Freezes Could Cut Ventura County’s Berry Crop by 10%

Damage caused by overnight temperatures, which dipped below freezing over the weekend, may reduce Ventura County’s $60-million annual strawberry harvest by as much as 10% and drive up prices of the red fruit when it reaches supermarkets later this month, area growers said Monday.

Although it will be several days before county officials can assess the damage, the growers said the unusually cold weather, which kept some farmers up all night tending their crops, provided a dramatic turn to one of the mildest winters in recent memory.

“The effect has been awesome,” said Stan Taylor Sr., owner of Cal Sun Produce Co., one of the county’s largest strawberry growers with about 200 acres of the fruit on the Oxnard Plain between Camarillo and Point Mugu.

Taylor said that with temperatures falling to the mid-20s on Friday and Saturday, the nights were the coldest that he could remember in the 18 years he has farmed the area.

Up to 75% of February Harvest Damaged

The weather damaged between 50% and 75% of the strawberries that he had planned to harvest in four to five weeks, Taylor said. Each plant is harvested several times between February and July, he said.

Taylor, who was visited in the fields Monday by his financial consultant, Herman Heimann Jr. of the Oxnard branch of Merrill Lynch, said it will take several days to assess his exact losses. But he estimated that strawberry growers countywide lost 10% of their crop for the year in the recent cold. And because strawberries bring their highest prices early in the harvest, revenue losses to farmers could run even higher, he said.

“Prices start at the top of the mountain and work their way down,” Taylor said. “So the first 10% of the crop may represent 15% to 18% of a grower’s total gross revenue.”

Consumer Prices May Go Up

Consumers may be asked to make up for some of the losses when they shop for strawberries later this year, he said.

Strawberries are Ventura County’s second-largest cash crop, valued at $60 million in 1985, according to county records. Agriculture, estimated to be a $600-million-a-year business, is the county’s largest industry.

Lemons are the leading crop, bringing $116 million to the area in 1985, and oranges are third with a value of $57 million in 1985.

“There’s no question that there’s been damage, but it’s still too early to tell how much,” said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

Avocado and citrus groves also suffered weather damage over the weekend, Laird said. County crop damage estimates will not be available until later in the week, he said.

Wind Machines Fight Frost

Doug Wagner, a supervisor for the Bob Jones Ranch, the largest strawberry grower in Ventura County, said he and two workers stayed up all night Thursday, Friday and Saturday to make sure that the farm’s 22-foot-high, gas-powered wind machines worked properly. The breeze created by the machines raises the temperature in the fields and helps keep frost off the plants, Wagner said.

“We can’t tell the extent of the damage yet because most of it is hidden, but we think we kept the loss to a minimum,” Wagner said.

Temperatures at the 320-acre Jones Ranch, located in the Oxnard Plain, went down to 28 degrees, Wagner said.

The cold temperatures were a sharp contrast to what had been an unusually mild winter.

“We started picking strawberries real early, about two weeks ago, because we’ve had a warm winter through the beginning of January,” Wagner said.

Coating of Ice Insulates Plants

In some strawberry fields without the wind machines, Wagner said, he and workers sprayed plants with a fine mist of water as temperatures approached freezing. The ice that forms on the plants acts as insulation and keeps the plant temperature from falling below 32 degrees, he said.

Strawberries, which do not have a thick skin to protect them, are more sensitive to cold than other fruits grown in the area. When the fruit freezes, the skin is broken and the strawberry loses its shape and becomes mushy when it defrosts.

Phil Boskovich, whose family runs Boskovich Farms in Camarillo, said that the cold damaged some of the lettuce and celery that his family grows on 1,500 acres. “We aren’t set up for any heaters because this is really a 1-in-10-years freeze,” he said.

Although Boskovich said it is too early to tell how much of the crop has been damaged, he is sure that “the percentage of the crop that can be marketed will be reduced,” which will cause produce prices to rise.

Little Damage to Lemons

Joe Maulhardt, 67, owner of a Ventura County farm that has been run by his family for 100 years, was less worried about the cold than others. Damage to his 30-acre lemon grove was pretty light, he said.

“I can recall one time 10 or 15 years ago when it got mighty cold, colder than now,” Maulhardt said. “Back then we had some young trees hurt pretty bad, but they came out of it all right.”

Long-time vegetable grower Joe Terry also said he has seen the weather get pretty cold where he farms on the Oxnard Plain, an area known throughout the state for its rich soil and even year-round temperature.

“I guess we need to be reminded every once in a while that Mother Nature is the boss,” Terry said.