After two consecutive years of lower farm-gate values in Kings County, Calif., higher milk prices helped bolster the county’s total gross agricultural output to just over $2.06 billion. This is a 1.4 percent increase from the previous year.

Milk – including production from cows and goats – continues to be the highest-valued commodity in the county, valued at over $676 million.

Gross dairy output from herds in the county totaled more than 4.13 billion pounds, down from 4.28 billion pounds the previous year. Producer milk prices averaged from $16.32 per hundredweight (cwt) to $18.10 per cwt for cows and $37.80 for goats.

Kings County remains the state’s leading cotton producer, though the crop no longer leads agricultural values in the southern San Joaquin Valley location. Still, more than 112,000 acres of the lint crop was produced there in 2017.

Higher prices for Pima varieties drove planting decisions as more than 90 percent of the crop there is devoted to the extra-long-staple varieties.

Production in both Pima and Acala varieties was off a bit – down almost a bale on average for Acala varieties to 2.93 bales per acre, and off a little more than a half-bale for Pima varieties at 2.67 bales per acre. Pima prices were up on average to $746 per 495-pound bale while Acala prices softened a little more than $30 per bale to $396.

Almonds and Pistachios traded places in the top-10 under softer pistachio prices and reduced output. Per-acre yields reduced total production by over 40 percent, even as bearing acreage was up 16 percent to over 25,000.

Almonds, on the other hand, saw bearing acreages increase nearly 19 percent to over 27,000 as yields were up 3.7 percent. Producer prices softened a few cents to $2.35 per pound, on average.

The county’s processing tomato acreage fell 8.9 percent on prices that were a few cents per ton higher. Growers harvested just over 27,000 acres of canning tomatoes, yielding an average of just over 57.3 tons per acre. Total production was just over 1.55 million tons.

The Kings County Crop Report is a gross value total of all commodities produced in the county and does not reflect grower profits.