Ag Day- October 17

      We passed Gallo Farms, and Maxwell Norton, tour guide extraordinaire, informed us that the farm is 3,000 acres with 150 million gallons capacity at Livingston.  Other plants are at Fresno and Modesto, as well as Sonoma Dry Creek Valley.  On the bus, MID’s Hicham Eltal provided a valuable overview of the district’s local activities.  

      MID, created in 1919 after the Crocker family got out of the business, has 164,000 acres in the county, including 138,000 acres of farmland; 90 percent of that takes surface water, and MID is trying to expand the use of surface water.  Groundwater isn’t replenished by rainfall.  Two underground lakes at Planada and Le Grand have long since been pumped dry.  The Merced Groundwater Basin is bounded on the north by the Merced River, the south by the Chowchilla River, the east by the foothills and the west by the San Joaquin River.       

     We dismounted the bus at Robert Chad’s farm, whose system is powered by solar energy.  The top four rows of the upside-down-V-shaped structure are used for an ag pump, the bottom two rows for his house.  The panels generate 8.5 kilowatts—6 for the ag pump, 2.5 for the house, at a total cost of $76,000; he paid $66,000 out of pocket, and ag depreciation and ag credits brought the total net cost down to $56,000.  “The ag system is supposed to pay for itself in eight years, the house in 13,” Chad said.  Sunburst Solar of Atwater installed Chad’s system. 

       We then proceeded to Foster Farms.  Garbed up in outer space or hot zone-like gear, Leadership Merced participants were taken in groups of four or five through the Foster Farms plant for a 30-minute tour.  One guide said it took 89 minutes from the time the chickens die until they’re ready to cook.   Vice President/Operations Richie King later briefed the group.         

     On the way back to Merced Maxwell pointed out sweet potato farms, including by the Yagi Brothers and Dallas Packaging, both family operations.  Maxwell suggested that as far as organic farming goes, insects are the easiest issue to deal with; diseases are tougher, and the hardest factor of all is weed control.