The Yuma, AZ, vegetable industry is fond of telling people that if you eat a salad in the United States during the winter months, more likely than not the lettuce was grown in this district.

With more than 90,000 acres of land, and an annual contribution of $2.5 billion to the Yuma economy, agriculture plays a huge role in southwest Arizona during the winter months. The Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association quantifies its produce volume in an interesting way that truly indicates its importance: “For all counties in the United States, Yuma County ranks in the top: 0.1 percent in sales of vegetable and melons; 0.1 percent in vegetable crop acreage; 0.2 percent in lettuce crop acreage; (and) 0.7 percent in sales of agricultural products.”The winter desert deal is under way as growers anticipate the effects of changing weather patterns and farm labor issues on the current and future seasons.

While the area produces a plethora of crops, vegetables are predominant. “In fact, Yuma farmers produce enough Iceberg lettuce each year for every person in the United States, Canada and Mexico to have their very own head of lettuce — with enough lettuce left for every person in the United Kingdom to have one too,” touts the YFVA website.

Bruce Gwynn, executive director of the association, said that the 2015-16 season appears to be shaping up as a normal one, in terms of overall acreage and production. However, he did note that a freak storm in early September dropped as much as six inches of rain on some ranches in the area. That storm wiped out many fields that had already been planted. Because it was early in the planting season, virtually all that acreage was replanted but it has meant a bit of a supply gap at the early end of the deal.

Steve Alameda, the president of YFVA who farms as Top Flavor Farms in Yuma, explained that the early rain has created a bit less acreage early in the season. “But the bigger problem was the heat in September and October,” he said.

Those two months, which was when the lettuce and other crops were in prime growing mode, were historically much warmer than usual. Alameda said quality has been affected, and the plants are producing small heads, which has led to far fewer pounds per acre. With so much of the Iceberg and mixed lettuces harvested for value-added products, poundage is extremely important. Consequently a hot market has greeted the beginning of the winter vegetable deal. In early November, the spot market on Iceberg lettuce was well into the $20s.

“I think it will be at least three to four weeks until we work through these issues,” said Alameda, who wasn’t scheduled to harvest his first fields until the week of Nov. 9.

The longtime Yuma area grower said the product mix is shifting a bit. He estimated that for the first time ever in 2014-15, total acreage of all the mixed lettuces surpassed iceberg lettuce. As an individual crop, he said Iceberg lettuce is still king but its acreage is going down a bit each year as growers replace it with romaine, red leaf, green leaf and other mixed lettuce items. “Throw in spinach [acreage]and it far surpasses Iceberg.”

As the season moves into a heavier harvesting period, Alameda said many people are focused on a potential labor shortage. “We are very worried about that. We don’t know who is going to harvest the crops.”

He said at the height of the season, it takes 30,000 to 40,000 workers per day to harvest and pack the winter vegetable deal. “Right now we have a terrible labor shortage. We don’t know where the workers are going to come from” as the need increases.

As far as the predicted El Nino that is expected to hit the West this year, Alameda said he has done everything he can to prepare for it. Because the brunt of those storms are supposed to hit later in the season, he made strategic planting decisions with regard to his land most susceptible to heavy rain. He also bedded up a lot of his acreage to be prepared for early rain. But for the most part, Alameda said that growers just have to wait and see what happens and how it affects them. “There’s not a lot you can do.”

The El Nino is sure to be a topic of discussion during YFVA’s Southwest Ag Summit, which will be held in late February on the campus of Arizona Western College in Yuma. Gwynn said the association is in the heavy planning stages of this annual event, which has become the premier agricultural event for this area. Last year, it attracted more than 825 people, including 80 vendors. Gwynn said that Roberta Cook of the University of California-Davis will be the keynote speaker of this produce-centric two-day show and seminar. He noted that water is always a major topic along with many other concepts including marketing, pest management and sustainability. More information is available on YFVA’s website, www.yumafreshvegassoc.org.