Less Land, Rich Crops

Despite shrinking agricultural acreage, Orange County’s ranchers and growers posted their third-best year on record in 1986, with the total gross value of crops reaching $254.3 million, according to the county Agriculture Department’s annual report.

That money came largely from crops raised on a mere 33,000 acres--or just 6.6% of the county’s more than half a million acres. About 30,000 acres of mostly untillable hillside land is used for grazing cattle, boosting total agricultural acreage in the county to 63,134 acres in 1986.

Although development has caused land prices to soar, farmers in the county survive and profit by using otherwise unwanted land and by growing high-income crops, said Wayne Appel, county deputy agricultural commissioner.

About 700 farmers are still active in the county, according to Thelma Moses, director of the Orange County Farm Bureau, most of whom are producing crops on a year-round basis.

“They utilize as much of the land as possible. That’s one reason why the No. 1 crop is nursery stock, which is incredibly productive,” Moses said.

Bordier’s Nursery, for example, lies just outside El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, where the noise of the jets flying over the 200-acre nursery makes office and residential use of the land virtually impossible. But the nursery has been turning out ornamental plants for about 15 years.

“Nobody would want to live here, so we grow our items here,” said Bob Metz, a Bordier spokesman.

Still, intensive development countywide has taken its toll on farming, said Paul Murai, who co-owns Murai Farms in Irvine with his brother.

“The land is valuable, and some times agriculture doesn’t pay if you are naturally going to get more money from development,” he said.

The location of Murai Farms, also near the El Toro air base, helps keep developers away, Murai said. The farm produces strawberries, tomatoes, squash and green beans.

Because there has been a strong decline in agricultural acreage over the years, county farmers are choosing crops--like strawberries and asparagus--with higher value per acre, said Barbara Buck, a spokeswoman at Western Growers Assn.

But the farm bureau’s Thelma Moses is pessimistic.

“Farmers will gradually be gone,” she said. “Sure, I think it will take a while, but it is a realistic viewpoint. When there’s a good place for agriculture, it is also a pleasant place for houses. People come in, and agriculture moves out.”