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- #31
- Jun 15, 2008
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Quote:
He doesn't live in a desert. He lives in the Central San Joaquin Valley where I spent some 30 odd years of my life. It is some of the most productive farm land in the country, where people ship their vegies and a good deal of their fruit from during off seasons.
Yup , and Yup!!! When we moved here 15 years ago. It was open rolling range land that is very arrid climate,and high desert soils at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It took 13 years to clear off the tumble weeds and Jensen weeds. I am still whacking them here and there. Star thistle and bull thistle as well as a few other weeds are still being faught daily. Predators of many kinds are here to stay. Yes indeed, this valley is the breadbasket for the US. All one needs is hundreds to thausands of level acres and plenty of irrigation water as we have 2-3 vegatable crop cycles per year, 5-7 cycles for alfalfa. only one for strawberries , orchard crops, grapes and cotton. Dairies are king in Tulare county, just south of us. The average dairy milks 10,000 cows ( the largest has 44,000 ) and produce more milk and cheese than the State of Wisconsin. There are poultry farms that produce eggs by the million, and meat chickens and turkeys by the hundred thausand. Also one needs a very friendly Banker, a lawyer or two, production contracts with processors, canneries, truckers, custom harvestors and distributors, farm machinery that can be over $100,000 +++ each, tons of pesticides and herbicides and crop dusters to apply them and a few hundred migrant workers to harvest your crops and one can make a dollar or two. My next door neighbor's son-in-law baught 5 harvestors for $500,000 each a couple years ago. He custom harvests with them 18 hours a day and 8 hours in maintenance and transportation to the next field for 5 months out of the year, does maintenance work on them for a month and then R&R the rest of the year. His work force is 12 drivers and 2 mechanics. Not too bad. My neighbor on the other side just sold ( and retired) his trucking business with 12 trucks with trailers and employs 25 drivers, 2 mechanics, and a dispatcher. He hauls tomatoes nonstop to canneries starting at the Mexican border and ending up at Chico in N Cal. for 9 months of the year. However in my little corner of the valley , only one other neighbor has a small family garden, and NO ONE ,other than me, has even ONE chicken in at least a 10 mile radious. Just not cost effective as we can buy everthing so much cheaper than what we can hope to produce for ourselves. What a contrast a few miles make!
He doesn't live in a desert. He lives in the Central San Joaquin Valley where I spent some 30 odd years of my life. It is some of the most productive farm land in the country, where people ship their vegies and a good deal of their fruit from during off seasons.
Yup , and Yup!!! When we moved here 15 years ago. It was open rolling range land that is very arrid climate,and high desert soils at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It took 13 years to clear off the tumble weeds and Jensen weeds. I am still whacking them here and there. Star thistle and bull thistle as well as a few other weeds are still being faught daily. Predators of many kinds are here to stay. Yes indeed, this valley is the breadbasket for the US. All one needs is hundreds to thausands of level acres and plenty of irrigation water as we have 2-3 vegatable crop cycles per year, 5-7 cycles for alfalfa. only one for strawberries , orchard crops, grapes and cotton. Dairies are king in Tulare county, just south of us. The average dairy milks 10,000 cows ( the largest has 44,000 ) and produce more milk and cheese than the State of Wisconsin. There are poultry farms that produce eggs by the million, and meat chickens and turkeys by the hundred thausand. Also one needs a very friendly Banker, a lawyer or two, production contracts with processors, canneries, truckers, custom harvestors and distributors, farm machinery that can be over $100,000 +++ each, tons of pesticides and herbicides and crop dusters to apply them and a few hundred migrant workers to harvest your crops and one can make a dollar or two. My next door neighbor's son-in-law baught 5 harvestors for $500,000 each a couple years ago. He custom harvests with them 18 hours a day and 8 hours in maintenance and transportation to the next field for 5 months out of the year, does maintenance work on them for a month and then R&R the rest of the year. His work force is 12 drivers and 2 mechanics. Not too bad. My neighbor on the other side just sold ( and retired) his trucking business with 12 trucks with trailers and employs 25 drivers, 2 mechanics, and a dispatcher. He hauls tomatoes nonstop to canneries starting at the Mexican border and ending up at Chico in N Cal. for 9 months of the year. However in my little corner of the valley , only one other neighbor has a small family garden, and NO ONE ,other than me, has even ONE chicken in at least a 10 mile radious. Just not cost effective as we can buy everthing so much cheaper than what we can hope to produce for ourselves. What a contrast a few miles make!