Almond production in Stanislaus County soared last year, gaining more than 25 percent in value as it remained the No. 1 crop in the county, according to the 2025 agricultural report released Tuesday.

Overall, total gross agricultural production in the county was valued at more than $3.3 billion, up $176 million – 6 percent – from the prior year. That’s far off the county’s record of $4.4 billion in 2024, when milk and nut prices were particularly robust.

“This increase follows trends we’re seeing not only across California, but also across the nation,” said Linda Pinfold, the county’s agricultural commissioner. “Please don’t misinterpret these values as profit or loss because they absolutely do not account for production costs or the incredibly important economic multipliers for our economy. These are simply farmgate values for prices received at the point of initial sale and prior to any downstream handling or distribution.”

District 4 Supervisor Terry Withrow stressed the point that a positive ag report doesn’t translate into profits for farmers.

“I had a phone call a couple days ago from a client who was spending $20,000 a week in diesel and now is spending $40,000 a week in diesel,” said Withrow, an accountant who also grows almonds and grapes. “So, you just look at what that does to your margins. It’s great the prices are up. That helps, but I don’t know if it compensates for the increases in costs.”

The total value of almonds for 2025 was about $1.04 billion – up about 26 percent from 2024’s total of $824.2 million – and exceeds the $1 billion plateau for the first time since 2021. Milk was the No. 2 commodity in the county with a value of $676.3 million, down about 10 percent from last year’s total of $754.6 million. As recently as 2022, milk value was 40 percent higher at $1.13 billion.

Almonds and milk, with a combined value of $1.7 billion, account for 52 percent of the county’s entire ag output.

“It’s great to see the uptick after a few down years,” said District 2 Supervisor Vito Chiesa, who represents Turlock and is also an almond and walnut farmer. “The ag industry might not carry the heft that it did 30 or 40 years ago, but the most successful businesses in our region are based around ag. It’s pretty amazing.”

Rounding out the top 10 commodities were poultry ($272 million, down $19 million from the previous year), cattle and calves ($246 million, up $38 million), fruit and nut/nursery ($123 million, up $12 million), silage ($120 million, up $12 million), walnuts ($99 million, up $11 million), pollination ($66 million, down $12 million), melons ($51 million, up $15 million), tomatoes ($46 million, down $14 million).

Eggs were bounced from the top 10 after a precipitous 70 percent decline in value, going from $47.1 million in 2024 to $14.1 million in 2025.

Pinfold said a big factor in the decline for eggs was the continued effects of avian influenza that carried over from 2024 into 2025.

“It was really a tough situation,” said Pinfold. “With dairy, the animals can be treated. But when it gets into the poultry, those birds have to be … the term is ‘depopulated.’ It means morbidity for them.”

The state requires all 58 counties to estimate their annual farm income.

Not all counties have released their 2025 reports, but Tulare County has come in at $9.1 billion, while Kern County has reported a figure of $8.9 billion. Fresno, which topped the state last year at $9 billion, figures to exceed that figure for 2025. San Joaquin County ($3.356 billion) edged Stanislaus County ($3.326 billion) by about $20 million – less than 1 percent of total value.

All told, the eight-county San Joaquin Valley region (Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, and Kern counties) accounted for close to $50 billion in ag production during 2025.