for tomatoes
Open-field-grown processing
tomatoes have a place at diverse farms
like Errotabere Ranches, which has to
plan complex crop rotations.
" Permanent crops are the first
thing of the crop map that we have to
decide, " Errotabere said, referring to the
winegrapes and tree nuts. Next on the
list is garlic, which isn't grown in the
same field closer than 4 years together.
" They do that to prevent soil diseases
like white rot. "
Tomatoes, cotton and garbanzo beans
fit into the picture as counter-rotation
crops - those crops are grown on a
one-size-fits-all system of permanent
soil beds, which Errotabere keeps 6-10
years before pulling out the drip tape
and planting garlic.
" Garlic is kind of a digging crop, and
we can't have those types of crops in our
permanent bed, " he said.
Challenges for tomato growing
include spotted wilt, which is spread by
thrips. Curly-top virus, spread by beet
leafhopper, is another concern.
" The products that we use to control
that are becoming lesser and lesser,
either in strength or availability, " he
said.
Prices and the cost of inputs such as
water availability are two factors that
fit into complex decision-making about
which crops to plant.
The demand is still there. A late
January report from the USDA's
National Agricultural Statistics
Service said tomato processors plan
to contract for more than 12 million
tons in 2021, up 6% from last year.
The acreage planted with contracted
processing tomatoes was up about
6,000 acres or 2.6% over last year
- an increase that Errotabere said
wasn't that big for a world crop that
fluctuates depending on what happens
with tomato paste sales as far afield
as, say, Europe.
But with limited water resources and
increased costs, it's tougher and tougher for
growers to decide whether or not to plant
vegetable crops that require a lot of input.
" There's a challenge in terms of a
limited budget. I don't know how a
grower can go in and speculate that
way, " Errotabere said. " You can do it,
but you may find a low return on the
growth of other crop opportunities.
Because, remember, all processing
crops (growers), whether it's tomatoes
or garlic or whatever the crop is, all
have to think about the same thing -
they're going to have to compete for
those limited water acres that are sure
to come. Remember, we don't have
endless groundwater backed up to deal
with that. And that's a real challenge
for the processors to deal with, because
(we're) now out to the early part of
their forecasting year to make some
committed judgments.
" You're going to know looking out,
say September, October, before the
coming year, what your decision plan
will look like for water budgeting
allocation and the crops that deserve
it, " he continued. " And everything
will be measured probably more on a
dollars-per-acre-foot return, rather than
dollars-per-acre. "
A volatile future
Water management is important,
6 | VegetableGrowersNews.com
http://www.VegetableGrowersNews.com
March 2021

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