BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — As clocks spring forward, the time change is sparking debate in Kern County. While one local farmer says Daylight Saving Time disrupts work that runs on sunlight, others say the shift has little impact. Some local growers say the one-hour shift can disrupt harvests and early morning start times. One farmer tells us his crew once arrived ready to work — only to sit in the dark after misreading which way the time change went.
Daniel Palla is a local farmer, and he says, “They should just base it on the sun, how time is supposed to be based on the sun cycle, with noon being midway through the day and midnight being midway through the night. As growers, we have to change our start time multiple times. The morning changes by more than just one hour, so we were constantly changing what time we start weather it be at 5 am or 7 am, because what time it gets light.”
Palla says they wait until after the time change to adjust their schedule — minimizing lost work and keeping their focus on daylight, not the clock. However, other big manufacturing companies like Wonderful Orchards tell us the time shift has little impact on their operations.
Mike Jost & Bryan Okland, work at Wonderful Orchards, and they say, “Operations kinda run 24 hours a day, 7 hours a week during some seasons, and it has an impact, but all it does, whether we are using the sun or lights on the equipment…The only thing we may adjust is our start times, just because it's darker in the mornings, we may push our start times back.”
Most farmers say losing or gaining an hour affects worker start times, which can impact the rest of their families — from getting kids to school to maintaining regular schedules.
Steve Murray, with Murray Family Farms, says, “it really affects our workers more than does us as farmers that as the days get longer and mornings start later that the workers would like to go to work earlier and go home earlier and they try to coordinate transporting their children to school and so with daylight savings theres more of a snag getting the kids to school and getting to work.”
For many small-time farmers, the clock change is just another adjustment in a seasonal rhythm they’ve learned to follow. While it may briefly affect worker schedules, most say the sun — not the clock — still dictates their day.
For some farmers in Kern County, they say no matter what the clock says, the sun still dictates the day — and for now, they’ll keep adjusting their schedules one season at a time.
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