The Many Shades of Agribusiness Success

Transcription

Imperial Valley Economic Development Corporation
January 2012
The Many Shades of
Agribusiness Success
see page 4
Ticket to a Hungry World
see page 16
Sowing Seeds Around the Globe
see page 22
www.ivedc.com
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ABUNDANT OPPORTUNITIES
January 2012
CONTENTS
Features
5
Imperial Valley Agriculture by the Numbers Facts and figures behind the valley’s success
Lifeblood of the Valley Water from the Colorado River helps make it all possible
9
Valley’s Top Crop Has Hooves and a Tail A look at Imperial County’s cattle industry
12
All in the Family Sheep are more than just a business—they’re a way of life
14
Ticket to a Hungry World Field crops feed consumers and livestock internationally
16
Welcome to the Nation’s Winter Salad Bowl More than 50 different vegetable and melon crops grow here
18
Sowing Seeds Around the Globe Tiny seeds equal big business
22
Taking Food Safety Seriously Protecting public health affects all aspects of valley agriculture
24
Growing Algae…in the Desert Earthrise Farms’ Spirulina is prized by cultures worldwide
26
IVC Harvests a Commitment to Agriculture Preparing the agribusiness leaders of tomorrow
28
Match Made in Heaven Meet Connie Valenzuela, new Imperial County Ag Commissioner
30
Map and Agricultural Facts
34
Message from the IVEDC Board of Directors Valley of Opportunity
Departments
Report from the CEO Fueling Enthusiasm, Growth
Report from the CEO The Many Shades of Agribusiness
Directory of Investors Imperial County Farm Bureau The 21st Century Farmer
IVEDC Staff Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association Valley of Possibilities
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On the cover: A lettuce field south of Brawley. Leaf and head lettuce had a total gross value of more than $290 million in 2010
and ranked 2 and 4, respectively, among the valley’s top 10 crops. In the distance is a sugarbeet processing facility constructed by
Holly Sugar Corporation in 1947, now operated by Spreckels Sugar Company. Photo © Bill Gates Photography.
Abundant Opportunity is a publication of the Imperial Valley Economic Development Corporation, a partnership of private enterprise and local government united by the common
vision of expanding and diversifying our economy. Our Investors include a host of public and private organizations that benefit from the growth of our regional economy.
IVEDC’s offices are located at 1405 N. Imperial Ave., Suite 1. El Centro, CA 92243 • Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3005, El Centro, CA 92244
Phone: 760-353-8332 • Fax: 760-353-9149 • www.ivedc.com
Publisher: Contributing writers: Editing & design: Imperial Valley Economic Development Corporation
Susan Giller, Darren Simon, Gary Redfern, Gina Germani
Valley Solutions Group, Inc.
© 2012 Imperial Valley Economic Development Corporation. All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of it may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, nor transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permisson of IVEDC.
January 2012
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REPORT FROM THE CEO
The Many Shades of
Agribusiness Success
F
rom the sky, the Imperial Valley offers a view few are
privileged to enjoy of an agribusiness marvel that increasingly is becoming the hub of global trade. Fields of
green and gold radiate across the desert in a complex pattern
stitched together by a series of glistening canals, which are part of a
modern irrigation system spectacular. With 360 days a year of sun,
the Imperial Valley’s verdant tapestry sprawls over nearly 500,000
acres producing the food, fiber
and energy essential for the state,
national and global markets. The
kaleidoscopic design of agricultural development here is a thing
of beauty; it also is the geometry
of agribusiness success.
Timothy Kelley
This issue of Abundant Opportunities offers a bird’s eye view into the mysteries and miracles that make agribusiness unique and extraordinary in the
Imperial Valley, in the heart of California’s southeastern desert. Everything from artichokes to zucchini grows here and
often reaches markets around the globe. Within the pages of
this magazine you will learn why forage crops planted in Imperial Valley soil are on a trajectory to feed cattle in Japan,
South Korea, the United Ariab Emirates, Asia and other ports
of call. In this issue, you will see the thousands of acres of seed
crops under cultivation here that are on course for use in Australia, Europe and China. And who would guess that the acres
and acres of durum wheat thriving in the Imperial Valley are
destined to be turned into pasta?
Thanks to a year-round growing season, ample supplies of
water and the valley’s fertile soil, Imperial Valley agribusiness
leaders here grow more than 100 types of crops at any given
time, regularly produce record-breaking yields and in 2010
produced a total agricultural output of $1.6 billion. Long billed
as the nation’s winter salad bowl—producing one-seventh of
the nation’s winter vegetables—the Imperial Valley is listed
among the top agricultural producers in numerous categories
in state and national databases.
We who work in this expansive, but often overlooked, ag-
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January 2012
ricultural treasure have come to expect the unexpected from
the agribusiness leaders here. This is, after all, an area transformed from an arid wasteland in the early 20th century. Visionaries willing to buck conventional wisdom tamed the
harsh environment here by diverting water from the Colorado River that forms the Imperial Valley’s eastern boundary.
The early efforts to develop the gravity-flow irrigation
system that would transform the desert into an oasis were not
without drama. First, ruinous flooding and then epic political strife ensued for decades. In the end, the vision and doggedness of early Imperial Valley developers paid off. Their efforts spurred passage of the federal legislation that funded the
building of Hoover Dam and the series of other dams and
diversions now in place to control the Colorado River.
Those early efforts and negotiations over how the Colorado River would be used by the surrounding seven states
and Mexico provided the Imperial Valley with senior rights to
sufficient water for today’s cutting-edge agricultural and economic development.
The Imperial Irrigation District (IID), a public agency
that holds the Imperial Valley’s water rights in trust, provides
the water and power to the community. Celebrating its centennial this year, IID operates the 3,000 miles of canals and
drainage ditches that make up the largest irrigation system in
the nation, based on the volume of water it carries. The system is a model of water efficiency on the Colorado River.
While that aforementioned bird’s-eye view of the Imperial
Valley may look like a placid and serene mosaic, it is anything but. Change is always in the air. Imperial Valley agribusiness success is built on innovation and flexibility to adapt
as market conditions change. With this issue of Abundant
Opportunities—Agribusiness Leader you will get an insider’s
look at the latest angles on agribusiness success.
Timothy E. Kelley
President/CEO
Imperial Valley Agriculture
© Bill gates PHOTOGRAPHY
By the Numbers
By SUSAN GILLER
A
ny way you slice it, Imperial Valley agribusiness is as
mighty as the community’s name—it is grand, it is
dominant and its reach is global. Agriculture packs
a punch potent enough to routinely earn the Imperial Valley
billing as one of the top 10 producers of agricultural value in
the state of California and in the nation.
With agriculture shining as one of the few bright spots in
the gloomy national economy and emerging global markets
hungry for U.S. commodities, Imperial Valley agriculture is
poised to expand its sway.
“The farmers and ranchers of Imperial Valley are blessed
in that our region offers mild weather conditions, water availability and rich soil,” said Linsey J. Dale, Imperial County Farm
Bureau executive director. “Imperial Valley growers recognize
Seed & Nursery Crops
$52,952,000
Fruit & Nut Crops
$51,294,000
Livestock
$321,022,000
Apiary Products
$4,001,000
our region’s uniqueness and take advantage of the prime agricultural conditions to supply the world with healthy food,
grain and livestock products.” The numbers speak volumes about Imperial Valley agricultural prowess. Consider the most recent Imperial County
Agricultural Crop and Livestock Report. It puts the Imperial
Valley’s gross agricultural output for 2010 at nearly $1.59 billion, up 10 percent from 2009. The county report, compiled
annually since 1907, reflects the gross value of all agricultural
commodities, not the net paid to growers.
“The numbers reflect increased acreage and favorable
markets for a number of crops,” said Imperial County Agricultural Commissioner Connie Valenzuela. “It was an excellent year, not the best ever, but quite good.”
Imperial Valley’s highest agricultural gross value was
$1.68 billion in 2008.
The perennial king of Imperial Valley agriculture is cattle. In 2010, beef continued its reign as the county’s single
most valuable commodity with a gross value of $267
million, despite a dip in value of more than $19
million from the previous year.
Many factors influence commodity values. In 2010, the cattle market nationally
was the victim of the weak economy, high
fuel prices and rising feed costs.
Bill Brandt, of Brandt Cattle Co.,
north of Brawley, takes the 2010 results
in stride. “You have to be a risk taker,”
Brandt said, “to survive in the cattle
industry.”
continued on Next page
Vegetable & Melon Crops
$809,126,000
Field Crops
$360,139,000
NUMBERS MAY NOT COMPUTE DUE TO ROUNDING
Source for all statistics: Imperial County Agriculture Commissioner—Agricultural Crop & Livestock Report 2010
www.co.imperial.ca.us/ag/Crop_&_Livestock_Reports/Crop_&_Livestock_Report_2010.pdf
January 2012
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2010 Summary
Commodity
Field Crops
Livestock
Fruit & Nut Crops
Seed & Nursery Crops
Apiary Products
TOTALS
Year Harvested
Acreage Value
2010
115,501
$ 809,126,000
2009
114,099
690,311,000
2010
352,760
360,139,000
2009
353,128
312,554,000
2010
321,022,000
2009
343,201,000
2010
7,104
51,294,000
2009
6,745
47,765,000
2010
53,969
52,952,000
2009
62,237
55,577,000
2010
4,001,000
2009
3,562,000
2010
529,334
$1,598,534,000
2009
536,209
$1,452,970,000
Despite year-to-year setbacks, National Beef, which operates a beef processing plant in Brawley, remains bullish on
Imperial Valley cattle. National Beef recently broke ground
on an expansion that will add a hamburger processing facility
to the beef plant. (For more on the valley’s beef industry, see
story on page 12).
Even in a good year, it takes more than cattle to keep
the Imperial Valley among the elite of the nation’s ag producers. The region’s edge comes from the unprecedented diversity of commodities it harvests, thanks to its abundant acreage,
year-round growing season and access to irrigation water.
Throughout the year, Imperial Valley routinely produces
about 100 different crops, including produce, fruit and nut
crops and apiary products to field crops, sheep, and aquaculture and algae.
When the value dropped in 2010 for cattle, fish and algae
(down by $7 million from 2009, to $6.4 million), and head
lettuce (down $22 million, to $124 million), the increase in
value of several other commodities still boosted the county’s
total production level for the year to near record levels.
In 2010, some of the biggest gains were posted in the valley’s vegetable and melon crops, an assortment of more than
50 crops ranging from the region’s traditional salad bowl of
lettuce, carrots, onions and the like, to more exotic things like
aloe vera, cilantro and bamboo. The group was valued at $809
million for 2010, up 17 percent from 2009.
Imperial Valley’s biggest produce increases for the year
were: leaf lettuce, at $166 million (up $50 million); market
onions, at $65 million (up more than $38 million); spinach,
at $20 million (up nearly $7 million) and cantaloupes, valued at $53.6 million (up more than $18 million). A catch-all
category of some smaller-acreage crops called “miscellaneous
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January 2012
More than 100 different
crops—from artichokes to
zucchini—resulted in a
total agricultural output
of $1.6 billion in 2010.
vegetables” shot up $24 million, to $80 million.
“Locally, produce is a vibrant industry,” Ayron Moiola,
executive director of the Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers,
said. “Growers work in an ever-changing, and risky, environment. It’s a definite gamble and things move at a rapid pace.
It speaks volumes about the caliber of the people in produce
that they face all these challenges and still come through with
the crops to feed the nation.”
Imperial Valley’s field crops also posted some hefty gains
in 2010. The category includes such crops as sugarbeets,
wheat, cotton and alfalfa and other forage crops that use the
majority of the acreage in the region. In 2010, the total gross
value of Imperial Valley field crops was up 15 percent to $360
million. The biggest gainers were: alfalfa, up nearly $44 million to $129 million; sugarbeets, up $28 million to $70 million, and sudangrass, up nearly $19 million to $46 million
(see article on field crops on page 16).
Of the Imperial Valley crops harvested in 2010, nearly 40
had values in excess of a $1 million, 23 those with values measured in the tens of millions. That may be why growers here
often say, “If it grows, it can grow in the Imperial Valley.”
Is it true?
“I don’t know about that,” said Steve Birdsall, retired
county Agricultural Commissioner, who is now a consultant.
“I couldn’t get avocados to grow, although I know someone
Top Ten Commodities
2009
Ranking
2010
Ranking
1
Cattle
2
Leaf Lettuce
166,052,000
3
3
Alfalfa
129,227,000
5
4
Head Lettuce
124,638,000
2
5
Onions
76,069,000
8
6
Broccoli
75,298,000
6
7
Sugarbeets
70,099,000
9
8
Carrots
64,225,000
7
9
Cantaloupes
53,645,000
13
Sudangrass Hay
46,600,000
16
10
$ 267,510,000
1
who has a tree producing fruit in his backyard. And, maybe
some stone fruits that need a winter freeze won’t do that well,
but pretty much anything else grows here.”
Imperial Valley is uniquely suited for the diversity of crops
it grows. It starts with good bones—a lot of good land and water for irrigation from the Imperial Irrigation District. Add a
climate conducive to year-round growing and innovative growers and you end up with the potential for even more harvests.
In 2010, Imperial Valley growers produced multiple
crops on 37,000 acres, according to IID’s Inventory of Areas
Receiving Water. In 2008, the year in which the Imperial Valley posted its highest agricultural production value, 105,000
of the 535,000 acres planted yielded multiple crops, according
to IID’s inventory.
Mild winters also give Imperial Valley growers a growing
season that meets a profitable niche market. The southwest
desert region that includes the Imperial Valley, for instance,
is the only area in the U.S. that can harvest lettuce and other
vegetables at certain times in the winter. Orchards in the Imperial Valley are the only ones in the nation that harvest mangos during a certain time of year.
The value of Imperial Valley agribusiness strategies shines
even in California, the state that leads the nation in agricultural production.
Consider data compiled by the California Department of
Food and Agriculture (CDFA). For 2009, based on the most
recent state data, Imperial County ranked tenth among the 58
counties in the value of its agricultural output.
Drilling deeper into the numbers offers an even richer
perspective. CDFA’s Agricultural Resource Directory lists the
percentage of the total state value of commodities that come
from the top-producing counties. In 2009, Imperial County
led California in the production value of six commodities.
Imperial County growers produced nearly 29 percent of the
gross value of California’s wheat; 42 percent of the state’s carrots; nearly 29 percent of the state’s sweet corn; 50 percent of
the state’s alfalfa seed; 76 percent of the state’s sudangrass; and
nearly 99 percent of the state’s sugarbeets. According to CDFA data, Imperial County produced the
second-highest value of five additional commodities in 2009.
Those commodities were: lettuce, 14 percent of the value; onions, 17 percent; salad greens, 19 percent; cantaloupe, 23 percent; and dates, 35 percent.
Altogether, Imperial County was among the top five California counties in production value of 26 commodities, according to the CDFA data. Rounding out the list of the commodities were: cattle, alfalfa, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach,
honeydew melon, potatoes, cabbage, vegetable seed, sheep
and lambs, celery, watermelon, asparagus and grapefruit.
Yet the commodity superstar one year may not even be
listed in the credits the next, leading to the notion that a crystal
ball may be one of a grower’s more important implements.
continued on page 33
P
lanters Hay, Inc. is a grower-owned hay
compress in the Imperial Valley. Grown
on our local, family farms with GMO-free
seed, we export a full product mix of Alfalfa,
Sudan, Klein, and Bermuda Grass.
For product availability:
Richard Akikuni, Sales Manager
Planters Hay, Inc.
office (760) 344-0620
fax (760) 344-2691
[email protected]
www.plantershay.com
Lowest Fees in the Imperial Valley.
Friendly Local Government.
121 W. 5th Street • Holtville, CA 92250
(760) 356-4574 • www.holtville.ca.gov
January 2012
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I M P E R I A L CO U N T Y FA R M B U R E AU
The 21st Century Farmer
We face challenges—and opportunities—today that our predecessors
couldn’t imagine.
T
Mark McBroom
he Imperial Valley farmer of today looks a lot different than 100 years ago, even 20
years ago. Pioneer farmers could make a living on fewer acres, even support many
families. Most farming operations were and still are year-round as we have a growing
season that never ends. For that, we are blessed.
However, today we have challenges that our predecessors couldn’t imagine. Because we
are in a global economy we are impacted by imported products constantly—products that are
grown in places that don’t have to adhere to the regulations, taxes and costs of doing business
that impact the California farmer.
When an invasive species was found on your property years ago it meant that the neighbor’s livestock got out and were devouring your vegetable patch. Today, it is an insect, animal
or virus that brings with it contamination, destruction and potential economic devastation
that can completely wipe out an industry without any recourse.
Through it all, we adapt and go on, ever reinventing ourselves and overcoming the continuing challenges every day.
Besides looking through a windshield at a crop, we now have satellite imaging, infrared
vision and other tools to “see” our crops growing in a way that only a few short years ago was
a science fiction show. When checking our fields for irrigations and digging holes to feel the
soil, we now also have probes that relay soil moisture to satellites so it can be tracked 24 hours
a day, seven days a week.
What is hard for us to imagine today will be commonplace in a decade or so. Agriculture
and food production have become even more necessary in today’s world where we need to
feed more people with fewer and fewer resources.
Farming in the Imperial Valley will be a tremendous opportunity for those who enjoy the
daily challenges it brings in the wonderful outdoors, where your fields are your walls and the
sky is your ceiling. You cannot ask for a better office.
Anyone who has the desire can start in farming. However, farming is not a 9-to-5 job.
Agribusiness requires a commitment that becomes part of your lifestyle.
But the best part of farming in Imperial Valley is the community we live in, the people we
work with and lives we live, always interweaving with each other to make this place we call
home the best around.
Mark McBroom
President, Imperial County Farm Bureau
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January 2012
Lifeblood
of the Valley
W
ater has been used as an important literary
device through the ages. It babbles through
poetic brooks. It symbolizes life in countless tomes. It can signify serenity; as crashing waves it can turn violent. And, its shimmering, reflective
surface mirrors both good and evil.
For Imperial Valley agribusiness, water is poetry in motion as it flows through 1,600 miles of Imperial Irrigation
District (IID) canals to the thousands of cultivated acres that
make the region one of the top agricultural producers in the
nation. None question that the Colorado River water carried
through the canals is the literal lifeblood of the arid region
and its agriculture. For that reason, Imperial Valley growers
and IID have advanced the science of irrigation and water
delivery to achieve extremely high levels of efficiency, among
the highest along the Colorado River system.
Yet, Colorado River water remains the bone of contention of rancorous political strife in the Western United
States. Disputes among water users in the seven states along
the Colorado River system are legendary and lawsuits still
rage in an arid region where water is as precious as gold. To
get ahead of a potential new round of water disputes, the IID
and its water users have begun a unique planning process
geared at meeting the diversifying water needs within the
Imperial Valley.
Tina Shields, assistant manager of IID’s Water Department, said, “There is plenty of water here—if we figure out
how to manage it better.”
The Imperial Valley integrated regional water planning
effort provides a way to meet long-range water demands
within the IID’s boundaries that are rapidly diversifying as
the region attracts renewable energy and other development.
Some think the new, collaborative planning process may actually lead to the creation of water supplies not now available
for farming or industrial use. Some of the proposals being
considered include banking water (storing unused water in
groundwater aquifers), treating and reclaiming wastewater,
desalting drainage water that otherwise would be discharged
into the Salton Sea and other options.
While the idea of creating water in the desert may seem
unlikely, efforts already are in the works to squeeze more usefulness from water currently in the system. Geothermal developer Ormat, for instance, is currently negotiating with the
city of Brawley and other communities in Imperial County to
build and pay for the operation of tertiary treatment plants so
the reclaimed water can be used for geothermal power plant
cooling. That way irrigation water now used for power plant
cooling processes would instead be available for agriculture
and other purposes. The IID in 2009 adopted a water management plan intended to maximize the use of its Colorado River entitlement
for the next 37 years after it began receiving requests for water
service from a number of proposed renewable energy projects. Based on that plan, the district’s board of directors set
aside 25,000 acre-feet of water a year for new non-agricultural
projects with the idea that water rates paid by those developments would fund water management or conservation projects anticipated in the plan. The state of California encouraged the region to embark on the current regional integrated
water management planning process that started last year.
State funds may be available to assist in the process and any
water project must be part of an integrated regional plan to be
eligible for state funding.
“We have to manage to the future,” Shields said. “This is
a collaborative process through which we can make realistic
projections about long-term water-use needs. By planning,
we can ease into diversifying water use but we have to make
sure changes are not at the expense of existing users.”
Agriculture uses about 97 percent of the water that IID
By SUSAN GILLER
(Pictured) Headgate on the East Highline, one of three main canals that receive water from the All-American Canal.
AABBUUNNDDAANNTT OOPPPPOORRTTUUNNI ITTI IEESS J Jaannuuaar ryy 22001 122
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Lifeblood
continued FROM previous page
sells. And, agriculture is expected to remain the largest user of
water in the integrated regional water
use planning process.
Yet growers tend to look at any
proposed change in water policy with
concern because they already are farming with less water under agreements
signed by the federal government, California and Colorado River users, including IID.
The Quantification Settlement
Agreement (QSA) set up the largest
ag-to-urban water transfer ever undertaken and requires—and finances—the
implementation of unprecedented water efficiency on farms and in the water
delivery system in the Imperial Valley.
IID and Imperial Valley growers are experimenting with space-age
technology as they figure out how to conserve the water required for the epic water transfer. Infrared photography, sat-
ellite imaging, increased automation, on-farm pilot conservation projects and equipping IID water delivery employees
with laptop computers are among the extreme steps being
tried and implemented to ratchet up the region’s already high
level of water efficiency.
Shields is under no illusion that
the integrated regional water planning
process will be easy or satisfy everyone.
However, she sees it as a way to create
opportunity in the Imperial Valley.
“To make it work we have to understand the issues and we cannot do
that in a vacuum,” she said. “Just the
process of getting the parties together
creates opportunities.”
With its fluidity, water is never an
easy substance to compartmentalize.
This time, Shields said the Imperial
Valley has reason to try.
“The QSA and the water transfer
were prompted by the needs of others; now we are focusing on local
needs to take care of local interests.”
For Imperial Valley
agribusiness, water is
poetry in motion as it
flows through 1,600
miles of IID canals to the
thousands of cultivated
acres that make the
region one of the nation’s
top ag producers.
Giller can be contacted at [email protected]
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760.344.4184
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January 2012
IMPERIAL VALLEY VEGETABLE GROWERS ASSOCIATION
Valley of Possibilities
A
Larry Cox
few years ago, a friend of mine told me, “If you are going to bet the farm on something, make sure you have another farm...”. That statement resonates loudly in the current vegetable production environment, especially in California.
In our chosen industry, the risks oftentimes outweigh the rewards and we can go for
months with prices at below break-even. Production costs have escalated dramatically in the
past decade due to homeland security costs, food safety directives, increases in fuel, fertilizer,
seed and periodic shortages of labor. However, none of these challenges are new and in light
of what previous generations faced, our problems seem not so large.
Even with the above-mentioned challenges, the farmers of Imperial Valley have much to
be thankful for.
• To begin, the gravity-flow irrigation system we have works incredibly well. That coupled
with our senior water rights on the Colorado River have so far protected us from serious
shortages or interruptions of service. Plentiful affordable water makes the Imperial Valley the
envy of many growing around the state and the nation.
• Next, one of the best aspects of Imperial Valley is that we have the ability to grow a multitude of crops like alfalfa and sugarbeets, instead of strictly produce. This allows growers to
diversify and spread risk and also allows for double cropping, which helps keep our employees
working and our equipment busy. This also helps with disease management by allowing for
crop rotation, without which you can have soil diseases that can reduce yields or damage crops
to the point of not being harvestable.
• Another advantage we have is that our leafy vegetable time slot is counter to that of much
of the nation. When we harvest lettuce or spring mix here, most of the nation is too cold to
compete with the Imperial Valley, Yuma area and Florida.
• We have a wide mix of soil types here from blow sand to very heavy clay. Sand is well suited to carrots, potatoes, many lettuces and melons. Well-drained clay soils produce abundant
crops of lettuce, melons, onions and much more.
• We are also blessed to have a great labor pool available to help us harvest the crops our
fields produce.
On that final point I would like to expand a bit, as I see it as a very important and personal
aspect of our industry. The relationships that grow between farmers and irrigators or tractor
drivers over decades are meaningful and unique and in many cases much like family. For example, a few years ago my family attended the funeral of Enrique Moreno, who drove a tractor for my father then me for decades. Enrique was a kind and helpful man and I am a better
man because of him. As his health failed in his latter years his family would bring him to our
ranch office to visit. Even though his body was giving out he would always have a smile and a
kind word. Enrique is one that resonates with me today, but I have many people I work with
who are in many ways family to me.
Do we have many issues facing us ? You bet we do. But we also have many positives in the
Imperial Valley. I told a friend of mine the other day, the Imperial Valley has been a great place
to raise our two sons. A big reason is because of the people here and that is a resource you can’t
replicate or do without!
Larry Cox
President, Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association
January 2012
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Cattle are the
Imperial Valley’s
No. 1 agricultural commodity,
with nearly 300,000 head
in local feedlots.
By DARREN SIMON
Has Hooves and a Tail
l
AABBUUN
NDDAAN
NTT O
OPPPPO
ORRTTUUN
NIITTIIEESS JJaannuuaarryy 22001122
Valley’s
Top
Crop
W
hen Brawley Beef opened its state-of-the art
beef processing plant in 2001, the Imperial
Valley celebrated an economic triumph built
on the gutsy, pioneering spirit of local cattle
industry leaders.
That milestone celebration came as the Imperial Valley
cattle industry had reached one of those make-or-break moments in its storied history. Transportation costs and lack of
access to beef processing facilities threatened the viability of
the local cattle industry. Local industry leaders came up with
a bold plan: build the first new beef processing facility to open
in the U.S. in 20 years in Brawley, in the heart of Imperial Valley’s cattle industry. With ingenuity and dogged determination, local cattle industry leaders risked their capital—their
very livelihoods—on that gamble.
Imperial Valley and its cattle industry won. Today, cattle remain the valley’s leading agricultural commodity. According to data from the county Agricultural Commissioner’s
office, cattle’s value was $267.5 million in 2010, with nearly
300,000 head in local feedlots. The next highest ranked commodity was head lettuce at $166 million.
There have been many changes since Brawley Beef—
today owned and operated by National Beef—first opened its
doors, but what hasn’t changed in the gutsy, pioneering spirit
of the cattle industry leaders.
“You have to be risk taker,” said Bill Brandt, who owns
and operates Brandt Cattle Co. north of Brawley. Brandt was
one of the principals who made Brawley Beef a reality a decade ago.
That daring spirit first gave rise to cattle ranching in the
Imperial Valley in the early 1900s. In the early days, the number of feedyards grew to some 150.
Today, there are about 10 large feedyards operating in
the valley, all of them are family owned. The size and configuration of today’s cattle feeding operations are determined
by market and economic constraints. Even today, the industry benefits from the Imperial Valley’s year-round sun
and moderate winter temperatures that allow cattle to gain
weight continuously. Paul Cameron, another of the original Brawley Beef principals, owns Mesquite Cattle, located between Brawley and
Holtville. The feedlot has a capacity to handle up to 35,000
head of cattle.
“We are a critical part of the Imperial County economy,”
Cameron said. “Not only that, but we provide a safe, wholesome product as efficiently as anyone else in the world.”
While 2010 was not the best year for cattle, Cameron said
it turned out pretty well. The number of cattle in feedyards
around the nation was down, which translated into higher
prices for the beef produced.
Still, there are several concerns on the horizon. For one,
rising fuel prices threaten an industry that always operates on
tight margins. Higher fuel prices also jeopardize what consumers are willing to spend on good meat.
The rising cost of gasoline means consumers “have no
disposable cash to spend on a good night out to dinner at a
PHOTOS: Jim Luck (left) and Robert Pacheco work cattle at Foster Feed Yard, owned by second-generation cattle feeders Gary and Rod Foster. It is one of a few local
operations that still employs cowboys to treat sick cattle and to move cattle from one pen to another or for transportation to the packing plant.
(Above) Aerial view of National Beef’s Brawley Beef processing facility, the first to open in the U.S. in 20 years.
(Above right) Most of the cattle in Imperial Valley feedlots are holstein steers, which are placed on high-concentrate feed for 300 days or more to reach an optimum
weight of 1100–1200 pounds.
January 2012
l
13
VALLEY’S TOP CROP
nice restaurant with good beef,” Cameron said. “To me, this
economy is shaping up just like 2008, and that could have a
definite effect on our business.”
In an ironic twist, the nation’s enthusiasm for green energy has taken a bite out of beef. The cost of the corn fed to
cattle has doubled in the last year, largely due to the growing
ethanol industry. There is less corn now available for feed, in
part because of government incentives for ethanol development. And, storms in the Midwest have further cut corn supplies and raised prices.
“We’ve had a pretty good run this past year, but I am not
optimistic for 2012,” Cameron said.
Despite challenges, the local cattle industry has an edge
with the local beef processing facility now operated by National Beef, one of the nation’s largest beef processors. The
story of how the Brawley processing facility came to be is
true Imperial Valley pioneering.
The idea for Brawley Beef started to germinate in the late
1990s when local cattle feedyard operators realized the processing plants they were using in Vernon, CA, were starting to
close. That would have left a processing facility in Arizona as
the only regional option available. And, sending cattle by rail
to major processing centers in Texas or beyond would have
been cost prohibitive for Imperial Valley cattle operations. “We needed to have another packing shed in this region
All in the Family
For these Imperial Valley ranchers, sheep are much more than just a business.
By Darren Simon
F
Wyoming-based producer
Broadbent Brothers Sheep
Co., just like his father did
before him.
Like Lizarraga, The
Martin Auza Sheep Co.
winter pastures 45,000
sheep in the valley from
or Robert Lizarraga,
Martin Auza and
Saturnino Araguas
tending sheep is more
than big business; it is
family.
“That’s why we stay
in this industry,” said
Lizarraga, “It’s in the blood
…you love the animals.”
Every winter,
Lizarraga pastures about
30,000 head of sheep
in the Imperial Valley for
14
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January 2012
September to April every
year. They, Araguas and
one other herd manager truck in sheep from
Wyoming, Colorado,
Hemet (CA) and elsewhere for the valley’s
balmy winter temperatures and acres of alfalfa
stubble. It is the perfect
environment for sheep to
gain weight and to give
birth to lambs.
But make no mistake,
the sheep and lambs frolicking under the valley’s
winter sun are more than
a quaint nod to a tradition
that has Old World roots
in the bucolic Basque region of Spain. The Imperial
Valley sheep industry is
nothing to sneeze at.
According to the
latest Imperial County
Agricultural Commissioner
report, about 150,000
to be competitive,” Brandt said.
That led a group of local cattle industry leaders to jointly
invest in the effort to open a packing plant. Initially, as other partners were brought in from outside the valley, locations
in Arizona also were considered for the plant site. Ultimately,
Brawley was selected and in 1999 plans were under way to
build the plant.
The plant opened in 2001. By three years into its operation, the local facility owners realized that to build the Brawley facility to its full potential they needed bigger guns.
In 2006 National Beef, which is based in Kansas, purchased the plant and the local feedyard owners became stockholders in the company and thus continued to have ownership of the local plant through National Beef.
Today National Beef employs 1,200 workers with an annual payroll of $400 million at the Brawley facility. It also has
generated at least 200 more jobs in ancillary industries that
work with the plant, according to Keith Welty, spokesman for
National Beef.
The plant continues to benefit the local cattle industry, providing a way to pack and market the local beef under the National Beef banner. It is also a significant asset for National Beef.
Brawley, Welty said, “allowed National Beef to grow into
a new geographic region from our primary procurement and
operating area of southwest Kansas, expand our market share
and to be closer to significant population centers of the western U.S.”
Additionally, the Brawley plant exports some of its beef to
Japan and other Pacific Rim countries, Welty said.
The plant processes about 12,000 head of cattle a week, 60
percent of which come from Imperial County cattle feedlots,
and processes and markets fresh beef and beef byproducts for
domestic and international markets.
Cameron added of National Beef: “It’s become a good
partnership. It’s benefited all the guys down here whether or
not they were part of the original Brawley Beef.”
As for the future of the cattle industry in Imperial County, both Brandt and Cameron are confident the industry will
continue to overcome obstacles and thrive.
“Everybody seems to be hanging in there,” Cameron said,
adding: “everyone seems to have someone who will be around
and be part of the succession plan. I think everyone is pretty
much in this for the long haul.”
Brandt said he has loved his career in the cattle industry,
despite the challenges.
He added: “Anyone coming into this business has to have
those feelings because there will be ups and downs.”
Simon can be contacted at [email protected]
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January 2012
l
15
Ticket to a Hungry World
Hungry consumers—and livestock—the world over depend on
field crops from the Imperial Valley.
By GARY Redfern
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t’s green, stacks neatly and has global versatility and value. Even though these are the attributes of the U.S. dollar,
they also describe one of the most venerable commodities
produced by Imperial Valley’s agricultural industry, which
was worth $1.6 billion in 2010. Though it grows in many
forms and has many names, to the general public it’s simply
“hay.” And, in the Imperial Valley it is everywhere, thousands
of stacks lining rural roadsides storage areas like a patient infantry ready to advance.
Make no mistake, it does move and its arrival at ports in
Asia and, increasingly, in the Middle East, is most welcome.
The foreign demand “developed because of their needs
for annual feed and a growing concern over water: What’s the
best use? Feed animals or urban development?” Brawley hay
exporter Greg Jackson explained of rapidly growing and landlimited nations such as Japan, Korea and the United Arab
Emirates.
Those countries decided it was better to provide urban
water and import land- and water-intensive feed crops.
Jackson, a 23-year industry veteran, is the export sales
manager for Border Valley Trading. Founded 22 years ago by
Greg Braun and partners Paul Cameron and Bob Presley, it is
one of 11 Imperial Valley firms that export hay. It also has a
smaller operation in Turlock.
Another is El Centro–based El Toro Export, whose president and co-founder, William R. Plourd, said the hay export market developed in the early 1980s due to changes in
Asian lifestyle. El Toro opened its doors in 1983 to an eager
response.
“The export industry took off and we became a player. It
was just identifying the hay export market. It coincided with
an emerging Japanese economy and a trend (in Japan) toward
a more Western diet with more meat and dairy. In order to
(Above) About 70 percent of the valley’s wheat crop is exported. (Below) A
harvested alfalfa field.
produce that they had to improve the quality of what they
were feeding the cattle,” Plourd said.
Another factor that has persisted over decades is that the
Japanese yen has strengthened against the dollar, meaning
foreign buyers get a better deal. Where it once took 300 yen to
get one dollar, it recently was exchanging just over 80, Plourd
said.
it has spawned an enormous processing industry that employs hundreds and is worth more than $100 million a year,
Plourd said. After the exporters purchase the hay, it is transported to their huge facilities where it is compressed for more
efficient shipping. These are factory-style operations bustling
with transport trucks, loaders and compress machines surrounded by numerous hay stacks the size of two-story office
buildings.
The hay is stored under either fixed covers or tarps to preserve its quality. Hay dampened by rain will lose its export
quality.
The hay’s destinations are broadening beyond the original Asian customers to China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Middle
Eastern nations such as the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
New markets are being sought, including Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and India, and that means exporters travel, too.
“The industry continues to grow, but it’s because we find
new destinations,” Plourd said, adding it’s also important to
maintain existing relationships and face-to-face is preferred.
“You need to see your customers. They also come see us and
inspect our products.”
Flanked by maps of the Middle East and Asia in his office,
Border Valley’s Jackson added, “I spend a lot of time traveling,
upwards of 60 days a year. We like to travel and learn about
these markets. It’s a mix of maintaining our base business and
the potential for new customers.”
The Internet age, however, means exporters must be
ready to serve.
“A lot of times the market will find you. You can Google
sudan hay and find our website,” Plourd said.
Imperial County Field Crops
Crop
Acres
Gross Value
Alfalfa Hay (Baled)
136,815
$ 129,227,000
Bermudagrass Hay
48,726
39,574,000
4,563
8,657,000
Cotton (Lint)
1,373,000
Cotton (Seed)
Kleingrass Hay
12,528
13,372,000
Pasture Crops
79,576
3,341,000
59,403
46,600,000
Sugarbeets
25,188
70,099,000
Wheat
58,562
42,424,000
2,505,000
Baled Straw
Sudangrass Hay
Misc. Field Crops
TOTALS (2010)
6,975
2,967,000
352,760
$ 360,139,000
The generic term hay refers to a number of “forage” or
“field” crops, including alfalfa, sudangrass, bermuda straw,
kleingrass hay and bermuda hay. Each has its own nutritional
value, which buyers use as a guide to decide what will be fed
to which animals.
For many reasons, the Imperial Valley was, and is, an
ideal source of hay and in fact, its product is among the
world’s top-quality feeds. In addition, the valley’s large produce growers must rotate crops at intervals to keep fertile soil
from losing essential nutrients and hay crops are an ideal alternative. Because forage crop exporters do not always grow
their own crop, growers and hay exporters enjoy a symbiotic
relationship.
“The beauty of our agriculture here is the ability of farmers to grow many crops a year and there’s plenty of water for
farming, plenty of opportunity to increase production,” Jackson said.
Plourd has high praise for Imperial Valley field crops.
He describes his Asian customers as “appearance-oriented,”
meaning the hay needs to look as good as it feeds and he has
confidence he can deliver a product that meets expectations.
The annual Agricultural Crop & Livestock Report issued by the
county Agricultural Commissioner’s office reveals just how
important the hay and hay export industries are to the local economy. The latest report, released in May, shows that
in 2010, field crops, of which hay crops are a portion, experienced a 15 percent increase in value over 2009. In 2010, total Imperial Valley field crops were valued at more than $360
million, up from $312 million in 2009.
That dramatic increase came despite the fact that local
growers planted 1,400 fewer acres in field crops. The biggest
increases came in sugarbeets, sudangrass and alfalfa.
One category of field crop that showed a marked decrease
in acreage and value was wheat. The durum wheat grown in
the Imperial Valley is used to make pasta. Plourd said about
30 percent of the crop grown in the Imperial Valley is exported. Despite a drop in demand, the crop was still valued at $42
million in 2010.
“We still feel the industry will grow,” Plourd said. There
is a global need for high-quality forages and they can’t grow
their own.
“Countries need to be sustainable for protein products
and meat and milk don’t import well,” he adds of the importing nations’ needs for feed.
Though hay is a stable field crop for the Imperial Valley,
Source: Imperial County Agriculture Commissioner—Agricultural Crop &
Livestock Report 2010
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and melons fill the grocery store produce section, leading to the region’s often used nickname “the nation’s winter
salad bowl.” During winter months the
southwest desert region of California
and part of Arizona are the only places
he art of cooking requires obtaining specific ingredients, combining them
carefully and creatively and
presenting the final product in an appealing manner. It’s much the same in
Welcome to the Nation’s
Winter Salad Bowl
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in the nation where produce is harvested. Leaf and head lettuce, onions, broccoli, carrots, cantaloupes, sweet corn,
cauliflower and spinach are among Imperial Valley’s top produce crops. While
the value of valley produce grew substantially in 2010, not every vegetable
fared so well.
Head lettuce, normally the valley’s
most valuable vegetable, dropped $20
million to a gross value of $126.6 million in 2010. However, leaf lettuce posted a gross value of $166 million, up $50
million from the previous year. Other
big vegetable gains were posted in 2010
by market onions, up by $38 million to
$65.1 million and miscellaneous small
acreage vegetable crops, up by $24.2
million to $80.2 million.
“There is no question growing produce is a definite gamble,” said Ayron
Moiola, executive director of the Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association. “It is labor intensive, markets are
risky, it is expensive, there are a lot of
challenges… You can make a lot, but
you can lose a lot, too.”
Jack, who grows about 4,000 acres
of produce, said what he relies on to
overcome the obstacles produce growers face are the people who have been
Produce: © Bill gates PHOTOGRAPHY
the most basic part of the food chain:
farming. Yet growers must navigate
myriad variables no chef would ever
tolerate—a situation analogous to having to regularly change kitchens, recipes and ingredients to get consistent
quality result and show a profit.
If there are masters of this fluid environment, they are Imperial Valley’s
produce growers, who combine up to
four generations of experience with
techno-savvy worthy of Silicon Valley. Though most are college-educated,
their arsenals have traditional basics at
the ready.
“This year was probably the toughest we’ve had (recently),” reflected
Alex Jack of Brawley-based Jack Bros.
farming. “Rain, hail, cold, the Bagrada
bug... Mother Nature just threw everything at us.”
Despite the adversities, Imperial
Valley produces an aggregate of more
than 50 separate vegetable and melon
crops, valued at $890.1 million in the
2010 Imperial County Agricultural Crop
& Livestock Report. This represents an
increase of more than 17 percent over
2009.
Grown primarily in the cooler
months, Imperial Valley vegetables
tongs: © photos.com
By GARY Redfern
in farming for decades. Yet, he sees a new day is coming.
“The management team I have is fantastic and forward
thinking, but I would hire (college) graduates in each category. There’s so much technology,” Jack said how agriculture
is evolving.
Proud to be part of the Valley’s
rich agricultural heritage.
Committed to being a partner
in our bright future.
During winter months
the southwest desert region of
California and part of Arizona
are the only places in the nation
where produce is harvested.
Discussing a recent college graduate he hired on, Jack
added, “There’s no replacement for experience. He has the
book knowledge, but it takes seven years to learn how to run
a ranch.”
Yet agronomy, soil and seed science, water efficiency and
other cultural practices are only part of the equation. Dealing
with changing markets has required changing approaches. “If you’re not a year-round shipper, it’s tough,” Jack said.
Like many other produce growers, his company now contracts with third-party sellers and shippers to deal with chain
stores.
Holtville-based produce grower Jack Vessey said the family company founded by his great-grandfather in 1923 has
adapted a well.
“The biggest change is there used to be a lot of one-area
shippers. You grow a small amount and find someone to sell
it to. There’s very few of those,” says Vessey, whose company
farms about 10,000 acres in Imperial Valley.
He added, “Many of us in Imperial Valley have joint venture projects. I just grow it. They (third-party operations)
come in, pack, ship and sell it. And, it’s in my best interest not
to put my name on it. The larger stores want to deal with the
same company all year.”
No longer do all growers put their own brand name on
their product. Jack said much of his produce ends up with
brand names familiar to a broader consumer market, including Green Giant. New marketing approaches may also take
Imperial Valley produce to fast-food outlets.
“We sell to the largest fresh market onion producer in the
U.S., Gill’s Onions in Oxnard,” Jack said. “They’re trying to secure a contract with McDonald’s. They (McDonald’s) bought
red onions for their sirloin burgers. Now they’re (Gill’s) trying
to get a contract for yellow onions.”
The access to major markets comes with another yet another compromise: some of the large packers and shippers
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enson Farms, LLC is a fourth generation,
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January 2012
l
19
WINTER salad bowl
have moved to Yuma, AZ, where labor is less expensive and
there are fewer costly state regulations to deal with.
“That’s something that’s sad,” Vessey said. “I wish it would
change.”
One grower bucking the trend is Ralph Strahm, who farms
Imperial County
Crop
Acres
Gross Value
Broccoli (Market)
12,215
$ 75,298,000
Cabbage (Market)
Carrots (Total1)
Cauliflower (Market)
Sweet Corn
1,147
6,881,000
12,503
64,225,000
3,341
26,964,000
10,523
38,434,000
Head Lettuce (Total )
19,657
124,638,000
Leaf Lettuce
14,138
166,052,000
Spring Mix
5,673
33,754,000
Onions (Total1)
8,366
76,069,000
Potatoes
1,347
11,844,000
Spinach
6,184
20,407,000
Misc. Vegetables3
9,934
80,217,000
Cantaloupes
7,795
53,645,000
Honeydew & Misc. Melons
1,041
6,882,000
2
Salad Products
10,622,000
Watermelons
TOTALS (2010)
1,637
13,194,000
115,501
$ 809,126,000
Source: Imperial County Agriculture Commissioner—Agricultural Crop &
Livestock Report 2010
1 ) Market, processing & other; 2) naked pack, wrap pack, bulk; 3) aloe vera, arugula, artichokes, asparagus,
beans, black eyed beans, beets, bok choy, napa cabbage, celery, chive, Chinese spinach, cilantro, collard, cucumber, dandelion greens, eggplant, endive, fennel, gai lon, mixed herbs, kale, leek, mizuna, mustard greens,
okra, parsley, parsnip, peas, peppers, rapini, rutabagas, squash, Swiss chard, tomatoes, turnips
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about 4,700 acres of produce with his father and brothers.
“We probably go more to local markets,” said Strahm of
the targets for a produce salesperson with whom he contracts.
“Some of it’s a value judgment. We’re known in the industry
and we have our own brands.”
Strahm said his best customers are local grocers in the
Los Angeles area, as well as some in Canada and Mexico.
The Strahm farm also has ventured into organic produce, which must be certified to be grown under certain
conditions that avoid conventional pesticides and fertilizers.
In 2010, there were 26 certified organic farms in the Imperial Valley with gross sales of $36.1 million, according to the
county crop report.
“It’s working out O.K. It’s a small portion now (of what
Strahm grows), but I see it growing. It’s a relatively new product model and we learn a lot,” Strahm said.
Even as growers test new marketing approaches, they still
face traditional challenges, including crop predation by a variety of pests. In 2010 it was the Bagrada bug, a small stink
bug with an enormous appetite for broccoli, cauliflower and
cabbage, caused significant damage to valuable crops.
The Imperial County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office
headed by Connie Valenzuela provides an important first line
of defense against agricultural pests.
“We spend a lot of time on pest detection and control. It
never ends,” Valenzuela said. “We have to eradicate or learn to
live with (pests).”
The enemy is a mobile society that brings in plants and
plant products from travels or receives them in the mail, Valenzuela said. And Imperial County’s border location puts it
at risk of incoming problems.
However, Imperial Valley growers and the state have a
history of waging heroic and creative battles against pests.
In the 1990s, a whitefly plague virtually wiped out the melon
crop until growers working with researchers and government
representatives identified a tiny wasp with a voracious appetite that has brought the whitefly into check.
“California is amazing,” Valenzuela said. “When there is
a problem, we mobilize. It is the only state that has ever eradicated a pest.”
Valenzuela said two such victories came in Imperial
County with the elimination of the pink bollworm, a vermin
that had brought the Imperial Valley cotton crop to its knees
and the control of hydrilla, an insidious, fast-growing water
weed that can clog irrigation canals, which is now controlled
by sterile grass carp.
However, because of state austerity measures, funding for
agriculture programs has been cut back including agricultural inspection stations that check vehicles entering California
for plants and produce carrying potentially dangerous pests
and disease.
“We see in a year or two these cuts having a big impact on
January 2012
Ticket to a hungry world
continued FROM page 17
The hay loads are trucked from the valley to the massive seaports in Long Beach and Los Angeles where container ships await. Despite being just over 200 miles away, those
ports remain a vital link.
“One of the important parts of our (business) model is the
efficiency to ship overseas,” Plourd said. “The Long Beach port
is a huge port with many containers. This is very beneficial.”
Jackson added, “When you talk about competitiveness,
it’s a definite advantage we have in our industry compared
to other companies in other areas of the U.S. There’s better
availability of empty containers. The other West Coast ports,
Seattle and Oakland, are limited in size.”
Of course, the Imperial Valley is not the only farming
area to discover hay exporting. There’s competition from other areas of California and the U.S., Canada and even Europe.
It means firms such as El Toro and Border Valley must strive
constantly to provide the best hay at the best price. With rising fuel costs, currency fluctuations, political unrest in the
Middle East and myriad other variables and it’s clear that only
the strong survive.
For the Imperial Valley strength means reputation, not
just of the firms, but for the area itself.
“Our business philosophy is we work very hard to promote the Border Valley image: good quality hay at a reasonable price and a stable supply,” Jackson said.
His biggest challenge: “The capital to buy all this hay.
We buy hay when the farmer bales it and we don’t get paid
until we ship. Hay is stored anywhere from two weeks to 12
months or more (before export). This is industry is very, very
capital intensive.”
Plourd added, “When you’re dealing with any non-freemarket society (such as some in Asia and the Middle East)
there is a risk we have to assess.”
And, currency rates are monitored carefully because
Plourd said, “Exports are sensitive to currency changes.
A weak U.S. dollar allows our customers to import more
efficiently.”
Both express confidence in their business models and the
Imperial Valley as a whole.
“As long as Imperial Valley can produce competitive
crops, we can continue to export,” Plourd concluded.
Explaining a key aspect to the global reputation of Imperial Valley agriculture, Jackson said, “A big advantage for
Imperial Valley is the use of pest control advisors. We’ve got
people walking these fields. We’re able to confidently go out
and market a product and be confident it’s free of disease and
pests.”
And, he said, “Those who answer the challenges are going to be more successful.”
Redfern can be contacted at [email protected]
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21
SOWING
Around the Globe
By GARY Redfern
I
n one of the Bible’s most famous parables Jesus feeds
thousands with just a few fish and loaves of bread. A
modern-day embodiment of that miracle might be the
highly refined, or breeder, seed used in agriculture today.
Properly cultivated, just 20 pounds of the precious pellets can
be parlayed into a much larger quantity of seed that will grow
into millions of pounds of high quality grain to help feed the
nation and the world.
Orchestration of this delicate symphony of agricultural
bounty requires many interworking instruments skillfully
played. Rubin Seeds in Brawley is one of several seed companies in the Imperial Valley that play a role in the world
of practical science and determined farming yielding results
nothing short of miraculous.
“The (seed) breeder might have worked for 10 years to
get that seed,” Rubin Seeds President Ron Rubin said. “It’s a
scientific process of trial and error. The breeder is looking for
a product that services an area with certain quality factors.
You develop it for a market to do a certain job.”
An example is CUF 101, a seed type from which most
of the alfalfa in Imperial County is grown. It was developed
in cooperation with local growers by Dr. Bill Lehman of the
UC Desert Research and Extension Center in Holtville. The
objective was to breed a variety of seed that would result in
optimal yield and quality in the Imperial Valley’s unique environment. It was time and resources well spent.
“It was released in the 1960s,” said Rubin, an articulate man with a handlebar mustache and affable demeanor.
“People have done things with it over the years, but we don’t
have a whole lot of varieties adapted to Imperial Valley.”
Such is the primary objective of seed development: create something that will work the best in the environment of a
certain growing area.
From meticulous seed breeding to growing it and dis-
22
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January 2012
tributing it, seed is big business in Imperial County. In 2010
there were nearly 54,000 acres of seed grown in the Imperial
Valley with a value of almost $53 million, according to the
county Agricultural Commissioner’s annual crop report.
Types of seed grown include alfalfa, bermudagrass and onion, as well as smaller amounts of various produce crops.
An intriguing aspect of the business is “seed increasing,”
which Rubin described as taking a few pounds of pure breeder seed and expanding them to tons of seed without losing the
quality. Imperial Valley’s year-round growing season makes
seed increasing very attractive to growers in other parts of the
nation and the world.
“One of the things we specialize in is seed increases,” he
said. “We plant wheat and canola (seed) in October so the
seed is ready to ship to the Dakotas, Minnesota and Canada
for planting in April.”
Yes, Imperial Valley plays a key role in providing seed
used in the legendary amber waves of grain on the vast farms
of the northern plains and Midwest. There can be up to four
generations of seed resulting in a final product called “certified seed,” meaning a grower knows the result will be a crop
of top yield and quality.
That confidence is the cornerstone of Rubin Seed, which
Rubin founded in 2006 after working in the local seed industry for more than 20 years. It’s now a family business as he is
joined by his son, Kurt, a graduate of the agriculture program
at the California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.
The Rubin Seed plant on the north edge of Brawley is a
bustling mix of warehouse-sized buildings, storage silos and
conveyors. Besides seed increases, Rubin works to match local alfalfa seed growers with buyers locally and as far away as
Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Argentina. The company sells seed
to growers, grows wheat seed for sale, provides management
services for seed production and stores wheat and seed. It also
has a processing operation that cleans seed to remove contaminants such as weed seed, dirt and small sticks.
Other local seed companies focus more on onion seed
and servicing the market for produce seed, a massive industry considering the variety of crops grown in Imperial
Valley fields.
Rubin said his business focuses on the niches in the
market it can best serve, so the company mostly deals in
wheat, canola, alfalfa and bermudagrass seed. However, the
firm’s seed cleaning operation handles a variety of seeds,
including barley, artichokes and coriander grown in the
Imperial Valley.
“My whole existence is that I do business with a farmer and
a seed company and get them the product they want. If they
can’t make money, my purpose to exist ceases,” Rubin said.
Rubin has even had the chance to name a wheat seed his
firm markets, though he has no expectation that will earn him
any special recognition
“It is called RS 559.The company that developed it was
Resource Seeds. They left it up to me, so I used their letters
and added a number,” Rubin said.
Other seeds have names with local ties. The Desert King
wheat variety developed by the University of California is so
From meticulous
seed breeding to growing it
and distributing it,
seed is big business in
Imperial County, with a value
of almost $53 million in 2010.
© photos.com
named because it was bred to grow in the Imperial Valley’s
desert climate. Orita comes from a local feedyard and a rail
siding of the same name.
Kurt Rubin shares his father’s enthusiasm for the business. After college he did a stint in the insurance industry before joining his father in the business. Ron Rubin said he encouraged his son to try a different type of work to see if he
really wanted to return to agriculture.
Making his way through the Rubin Seed complex where
seed seems to be going in every direction as contaminates are
shaken, strained and blown out by an array of contraptions,
Kurt Rubin said, “I like being able to get outside every day.
I came from an insurance company, so I like it here where
you’re working with hard-working farmers.”
Surely many farmers appreciate the Rubins and the rest
of the seed industry. Imperial Valley has nearly 500,000 acres
of farmland and as large as it is, its legendary bounty owes its
reputation to the tiny seed.
January 2012
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23
Taking Food Safety Seriously
Protecting public health and ensuring healthy crops are grown and
delivered to market affects all aspects of farming in the Imperial Valley.
By DARREN SIMON
24
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duce grower Larry Cox have taken
leading roles in developing the regulations and research on food safety
as representatives on the California
Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement
January 2012
(LGMA) board of directors.
The LFMA website states the agreement “is working to create a culture of
food safety on leafy greens farms…
the LGMA incorporates science-based
I
n September 2006, an outbreak of
food-borne illness sickened more
than 200 people in 26 states, caused
three deaths and set off shockwaves
that forever changed California’s produce industry.
That the outbreak was eventually
isolated to spinach contaminated with
E. coli from one farm in San Benito
County, CA, was of little consequence.
Irrevocable damage had been done. The
public’s trust was shattered. The ripple
effect devastated growers throughout
California, including those in Imperial County, where spinach was not even
being harvested at the time. Produce
markets plummeted as public fear rose
and growers lost millions and left fields
unplanted.
California’s produce growers knew
the time for change had come and that
they would have to lead the way.
The result was the formation in
2007 of the California Leafy Greens
Marketing Agreement, an effort to lower the risk of food-related illnesses by
voluntarily agreeing to expand safety measures and monitoring beyond
state and federal requirements. Today,
protecting public health and ensuring
healthy crops are grown and delivered
to market affects all aspects of farming
in the Imperial Valley.
“If we weren’t doing what we do in
food safety, we wouldn’t be able to do
this business,” said produce grower Jack
Vessey, whose family business is Vessey
& Co. in Holtville.
Vessey and Brawley-based pro-
Cory Peeks, food safety manager for Vessey Company of Holtville, inspects a melon field.
when a field was cleaned, sheep herders would walk sheep across or down
country roads to the next field. Now,
sheep herders are being asked to truck
their sheep from location to location to
ensure they do not jeopardize produce
growers ability to market their crop.
Sheep herders such as Saturnino
Araguas of Holtville understands the
need for food safety, but he points out
that the sheep industry in Imperial
Protecting
public health and
ensuring
healthy crops
are grown and
delivered
to market affects
all aspects
of farming in the
Imperial Valley.
County is sanitary and has never had
any issues with E. Coli.
He said trucking sheep is a costly, time consuming operation that has
led to ongoing discussions with produce growers as both learn to adjust the
changing food safety landscape.
Vessey’s company has taken food
safety so seriously that he has hired a
full-time food safety manager. He said
most growers in the Valley have someone devoted at least half time to food
safety issues.
“You have to do these things. Otherwise you are not going to be selling
crops to the Costcos and Vons of the
world,” Vessey said.
Cory Peeks is Vessey’s food safety
manager. “It is my goal to keep food
safe for the consumers,” she said.
One critical part of her job is to do
a pre-season survey of Vessey’s fields to
make sure they are free of trash or animal
droppings—anything that could make a
field suspect and put a crop in jeopardy.
It is also her responsibility to keep
records of the fields and all food safety measures, so the documentation is
available for food safety officers who
regularly monitor local fields.
Her job is also about educating the
public about the way their actions can
have an impact on food safety. Walking
dogs near produce crops, for instance,
has the potential of introducing potential contaminants.
“Education for the public is a critical part of this,” Vessey said.
Traceability is another critical point.
The federal government last year, in
response to nationwide food-borne illness outbreaks, adopted regulations
heightening the level of traceability on agricultural products.
Through
documenting and digital records, any
food item that ends up
the store is supposed to
be traceable back to the
plant where it was packcontinued on
page 27
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©ISTOCK/MicroColour Photography
food safety practices and mandatory
government inspections in an effort to
assure safe leafy green products.”
Vessey said the growers producing
99 percent of Imperial County’s leafy
green vegetable adhere to the LGMA
food safety program.
The program consists of such measures as continuous surveying of fields
both prior to planting, during planting
and at the time of harvesting to reduce
the risk of contamination.
In addition, irrigation water is tested on a monthly basis. There are regular audits of farming operations by food
safety officers.
Even with such steps there is no
way to completely protect against contamination, Vessey acknowledged.
“There is no-kill step,” he said, to
completely eliminate the threat of contamination. However, he said as many
steps as possible are being taken to
minimize the risk.
The heightened concern about
food safety does lead to unexpected
complications.
One such complication is a
changing relationship between produce
growers and those in the sheep-herding
industry. Imperial Valley produce
grows in the winter, the same months
that sheep herding operations truck in
sheep to graze.
Vessey said sheep and produce
have co-existed in near proximity without a hitch out—until now. Now, to satisfy buyers, growers have found themselves having to abide by rules that
require livestock, including sheep, be
kept a certain distance away from vegetable fields to minimize any potential
risk of E-coli contamination.
McDonald’s, for example, will not
consider buying produce unless it is
grown at least one mile away from livestock, Vessey said.
Sheep spend the winter grazing
on various fields throughout the valley. Until recently, the practice was that
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Growing Algae…in the Desert
Nutritional superstar Spirulina is grown by Earthrise Farms
in the world’s largest aquaculture operation of its kind.
By GINA Germani
F
© photos.com
rom one small parcel of land in a remote section of the
vast Imperial Valley agricultural area, the world’s largest aquaculture operation of its kind produces a “crop”
that is highly prized by cultures around the globe.
At its 108-acre facility in near the rural city of Calipatria, Earthrise Farms cultivates, harvests and processes Spirulina, a blue-green algae that is becoming the darling of
U.S. natural food aficionados because the minute organism
is rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and immune system
building nutrients.
Why grow algae in the middle of the desert southwest? According to the Earthrise Farms website, “We copy
the optimum conditions
for Spirulina growth in
nature to produce the
world’s best Spirulina.”
Amha Belay, Earthrise Farms chief technology officer, a leading Spirulina researcher who studied
the algae growing naturally in lakes in his homeland
of Ethiopia more than 30
years ago, explains what
drew him to the Imperial
Valley in 1983.
“If it can grow wildly,”
Amha Belay holds a jar of Spirulina
Belay recalled of his work
in Ethiopia, “then think about the ramifications of growing it in
a contained environment.”
That one question eventually led him to the Imperial Valley, where the region’s sun and water provide an optimal Spirulina growing environment and where a group of scientists in
the mid-1970s was exploring the use of the blue-green algae
to combat world hunger.
Earthrise Farms and Earthrise Nutritionals went into operation in 1983 producing Spirulina, a food source that packs
20 times more protein than soy, Belay said.
Earthrise is owned by DIC Corp, a Japanese diversified
chemical company with a commitment to developing microalgae for food, biochemicals and pharmaceuticals. The
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company is proud to be the first commercial producer of
Spirulina and still the world’s largest. It continues to conduct
research on Spirulina’s potential as a food source to relieve
world hunger and as a nutritional and curative agent.
Today, Earthrise Farms operates a tightly secured facility near Calipatria with 30 lined food-grade ponds, a series of
laboratories for research, product analysis and quality control, and a processing plant that extracts the water from the
harvested algae and then dries it for packaging as nutritional
supplements in powders, tablets, caplets, and capsules. Using
ecologically sound cultivation processes with no pesticides
or herbicides, Earthrise’s Spirulina yields more nutrition per
acre than any other food, Belay said.
Earthrise supplies Spirulina to about 30 countries and
posts $10 million a year in revenues. Initially, demand for
Spirulina came from the Asian market. But demand is growing. In the past decade, American consumers are growing
more interested in Spirulina as a nutritional superstar. Earthrise’s products are USDA-certified as a processed specialty
food and in 2003 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted the company’s designation that Spirulina is Generally
Recognized as Safe, or GRAS.
“Without that,” Belay said, “major U.S. companies would
not buy our product.”
Earthrise products can be found in such popular U.S.
chains stores as Whole Foods and in GNC-brand generics,
as well in other major-brand products. Earthrise Spirulina
is used in cheese crackers, energy bars and even in specialty
beers, Belay said.
Scores of studies have concluded that tiny Spirulina has
a lot to offer. It is 60–70 percent vegetable protein, rich in
B-complex vitamins, vitamins A, C, D and E, iron and is a
good source of the fatty acid GLA (gamma linolenic acid).
Research studies indicate Spirulina provides important antioxidant benefits and may promote immune system health.
“If you are not a person who eats their five servings of
fruits and vegetables a day, which is almost impossible, then
one teaspoonful of Spirulina a day will go a long way to provide those benefits,” Belay said.
Earthrise CEO Hiro Mochizuki said the reasons people
use Spirulina differ widely around the globe.
“The demand for Spirulina is a personal agenda, based
on age, based on gender and nationality,” he said. “In China,
men demand Spirulina for the immune difference. Women in
China, 40 years and older, demand it for anti-aging.”
And, in German-speaking countries, Earthrise market
research found consumers want Spirulina products as a staple
vegetable.
Now the U.S. market is catching up with the rest of the
world. Mochizuki said, “In other countries, especially Asian
countries, they’ve always known the benefits of Spirulina, and
the demand is big, it’s huge.”
Facing growing demand, both in the U.S. and globally,
Earthrise is beginning an expansion that will add another 15
ponds and 40 acres to its Imperial Valley production facility
over the next five years.
Germani can be contacted at [email protected]
Amha Belay at Earthrise Farms’ Calipatria facility, where the Imperial Valley’s
abundant sun and water provide an optimal growing environment for Spirulina.
FOOD SAFETY
aged and to the field where it was harvested.
While California vegetable growers’ wake-up call came
in 2006 from spinach contaminated with E-coli, the alarm
sounded for the beef industry in 2003 over mad cow disease.
The first apparent case of the disease was identified in a cow
in the state of Washington, which sent shockwaves across the
global market. Within hours, Japan banned all imports of
U.S. beef. South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore all
followed suit within 24 hours.
Bill Brandenberg of Meloland Cattle Co. in rural El Centro said even before 2003, food safety steps to protect the
consumer were in place. In fact, he said, food safety has been
a growing focus of the industry over the last 20 years. And,
since 2003, state and federal regulations and industry selfpolicing have expanded to ensure the consumer has the best
possible product.
“We feel pretty confident as an industry we are producing
a safe product,” he said, adding the consumer has no idea the
level of inspection that occurs on all beef from the feedlot to
the packing plant.
At the National Beef facility in Brawley, the cattle are individually inspected prior to entering the plant and the inspections continue throughout the packing process. Brandenberg
said all of the inspections are done by U.S. Department of Agriculture officials.
“There are hundreds and hundreds of inspections every
day,” Brandenberg said. Federal inspectors have to certify the
facility is cleaned and ready for use before the packing plant
can even open its doors in the morning.
Feedlot operations, such as Brandenberg’s, also must adhere to state and federal food safety regulations. Brandenberg
said he and other local feeding operations also adhere to even
stiffer restrictions set by their own industry under the auspices of the Feeder Council arm of the California Cattlemen’s
Association. The requirements are strictly voluntary, but all
the Imperial Valley feedlots abide by them.
The Feeder Council regulations require feedlot operators
to do quarterly tests of the feed to ensure it is free of any pesticide residue, something neither the state nor federal government mandates.
There are costs to food safety. For packing plants, costs
of production have risen 10 percent, Brandenberg said strictly to meet the needs of food safety, and that is a cost that is
shared throughout the cattle industry and may impact what
consumers pay.
In the end, the goal is to provide a sense of security to the
consumer that beef produced in the U.S. is safe.
“The food safety in the U.S. cannot be matched in the
world,” Brandenberg said.
January 2012
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27
Agribusiness 101
IVC Harvests a Commitment
To Agriculture
By Gina Germani
P
at Pauley has that endearing demeanor of a farmer—a man of
few words, an aw-shucks persona that is quick to deflect a compliment
and the knowledge and knack to snap
open a rock-hard wheat flower in one
pinch just to show you whether it’s in its
milk or kernel stage.
Yet, get him started on his visions
of the future for the agriculture pro-
Pat Pauley, director of IVC’s agriculture program
gram at Imperial Valley College, and
Pauley becomes a vivacious, chatty college cheerleader in a nonstop dialogue
about potential and promise.
“The Imperial Valley is the ‘Alice in
Wonderland’ of farming,” Pauley said.
“We are down the rabbit hole. We are
upside down. We have a growing season that exceeds virtually any other
growing season in the country. We have
the ability of double-cropping, and in
some cases triple-cropping here.”
And that, says Pauley, is the reason
28
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January 2012
IVC’s ag program is ripe for revival.
“When I got here we had two dilapidated tractors, one disk, and a field
that wouldn’t run water if you paid it
to,” said Pauley, who became the director of the agriculture program at IVC
in 2009. He was also disappointed that
in a student body of about 7,000 at the
time, there were only a dozen majoring
in agriculture.
In its heyday during the 1970s and
‘80s, the IVC ag program was booming
with 80-acre alfalfa harvests, a horse
arena, a machinery shop and about
200 students graduating annually, according to Pete Mellinger, who founded the program and is now retired.
Back then, students could choose from
four ag industry associates degree programs and graduates were snapped up
for mid- and upper-management agribusiness positions locally and around
the country.
Following Mellinger’s retirement
in 1989, the college’s farm land was
leased out to a local grower for a few
years, and then it became barren. Some
of the land has been used for campus
construction projects. The original
80 acres became 35. The number of
agriculture courses was whittled down
from 30 to only three. Two of the four
degrees—ag chemical technology and
animal science—disappeared.
“There wasn’t continuity for years,”
Mellinger said. “In just a couple of years
there were four or five people they had
in my place, and most of them were
from out of the region. They may not
have understood the dynamics.”
While farming still reigns as the
Imperial Valley’s major industry with
nearly $1.6 billion in annual gross production, the local labor force saw significant changes during the last 25 years,
focusing on law enforcement and other fields. Centinela and Calipatria state
prisons, built in the 1990s, employ
2,400 people in the county. Since 9/11,
the El Centro sector Border Patrol has
doubled its number of agents to 1,200.
And with geothermal, solar and other
renewable energy prospects cropping
up, the labor market diversified.
Mellinger believes that might have
contributed in part to the ag program’s
decline.
“Back then the IVC board was
made up of farmers, fertilizer companies, feedlots, entomologists, equipment dealers and produce companies,”
Mellinger said. “I am not criticizing
the current board, but the emphasis is
more on this ‘green revolution’ nowadays, not on agriculture.”
Long-time IVC Trustee Rudy
Cardenas, however, thinks the program just languished without a leader.
“After Pete Mellinger left there was
quite a bit of turnover in that department, and I just think that the interest wasn’t there from the students. But
now you have a dynamic ag instructor
that’s driving the ag program.”
The arrival of Pauley, who holds
a Ph.D. in agriculture education from
Pauley, thanks to contracts with and
donations from local farm machinery,
labor, fuel, seed, fertilizer, and other local professional services.
The IVC Agriculture Advisory Board meets at 6:30 p.m. the first
Wednesday of every month at the
Meloland UC Davis Desert Research
Center in Holtville, and Pauley invites
everyone to participate and contribute.
He chalks up the accomplishments to
community and industry involvement
in the program.
“The early bets have paid off,”
Pauley said. “Now it’s time to get a piece
of land that won’t get paved over, or a
building slapped onto it.
“My ultimate vision, and I might
be able to get it into place before I retire, would be to have a 400-acre facility off-site, away from the campus,”
Pauley said. Such an ag-teaching facility, he continued, would have farm land
for vegetables, forages, pastures, greenhouses, livestock corrals, a machinery
shop, three classrooms, and offices.
IVC has just so much room to
grow on its 160 acre campus, which is
why Pauley believes an off-campus agteaching facility is important. As other
college programs expanded, the ag program’s space has shrunk. What once was
the IVC ag machinery shop now houses the college art department’s kilns and
easels. Part of the farm land used by the
ag program became the campus north
parking lot.
Pauley believes the future IVC ag
program can accommodate students
from all reaches of the world. “There is so much potential here,”
Pauley said. “I see this as a place where
students from everywhere will come to
study agriculture because of the magnitude, the diversity, and in some regards,
the uniqueness of the way thing are
done here.
“I want to build a program that
will be fat, sassy, and happy by the time
I retire,” Pauley said; as he surveyed
the chest-high wheat crop his students
grew. “And then I get to come back 10,
15 years later and hope to see that it has
continued to grow and prosper.”
Germani can be contacted at
[email protected]
Texas Tech, shook the IVC agriculture
program out of the doldrums.
Several growers and agribusiness
representatives jumped at the chance
to help rejuvenate the IVC ag program
when Pauley came calling for their
support.
Ed Hale Jr., a third-generation Imperial Valley farmer and a current member of the IVC Agriculture Advisory
Board, was the first to step forward. He
leveled the farm land just north of the
campus—part of the $200,000 of inkind services Pauley has drummed up
from several growers and agribusinesses since he arrived.
“I got a lot out of the program
when I was there,” said Hale, who attended the IVC’s ag program that Mellinger ran, “and I don’t mind giving
something back. So, I said, ‘we can do
this for you.’ ”
Hale said he also has a vested interest in today’s IVC ag program because
he needs a skilled workforce.
“The tractor we use has seven onboard computers in it,” he said about
his GPS-based land leveling equipment.
“It’s got a touch screen that you’ve got
to be fairly computer-literate to operate. We need young people with those
skills, and that’s where junior colleges
come in.”
Within a year after the land was
leveled, Pauley and his students were
planting, growing, harvesting, selling,
and managing salable wheat.
“I’m not producing people that I
expect to be out on the end of a hoe,”
Pauley said. “I’m producing people I
expect to be in managerial positions.
And one of the things you need in ag
education is to follow the market and
identify what you should do to capitalize on maximal revenue and profitability. God threw it in our lap that wheat
was at historic highs for two years I was
here.”
And, the ag program’s bank account is $125,000 strong and independent of college funding, according to
(From left) IVC instructor Dr. Pat Pauley with students Dimitri Borastynski, Pete Guzman, Hugo Aguilar and
Alison Willette
January 2012
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29
Match Made in Heaven
With a background in science and love of the outdoors,
Connie Valenzuela is the new
Imperial County Agricultural Commissioner.
By SUSAN GILLER
W
hen Connie Valenzuela walked into the Imperiabout 40, the county Agricultural Commissioner’s office caral County Agricultural Commissioner’s office 26
ries out many functions in its role of protecting and promotyears ago, she was looking for a permanent job
ing agriculture, Imperial County’s economic base. Among
that would let her put down roots and stop traveling. So she
other things, the office does: pest detection, eradication and
hesitated before taking the only job available—a temporary
management; plant quarantine, exclusion and certification;
cotton pest trapper position.
seed and nursery inspections; fruit and vegetable inspections;
By the end of cotton season, however, she had a permaAfricanized bee safety education, maintaining crop statistics
nent position in the department and a growing realization
and being the county’s sealer of weights and measures.
that she had found the career for which she was destined. To Much of the work requires a science background and the
day, after working in virtually every division in the departImperial County Agricultural Commissioner’s office mainment, Valenzuela is Imperial County’s Agricultural Commistains its own lab.
sioner, the first woman to hold the position in the county’s
For Valenzuela, it was a match made in heaven. She
104-year history.
earned her degree in biology at the State University of New
“When I started I just wanted to be outdoors,” ValenzuYork College of Environmental Science and Forestry. While
ela said. “That spring
she grew up in lush,
and summer I had
rustic farming and
the most fun trapping
dairy country in the
pink bollworm. I loved
Catskill Mountains of
the work, even in AuNew York, she had not
gust.”
initially considered a
And, from the start
career in agriculture.
of her career with the
“I really didn’t
county, Valenzuela was
think about what I’d
on the road to learn
do,” Valenzuela said.
and earn the licenses
“I liked Jane Goodrequired for the posiall and her pioneering
tion to which she was
work with chimpanappointed in 2010, folzees, and I loved all of
lowing the retirement
the sciences, especially
of former Agricultural
biology.”
Commissioner Steve
After college VaBirdsall. While a love of
lenzuela went to work
the outdoors may have
for the Forestry Serattracted Valenzuela
vice. She took the job
to the work, it was her
with Imperial County
keen and abiding interat the end of the winter
est in science that comshe spent working as a
pelled her to stay.
camp cook for a sheepConnie Valenzuela checks a copy of the latest Imperial County Agricultural Crop & Livestock
Report produced by her office.
With a staff of
herding group pastur30
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January 2012
ing flocks in the valley.
California takes the counties’ responsibility to agriculture very seriously. State licensure is required for several positions in a county agriculture commissioner’s office. A candidate for agricultural commissioner in any of the state’s 58
counties must pass a battery of progressively more difficult
tests and numerous licenses.
Before she finished her first temporary trapping assignment, Valenzuela had passed tests to earn three licenses,
which made her eligible to apply for a permanent position
in the department. She took a hiatus from the testing process
while her daughter, Daniella, now 19, was a toddler.
Credentials for county assistant agricultural commissioners
and the top spot both require written exams and oral boards.
“At the end, it is like preparing for a final exam without
taking the course,” Valenzuela said. “It covers anything that
you might face in the job. And the oral boards are brutal.”
Still, she is an enthusiastic supporter of the testing process
that had candidates for the ag commissioner tests from all over
the state form a study group and work together to prepare.
“All the study and research really helped,” she said. “It
keeps you focused on the issues you need to know.”
After she was named Imperial County’s assistant agricultural commissioner in 2007, Valenzuela started to set up
lunch-hour study sessions to help others in the department
prepare for the tests that could lead to future promotions.
“I think you have to grow the staff from within,” she said.
It is becoming increasingly difficult, she added, to find
candidates with the science and math background needed to
maintain the level of expertise California now requires for
agriculture.
“California is special,” Valenzuela said. “No other state
has county ag commissioners. We have more ag inspectors in
one county here than exist in some entire states. The benefit is
we can make sure local needs are met.”
Local needs include such things as phytosanitary inspection and certification by the ag commissioner’s office to ensure commodities are free of diseases or pests and without
which local crops could not be exported.
Another vital service California provides through its
county agricultural commissioner offices is a pest detection
and eradication effort so vigilant that more than once the U.S.
Department of Agriculture has agreed to forego requiring a
statewide quarantine and the draconian economic impact it
could have on agriculture and instead limit restrictions to the
specific area where a pest was detected.
“USDA will do that because of California’s extensive local pest detection system. We have the data on which areas are
infested with a pest, and which areas are free from that pest,
and that data can be used to establish a smaller, but still effective, quarantine area. Without that local data, the whole state
would be quarantined,” Valenzuela said.
She is, however, concerned that budget cuts may reduce
the effectiveness of the state’s pest eradication efforts. With
its border location, diversity of crops and perpetual growing seasons, Imperial County has more reason than most to
be wary of bugs.
Recent reports that the South American palm weevil
(SAPW) had been found in traps in San Ysidro, near an infestation in Tijuana, put Valenzuela on alert. The pest poses
a threat to the date palm and nursery palm industries that
produce a substantial crop in parts of Imperial County.
Now that she has put down roots in Imperial County,
Valenzuela spends more of her time in meetings or at her
desk. Yet, she can’t resist checking trees, shrubs and plants
whenever and wherever she is out in the county.
“I really have to watch myself, though,” she said, “it’s not
always safe to do when I am driving.”
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WINTER salad bowl
agriculture,” Valenzuela said.
Foreign pests aren’t the only threats on the horizon. Produce
growers agree that food safety rules have become such an issue
that co-existing with neighboring farms can take some effort.
“The food safety is so stringent (that) … pasturing sheep is
a problem. You can’t have sheep within 400 feet of a vegetable
crop,” Jack said. “We go to our neighbor and ask them to move
the herd. We will pay them. The sheep farmers have been very
good at notifying us.”
During the winter produce season, Imperial Valley is home
to thousands of sheep trucked in to feed on forage crops. Additionally, there are hundreds of thousands of cattle in feedlots.
“McDonald’s won’t buy lettuce grown within one mile of
sheep or feedyard,” Vessey added. “It’s difficult to deal with. It’s
a third party setting the rules.”
A common denominator among those in the Imperial Valley agricultural community is optimism. They know changes
and challenges are coming. They also know they’ve handled
them since the valley was first irrigated in 1901 and beaten
back every threat.
“I remember my grandmother telling me once that if Henry Ford were building the Model T today, he would be broke,”
Jack said. “What she meant was don’t be complacent. The minute you are, you’re passed by.”
Of the outlook for Imperial Valley agriculture, Strahm
said, “There’s going to competition for land and water, but we’re
well positioned because we’re ready to go into the high value
crops (whatever they are).
“That’s the thing about agriculture: It’s one of the last
production industries in the United States. We have diversification.”
January 2012
l
31
All in the family
sheep grazed in the valley during 2010 with a total value of
about $4 million. Valley sheep
also produced 469,500 pounds
of wool, worth about $324,000.
In 2009, the most recent year for which the state
Department of Food and
Agriculture has comparative
data, the Imperial Valley ranked
as California’s fourth largest sheep and lamb producing county. And California is
the nation’s second leading sheep producer, right behind
Texas.
Since they were domesticated in 8000 BC, sheep
have played a significant role in civilization. Sheep have
been a New World staple since 1493 when, on his second
voyage, Columbus brought a flock to Cuba.
Even with centuries of experience, the sheep industry
not a business for the faint of heart. The U.S. sheep industry—and by extension that in Imperial Valley—is being
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January 2012
pinched by competition from New Zealand and Australia
as well as the American appetite for other meat.
In the past few years, U.S. sheep numbers have
dropped to such precarious levels that some processing
facilities have shut down. Industry leaders have launched
an effort to encourage producers to increase the nation’s
flocks. They have also stated a culinary outreach to entice
consumers to try lamb, a staple protein source around the
globe.
Overcoming challenge is nothing new for Imperial
Valley’s sheep men. They have known the trials and triumphs of sheep for generations. There have been lean
years.
Araguas, who emigrated from Spain to become one
of the stalwarts of the Imperial Valley sheep industry,
said producers face plenty of risks raising sheep with the
goal of sending them to market when the price is strong
enough to make a profit. Five years ago, he said, the market fell and he lost everything and had to rebuild his operation from scratch.
“Not just anyone can do this business,” said Araguas,
whose operation is based in Holtville. “You have to stay in
the business all your life because that is how you get the
experience to do it. Without that experience, forget it.”
Auza agrees. His father emigrated from Spain in 1915
at the age of 10 and started herding sheep in Northern
Arizona two years later. Martin and all his siblings were
raised with sheep. He and three of his brothers ran sheep
together in Yuma, AZ, for many years before Martin
moved his operation to Brawley in 1988. Now his son,
Martin Jr., works with him.
There is much about herding sheep that harkens back
to another era. Dogs, for instance, remain an integral part
of the staff that herds and protects flocks from predators.
Other challenges, such as the need to increase the taste
for lamb, require a modern approach. Auza, for instance,
sits on the American Lamb Council, the national industry
organization that promotes lamb through the development of recipes, consumer and retail promotions and outreach to culinary professionals.
Despite challenges, including rising operating costs,
local sheep herders have reason to be hopeful. In the past
few years they have gotten record prices for the lamb sent
to market via packing plants in Colorado.
Of the industry, Auza said, “I enjoy it—I really do.”
Auza looks to the future with confidence knowing
that Martin Jr. has grown up with the sheep industry and
wants to take over the family operation when his father
retires.
“He’s there,” Auza said. “He could do it himself today.
He enjoys it and that is what it takes.”
Consider the case of Imperial Valley’s 2010 wheat crop. After leading the
state in wheat production in 2009 with
a crop valued at $98 million, Imperial
Valley’s 2010 wheat value plummeted
to $42 million.
“What happened is wheat is very
sensitive to food prices on the world
market,” said Roy Motter, a Brawley
wheat grower, who also serves on the
California Wheat Commission and
the U.S. Wheat Associates, two key research and marketing organizations for
wheat. “When the market’s depressed, a
lot of guys don’t even plant wheat.”
There were plenty of more profitable field crops Imperial Valley growers
chose to plant instead.
In 2010, just 58,500 acres of wheat
were planted in Imperial County, down
from 111,600 acres in 2009.
The price paid for wheat fell so low
in 2009, Motter said, “some guys could
not even afford to buy fertilizer and
they sold their crop for feed.”
Imperial Valley grows durum
wheat, the kind used to make pasta.
Durum is a crop of choice here because
it does not handle rain well, especially
at harvest. With Imperial Valley’s average annual rainfall of less than 3 inches,
there is a better chance of winning the
lottery than seeing rain during the May
and June durum harvest here. “Imperial Valley’s unique climate
produces a consistently high quality
durum,” Motter said. “We have an excellent worldwide reputation for our
product that customers seek out.”
On the heels of a very favorable
2010 county crop report many Imperial
Valley agribusiness leaders are optimistic that the region will continue to hold
court in the world market.
“There is no question that agriculture has become a star in a down economy,” said William R. Plourd, president
of El Toro Export. “The world market
is expanding rapidly. That makes the
outlook for Imperial Valley agricul-
ture look pretty good for the foreseeable future.”
The world market for commodities
is up and expected to keep growing
rapidly. A key driver is emerging
markets in India, China and Southeast
Asia, where growing middle classes
have money and an appetite for U.S.
commodities.
Motter and other Imperial Valley wheat growers are smiling as they
read the tea leaves, too. Motter estimated that this year local wheat growers planted more than 100,000 acres of
durum and were getting about $400 per
ton at harvest, more than double what
the market paid in 2010.
“At that level a guy is making money,” Motter said. “Next year, you can expect a lot more wheat.”
Giller can be contacted at
[email protected]
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January 2012
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33
Food and Fiber for Consumers
The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) service territory (above) covers 6,471 square miles, including all of Imperial County along
with parts of Riverside and San Diego counties. With low electric and water rates, an abundance of natural resources, a capable
workforce and a close proximity to the border, this region has turned into a destination for business and industry of all kinds.
34
l
January 2012
Worldwide
Imperial County Agriculture Facts
Farmers in Imperial County produce more than 100 different commodities,
including bamboo, sugar cane, flax, corn, artichokes, fish, goats, honey, cilantro,
water lilies and more.
It is estimated that more than two-thirds of the vegetables
consumed in the United States during the winter months
are grown in the Imperial Valley.
In 2009, Imperial County produced enough lettuce
(including head lettuce, leaf lettuce, salad products and
spring mix) to serve 4-ounce dinner salads to more than
5 billion people. Farmers here also grew enough carrots to
serve a half-cup serving to 83% of the Earth’s population—
more than 5,5 billion people.
Imperial County is home to three dairies and a cheese
plant—the only processing facility in California that
produces Swiss and Muenster cheeses.
The county is California’s #2 producer of aquaculture,
and is home to one of the largest catfish farms west of the
Mississippi.
Imperial County is among the nation’s top sheep and lamb
producing counties. Approximately 150,000 sheep pass
through the county each year. In the 1950s and again in
the 1990s, close to 350,000 sheep passed through the
valley annually.
The lush fields of Imperial County provide habitat to
hundreds of thousands of birds every year. Of the 800
or so bird species found in the United States, over 400
species have been spotted in the Imperial Valley.
Over 70% of the state’s burrowing owls reside in Imperial
County. There are more owls per square mile here than
anywhere else in the United States, and possibly the world.
The Imperial County TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load)
program, administered by Imperial County Farm Bureau,
has been recognized nationwide for its success in reducing
the amount of silt and minerals that enter our water
drainage systems. Simple solutions such as wider drainage
channels or wheat strips planted in drainage channels help
inhibit the flow of silt and minerals while allowing water to
pass through.
MAP: Imperial Irrigation District
—Source: Imperial County Farm Bureau
January 2012
l
35
Lending to farmers
for five generations
Let’s grow together
Rabobank was founded in 1898 by farmers who pooled their savings
to provide loans to their neighbors and communities.
More than 110 years later, we’ve grown into a leader in agricultural
and community banking by standing by our customers, rain or shine.
Our agribusiness relationship managers are seasoned ag professionals
who have the tools to help your operation thrive.
Let’s grow together. Call us and get started today.
John Levada
Regional Agribusiness Manager
Imperial Valley
(760) 337-2762
Rabobank, N.A.
Member FDIC
www.rabobankamerica.com
36
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January 2012

The Many Shades of Agribusiness Success

Transcription

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