Water is what farmers are desperately looking for right now following zero precipitation in December.
“I’m using my own (water) pumps right now. You have to when it hasn’t rained in two months,” said Manteca row-crop farmer Arnold “Butch” Rothlin.
“Crops are already too late. I’m irrigating wheat right now for grain. Wheat needs water. Oats need water really bad, too,” Rothlin said while irrigating his wheat fields late Monday afternoon.
The past weekend’s strong wind gusts which reached 30 miles per hour Saturday night and early Sunday morning posed no big concern for almond growers like Stanley Vander Veen of Ripon. And, based on current weather conditions, the blooming season for one of San Joaquin County’s top 10 agricultural crops appears to be right on track, he said.
“Looks like they’re on schedule” to bloom this year, said Vander Veen.
But, like Rothlin and other area farmers, “We need water right now,” he said.
There’s a chance they may get some by Thursday when the National Weather Service says there is a chance of showers. The possibility of rain is in the forecast for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as well.
The frosty mornings in recent days, with more predicted to occur in the next few days, are just as bad for farmers as the need for rain, said Rothlin.
“We’ve been having a lot of frost, and that’s bad too because frost sucks the moisture out of the ground and burns the plant when it melts,” he said.
The frosty weather is bad news for dairy farmers as well, Rothlin added.
“It’s hard on the cattle; they could get pneumonia,” said Rothlin who grew up in the South Manteca dairy owned by his parents, Arnold Sr. and Laura.
“So dairy farmers need to keep a close eye on their cattle, too,” he said.
Rothlin is hopeful that the “prayer for rain” that was led by Father Peter Carota after the anticipated Mass on Saturday, Jan. 15, at St. Patrick’s in Ripon will bring rain soon.
“At the end of the Mass, we all knelt down. Father Peter had a nice prayer. I got on my knees and prayed for rain. I know somebody is more powerful than us here on earth,” Rothlin said.
