Governor Urges Federal Aid for Farms

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the federal government on Wednesday to help California dairy operators, chicken ranchers and other farmers who were hit with financial losses caused by last week’s record heat wave.

Though estimates of damages remain sketchy at best, agriculture industry officials suggested they would need help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to deal with losses that they said could top $1 billion.

“I urge the USDA to speed relief efforts to California farmers and ranchers without waiting for final damage assessments to come in,” Schwarzenegger said on a relatively cool 93-degree day during a visit to the Fresno County Farm Bureau.

The Republican governor, who is seeking reelection in November, had been criticized by his opponent, Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides, for being slow to request help from the Bush administration.

The governor also announced he’s dispatching his agricultural secretary to urge Washington “to move quickly to help our agricultural community.” California produces more food and fiber than any other state, earning $32 billion in revenue annually.

But, help from Washington in the form of direct assistance and low-interest loans could be months away, if it comes at all.

Counties must tally their losses, report them to the California Office of Emergency Services and forward the request to the USDA.

“It depends on how quickly we get them and can process them,” said Latawnya Dia, a spokeswoman with the USDA’s Farm Services Agency. Similar requests from other states for weather damage assistance arrive almost daily, Dia said.

She said one such request, received Wednesday from South Dakota, sought money to pay for agricultural losses caused this year by “killing frost, extreme heat, high winds, hail, insect damage, insufficient subsoil moisture, prairie fires caused by dry lightning and ongoing drought in 18 counties.”

California’s unprecedented, 12-day heat -- the most intense in 57 years -- killed about 140 people and taxed the state’s electrical system to near its breaking point. Thousands of cow carcasses had to be hauled to Central Valley landfills for disposal.

The biggest damage from the triple-digit temperatures that swept the Central Valley and even coastal areas seemed to have hit the dairy industry, the largest in the country.

Based on preliminary reports, dairy producers have lost 16,000 to 30,000 milk cows, worth as much as $60 million, experts said. Milk production is suffering a short-term loss of as much as 25% because of the herd loss and dehydration, agriculture officials said.

Poultry ranchers lost about 1 million turkeys and chickens, worth about $2 million at the farm gate. Annual production is about 250 million birds, said Bill Mattos of the California Poultry Federation in Modesto.

Damages to vegetables, nuts and fruit remain to be assessed and might not be known until harvests are complete in the late summer and fall, state Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura said. Walnuts, apples, plums and peaches are prone be being “sunburnt,” Kawamura said, and canning tomatoes could be “cooked in the field” and be unfit to be turned into juice and pizza sauce.

Consumers, however, should see little effect on their pocketbooks from heat-related losses, industry officials said. “We won’t see a significant impact on prices at the store level,” said Leslie Butler, an agricultural economist at UC Davis. Inventories of cheese and butter remain high, he added.

A temporary drop in milk output might even boost prices that currently are running as much as 30% below the cost of production, said Ray Souza, who operates a dairy with 700 cows near Turlock in Stanislaus County. “The herd will thin out and prices will go back up,” he said.

In the meantime, Souza urged consumers to help his industry by eating more cheese, more butter and more ice cream: “Heck, it’s summertime. It’s the best way to stay cool.”