CBS Sacramento spoke with almond farmer Mike Weststeyn on Wednesday and followed up with him on Sunday before potential rain on the horizon. Mike farms 700 acres of almond trees throughout San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties with his son, Erik.
"That's how we make a living," Mike said. "We're producing those and that's what we're trying to sell, those, as in if we don't have a crop to sell, that's hard on the bottom line. If we don't have a crop to sell, yeah, not making money."
"It's really a critical time, even after bloom, and that nut starts to grow, it'll shed this outside covering, and it'll be sitting there, like with this little green nut, was really sensitive to frost at that stage. If we get a frost, any temperate down below 32 degrees, that will freeze that little nut there and it'll fall off," Mike said. "It's not going to bloom again. You're going to have to wait again until next year."
"The last couple nights you could hear the sprayers running out in the orchards. Lot of guys have been doing that, getting everything covered, so it gets a fungicide treatment on before the rain, so it will hold until we can get back in the orchards after the rain," Mike said.
Since CBS Sacramento spoke with Mike on Wednesday, he gave an update on how the crops have been since then – and what he's expecting this week.
But whether or not this weather affects their crop, for Mike, he's just grateful he gets to farm through this with his son.
Erik graduated from UC Davis in 2024 with an ag systems management degree and came back home.
Erik also got married recently and his wife works in the ag finance industry. Mike and his wife, Amy, enjoy having them around, making home-cooked meals, and Mike said Amy especially is looking forward to having grandkids. Mike said his daughter works in Sacramento at the Blue Diamond office. Almonds are very much a part of this family, as Mike grew up on an almond farm with his dad farming it at a property near where they are today in Ripon.
And almonds need the bees. With two beehives per acre on their property, Mike also calls these bees "vitally important" to their operation. If there's rain or temperatures below 50 degrees, the bees can't fly. If the bees can't fly, they can't pollinate, and there's no crop. But, they've been able to fly and pollinate these last few days and they're hoping that after the rain, they can still get a good crop.
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