Raisins Continued from Page 6 partnered with the Wagner-Gillespies by managing the farming of their grapes. The company was founded in 1984 by brothers Dave and Les Loquaci, who come from a longtime California farm family. Now, including the next generation of Loquacis, the company specializes in man- aging permanent crops in the San Joaquin Valley, including prunes, almonds and white grapes. It occasionally performs oth-
er services such as harvesting or disking. The Selma Pete variety was new to the Loquacis when they started growing the crop for the Gillespies. “New information was still coming out, so it was kind of learn as you go,” said Les Loquaci’s son, Richard. He added that the most noticeable dif- ference was the reduction in the number of employees needed at harvest. See RAISINS, Page 8
From a Central Valley farming family, Courtney Gillespie, left, and her mother Basia Gillespie, founded Life’s Grape, a Madera County business that coats its vine-dried Selma Pete raisins with chocolate and peanut butter.
Vegetables Continued from Page 3
POWER BUD-BREAKING FOR BETTER YIELDS START FRESH & CLEAN ● PROMOTE EVEN GROWTH ● SYNCHRONIZE BLOOM ● STREAMLINE HARVEST
other side of the country was keeping demand steady. “If a blizzard goes through the East Coast, we feel it the next day” in the market for fresh vege- tables, Vessey said. Decades of drought in the Colorado River basin have put a spotlight in re- cent years on Imperial Valley growers who rely on the river’s diminished sup- plies to provide vegetables for much of the country. In December, the Imperial Irrigation District finalized an agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to conserve 100,000 acre-feet of water this year to re- plenish the river. The water reductions will come from an existing agreement through which Imperial Valley farmers are paid to install water-efficient irrigation systems in ex- change for sending a portion of their water allocation to the San Diego County Water Authority. Under the new agreement, in- stead of going to San Diego, some of that water will remain in Lake Mead. Another water conservation program called deficit irrigation pays Imperial Valley farmers to keep the irrigation gates on their alfalfa fields closed during the summer, when water use on forage crops is typically highest and yields lowest. “We’ll augment the water savings from the on-farm conservation program with the deficit irrigation,” said Mark McBroom, who farms in the Imperial Valley and chairs IID’s Agricultural Water Advisory Committee. Vegetable growers said the region’s water conservation obligations were not likely to impact this year’s or next year’s vegetable production. Many have partic- ipated in the on-farm conservation pro- gram for years. Jack said he has shifted most of his let- tuce to drip irrigation, a major investment he said has rewarded him with higher yields than standard furrow irrigation while using less water. “Our yields are through the roof,” he said, adding that his fields with drip irriga- tion were yielding as much as 45% more lettuce per acre than his other fields. “We’re trying to conserve as much water as possible at all times,” Vessey said. (Caleb Hampton is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at champton@cfbf.com.)
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January 10, 2024 Ag Alert 7
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