Weather could delay harvest of tomatoes, walnuts
The rainy season started on a good note Tuesday for many San
Benito County ranchers with the first big storm of the year.
New Agriculture Commissioner Ron Ross said Tuesday’s relatively
large rain storm has started
”
the season out right
”
for ranchers, although he also noted how it poses a bump in the
road for some farmers harvesting such crops as tomatoes and
walnuts. The wet conditions for those farmers, however, merely
delay the harvest a bit.
Weather could delay harvest of tomatoes, walnuts
The rainy season started on a good note Tuesday for many San Benito County ranchers with the first big storm of the year.
New Agriculture Commissioner Ron Ross said Tuesday’s relatively large rain storm has started “the season out right” for ranchers, although he also noted how it poses a bump in the road for some farmers harvesting such crops as tomatoes and walnuts. The wet conditions for those farmers, however, merely delay the harvest a bit.
“A nice rain like this will certainly start the season out right, and we’ll definitely need that with the last two years,” said Ross, recently appointed as acting agriculture commissioner.
That’s a good thing considering the past couple of years have been dry ones in San Benito County. The total seasonal precipitation for 2007-08 was 10.63 inches, while it was 11.17 inches during the 2008-09 winter, according to the National Weather Service office in Monterey. Those numbers mean rainfall numbers have been at around 80 percent of the standard in recent years.
As for the timing, Ross said it’s a little early in the year for a major rain storm, but he noted how they can occur in some years as early as late September.
Ross also pointed out how he had noticed some seasonal springs in southern San Benito County dried up earlier than usual last year, and that “we need a good year of above-average rain to replenish the groundwater supplies.”
