By FRANK NELSON
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Agriculture, Santa Barbara County's single major producing industry, roared ahead by more than 9 percent, according to the latest annual figures published by the Agricultural Commissioners's Office in April last year.

Gross production value topped $775 million, up almost $66 million from the previous year, with strawberries accounting for almost $116 million of that, followed by broccoli, worth close to $100 million, and wine grapes at just over $72 million.

	LEN WOOD / NEWS-PRESS FILE Several nonchalant cattle leisurely graze off Highway 1 south of Lompoc. The discovery of mad cow disease in Washington state had little effect on local ranchers despite an international boycott of American beef.

Commissioner Bill Gillette hesitates to make predictions. However, looking at the strong showing of strawberries, vegetables and cattle last year, and even allowing for the relatively poor showing by grapes, he says it's hard to believe final 2003 returns will not continue that upward trend.

Agriculture accounts for roughly 9 percent of the county's total work force; as of last summer there were around 16,200 agricultural jobs, though they remain among the lowest paid in all sectors.

The discovery of mad cow disease in Washington state at the end of last year might have proved devastating for Santa Barbara County cattle farmers but the way John Branquinho tells it, things are already pretty much back to normal.

The Los Alamos rancher said the single case found in December had an impact for two or three weeks, carving up to 30 percent off the price per pound for beef cattle, prompting uncertainty and a reluctance to take stock to market.

But since then prices have settled down, sales have resumed and the U.S. internal market remains largely unchanged, said Mr. Branquinho, director of statewide affairs for the Santa Barbara Cattlemen's Association.

"I think people in the U. S. realize the mad cow was in fact only one cow from Canada," he said. "Though exports are still blocked, I think the worst is over."

Santa Barbara County is home to around 100,000 head of cattle worth roughly $40 million, according to estimates from Wayne Jensen, livestock farm advisor with the University of California Cooperative Extension, in Santa Maria.

Mr. Branquinho thinks the overall prospects for 2004 look very promising.

"The only problem is the weather," he said. "We're way down on rainfall and, with the cold, the grass is just not there. But that's Mother Nature, she controls us."

The weather also plays a big part in the wine grape industry as growers in Santa Barbara County found out last year when an unusually warm spell in January sparked early bud break. However, the tender young growth didn't fare too well later in the face of cold and windy weather, resulting in a very light harvest with the overall tonnage off by about one-third compared with 2002.

"You just can't predict the weather," says Kevin Merrill, president of the Central Coast Wine Growers' Association. "But there are a number of positive signs, such as the improving economy, giving me confidence that wine is on the way back up in 2004."

Mr. Merrill said the silver lining in the 2003 vintage is that the surplus wine inventory in storage will fall, a trend also helped by the runaway success of extremely low-priced wines such as Charles Shaw's so-called "Two Buck Chuck." On the other side of the ledger, Mr. Merrill said the industry still faces stiff competition from imports, especially from Australia, Chile and France, and has to keep up its guard against such pests as the glassy-winged sharpshooter and the vine mealy bug.

Meanwhile, the association's efforts to streamline the permit process for county wineries is slowly moving forward. Based on the work of a wine industry task force, the Board of Supervisors last year earmarked resources for the development of a draft ordinance.

Flowers have been consistent and important dollar earners in Santa Barbara County for many years, with gerberas locked in ninth place in the list of leading products for each of the past three years.

Last year the colorful daisies were worth $15.5 million with cut chrysanthemums close behind at $10.6 million and lilies ($9.6 million), potted and cut orchids (each worth more than $6 million) and cut roses ($5.7 million) all smelling sweet.

Ed Van Wingerden, owner and president of Ever-Bloom in Carpinteria, is the nation's single biggest grower of gerberas, with 15 acres under glass dedicated to hydroponically grown daisies. He said growers in Carpinteria are doing fairly well because they have stayed up to date with the latest technology and many have switched to hydroponics, two tactics which have enabled them to compete with the flood of imported flowers, especially from South America.

Many countries are now flat-out growing gerberas but Holland is the major competitor, according to Mr. Van Wingerden. He said Holland alone grows more than six times as many gerberas as the whole of the United States but the weak dollar has hurt Dutch exports here.

However, Mr. Van Wingerden said the gerbera market is becoming saturated, one reason why Ever-Bloom is starting to expand into anthuriums, an elegant bloom now grown mostly in Hawaii.

"I'm very optimistic about 2004. We're still seeing a strong market and it's a market with such potential," said Mr. Van Wingerden, adding that Americans spend about $65 per year on flowers compared with $450 per capita among Europeans.

One new element flower growers will have to come to terms with is the recent Coastal Commission decision limiting the growth of Carpinteria Valley's greenhouse industry. The plan sets a 2.7 million-square-foot cap on greenhouse development beyond the current 15 million square feet and requires safety upgrades to rural roads that greenhouse workers, riding bicycles or on foot, must share with large trucks.

	STEVE MALONE / NEWS-PRESS Flowering plants seem to be always on the move at Ever-Bloom in Carpinteria.

"Basically, this decision puts an end to any kind of greenhouse expansion in the Carpinteria Valley," Mr. Van Wingerden said.

Strawberry growers were licking their lips last year and basking in the glow of a record 2002, which saw them sell $115.8 million worth of fruit, a total which propelled strawberries to the top of the county agricultural production report.

That lofty position looks pretty safe for 2003 after the California Strawberry Commission announced a statewide production record last year of more than 111 million trays, up about 10 percent on 2002.

Santa Barbara County accounted for 19.16 million 19,165,800 of those trays, which mostly average around 8 or 9 pounds of fruit. But an even more impressive statistic is the increase in the county's strawberry acreage — up from 4,438 last year to 5,647 in 2004.

Santa Maria grower Daren Gee, whose DB Specialty Farms is one of the county's largest strawberry producers, said the industry is in good heart with record prices — averaging $7 per tray — and record production last year.

Turning to labor issues, Mr. Gee gave qualified support to President Bush's recent immigration reform plan, saying the farming community has been focusing on a guest worker program for the past eight years.

He said other industries are now jumping on the bandwagon and while the president's proposal is not exactly what the growers wanted, it is still "a step in the right direction."

Ken Doty, now into his second year as president of the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau, grows avocados and lemons in Goleta, and is currently experiencing the ups and down of farming. Avocado prices this season have been holding up well but "lemons were in the tank last year."

According to a recent report in Ag Alert, California's weekly agriculture newspaper, prices have dipped below the cost of production. And with much greater supply than demand, many lemons are going to the less-lucrative juice market.

Mr. Doty said it is hard to know just why lemons are doing so badly but there is definitely a "disconnect" between store prices, where lemons are fetching 59 cents, and the farm price of about 2 cents each.

Imports remain a huge issue for avocado growers who, said Mr. Doty, are waiting for a ruling on Mexico's latest application to expand operations in the U.S. But the good news, he said, is that "consumer demand continues to rise."

He said other items on the 2004 farming agenda include air and water quality and endangered species, all issues where compliance requires time and money. Farmers are also keeping one eye on free-trade talks and the other, as always, on the weather.

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