California Ag Network

Category: Ag Economics

  • Trump Administration Advances Plan to Create New Water Storage in Northern California

    The Bureau of Reclamation today released the final feasibility report for the North-of-the-Delta Off-stream Storage Investigation. The report documents the potential costs and benefits of the Sites Reservoir Project. As part of a continuing effort to increase storage capability throughout California, Reclamation and the Sites Project Authority worked together to evaluate new off-stream surface water storage north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Final Feasibility Report was transmitted to Congress on December 22.

    Located 81 miles northwest of Sacramento, Sites Reservoir would store water diverted from the Sacramento River for future releases to beneficiaries throughout the state. The proposed project includes an off-stream reservoir located north-of-the Delta where the majority of California’s rainfall occurs.

    “California is in dire need of additional storage, and projects like Sites Reservoir will provide operational flexibility and more reliable water delivery to benefit farms, communities, and the environment,” said Commissioner Brenda Burman. “The Sites Reservoir Project is an important opportunity for additional storage in northern California.”

    The proposed reservoir would provide additional water supply for agriculture and municipal and industrial purposes, CVP-operational flexibility, anadromous fish benefits (migrating fish that return from the ocean to spawn), wildlife refuges, Delta ecosystem enhancement, flood damage reduction, and recreation.

    “We are pleased to partner with Sites Project Authority on this unique off-stream storage project to create much needed water storage in California,” said Regional Director Ernest Conant. “The multi-beneficial Sites Reservoir would increase northern California’s water storage capacity by up to 15% and provide water supply, flood protection, environmental, and recreation benefits for generations to come.”

    “Environmental water has always been at the heart of the Sites Reservoir Project,” said Fritz Durst, Sites Project Authority chairman. “Partnering with Reclamation will help restore flexibility, reliability, and resiliency to our statewide water supply – especially in dry years – and will create an environmental asset for the state by providing water and dedicated storage for environmental needs that do not currently exist.”

    “We are grateful for the partnership with the Bureau of Reclamation on this one-of-a-kind water storage project,” said Sites Project Authority Vice Chairman Jeff Sutton. “Sites Reservoir will serve to greatly enhance the operational efficiency of our existing statewide water delivery system and significantly improve drought resiliency for our participating water agencies—who collectively represent over 24 million Californians and more than 500,000 acres of farmland from all parts of the state.”

    The Sites Reservoir Project is a joint investigation between Reclamation and Sites Project Authority, authorized by Congress in 2003. The diversity of potential participants includes local, state, and federal interests as a collective of investors. As the project advances, it will be optimized for current conditions and affordability of all participants, while maintaining flexibility to adapt to changing conditions.

    For additional information contact Project Manager Ryan Davis, Bureau of Reclamation, at 916-978-5083 (TTY 800- 877-8339) or rdavis@usbr.gov.

  • Mailbox Milk Prices Expected to Normalize in 2021 Following Year of Extreme Volatility

    The pandemic in 2020 caused unprecedented market volatility in dairy prices, leading to lower milk checks for dairy producers. However, the price spread is expected to realign in the first half of 2021, bringing normalcy to producer price differentials (PPDs) and mailbox milk prices, according to a new report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange division.

    Extreme volatility in cheese and milk prices resulted from supply chain disruptions, government purchasing, and changes in consumption habits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Record-high cheese prices lifted Class III milk prices disproportionately higher than Class IV milk prices, which were held in check by low butter and milk powder prices.

    Because of higher Class III milk prices, cheese manufacturers were incentivized to depool milk from Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) marketing regions. The loss of higher-priced Class III milk from the pool resulted in negative PPDs for dairy farmers and lower mailbox milk prices.

    “The coronavirus pandemic broke the relationship between monthly mailbox milk prices and monthly Class III milk prices,” said Tanner Ehmke, manager of CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange. “But the spread between Class III and IV milk prices is expected to realign in the first half of 2021, bringing normalcy back to PPDs and mailbox milk prices.” 

    Pooling and De-Pooling

    While most Class I processors are legally obligated to pool milk in an order, handlers of other classes of milk have the option to participate based on certain order performance requirements and the financial incentive.

    Between June and November 2020, cheese processors mostly found themselves in a disincentivized position. The cost of milk would be higher if processors had pooled milk in the order. As a result, cheese manufacturers have in many cases chosen to “de-pool” milk.

    The effect of de-pooling has been most dramatic in California, where the FMMO pool consisted of an average of just 0.8% Class III milk between June and October 2020. This followed an average of 29% of the order in the same period in 2019.

    De-pooling is incentivized when the blend or uniform price in an order pool falls below either Class III or Class IV prices. Historically, de-pooling also tends to coincide with a negative producer price differential.

    Future of PPDs

    Negative PPDs occur when milk in a federal milk pool is less than the Class III price. This tends to happen when the Class III price is at a significant premium to Class IV milk prices.

    New cheese manufacturing plants coming online and expanding in Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin will increase annual production of American-type cheese by an estimated 8% by June 2021. When at capacity, the addition in manufacturing will utilize approximately 4.6 billion lbs. of milk annually—roughly equivalent to 1.5 years of increases in annual U.S. milk production.

    The increase in plant capacity, combined with the slowing of government programs like the Food Box Program, should contribute to Class III and Class IV milk prices returning to more historical price spreads in the second quarter of 2020, resulting in positive PPDs.

    Read the report, When the Pandemic Breaks Milk Prices: A Study in Returning to Normal.

    About CoBank

    CoBank is a $148 billion cooperative bank serving vital industries across rural America. The bank provides loans, leases, export financing and other financial services to agribusinesses and rural power, water and communications providers in all 50 states. The bank also provides wholesale loans and other financial services to affiliated Farm Credit associations serving more than 70,000 farmers, ranchers and other rural borrowers in 23 states around the country.

    CoBank is a member of the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of banks and retail lending associations chartered to support the borrowing needs of U.S. agriculture, rural infrastructure and rural communities. Headquartered outside Denver, Colorado, CoBank serves customers from regional banking centers across the U.S. and also maintains an international representative office in Singapore.

  • Dairy Manure and Methane Recovery

    For most of us, 2020 can’t be over soon enough. Yet, in the digester development world, each day from today through 2024 is precious time to identify facilities, procure funding, and install digesters. Why? To capture methane and use it as valuable renewable compressed natural gas (RCNG) and meet ambitious manure methane reduction targets.

    How is the California digester portfolio doing? Since 2015, 119 dairies have installed, or are installing, digesters to capture and utilize manure methane. The number of dairy projects receiving funding by year and developer are shown in Table 1. The 2015 projects used methane for electricity. Only two digesters since then use methane for electricity. Almost all facilities use biogas for renewable compressed natural gas. Digesters are being developed in six counties within the San Joaquin Valley. The success of these projects and others yet to come will help California dairies meet the ambitious goal of 40 percent reduction in manure methane from 2013 levels by 2030.

    For more information on funding, see the CDFA website. — By Deanne Meyer – UC Davis Department of Animal Science & UCANR

  • Grazing & Riparian Restoration Are Compatible When You Put in the Work

    With a little time and effort, rangeland managers can have a dramatic impact on the resilience of California’s riparian areas, which are important to the state’s human, environmental and economic well-being. Rangeland ecologists at the University of California, Davis, found that when ranchers invest even one week a year in practices that keep cows away from creeks — like herding, fencing and providing supplemental nutrition and water — they can improve riparian health by as much as 53 percent.

    “The human factor is remarkably significant,” said Ken Tate, professor and Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. “Common thinking is that effectiveness of various rangeland management tools is site specific and largely due to site factors, such as topography and plant communities. Some practices are better suited to certain ranches for these reasons. But this study suggests that how you implement the tools might be the biggest factor in keeping rangelands productive and environmentally sustainable.”

    Tate collaborated with UC farm advisors and several other UC rangeland ecologists on the large-scale riparian conservation study recently reported in the Rangeland Journal.  

    One-third of California — 38 million acres — is rangeland. Much of it is mountainous and arid and managed for livestock production. Grazing on rangeland feeds livestock and also offers many environmental benefits like keeping invasive weeds in check, reducing risk and intensity of wildfires, and supporting habitat for certain animals and plants found nowhere else in the world.

    Problems arise, though, when cattle spend too much time near water, where manure can create water-quality risks for people downstream. That is especially true in California where some 80 percent of the state’s drinking and irrigation water is stored on or passes through rangeland. Overgrazing in riparian areas also tramples sensitive habitat and lets perfectly good forage on hillsides go to waste.

    Examining 1 million acres

    Tate and his team studied 46 grazing units on ranches and national forests covering nearly 1 million acres of dry, rugged rangeland in east-central and northeastern California. With the ranchers’ help, they looked at the relationship between number of livestock, managerial effort and riparian health. To measure riparian health, researchers looked for tiny aquatic bugs, animals and insects known as benthic macroinvertebrates.

    “We collected the kind of things you’d find under rocks when you crawled around creeks when you were a kid,” Tate explained. “The types of bugs and creepy crawlies present and absent tell us a lot about the biodiversity and health of a stream.”

    The team found no significant relationship between riparian health, number of livestock and simple yes/no answers on whether ranchers used fencing, herding or water and salt licks on hillsides to coax cattle from creeks. There was, however, a significant correlation between riparian health and time spent implementing those tools.

    “It doesn’t take a lot of effort, but it does take some effort,” Tate said. “When you put a salt lick on a hillside to attract cattle, for example, it’s going to lose its effectiveness if you don’t go back and refill it and move it to another hillside when the grass around it is grazed. Cows cannot live by salt alone.”

    Tate is encouraged by the results and the solutions they suggest.

    “We see a lot of win-wins,” Tate said. “Effective management opens up new forage opportunities and increases productivity. And when you have more useable land, you relieve pressure on riparian areas, which is good for the environment and for agriculture.” — By Diane Nelson, UC Davis

  • ARS Research Prepares Farm Soil During Farming’s ‘Off-Season’

    It may be winter, but farmers don’t stop growing crops or preparing their soil for future planting – and scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are there – with the farmers – to help.

    “Climate changes pose significant challenges for many cropping systems,” said Tom Sauer, supervisory soil scientist at the ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment (NLAE) in Ames, IA. “Changes in management practices need to be carefully evaluated to build or enhance the resilience of different agroecosystems.”

    Researchers at NLAE are midway through a 5-year project, Managing Energy and Carbon Fluxes to Optimize Agroecosystem Productivity and Resilience, to investigate aspects of cover cropping and tillage on farm production efficiencies. The project also looks at agroforestry – tree windbreaks and silvopasture (mixing forestry, forage production, and grazing).

    “We have been tracking a variety of metrics for soil organic matter under cover cropping and reduced tillage,” said Peter O’Brien, research agronomist at NLAE. “We see some positive trends indicating that these practices may maintain soil carbon levels, in contrast to conventional systems that have declining levels of soil carbon.”

    Experiments at the USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames Iowa are showing how cover crops like this radish can help protect the soil surface and improve soil health following the harvest of primary crops. (Photo by Katherine Kral-O’Brien)

    Cover cropping can help keep soil carbon in the ground and out of the atmosphere, thus significantly benefiting the environment, including water quality. Cover cropping encompasses a wide variety of practices. At the most basic level, O’Brien said, it is the practice of growing crops during the part of the year that the primary crops are not in the field, typically in the late fall and early spring.

    “While the concept is simple, there are a lot of different ways to implement a cover crop,” he said. “Farmers must make decisions about annual vs. overwintering cover crops, single-species vs. mixes, planting method, and how to terminate/manage overwintering cover crops to prepare for the next primary crop. Ultimately, factors like climate, soil type, crop rotations, and the farmer’s goals guide how cover crops are best implemented.”

    For example, in the corn-soybean rotations across the Midwest, O’Brien said the amount of time suitable for cover crop growth after primary crop harvest may be limited in comparison to other parts of the country. Consequently, some farmers may sow cover crops, especially cereal rye, into standing corn a week or two prior to harvest to lengthen the cover crop growing window.

    Cover cropping has many benefits for soil health that exceed just keeping carbon in the soil, such as reducing erosion, suppressing weeds, increasing soil biological activity, promoting soil physical quality, and providing pollinator habitat and/or high-quality forage for grazing.

    “Cover cropping can improve soil health in several ways, and healthy soils not only have the potential to increase crop yields, but they may also be more resilient to changing weather patterns,” O’Brien said. “Cover crops protect the soil surface from raindrop impact and excessive exposure to sunlight, both of which can break down soil aggregates and lead to erosion.”

    The ARS scientists are also showing that the non-cover cropping aspects of the project are just as essential to soil health.

    Cereal rye cover crop growing in fall after corn harvest. Scientists from USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames Iowa are investigating how rye can protect the soil surface and reduce nitrogen losses through tile drainage systems. (Photo by Peter O’Brien)

    “The presence of trees either in long, linear rows (windbreaks) on the edge of fields or in widely-spaced rows (silvopasture) modify local microclimates by reducing wind speed, therefore lowering wind erosion, and providing shade that helps retain soil moisture,” Sauer said.

    Farmers can manage these agroforestry practices to reduce losses to their commercial crops from extreme events, particularly heat and water stress association with drought conditions. “Each of these practices can be managed for local conditions or climate trends to enhance their effectiveness in building agroecosystems that are more resistant to negative effects of climate extremes,” Sauer said.

    “This project contextualizes our goals of enhancing productivity and reducing environmental degradation,” O’Brien said. “All aspects of the research are geared towards understanding how our agroecosystems are responding to — and also contributing to — climate change, and it highlights the importance of finding management practices that promote resilience in changing conditions.” – By Scott Elliott, USDA-ARS Office of Communications.

  • Sustainable Food Systems, COVID-19 Drive 2020 Sustainable Ag Summit Dialogue

    Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director-General at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, previewed the 2021 Food Systems Summit and its implications for U.S. agriculture during her keynote address of the 2020 Sustainable Agriculture Summit held virtually, Nov. 18-19.

    The sixth annual Sustainable Agriculture Summit attracted a record 800 attendees, with farmers making up about a fourth of the audience. The summit is hosted jointly by five organizations representing U.S. dairy, commodity crop, specialty crop, beef and pork industries, including the checkoff-founded Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.

    Bechdol said the Food Systems Summit, which will be held in New York City in September, will be an opportunity for the U.S. food and agriculture community to ensure its diverse voices, sustainability record and progress are reflected in the role food systems play in achieving the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

    “This is an agenda that must be owned by everyone,” she said. “In some ways, we really hope that it awakens the world to the fact that we all need to work together to transform the way the world produces, consumes and even just thinks about food.”

    Barbara O’Brien, president of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, opened the Sustainable Agriculture Summit with a review of the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on the world. She said Feeding America projects an 8 billion meal deficit in the charitable food system over the next 12 months, and that the virus created a “reframing” of how people think about and define a sustainable food system.

    “Brands, companies and industries, including agriculture, can no longer sit on the sidelines of the conversation,” O’Brien said. “We don’t have the luxury to stay silent on environmental, social and economic issues as NGOs, customers and consumers make it an expectation of business.”

    She recognized the 2050 Environmental Stewardship Goals announced by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy and applauded the resilience of U.S. agriculture this year, saying its collective strength positions the industry for a bright future.

    “The counter narrative is growing louder and the global debate over what fits and what doesn’t fit in a sustainable food system is real,” she said. “The question is how do we set the course for the next generation of global agricultural sustainability that builds consumer trust, preserves consumer choice and allows for a vibrant industry? Together, I think we can find the answer.”

    Examining ESG issues

    A panel discussion led by Krysta Harden, executive vice president of global environmental strategy for Dairy Management Inc., focused on how environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are revolutionizing sustainability throughout the value chain. For agriculture, these challenges include climate change, food waste, labor and treatment of essential workers.

    Harden referenced dairy’s proactivity in  launching its U.S. Dairy Stewardship Commitment in 2018. The Commitment is a voluntary social responsibility pledge to consumers and customers that processors and co-operatives will transparently meet defined criteria in areas including animal care, environment and food safety. Harden said 29 dairy companies representing 70 percent of U.S. milk production have adopted the Stewardship Commitment.

    “Investors are increasingly seeking a strong link between corporate sustainability performance and financial performance, which is why it’s important for agriculture to take note and make sure we are prepared to accelerate these areas,” Harden said.

    The summit also featured a panel discussion on how COVID-19 heightened public awareness around food security and how food and agriculture can build sustainable supply chains in a disrupted world.

    Denise Osterhues, senior director of sustainability and community engagement for The Kroger Co., said the company’s Zero Hunger | Zero Waste program that aims to end hunger and reduce waste in its communities by 2025, took on added relevance this year.

    She said Kroger’s top priority during the onset of COVID-19 was to simply stay in business so consumers could continue having access to safe, healthy and affordable food. The grocer invested more than $1 billion in health and safety measures for employees and customers. Kroger also accelerated its e-commerce business and offered curbside and delivery services.

    Osterhues referenced a milk donation program in Michigan that was in place before COVID-19 hit, in which Kroger collects surplus milk from co-ops and donates the processing. More than 130,000 gallons have been donated into the Feeding America pipeline as a result.

    She is encouraged by the charitable and proactive response she has seen during this time.

    “One lesson we believed from the start, but has become more clear, is that we totally need everyone,” she said. “It will take all of us to do our own parts and more. We’re excited about the innovation we have seen. Some of the start-ups, entrepreneurs and college students who have risen to the moment are putting creative solutions in place and making things happen.”

    Other panel sessions addressed subjects including preserving biodiversity, climate-smart agriculture and working alongside underrepresented communities to build a more just, equitable and inclusive food system.

    For information on U.S. Dairy’s sustainability efforts, visit www.usdairy.com/sustainability.

  • PERC Urges Producers to Consider Propane Heating Solutions for Reliable, Consistent Power Year-Round

    As winter weather quickly approaches, the Propane Education & Research Council urges producers to consider how propane can keep your operation running smoothly and livestock safe year-round, without worrying about peak pricing or power outages.

    Propane-powered building and water heating solutions offer reliable, consistent power independent of the grid—an invaluable asset for many agricultural operations. Propane equipment eliminates the risk of sudden power outages, which can wreak havoc on a farm or ranch. With propane equipment, producers do not have to rely on access to the power grid or a natural gas line.

    “With propane heating equipment, producers can take back more control over their farm, and the consistent and precise temperatures help them maintain healthier plants and animals,” said Mike Newland, Director of Ag Business Development at PERC. “At the same time, producers can cut unnecessary costs, saving 25 percent more with propane water heating versus electricity.”

    On-demand tankless water heaters achieve high efficiency by eliminating the thermal standby losses from a storage tank and demonstrate efficiencies of at least 90 percent. Propane-powered building heat—including boilers, hot air furnaces, or radiant heaters—are highly efficient and offer thermal efficiencies of up to 95 percent.

    For more information about propane-powered agricultural equipment and the Propane Education & Research Council visitwww.Propane.com/Agriculture.

  • Surging Feed Prices Will Challenge the U.S. Animal Protein Sector’s Recovery

    The U.S. animal protein sector is expected to face a 12% increase in feed costs in 2021, which will mark the highest year-over-year inflation since 2011. With corn futures above $4 per bushel and soybean meal futures around $350 per ton, cattle feeders, hog producers and chicken producers will pay higher prices for feed than they have in many years, according to a new report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange division.

    The higher feed costs come at a challenging time, as meat and poultry industry margins have been pressured by weak prices in 2020 due to COVID-19. Average producer margins for cattle, hogs and broilers fell into negative territory this year after the pandemic disrupted foodservice demand and drove widespread meat plant slowdowns and shutdowns.

    “Most producers lost money during the year, but that’s been in the midst of some of the most extreme volatility in global food demand anyone has ever seen,” said Will Sawyer, lead animal protein economist with CoBank. “Industry margins are far better today than they were in the spring, but there will be tighter windows of opportunity for the livestock and poultry sectors to profit in 2021.”

    Much of the increase in feed prices is being driven by Chinese demand for grain as it rebuilds its hog herd and overall animal protein supply after African Swine Fever (ASF) ravaged its herd the last couple of years. The USDA forecasts China’s corn imports to more than triple in the 2020-21 crop year, with much of that increase coming from the U.S.

    The shortage of animal protein in China has drawn massive trade flows towards the world’s most populous country. Since China lost more than half of its hog herd beginning in late 2018, it has been the largest importer globally of beef and pork, and nearly surpassed Japan in poultry imports. While China’s protein imports are expected to decline a modest 3% in 2021, CoBank economists anticipate those imports will fall more sharply in the years to follow.

    For most of the last decade, feed costs have generally been a tailwind for U.S. meat and poultry producers and have been lower than the year before for six of the last eight years. In 2021, U.S. hog producers are expected to face the highest level of feed cost inflation at 14%, closely followed by cattle feeders at 13%, and chicken producers at 11%. The impact of feed costs varies by species for several reasons, such as life cycle, feed ration, and components of other feed costs.

    While feed costs will be more of a burden for the animal protein industry than in previous years, meat and poultry supply growth is expected to slow in 2021. USDA forecasts 0.8% overall growth for U.S. beef, pork, and chicken production in the coming year, the slowest rate of supply growth since 2014. That leaves reason for some level of optimism that higher feed costs can be offset by higher prices.

    “While animal protein and poultry producers face a higher cost structure in 2021, margin opportunity will increasingly come from revenue rather than cost,” said Sawyer. “And fortunately, there are positive signs that producers and processors may benefit from higher beef, pork, and poultry prices to cushion higher feed costs.”

    Sawyer points to the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines as a positive first step towards the eventual normalization of food and animal protein consumption patterns, including the return of foodservice industry demand. Additionally, changes by major meat and poultry processors greatly reduce the probability of a repeat experience seen in April and May 2020.

    CoBank estimates U.S. meat and poultry companies have invested more than $2.5 billion this year in direct COVID-19 expenses to ensure safe working conditions and reduced risk of plant shutdowns. With plants operating at a more normal level, absenteeism levels improving, and far fewer workers falling ill, the financial impact of COVID-19 looks to be far less in the coming year than what the industry has endured in 2020.

    Read the full report, Surging Feed Prices to Test U.S. Animal Protein’s Recovery.

    About CoBank

    CoBank is a $148 billion cooperative bank serving vital industries across rural America. The bank provides loans, leases, export financing and other financial services to agribusinesses and rural power, water and communications providers in all 50 states. The bank also provides wholesale loans and other financial services to affiliated Farm Credit associations serving more than 70,000 farmers, ranchers and other rural borrowers in 23 states around the country.

    CoBank is a member of the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of banks and retail lending associations chartered to support the borrowing needs of U.S. agriculture, rural infrastructure and rural communities. Headquartered outside Denver, Colorado, CoBank serves customers from regional banking centers across the U.S. and also maintains an international representative office in Singapore.

  • Long-time Wine Industry Leader to Leave Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association

    Chris Chandler, the longest serving executive director of the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association (LVWA), will be leaving at the end of the year. She has led the non-profit marketing and membership organization representing wineries, vineyards and businesses in Livermore Valley since the spring of 2007.

    “We have appreciated Chris’ guidance and her capacity through the years to stand with all the wineries, both large and small. Her ability to forge a path through the middle, that benefits everybody has been tremendous. She leaves behind numerous legacies in the Valley,” said Darcie Kent, proprietor of Darcie Kent Vineyards. Her partner, David Kent, noted, “One legacy that stands out in particular is how Chris got up and got going on the downtown wine country hotel. It would have been a very different outcome without her leadership, attention and ability to mobilize a broad section of the community to stand up for what is right and do what was needed to advance our wine country.”

    In 2019, Diablo Magazine featured Chandler as one of “three female power players bringing their A games to our local wine region.” She was devoted to LVWA members and prioritized community and collaboration. Chandler served for several years on the board of the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Foundation, which hosts the annual charity auction; the Las Positas College Viticulture & Enology program advisory board, East Bay-Economic Development Alliance (EB-EDA) Marketing and Land Use committees and the Visit Tri- Valley board of directors.

    “Chris has always been willing to partner and advocate on behalf of the hoteliers and wineries in the region,” said Tracy Farhad, CEO of Visit Tri-Valley. “She has served seven years as an invaluable director on the Visit Tri-Valley board, and has long understood and contributed to the larger, regional and national marketing efforts. We will miss her.”

    Under Chandler’s direction, and for the first time in the Association’s history, LVWA pursued and won two grants to support regional marketing. The grants awarded by the United States Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Food and Agriculture totaled just under half a million dollars.

    Rachael Snedecor, executive director of Livermore Downtown, Inc. (LDI), said, “Chris and her team established a highly successful media relations program. She always took a collaborative approach and reached out to invite LDI to join in Winegrowers-sponsored FAM tours and media visits to the benefit of not only the wineries but downtown restaurants and businesses as well.”

    Alameda County District Supervisor Scott Haggerty remembers, “We worked with Chris and her team back in 2009 to ensure that they could successfully establish the wine country signage program throughout the Valley.”

    Chandler also successfully led the organization through one of the worst economic recessions on record. “It hasn’t always been easy. The Great Recession of 2008-2009 was difficult on wine regions all over the state, including Livermore Valley, she said. “It was nothing like the hardships of this pandemic, but I am confident that the region’s history, creativity, dedication and heart will carry the Valley forward.”

    Among Chandler’s other important legacies are her work on paving a path to establish the Wine Heritage District that will secure sustainable, long-term funding for marketing the region and the expansion of Taste our Terroir from a single night event into an iconic, four- day celebration of local wine country.

    “It’s been an honor and privilege to represent Livermore Valley’s wineries and vineyards for almost 14 years,” said Chandler. “I’m so proud of everything the members, team, board and I have accomplished together!”

    “The Association thanks Chris for her leadership and dedication over the past 13+ years and we all wish her only the best,” said Amy Hoopes, president of Wente Family Estates and two-term LVWA board president.

    Long-time LVWA Operations and Membership Director Brandi Addington will oversee the organization with support from the board of directors for the foreseeable future.

    Livermore Valley Vineyard at Sunset (Photo by Barry Zupan)

    About the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association

    The Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association is a 501(c)6 organization that supports the wineries, growers and members in the Livermore Valley American Viticultural Area through educational and marketing programs. For more information, please visit www.LVwine.org

  • Fresno State Enology Professor Infuses Curriculum With An Entrepreneurial Twist

    Dr. Qun (Kristy) Sun

    Inspired by her students’ dreams of one day owning their own wineries, Dr. Qun (Kristy) Sun is partnering with faculty across campus to expand her curriculum through the Johanson Entrepreneurship Faculty Fellow program.

    The Johanson Entrepreneurship Faculty Fellows program recognizes an elite group of faculty fellows across all disciplines. They infuse elements of entrepreneurial thinking into their course curriculum with the goal to inspire students to apply an entrepreneurial mindset to the learning material.

    Sun, the newest faculty member, looks forward to tapping the expertise of her 20 cohort fellows to add new business, planning, management and leadership elements to her Enology 175 winery management class.

    “Students come to Fresno State from around the world,” said Sun, who is from the Zhejiang province in eastern China, “because of the applied, hands-on experience they can get from our on-campus winery, vineyard and research. Entrepreneurship is another important element since it is becoming challenging to maintain profitability in our changing global environment. In today’s industry, especially in the smaller wineries, it is important to have a variety of skills outside the vineyard and winery.”

    Sun is a great example of that. After receiving her doctoral degree from Cornell University in 2011, she created new products and worked in research and development for the International Food Network (now Eurofins Food Integrity and Innovation). As a food scientist she specialized in food and beverage development, sensory analysis and scaling production for mass quantities.

    “The Johanson Fellows Program is a great platform to learn from others and share our experiences,” Sun said. “This collaboration also opens the class to business students who have no prior experience with the wine industry. All of the students can learn together about basic principles to create a business plan, and then effectively establish and manage a winery.”

    Through the Johanson Fellowship Program — funded by Johanson Transportation, founded in 1971 by Richard Johanson — access to entrepreneurship principles is made available to students outside of the business school.

    For more information about the Johanson Fellows Program, contact Dr. Timothy Stearns at 559.278.3735 or timothys@csufresno.edu, or Mendy Laval at 559.281.6461 or mlaval@csufresno.edu. — By Gabriel Gatchalian, California State University Fresno