Rocky Hampton, manager at Lidco, Inc., has been entrenched in the agricultural industry since graduating from Biola University in 2010. He is a sales veteran in all facets of the business—everything from promoting agronomy lab services to selling remote irrigation monitoring equipment and farm drainage systems.

Fun “Rocky” Facts:

• Rocky is active in supporting local youth through Gateway Church of Brawley.
   
• Rocky is the very first associate member to join the WG Future Volunteer Leaders Program.
   
• At 6’9”, Rocky is a basketball all-star:
  • He was signed by the Dusseldorf Giants of the German Basketball Bundesliga, the highest-level basketball league in Germany.
  • He played in Fürstenfeld Austria, the top men’s professional basketball league in Austria.
  • He was named a 2009-2010 NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball First Team All-American.
  • As a basketball stud at Biola University, he finished his career as the school-leader in blocks and fourth all-time in points and rebounds.

Click here to journey with Rocky as he shares more fun facts. 

Rocky is one of nine individuals selected to be in Class 6 of the Future Volunteer Leaders, a program that guides the next generation of leaders within Western Growers member companies interested in becoming more informed and effective advocates for the fresh produce industry.

Colby Pereira serves as vice president of operations at Braga Fresh Family Farms, supporting the overall farming and harvest operations. She has a keen focus on employee health and safety and has diligently led the farm’s COVID-19 response team.

Colby is a proud native of Soledad, CA, and uses her extensive background in agriculture to support leading organizations such as the Monterey County Farm Bureau, Salinas Valley Chapter of California Women for Agriculture, Grower Shipper Association of Central CA, CA Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement Technical Committee and Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce Board.

Journey with Colby as she reveals her biggest passions in life.

Adventure Life:
 I rode a Segway down the streets of San Francisco, conquering the traffic, hills and even curvy Lombard Street.

Family Life:
My family is the most important group of people in my life. They are the most incredible support system one could ever ask for.

Sporting Life:
My hubby, Jeff, is my best friend, my biggest fan and the one that I enjoy doing life with. 

Travel Life:
I love to travel anywhere and everywhere!  I’m definitely looking forward to continuing to explore the world again soon!

Work Life:
Policy development and agricultural advocacy are among two of my passions. I recently hosted a field tour for CA State Senator Anna Caballero and CA State Assemblymember Robert Rivas.

Click here to see more about Colby’s life. 

Colby is one of nine individuals selected to be in Class 6 of the Future Volunteer Leaders, a program that guides the next generation of leaders within Western Growers member companies interested in becoming more informed and effective advocates for the fresh produce industry.

Grower’s Past Helps Navigate the Future

Couture Farms: Member since May 1, 1946 (75 years)

Background Information:

My grandfather came to California shortly after the beginning of the 20th century. My father was born in 1918, and he started farming after he got out of college. In the 1940s, he came to Huron; he planted melons and watermelons in 1948 and then cantaloupes in 1949. We have been farming melons every year since! Both my mother and father lived and worked on the ranch, and now my brother and I run the farm.

Aside from melons, what other produce do you grow?

In 2000, we began switching crops and products over to organic. We are still planning on some melons, but we are waiting to see how much rain we get and what kind of water allocation we get from the water district. 2020 was our last year growing asparagus; we started planting asparagus in 1977. Now pistachios and almonds are our focus.

What’s the most interesting part of your operation today?

The most interesting part of our operation right now is our new building for food safety to secure the processing of pistachios. Prior to 2017, we had a facility that was raising alarms. Although we didn’t have any problems, the proactive thing to do was to use a third-party processor. After taking our product to an outside processor for two years, we have officially built a building, and now we are ready to move equipment in and start processing our crops.

Tell me about the family farm. How many generations are currently working?

There’s my brother and me. I do more of the office work while my brother stays in the field. My brother’s son helps him on the farm and my daughter helps around the office. My wife helps a bit with sales and that makes up our family farm here in the Central Valley.

As you introduce the next generation of farmers to the operation, have you identified any similarities or differences in operating styles between your father and your generation?

There is a lot of continuity—in both crops and ethical standards—that my father started for us. He was quite an exceptional man. He grew up in the farming business and loved to build packing sheds and buy motors and wire. He was constantly working and planning new things. My brother and I are just a little bit more removed from some of that work. We have an excellent team to share those responsibilities with.

What is your favorite part of the job?

My favorite part of the job is being in agriculture—everything changes with the seasons, from asparagus to melons to trees. They come up at different times and you’re watching slightly different problems. It’s a joy to have that sort of variety. When things grow well, you kind of stand back in awe of a nice crop and how it all works. You must pay attention to the weather and hope for rain at times, but that’s Mother Nature. My father would never get upset or blame Mother Nature; to him, it was never her fault. So, we learned how to cope with the many ups and downs that come with farming.

As a Western Growers member, how has your operation benefitted from the services our organization provides?

We have been members of Western Growers for what seems like forever. My father was on the board many years ago and it’s a relationship I take advantage of every day. Everything from notifications about positive things in farming, to Western Growers’ aggressiveness in trying to protect us from poor legislation, and to outreach in helping organizations be presented in the best possible light. It’s a challenge. I personally see that the Board of Directors has concentrated heavily in many ag-related areas with higher productivity. I have great respect for Western Growers. Our farm has used Western Growers to help with trade conflicts with buyers. We’ve seen benefits with using the organization for insurance, not to mention understanding legislation. I still think every day that Western Growers has done a lot for me whether I’ve made the call to them or not.

What’s next for your operation?

We are well aware of the idea of succession, but we are not forcing our children to step in our footsteps. I do believe there is a good future for young people in agriculture, while also acknowledging that doesn’t always involve an ownership position. There’s a lot of potential for organic growing, people wanting to eat well and feel better. That presents a great opportunity for the future of Couture Farms.

(Editor’s Note: Owner Steve Couture was interviewed for this story. His comments were edited for brevity and clarity.)

By Tim Linden

Director profile: Loren Booth, President, Booth Ranches, Orange Cove, CA
WG Board Member 2009-2012, 2021-present

Otis Booth Jr. inherited a 40-acre citrus ranch in the San Joaquin Valley from his maternal grandfather in the 1950s and became an absentee owner and investor, while he raised his family in the Los Angeles area city of Pasadena.

While working for the Los Angeles Times and afterwards, Booth expanded his agricultural holdings which eventually grew to 2500 acres of citrus and a cattle operation. He was instrumental in developing the Hills Valley and the irrigation district that bears its name in Tulare County. While her father invested in agriculture, Loren Booth grew up in Pasadena without a hands-on devotion to ag, but an interest in it. After graduating from college with an ag degree and getting married, she did move to the San Joaquin Valley and got involved in cattle ranching, working for her father. She liked the business, which led her to apply to the California Agricultural Leadership Program. Her first attempt didn’t make the grade but she applied again and did become a member of Class 27 in the late 1990s.

Booth says participation in that class changed her life. “I loved the people I met, and I loved their individual stories. Ag Leadership gave me confidence and showed me that there were so many opportunities out there.”

She jumped into the family citrus operation with both feet and began taking the various facets in-house. “We started with the farming operation. My first hire was Bryan Harden as our PCA and he is still with us today.”

They also had to buy trucks and insurance, establish a payroll system and hire many employees. In 2003, Booth Ranches brought the packing operation in-house by purchasing a packing shed. It has since added another. In 2005, she brought in a sales team and became even more vertically integrated.

Booth quips that you learn by making mistakes and she made a lot of them as everything was a new experience. But they also prospered, and the acreage continued to expand. They now farm 7,500 acres of citrus throughout the San Joaquin Valley. The Booth advantage is that the owner’s name is on the box and the only fruit that goes into that box is owned by Booth Ranches. She said that gives the company a unique advantage over its competition. “We serve a niche. If you want a good orange, buy our fruit.”

Booth Ranches continues to expand and grow, and the owner continues to try new things. The company now raises show horses of the reining horse variety, and Booth is working with university researchers on trying to use the byproduct of the horse operation to create a compost that will improve the soil for the citrus groves.

Loren was elected to the Western Growers Board last fall, which is her second stint on the board. She was on the board in the latter stages of the first decade of this century but stepped down when she got more heavily involved on the board of the California Agricultural Leadership Program that she so dearly loved. That program was going through bankruptcy and she had to pick and choose how to spend her volunteer hours. She is very happy to be back on the WG Board as she has long been an admirer of the organization and the work it accomplishes.

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The Short & Sweet

Name: Loren Booth

Title: President/Owner Booth Ranches

Birthplace and Childhood Years: Pasadena, CA

Education: Graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1975 with a BA in Animal Science.

Family: Son Jake Sill lives in Fresno, CA; Daughter Blair Moffett lives in Scottsdale, AZ

Enjoyable Pastime: Loren is an avid reader. Among her latest reads that she recommends are “The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah; and “Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship” by Greg Boyle. She also recommends Boyle’s earlier book “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion.”

Her Defining Moment: Being Part of California Ag Leadership Program. “It changed my life.”

Last Big Trip: Went to France before the shutdown.

The COVID Year: “We recently started a horse operation raising ‘reining horses.’ I spent a lot of time this past year with that.” She also camped out at her home in Santa Barbara.

Fun Fact: During the Ag Leadership Program, Loren met Greg Boyle, who is a Jesuit priest, author and founder/director of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang-intervention and rehabilitation program. “He is an amazing man. I highly recommend his books.”

Fun Fact #2: For more about Loren, listen to Episode #165 (March 30, 2021) of The Modern Acre, wherever you get your podcasts. It is titled: “Bringing Farming In-House with Loren Booth.”