Fresno County crop production topped $5-billion dollars last year.
Fresno County's Agricultural Commissioner says production was down 4.5 percent. The 10 leading crops for Fresno County in 2009 were grapes, tomatoes, poultry, almonds, cattle and calves, milk, nectarines, oranges, peaches and garlic.
Grapes remained the number one crop even though total grape value was down 7.68 percent from 2008. Tomatoes moved to the number two spot. Values increased by 36 percent from 2008, due mostly to the increasing acres in both standard and cherry process tomatoes. Almonds moved to the number four spot on the list, down from number two.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wisconsin is looking over its shoulder as California makes a run for first place in cheese production.
The State Department of Food and Agriculture reports cheese production is up about 2-percent so far this year. The California cheese industry produced more than 2-billion pounds last year and a lot of it went on top of pizzas. Almost 54 percent was mozzarella.
Plants in six counties make most of the cheese, produced in the state. They are located in Tulare, Kings, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Los Angeles counties.
California ranks second nationally in cheese production to Wisconsin.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pest fighters report some encouraging news in their work to get rid of the European grapevine moth.
The moths were first found last year in Napa County. Six have been found in Fresno County this year.
The California Farm Bureau says treatments to get rid of the moth appear to be working. Fewer moths are emerging in the pest's second generation of the year. Officials remain hopeful the pest can be controlled.
