Author Archive
Tod Taylor has been trucking off and on for over 25 years, but it’s the only 
profession he’s known for the past seven years. He has pretty much done and seen it all during his career and is thankful the equipment has improved immensely.
He still has vivid memories of his first job trucking in January 1986 when he was driving for a company with a 1982 cabover. “They left me in New York City for three weeks, mainly to pick up and drop trailers. I vowed I’d never go back there,” he recalls.
He hasn’t strayed much from those feelings today. A company driver for Professional Services Transportation Inc. (PSI) of Huntsville, MO, Tod says he refuses to drive inside of Interstate 287 in New York. He, as well as PSI pretty much also avoids trucking in California because of the rules, regulations and gridlock.
“You can’t make any time in California or New York. You are dealing with too many things that eat the clock up,” he states.
While hauling meat is the primary focus for PSI, the company also transports its share of fresh produce. In fact, he finds some similarities between the two categories of loads.
Tod had just hauled a load of meat from Milwaukee and made two drops in 
Atlanta. Now he was parked at an Atlanta truck stop and in 14 hours (3 a.m.) was scheduled to make his first of three more drops. Sounds a little like some produce hauls, in which he also aired some opinions.
“If the produce people would get their act together, it wouldn’t be bad (hauling fresh fruits and vegetables). You wait three days to pick up two skids. You wait for those skids because the product has to be harvested. Trucking just don’t pay enough to do that. When I get lucky and finally get loaded, then they don’t want to pay you anything to haul it,” he reflects.
Tod believes a minumum of two dollars per mile is needed to haul produce out of California and many other places, “but most guys aren’t getting that. They want you to drive 3,100 miles for $2,800. You can’t do that, especially when you are there three to four days waiting for a load. It’s not worth it.”
At age 50, Tod has never owned his own truck, although he has considered it from time to time. However, he has always decided against being an owner operator “because I don’t need all of the extra headaches.”
Tod drives a beautiful 2012 Kenworth T-660, which had only 37,000 miles on it. He loves the truck that is powered by a Paacar 455 h.p. engine, 15-speed automatic transmission, and pulls a 53-foot Great Dane holding a Carrier refrigeration unit. The truck is a light oak leaf color with an 84-inch studio sleeper. The cab has a lot of modern features including a GPS system built into the dash.
He concludes, “Trucking has come along way from that ’82 cabover freight shaker I used to drive.”
After the interstate highway system was born in the 1950s under the 
Eisenhower Administration, it allowed the United States to explode in economic power because of its vast coast-to-coast infrastructure in the ensuing decades.
Although it will be on a much smaller scale, we’re going to see something similar with Mexican produce and other goods coming into the United States.
By the end of 2012, a 143-mile cross-continental highway known as the Autopista Durango-Mazatlan is scheduled for completion. It will reduce travel time from West Mexican growing regions to ports in Texas, including McAllen/Pharr. This will provide easier, faster access of Mexican products to the eastern half of the United States.
Meanwhile, over $200 million is being invested in expanding the Mariposa Land Port of Entry at Nogales, AZ. It has a projected completion in 2014.
Another reason I see increasing produce volume to the U.S. from Mexico is because many of the growing operations south of the border are financially backed and/or owned by U.S. produce growing/shipping operations. Cheaper labor costs also factor into this growth.
This should result in more loading opportunites for American produce haulers in the coming years. The unanswered question a this time, is how much of this produce in the future will be delivered by Mexican trucking operations since restrictions on border crossings, and Mexican truckers operating in the U.S., have been loosened.
For owner operator Larry C. Jones it is like being a kid waking up every morning at Disney World. No, I’m not saying he’s “Goofy”, or even “Happy” of the seven dwarfs, because he’s not short. And he’s certainly not “Grumpy.”
The 62-year-old is simply one of those guys who makes you feel better after having spent some time with him. Always smiling, optimistic, he loves his career in trucking that started in 1984. He also worked seven years for “Buster Brown” back in the ’70s.
Not everyone could do what Larry does. His routes are nearly as predictable as a mail carrier’s. But this is part of the secret to his success. Larry works and deals with the same people and companies on a year around basis.
For example, the past 28 years he has worked with Grist Truck Brokers Inc. of Tifton, GA. The trucker also loves hauling fresh produce and depending on the time of the year is normally loading out of Florida, Georgia, or Tennessee. He will deliver fruits and vegetables to Reaves Brokerage Co. in Dallas. Then he will pick up frozen foods in Big D at Sysco Food Services and deliver it to Sysco San Antonio Inc. In San Antonio he’ll pick up a load of frozen biscuits at Lone Star Bakery for delivery in Jefferson, GA. It is pretty much the same routine every week.
The trucker receives a fuel charge on both inbound and outbound loads,
whether it is hauling produce or frozen bakery products. He says the surcharge is adjusted at the beginning of every week.
There is little deadheading, or down time — and how could you sit idling for long when you log 250,000 miles a year! He’s sees the same waitresses, cashiers, dock men etc. on a regular basis. Talk about first-name-basis greetings!
“I make good money because I do the same things over and over again. Grist is good to me. They are decent, good people to work for,” Larry says. “The folks I deliver to in Texas, they are my best customers. I have been delivering to these people a long time. They trust me and know I deliver on time.”
Larry constantly receives compliments on how great his equipment looks. He drives a 2001 conventional Peterbuilt he purchased in 2003 that now has over 1.7 million miles on it. It used to be a plain jane, but thanks to a lot of work by Larry and Mark’s Body Shop it is now one customized beauty.
The red Pete with cherry black fenders houses a 550 h.p. Cat engine, with a 10-speed tranny and 300-inch wheelbase. The tractor pulls a 51.5-foot Walbash speed axle with a 310 Thermo King reefer unit. The truck has an outrageous amount of chrome both inside and out, including a pair of hefty eight-inch stacks. The 63-inch flattop sleeper has amenities ranging from refrigeration to a flatscreen TV.
While Larry has one of the sharper rigs on the road, that’s not good enough. Every two to three years he does a remake of his pride and joy. In fact, before long he is planning to take off a couple of weeks, visit his buddy Mike at the Tifton body shop, and give the equipment another make over. Among the changes, laying a wooden floor in the cab.
Larry has promised to send HaulProduce.com photos when the job is finished — around July. Look for our flickr posts.
Meanwhile, Larry plans to keep doing what he loves most. “I’m relaxed driving down the road. The people tell me how good my equipment looks, and that is what keeps me going. I love getting out on the road. I know everybody, even at all the places I stop.”
It may not be waking up at Disney World every morning, but it has got to be the next best thing — although in Larry’s mind, it’s even better.
A mild winter, great spring and increasing produce volume is gradually 
increasing demand for refrigerated equipment in several areas of the country. This is resulting in rising freight rates, although higher diesel fuel prices is certainly putting a damper on many truckers getting too excited about these changes.
In Florida, we’ve seen rate increases of 10 to 15 percent in the past week as volume continues to build for spring vegetables, and red potatoes. Watermelon shipments are underway, but we’re another week or so away from good volume.
In southeast Georgia, light shipments of Vidalia onions are occurring, but decent volume won’t hit until around April 15th.
On the West coast, we’re seeing a few more $7000 freight rates to New York City and Boston, but the majority of rates remain a few hundred dollars less. But this is an indicator of what’s coming as volume continues to build from Southern California, the San Joaquin Valley as well as the Salinas area.
Mexican vegetables, melons and mangos crossing the border at Nogales, AZ are showing small rate increases as this area enters it’s final peak volume month for shipments.
I keep hearing about shortages of equipment for hauling sweet potatoes out of eastern areas of North Carolina, but there seems to be no increases in the freight rates. Could there be a correlation? Duh!
North Carolina sweet potatoes – grossing about $2250 to Chicago.
Southern California, avocados, berries, etc – about $6800 to New York City.
Nogales vegetables – about $5800 to Philadelphia.
South Florida veggies – about $3600 to Boston
As we move further into spring and there are shipping gaps with some fruits 
and vegetables, one of the most consistent items on a year around basis are potatoes. They certainly don’t always pay the highest of freight rates, but they are dependable, and usually less perishable; meaning less risk to the hauler and hopefully less chance of dealing with “claim happy” receivers looking to shaft you with a unfair deduction or rejection.
All potato shipping areas combined around the country are loading over 4,700 trucklload equivalents of spuds on average per week right now. Idaho is accounting for around 1750 truckload equivalents weekly. Other leading states currently shipping spuds are Colorado’s San Luis Valley, the Columbia Basin in Washington state and the nearby Umatilla Basin in Oregon, as well as South Florida and Central Wisconsin. Much fewer shipments are occurring from Western Michigan, Aroostrock County, Maine, as well as from the Imperial and O’Neill areas of Nebraska and the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnestoa.
Twin Falls Idaho area – grossing about $5300 to New York City
San Luis Valley – $1600 to Dallas.
South Florida – $2700 to Baltimore
NOTE: The new U.S. potato season usually kicks off around late July or August. A peek at the upcoming year for potatoes shows potentially good news if you haul the product, or if you are a consumer. Potato farmers in the Northwest once again can’t resist the urge (or is it greed?) to plant an additional 30,000 acres of spuds for the 2012-13 season. That will probably more loading opportunities and lower retail prices. It could also mean a disasterous season for growers if too many spuds end up in the distribution pipeline.
Volume and shipments continue to seasonally build in California, resulting in 
more demand for refrigerated equipment. This means rising freight rates, which have increased five to 10 percent and more recently.
There will be huge increase in avocado shipments this year — as much as 25 percent more out of Southern California. Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican festival widely celebrated in the U.S. May 5 will mean big shipments of the fruit. The amount of avocados shipped to U.S. markets with be split about evenly from those loaded in California, and with avocado border crossings from Mexico. Southern California also will be loading berries and citrus.
Various types of lettuce shipments are increasing from the Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley. Broccoli and cauliflower loadings have started from the Salinas Valley. Light volume with strawberries, broccoli and cauliflower has got underway from Santa Maria.
There have actually been a few $7000 freight rates from California to the East Coast. It’s going to be interesting in another month of so to see how high freight rates have risen as produce volume and demand for refrigerated equipment builds.
Southern California produce – grossing about $6700 to Boston.
NOTE: Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of a much smaller, less trained Mexican military unit that defeated the French in battle in 1862.
Texas is among the top one-half dozen states when it comes to fresh produce 
shipments. Although it has lost acreage and production over the years as more growing operations were shifted to Mexico, the Lone Star State still remains an important piece in the nation’s food supply chain. Although the production/acrerage may not necessarily increase in coming years, the amount of produce coming in from Mexico should increase significantly starting in 2013 with the completion of a Mexican highway connecting production areas in Western Mexico with the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Onion shipments have started from South Texas, which is the state’s leading vegetable item in volume, coming off of 20,000 acres. Other leading veggies from the state is cabbage, carrots and spinach, although there’s dozens of other veggies.
However, there were heavy rains and hail in Hidalgo County on March 29th, and we’re still waiting on damage assessments to see how much truck loadings will be affected. This includes another big item from Texas, watermelons. The good news is hail storms are usually localized, meaning some fields may have been hit, while others may escape damage altogether.
By the end of this year, a 143-mile cross-continental highway known as the Autopista Durango-Mazatlan is scheduled for completion. It will reduce travel time from West Mexican growing regions to ports in Texas. This won’t mean the closing or reduced importance of the major Mexican crossing at Nogales, AZ. It could mean more loading opportunities for U.S. truckers for Mexican produce crossing the border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Texas vegetables grossing – about $2500 to Atlanta.
By Larry Oscar
A great American from Fritch, Texas once said, “You can’t fix stupid.” Perhaps 
that has never been more true than in today’s global political arena. It’s hard to imagine more glaring examples of stupidity than we have witnessed in government leaders over the past few years. It was Forrest Gump’s mother that said “Stupid is as stupid does.”
That too has been duly noted in the actions of such leaders as Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi. The stupidity of Saddam was astounding. He would still be alive and the leader in Iraq if he had just let the UN inspectors back into his country, thrown them a party, and let them inspect and visit anything in the country 
their heart desired. In fact, he should have invited George Bush and Bill Clinton over for a bunga-bunga party. Instead he had to act tough and thumb his nose at the world. The result was he ended up swinging from a rope Texas style.
Now we have that little runt with a huge nose from Iran threatening to “Wipe Israel off of the face of the Earth.” And at the same time celebrating his country’s march toward nuclear technology that will ultimately end in nuclear weapons. What a complete fool. What would you do if your neighbor down the street threatened to “wipe you off of the face of the Earth,” and then proceeded to build a bomb in his garage. Would you wait until his bomb was complete before taking action? Would you sit idly by like the Jews did in World War II and just let him exterminate you? Or would you learn from history and defend yourself while you still had the power to do so?
It’s hard to imagine what goes through these bozo’s little minds. There are many roads to Rome. And if you want to accomplish things in life you need to study the roads toward your goal with some thought and circumstance. Emotions will be your worst enemy. The emotional route will almost certainly be the most costly for you. For example, the best way for the Muslim countries to deal with Israel is through friendship and trade and not through religious emotionalism. Take a look at Europe for example. Germany fought WWII to conquer Europe and what was the result? Their own destruction. However, by working hard as capitalists and establishing free trade, they now own Europe. They have now accomplished through Capitalism what they were unable to accomplish through the forces of war.
We are now at another crossroads in the world. We still have leaders that do not understand the power of capitalism or how it works. They are still preaching the failed promises of Socialism-Marxism and ignoring the historical failures of this philosophy such as the Soviet Union, East Germany, North Korea, Greece, and Cuba. The only conclusion you can come to is that they are blinded by their own stubborn stupidity. No system is perfect. And all systems of government will leave some people behind, but only Capitalism lets the people use their creative talents to the fullest, and that generates the greatest wealth for the greatest numbers.
Without Capitalism we would not have had Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, or Oprah Winfrey. We are now facing a critical election; one that will determine if we are to retain a Socialist-Marxist leaning President who thinks that we should all have equal amounts of “stuff,” and that the government should tell us what to eat and how to live our lives.
Or do we move forward and choose a new President that will remove the burdensome weight of this government from our backs, and let us live free creative lives according to our own abilities as the founding fathers of this country envisioned. There are always risks in life. None of us has a guaranty that we will even be alive tomorrow, but one thing is for sure, if we are not free to develop the talents that are given to us by God, then we will pay a price far greater than life itself.
This nation has the richest poor on the face of the Earth. We have the only poor people with big screen TVs, cell phones, cars, and air conditioned housing. We will always have the poor, and it is Capitalism that will keep them from living in mud huts like they do in other countries! The best way to redistribute wealth is with a paycheck, and not a welfare check. If you want tomatoes you have to grow healthy tomato plants. If you want jobs you must grow healthy corporations, and not a bloated overgrown government that is funded with borrowed money!
I’m in Central and Southern Georgia this week checking out everything from peaches, to vegetable and pecan shipments for 2012.
As with much of the country, it has been a mild winter in the south, which is resulting in crops — and shipments occurring one to two weeks earlier than normal.
The Georgia peach harvest should kick off around May 8 – 10, with shipments by truck picking up by mid-May. Georgia is the third largest shipper of peaches in the nation, behind California and South Carolina. Georgia ships about two million boxes of peaches in an average year.
As for vegetables, I was standing in a field of kale that was being harvested yesterday and the field foreman said kale will be shipping for another six months. Similar accounts can be said for many other vegetables as Georgia will be shipping good volume through the summer and into the fall.
Georgia Greens from the southern areas of Georgia – grossing about $2800 to New York City.
Eating more blueberries, apples and pears may be linked to lower risk of 
diabetes, according to a new U.S. study.
These fruits are loaded with flavonoids, a natural compound present in certain fruits, vegetables and grains, which some research has tentatively tied to heath benefits such as a lower risk of heart disease or cancer.
“People who ate a higher amount of “blues” or apples, they tended to have a low risk of type 2 diabetes,” said An Pan, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health who worked on the study.
The findings show an association, he added, but don’t prove the fruits, themselves, prevent diabetes.
Tod Taylor has been trucking off and on for over 25 years, but it’s the only profession he’s known for the past seven years. He has pretty much done and seen it all during his career and is thankful the equipment has improved immensely.
He still has vivid memories of his first job trucking in January 1986 when he was driving for a company with a 1982 cabover. “They left me in New York City for three weeks, mainly to pick up and drop trailers. I vowed I’d never go back there,” he recalls.
He hasn’t strayed much from those feelings today. A company driver for Professional Services Transportation Inc. (PSI) of Huntsville, MO, Tod says he refuses to drive inside of Interstate 287 in New York. He, as well as PSI pretty much also avoids trucking in California because of the rules, regulations and gridlock.
“You can’t make any time in California or New York. You are dealing with too many things that eat the clock up,” he states.
While hauling meat is the primary focus for PSI, the company also transports its share of fresh produce. In fact, he finds some similarities between the two categories of loads.
Tod had just hauled a load of meat from Milwaukee and made two drops in Atlanta. Now he was parked at an Atlanta truck stop and in 14 hours (3 a.m.) was scheduled to make his first of three more drops. Sounds a little like some produce hauls, in which he also aired some opinions.
“If the produce people would get their act together, it wouldn’t be bad (hauling fresh fruits and vegetables). You wait three days to pick up two skids. You wait for those skids because the product has to be harvested. Trucking just don’t pay enough to do that. When I get lucky and finally get loaded, then they don’t want to pay you anything to haul it,” he reflects.
Tod believes a minumum of two dollars per mile is needed to haul produce out of California and many other places, “but most guys aren’t getting that. They want you to drive 3,100 miles for $2,800. You can’t do that, especially when you are there three to four days waiting for a load. It’s not worth it.”
At age 50, Tod has never owned his own truck, although he has considered it from time to time. However, he has always decided against being an owner operator “because I don’t need all of the extra headaches.”
Tod drives a beautiful 2012 Kenworth T-660, which had only 37,000 miles on it. He loves the truck that is powered by a Paacar 455 h.p. engine, 15-speed automatic transmission, and pulls a 53-foot Great Dane holding a Carrier refrigeration unit. The truck is a light oak leaf color with an 84-inch studio sleeper. The cab has a lot of modern features including a GPS system built into the dash.
He concludes, “Trucking has come along way from that ’82 cabover freight shaker I used to drive.”
After the interstate highway system was born in the 1950s under the Eisenhower Administration, it allowed the United States to explode in economic power because of its vast coast-to-coast infrastructure in the ensuing decades.
Although it will be on a much smaller scale, we’re going to see something similar with Mexican produce and other goods coming into the United States.
By the end of 2012, a 143-mile cross-continental highway known as the Autopista Durango-Mazatlan is scheduled for completion. It will reduce travel time from West Mexican growing regions to ports in Texas, including McAllen/Pharr. This will provide easier, faster access of Mexican products to the eastern half of the United States.
Meanwhile, over $200 million is being invested in expanding the Mariposa Land Port of Entry at Nogales, AZ. It has a projected completion in 2014.
Another reason I see increasing produce volume to the U.S. from Mexico is because many of the growing operations south of the border are financially backed and/or owned by U.S. produce growing/shipping operations. Cheaper labor costs also factor into this growth.
This should result in more loading opportunites for American produce haulers in the coming years. The unanswered question a this time, is how much of this produce in the future will be delivered by Mexican trucking operations since restrictions on border crossings, and Mexican truckers operating in the U.S., have been loosened.
For owner operator Larry C. Jones it is like being a kid waking up every morning at Disney World. No, I’m not saying he’s “Goofy”, or even “Happy” of the seven dwarfs, because he’s not short. And he’s certainly not “Grumpy.”
The 62-year-old is simply one of those guys who makes you feel better after having spent some time with him. Always smiling, optimistic, he loves his career in trucking that started in 1984. He also worked seven years for “Buster Brown” back in the ’70s.
Not everyone could do what Larry does. His routes are nearly as predictable as a mail carrier’s. But this is part of the secret to his success. Larry works and deals with the same people and companies on a year around basis.
For example, the past 28 years he has worked with Grist Truck Brokers Inc. of Tifton, GA. The trucker also loves hauling fresh produce and depending on the time of the year is normally loading out of Florida, Georgia, or Tennessee. He will deliver fruits and vegetables to Reaves Brokerage Co. in Dallas. Then he will pick up frozen foods in Big D at Sysco Food Services and deliver it to Sysco San Antonio Inc. In San Antonio he’ll pick up a load of frozen biscuits at Lone Star Bakery for delivery in Jefferson, GA. It is pretty much the same routine every week.
The trucker receives a fuel charge on both inbound and outbound loads, whether it is hauling produce or frozen bakery products. He says the surcharge is adjusted at the beginning of every week.
There is little deadheading, or down time — and how could you sit idling for long when you log 250,000 miles a year! He’s sees the same waitresses, cashiers, dock men etc. on a regular basis. Talk about first-name-basis greetings!
“I make good money because I do the same things over and over again. Grist is good to me. They are decent, good people to work for,” Larry says. “The folks I deliver to in Texas, they are my best customers. I have been delivering to these people a long time. They trust me and know I deliver on time.”
Larry constantly receives compliments on how great his equipment looks. He drives a 2001 conventional Peterbuilt he purchased in 2003 that now has over 1.7 million miles on it. It used to be a plain jane, but thanks to a lot of work by Larry and Mark’s Body Shop it is now one customized beauty.
The red Pete with cherry black fenders houses a 550 h.p. Cat engine, with a 10-speed tranny and 300-inch wheelbase. The tractor pulls a 51.5-foot Walbash speed axle with a 310 Thermo King reefer unit. The truck has an outrageous amount of chrome both inside and out, including a pair of hefty eight-inch stacks. The 63-inch flattop sleeper has amenities ranging from refrigeration to a flatscreen TV.
While Larry has one of the sharper rigs on the road, that’s not good enough. Every two to three years he does a remake of his pride and joy. In fact, before long he is planning to take off a couple of weeks, visit his buddy Mike at the Tifton body shop, and give the equipment another make over. Among the changes, laying a wooden floor in the cab.
Larry has promised to send HaulProduce.com photos when the job is finished — around July. Look for our flickr posts.
Meanwhile, Larry plans to keep doing what he loves most. “I’m relaxed driving down the road. The people tell me how good my equipment looks, and that is what keeps me going. I love getting out on the road. I know everybody, even at all the places I stop.”
It may not be waking up at Disney World every morning, but it has got to be the next best thing — although in Larry’s mind, it’s even better.
A mild winter, great spring and increasing produce volume is gradually increasing demand for refrigerated equipment in several areas of the country. This is resulting in rising freight rates, although higher diesel fuel prices is certainly putting a damper on many truckers getting too excited about these changes.
In Florida, we’ve seen rate increases of 10 to 15 percent in the past week as volume continues to build for spring vegetables, and red potatoes. Watermelon shipments are underway, but we’re another week or so away from good volume.
In southeast Georgia, light shipments of Vidalia onions are occurring, but decent volume won’t hit until around April 15th.
On the West coast, we’re seeing a few more $7000 freight rates to New York City and Boston, but the majority of rates remain a few hundred dollars less. But this is an indicator of what’s coming as volume continues to build from Southern California, the San Joaquin Valley as well as the Salinas area.
Mexican vegetables, melons and mangos crossing the border at Nogales, AZ are showing small rate increases as this area enters it’s final peak volume month for shipments.
I keep hearing about shortages of equipment for hauling sweet potatoes out of eastern areas of North Carolina, but there seems to be no increases in the freight rates. Could there be a correlation? Duh!
North Carolina sweet potatoes – grossing about $2250 to Chicago.
Southern California, avocados, berries, etc – about $6800 to New York City.
Nogales vegetables – about $5800 to Philadelphia.
South Florida veggies – about $3600 to Boston
As we move further into spring and there are shipping gaps with some fruits and vegetables, one of the most consistent items on a year around basis are potatoes. They certainly don’t always pay the highest of freight rates, but they are dependable, and usually less perishable; meaning less risk to the hauler and hopefully less chance of dealing with “claim happy” receivers looking to shaft you with a unfair deduction or rejection.
All potato shipping areas combined around the country are loading over 4,700 trucklload equivalents of spuds on average per week right now. Idaho is accounting for around 1750 truckload equivalents weekly. Other leading states currently shipping spuds are Colorado’s San Luis Valley, the Columbia Basin in Washington state and the nearby Umatilla Basin in Oregon, as well as South Florida and Central Wisconsin. Much fewer shipments are occurring from Western Michigan, Aroostrock County, Maine, as well as from the Imperial and O’Neill areas of Nebraska and the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnestoa.
Twin Falls Idaho area – grossing about $5300 to New York City
San Luis Valley – $1600 to Dallas.
South Florida – $2700 to Baltimore
NOTE: The new U.S. potato season usually kicks off around late July or August. A peek at the upcoming year for potatoes shows potentially good news if you haul the product, or if you are a consumer. Potato farmers in the Northwest once again can’t resist the urge (or is it greed?) to plant an additional 30,000 acres of spuds for the 2012-13 season. That will probably more loading opportunities and lower retail prices. It could also mean a disasterous season for growers if too many spuds end up in the distribution pipeline.
Volume and shipments continue to seasonally build in California, resulting in more demand for refrigerated equipment. This means rising freight rates, which have increased five to 10 percent and more recently.
There will be huge increase in avocado shipments this year — as much as 25 percent more out of Southern California. Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican festival widely celebrated in the U.S. May 5 will mean big shipments of the fruit. The amount of avocados shipped to U.S. markets with be split about evenly from those loaded in California, and with avocado border crossings from Mexico. Southern California also will be loading berries and citrus.
Various types of lettuce shipments are increasing from the Huron District in the San Joaquin Valley. Broccoli and cauliflower loadings have started from the Salinas Valley. Light volume with strawberries, broccoli and cauliflower has got underway from Santa Maria.
There have actually been a few $7000 freight rates from California to the East Coast. It’s going to be interesting in another month of so to see how high freight rates have risen as produce volume and demand for refrigerated equipment builds.
Southern California produce – grossing about $6700 to Boston.
NOTE: Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of a much smaller, less trained Mexican military unit that defeated the French in battle in 1862.
Texas is among the top one-half dozen states when it comes to fresh produce shipments. Although it has lost acreage and production over the years as more growing operations were shifted to Mexico, the Lone Star State still remains an important piece in the nation’s food supply chain. Although the production/acrerage may not necessarily increase in coming years, the amount of produce coming in from Mexico should increase significantly starting in 2013 with the completion of a Mexican highway connecting production areas in Western Mexico with the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Onion shipments have started from South Texas, which is the state’s leading vegetable item in volume, coming off of 20,000 acres. Other leading veggies from the state is cabbage, carrots and spinach, although there’s dozens of other veggies.
However, there were heavy rains and hail in Hidalgo County on March 29th, and we’re still waiting on damage assessments to see how much truck loadings will be affected. This includes another big item from Texas, watermelons. The good news is hail storms are usually localized, meaning some fields may have been hit, while others may escape damage altogether.
By the end of this year, a 143-mile cross-continental highway known as the Autopista Durango-Mazatlan is scheduled for completion. It will reduce travel time from West Mexican growing regions to ports in Texas. This won’t mean the closing or reduced importance of the major Mexican crossing at Nogales, AZ. It could mean more loading opportunities for U.S. truckers for Mexican produce crossing the border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Texas vegetables grossing – about $2500 to Atlanta.
By Larry Oscar
A great American from Fritch, Texas once said, “You can’t fix stupid.” Perhaps that has never been more true than in today’s global political arena. It’s hard to imagine more glaring examples of stupidity than we have witnessed in government leaders over the past few years. It was Forrest Gump’s mother that said “Stupid is as stupid does.”
That too has been duly noted in the actions of such leaders as Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi. The stupidity of Saddam was astounding. He would still be alive and the leader in Iraq if he had just let the UN inspectors back into his country, thrown them a party, and let them inspect and visit anything in the country their heart desired. In fact, he should have invited George Bush and Bill Clinton over for a bunga-bunga party. Instead he had to act tough and thumb his nose at the world. The result was he ended up swinging from a rope Texas style.
Now we have that little runt with a huge nose from Iran threatening to “Wipe Israel off of the face of the Earth.” And at the same time celebrating his country’s march toward nuclear technology that will ultimately end in nuclear weapons. What a complete fool. What would you do if your neighbor down the street threatened to “wipe you off of the face of the Earth,” and then proceeded to build a bomb in his garage. Would you wait until his bomb was complete before taking action? Would you sit idly by like the Jews did in World War II and just let him exterminate you? Or would you learn from history and defend yourself while you still had the power to do so?
It’s hard to imagine what goes through these bozo’s little minds. There are many roads to Rome. And if you want to accomplish things in life you need to study the roads toward your goal with some thought and circumstance. Emotions will be your worst enemy. The emotional route will almost certainly be the most costly for you. For example, the best way for the Muslim countries to deal with Israel is through friendship and trade and not through religious emotionalism. Take a look at Europe for example. Germany fought WWII to conquer Europe and what was the result? Their own destruction. However, by working hard as capitalists and establishing free trade, they now own Europe. They have now accomplished through Capitalism what they were unable to accomplish through the forces of war.
We are now at another crossroads in the world. We still have leaders that do not understand the power of capitalism or how it works. They are still preaching the failed promises of Socialism-Marxism and ignoring the historical failures of this philosophy such as the Soviet Union, East Germany, North Korea, Greece, and Cuba. The only conclusion you can come to is that they are blinded by their own stubborn stupidity. No system is perfect. And all systems of government will leave some people behind, but only Capitalism lets the people use their creative talents to the fullest, and that generates the greatest wealth for the greatest numbers.
Without Capitalism we would not have had Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, or Oprah Winfrey. We are now facing a critical election; one that will determine if we are to retain a Socialist-Marxist leaning President who thinks that we should all have equal amounts of “stuff,” and that the government should tell us what to eat and how to live our lives.
Or do we move forward and choose a new President that will remove the burdensome weight of this government from our backs, and let us live free creative lives according to our own abilities as the founding fathers of this country envisioned. There are always risks in life. None of us has a guaranty that we will even be alive tomorrow, but one thing is for sure, if we are not free to develop the talents that are given to us by God, then we will pay a price far greater than life itself.
This nation has the richest poor on the face of the Earth. We have the only poor people with big screen TVs, cell phones, cars, and air conditioned housing. We will always have the poor, and it is Capitalism that will keep them from living in mud huts like they do in other countries! The best way to redistribute wealth is with a paycheck, and not a welfare check. If you want tomatoes you have to grow healthy tomato plants. If you want jobs you must grow healthy corporations, and not a bloated overgrown government that is funded with borrowed money!
I’m in Central and Southern Georgia this week checking out everything from peaches, to vegetable and pecan shipments for 2012.
As with much of the country, it has been a mild winter in the south, which is resulting in crops — and shipments occurring one to two weeks earlier than normal.
The Georgia peach harvest should kick off around May 8 – 10, with shipments by truck picking up by mid-May. Georgia is the third largest shipper of peaches in the nation, behind California and South Carolina. Georgia ships about two million boxes of peaches in an average year.
As for vegetables, I was standing in a field of kale that was being harvested yesterday and the field foreman said kale will be shipping for another six months. Similar accounts can be said for many other vegetables as Georgia will be shipping good volume through the summer and into the fall.
Georgia Greens from the southern areas of Georgia – grossing about $2800 to New York City.
Eating more blueberries, apples and pears may be linked to lower risk of diabetes, according to a new U.S. study.
These fruits are loaded with flavonoids, a natural compound present in certain fruits, vegetables and grains, which some research has tentatively tied to heath benefits such as a lower risk of heart disease or cancer.
“People who ate a higher amount of “blues” or apples, they tended to have a low risk of type 2 diabetes,” said An Pan, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health who worked on the study.
The findings show an association, he added, but don’t prove the fruits, themselves, prevent diabetes.