>But almonds take less water than many other crops, such as tomatoes, so the

> last gasp of the Central Valley before it returns to looking more like
> Death
> Valley may actually increase the almond acreage, after the current drought
> eases a bit.


There is an old non irrigated almond orchard in the Central Valley that I
once observed closely over the course of the season.  The leaves on the
trees would shrivel by harvest time, but the grower harvested a crop.  Of
course the crop was far less than that from irrigated trees.  The question
would be profitability.  Currently, it takes at least a 2000 lb/acre crop
to be profitable with nut prices at $1.90 (with irrigation included in the
cost).  Irrigation accounts for about $300 of those costs.  So it would
require the price of nuts to go up substantially (which is likely anyway)
for non irrigated orchards to be profitable.  More realistic would be to
reduce the amount of irrigation to reach a profitable compromise.

And no reason to expect the current drought to ease.  Calif has been in an
unusually wet period for the past century. Read more on the long term
possibility of Calif going into prolonged drought at
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_24993601/california-drought-past-dry-periods-have-lasted-more

Lucky for Calif agriculture, one of our main reservoirs, Folsom Lake, rose
8 feet in the last 24 hours, 14 ft in the past 4 days.  We're still not out
of the fire, but have a ray of hope.


-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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