<p>Federal farm officials predict a near-record 2 billion-pound California almond crop this year, despite strong April winds that knocked some nuts and branches out of trees as well as pushing over some trees.Even at that size, however, the fall harvest may still fall short of filling worldwide demand and keep nut prices at their current high levels, one almond broker said.</p> <p>The forecast, based on a telephone survey of more than 300 almond farmers statewide, is up 6 percent from last year's production of 1.89 billion pounds. It is shy, however, of 2011's all-time record crop of 2.03 billion pounds.Almonds are San Joaquin County's fourth most valuable cash crop, worth an estimated $188 million in 2011.Escalon almond grower Rick Veldstra said the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimate sounds about right, given what he sees in his orchards."My trees, the young ones, are really good. The old ones are above average," he said. "I'm looking at overall above average, so I would say that 2 billion (pounds) is very believable."</p> <p>The almond forecast released Thursday said high winds in early April brought down some nuts and some trees, but that the losses were not much more than what might naturally occur.Veldstra agreed. "I lost some branches and some trees. It was minimal," he said. "If anything, I would say it brought the June drop a month early."June drop refers to a normal process where nut trees, as well as many fruit trees, naturally thin their crops to match growing conditions, said Brent Holtz, San Joaquin County's director of the University of California Cooperative Extension.</p> <p>"When conditions are good during bloom, we typically see the almond tree set more fruit than it can develop to maturity. ... So in May and June, a lot of nuts drop typically," he said."This drop is usually attributed to competition between nuts and is usually more common in a year with ideal pollination conditions," he said.Even if California farmers, who supply about 80 percent of the world's almonds, do produce the predicted 2 billion pounds, that may not be enough to meet growing demand, said Brad Klump, principal of BKI Exports, an Escalon almond broker."We could use a little bit more," he said. "We've been used to 8 to 12 percent (annual) growth for the last five years or something, until last year when we put the brakes on pretty hard."</p> <p>Because of the smaller 2012 crop, total shipments through March were down about 2 percent compared with the 2011 crop, the Almond Board of California reported.If the 2 billion-pound estimate holds up, Klump said almond shipments could increase 4 to 5 percent from this year's harvest.California farmers have responded to growing global demand by steadily increasing almond acreage for the past decade.In San Joaquin County alone in 2011, the latest records available, 48,800 acres of almonds were harvested, up about 13 percent from the 43,100 acres harvested in 2001, according to county Agricultural Commissioner's Office estimates.</p>