TRICKLEEZ

Introduction:

In a freezing climate it is advisable to “winterize” the sprinkler system in order to avoid damage. Special attention should be given to removing water from the pipes, valves and sprinkler heads, before freezing occurs. This may be accomplished using three techniques; the manual drain valve method, the automatic drain valve system, or the air blow-out practice.

This guide deals with the air-blow out practice, as it is the only way to ensure water has been removed from the system. Factors you must consider before you begin:

• WEAR PROPER EYE PROTECTION! Extreme care must be taken when blowing out the system to avoid excessive pressure which can damage valves or sprinkler pipe or cause physical injury due to flying debris.

• Do not stand over any irrigation components (pipes, sprinklers, and valves) during air blow out.

• Air pressure must not exceed 50 pounds per square inch (psi). Compressor must be capable of delivering 20 to 25 Cubic Feet Per Minute of air volume.

• Do not run equipment for longer than 1 minute on air.

Local irrigation contractors usually offer this service for a reasonable fee that may also include start-up in the spring. Depending on how extensive your system is and what type of equipment you have installed, you may want to choose a professional who is fully equipped to provide this service.

Description of procedure: Compressed air is used to force water through all of the irrigation system components including the mainline pipe, sprinkler control valves, lateral pipes, and out through the sprinkler heads. To obtain proper air volume, you will need to rent or buy a compressor capable of providing 20 to 25 cubic feet per minute (CFM) of air volume.

Air pressure must not exceed 50 pounds per square inch (psi) during the blow out procedure.

A pressure-regulating valve must be used to avoid over pressurization of the system. Air volume should be high and air pressure low. This combination of high volume and low pressure will minimize the damage that can occur during the winterization process. It is very important to select the right air compressor for the job. Some small shop compressors (2 hp) may not be adequate to complete the winterization procedure properly. You may want to go with a more ‘industrial’ option for your needs, such as the gardner denver air compressor which can be bought either as a new or rebuilt model. If the appropriate air compressor is not available, please call an irrigation contractor.

Do not try to use an air compressor with high pressure (120 psi) and low volume to evacuate water from the system. It is not an acceptable practice to allow the compressor to fill the holding tank of the compressor and the closed mainline with high pressure air, hoping the surge of excess pressure will compensate for the lack of compressor size and blow the line clean upon opening the sprinkler control valve.

This is a dangerous practice that places very severe stresses on all of the components of the system.

Do not run the compressor without at least one sprinkler control valve open.

This lessens the chance that the system could over pressurize. It is a common misbelief that if the system can withstand 120 psi of water pressure, similar air pressure will not damage the system. This is not true! The viscosity of air is much lower than water, generating much higher stresses that can cause severe damage to the system.

Design: There should be a separate provision on the sprinkler system mainline for hooking up the air hose. This could be a quick connect fitting, a manual gate valve, a plugged “tee”, or simply a capped pipe in the line. This adapter should be located as close to the water source as possible.

Check with your air compressor manufacturer for the correct procedure and equipment to hook up to the sprinkler system.

Procedure:

Wear Proper Eye Protection! Do not stand over any irrigation components (pipe, valves, or sprinklers) during air blow out. Do not run the air compressor without a sprinkler zone control valve being open first, from start up to compressor shut down. Air pressure must not exceed 50 pounds per square inch (psi).

Blow out procedure activating sprinkler control valves from the timer:

1. Close mainline sprinkler shutoff valve.
2. Relieve the water pressure on the mainline by activating a circuit, or zone, from your
timer.

Activate the circuit that is furthest from the air connection before introducing air into the piping.

3. Attach the compressor hose to the blow out adapter.
4. Set the pressure-regulating valve on the compressor to 50 psi.
5. Turn on the compressor. Gradually increase the flow of air until the sprinkler heads pop
up. The amount of flow or volume required will be dependent upon the length of the
pipe run and the number of heads.
6. Sustained heat from the compressed air may damage pipe and other components.

Do not blow any circuit more than 1 minute at a time. Switch to another station, or zone, by advancing the timer to the next circuit.

Do not turn the timer off at any time during this operation until the compressor is first shut off.

7. In order to ensure adequate drainage of lines, repeat the cycle two or more times,
activating each zone from the timer, until nothing more than a fine mist appears from
the heads. Many sprinklers that use plastic gears in their drive mechanisms also use
water for lubrication and cooling. If a circuit is allowed to run with nothing but air for
extended periods there is a significant risk of damaging the drive mechanism of the
sprinkler.
8. After blowing out all the zones, leave one zone on while shutting down the compressor.
Turn the compressor off at this time.
9. Unhook the compressor from the adapter to the sprinkler system mainline.
10. Turn the timer to “Off”.

From: K-Rain • Riviera Beach, FL

Novel spraying system is incorporated into a maze built of rows of apple trees.

One of the tree fruit industry’s newest technologies is making its debut—amazingly—in a five-acre maze shaped like an apple and created, not out of corn, as most mazes are, but of apple trees.

Mazes are popular attractions. But how would one manage an orchard with all the twists, turns, and dead ends of a maze, especially the spraying? That’s the clever part.

Instead of having to wend their way down alleyways with conventional equipment, the managers of this new orchard will spray it with a permanent fixed-in-place system exactly like the one called the Solid-Set Canopy Delivery System.

The SSCD system is being researched at Washington State University, Michigan State University, and Cornell University. It looks so promising that some growers are ready to go with it right now.

The system going in at Royal Oak Farm Orchard was designed by John Nye at Trickl-eez Irrigation in St. Joseph, Michigan, the same person who put together the array of plumbing lines and spray nozzles in the researchers’ experimental orchards.

Paul Norton gives credit for the idea to his grandfather Peter Bianchini, the patriarch of the four-generation family that owns and operates Royal Oak Farm near Harvard, Illinois. “We were considering building a corn maze,” Paul said, “but there seemed to be plenty of those. We’re less than 20 miles from Richardson’s, the largest corn maze in the world. That’s when my grandfather said, ‘Why not apple trees?’”

Dennis Norton, Paul’s dad, said that when customers come to Royal Oak Farm Orchard, their goal is more than just to buy fruit. They want to “make a day of it.” They drive 45 minutes, if they come west from ­Milwaukee, or two hours if they come northwest from Chicago, to visit the farm on the Illinois-Wisconsin line.

They come to pick their own fruit, eat lunch at the restaurant, shop at the market and bakery, and engage in family activities such as hay wagon and carousel rides. Kids feed and pet animals in the petting zoo, play on playground toys, and engage in other activities that make Royal Oak an agricultural entertainment destination.

Agricultural entertainment

Starting next summer, visitors will be able to stay another couple of hours and find their way through what is likely the country’s only maze made of apple trees. A-Maze-N’ Apples is in the final stages of growing, with spray lines to be installed this summer, and it will open in late summer of 2015 as a combination maze and you-pick orchard.

People will pick the apples and carry them out through the winding corridors. Luckily, there are shortcuts so apples need not be carried the full two miles of the total maze.

The maze was designed by Maze Play, the company that also designed the 33-acre corn maze at Richardson’s Adventure Farm in Spring Grove, Illinois. Maze Play created the apple shape using a computer program and provided GPS coordinates so Royal Oak employees could place each of the nearly 3,000 trees (in nine varieties) that make up the maze.

Royal Oak was founded by Peter and Gloria Bianchini in the early 1990s. Dennis Norton married their daughter, Renee, and they liked the farm so well the couple joined in the operation about 15 years ago. Their son Paul and daughter Sarah, and their spouses, joined in, and now Paul and Meghan have six young children, and Sarah and Justin have one. All are involved in the business, living in four homes on the farm property.

The farm grows apples (16,000 trees in 30 varieties), peaches (300 trees), and 15 acres of berries and pumpkins. Some produce is sold prepicked, especially peaches or the most expensive apple varieties like ­Honeycrisp, Zestar!, and Pristine.

“On a good Saturday, we’ll have four or five thousand people here picking apples,” Dennis said.

The farm has a large complex of buildings that include the Harvest Barn, which is you-pick headquarters; the Apple Barn where apples, pumpkins, gourds, squash, and a few other vegetables are sold; a barn where apple cider is made; a restaurant and bakery; and a pavilion that can be booked for weddings, birthdays, or other events. School kids watch videos before taking orchard tours.

“We’ve very much involved in educating the public,” Dennis said.

Constructing the maze

Paul described the overall maze as being about four and a half acres and nearly square. From the air, it looks like a classic Red Delicious apple with some leaves at the stem end. The nine varieties of apples were planted in several groups so that when a variety ripens, there are three or four areas where they can be picked.

The nine varieties in the maze, all planted on Malling 26 rootstocks, are Blondee, Snowsweet, Zestar!, Royal Court, Empire, Smoothee (Gibson Golden), Grand Gala, September Wonder Fuji, and Granny Smith.

“We also included about 70 Indian Summer Crab on M.26 as pollinators spread throughout the maze so we wouldn’t have to be concerned with proper cross pollination,” Dennis said. “There are approximately 2,813 apple trees plus the 70 crab apples.”

There are about two miles of paths, and it could take two to three hours for those who choose to “pick” their way through the whole maze, he said. There are benches and rest areas.

When the maze was laid out, the first thing installed was the main underground pipe system that will bring spray material to and from the orchard. Then the trees were planted, following carefully drawn, curved lines. Then 456 posts went in and the first trellis wires were installed.

Trickle irrigation lines were laid beside the tree rows, and then landscape fabric was placed for weed control. Mulch will be laid over the fabric. The idea was to avoid having to apply herbicides for weed control and to provide a good grassed orchard floor for you-pickers to walk on.

Everything will be mowed for easy foot traffic. Paul admits mowing a maze isn’t easy and the employees are using maps to make sure they don’t forget any areas.

The alleys are fairly uniform in width, but they vary somewhat from eight to twelve feet, Paul said. Trees are three feet apart.

The whole notion of mazes developed years ago in Europe, and mazes there were made of trees planted in hedgerows.  It was an American idea to plant corn and cut the maze pattern into the growing corn with mowers. The Royal Oak plan follows the European model, based on dense walls of perennial plants.

The apple trees will be trained to the ancient Roman system called espalier. The trees will be pruned and fastened to a wire trellis to keep each row dense but narrow. “The trees will be trained to grow more horizontal,” Paul said. He expects a dense foliage wall, two to two and a half feet thick, fixed to four trellis wires spaced at one and a half feet apart, with the hedge maintained at seven feet tall.

“We’ll probably get 10 to 15 percent lower production than we’d ideally like,” he said.

Pruning will be done by hand, but Paul believes the system may respond to mechanical hedging. He has a row of espalier trees elsewhere on the farm, planted to test it out.

Spray system

Visitors will not see the spray system in operation (see “How the maze will be sprayed”).

“Typically our last spray is in July,” Paul said, “a few weeks before the harvest season starts. With our IPM program, we’d had no issues after mid-July.”

Codling moth pressure has been minimal in the second generation, he said, and apple maggot is sprayed for when it shows up in late June or early July. Sprays to control apple scab are applied early and are not needed after petal fall.

They use a program called Biointensive IPM, which seeks to minimize pesticide use and employ biological strategies whenever possible. “We’re also willing to take some fruit loss,” Paul said. Royal Oak also keeps bees and sells honey at the market, and they believe the health of their bees is a testament to how well their pest management program works.

A destination

There’s no entry fee for visitors who come to Royal Oak, and the entertainment area, including the petting zoo, the playground equipment, and the picnic area, is open to all.

Tokens are for sale for $2.50 each, and these can be cashed in to ride on the Royal Oak Express train, the carousel, or take a farm orchard tour. The petting zoo has feed machines that take a quarter—and sanitizing hand washers for cleanup after. •

How the maze will be sprayed

John Nye, who owns Trickl-eez Irrigation, Benton Harbor, Michigan, does the irrigation work at Royal Oak Farm Orchard, so it is not surprising the owners were following his work with the experimental Solid-Set Spray Delivery System. They wanted to put it into their plan for a maze made of apple trees.

Nye described how the system works, step by step.

The system starts with a trailer that carries a small engine and a pump, a tank for spray material, an air compressor, and a line to hook the spray tank to a manifold at the edge of the orchard. There are two manifolds that serve the four-plus-acre maze.

The manifolds are the entry points bringing spray solution into underground piping that carries spray to risers. There are eight risers, each serving about a half acre. The risers take the spray solution to flexible plastic lines fastened to the top trellis wire.

On each line, there is an emitter—an irrigation-style spray head—every three feet. One of those sprays downward. The next one is a double spray head on a hanger that drops it lower in the canopy.

“Above every spray head is an LPD (a leak prevention device) that is a check valve that won’t spray until a critical pressure is reached,” Nye said. These are set at 35 pounds per square inch.

“The pump on the trailer delivers enough spray material, at pressure kept below 35 psi, into the polyethylene supply lines to fill each of the small reservoirs located above each emitter. Compressed air, again kept below 35 psi, is used to push any extra spray material not needed to fill the ­reservoirs back to the supply tank,” he said.

The pressure from the air compressor is then raised above 35 psi, at which point all the emitters open simultaneously. Spraying takes place for ten seconds, emptying the reservoirs. The pressure is then reduced below 35 psi, and the emitters close, Nye said.

It takes less than three minutes to spray a zone, and the system can do two zones at a time, so total spray time for the whole maze is less than 15 minutes. Add another 10 minutes to move the trailer from one manifold to the other and the entire acreage is covered.

“The beauty of this is that if everything works well in the maze, it’ll work in any orchard anywhere,” Paul Norton, an owner of Royal Oak, said. “We hope this will be educational for other growers as well as the public. It’s complicated, but it’s exciting.”

For more information about Royal Oak Farm Orchard, visit its website, www.royaloakfarmorchard.com. Videos on YouTube show phases of the maze’s construction.

Solid-set canopy spray delivery system looks good in first year of tests.

After a year of work, the team of researchers developing Solid-Set Canopy Delivery Systems has issued its first report—and the results look promising.

Control of codling moth and mildew was “not quite as good” as airblast sprayer application, but acceptable, the report says. Coverage for most foliar inputs was adequate. Sunburn protection was comparable, but postbloom thinning was less complete when materials were applied by SSCDS. Beneficial mite populations were higher.

Some things need tweaking as the project proceeds.

As part of the project, surveys were mailed to apple growers in Michigan and Washington, asking their opinion about the idea of having an orchard spray system ­permanently installed in place, rather than driving ­tractors and hauling sprayers up and down orchard alleys multiple times each season.

Nearly 500 growers, representing 40 percent of the apple acreage in the two states, responded. They said they’d consider installing such a system, especially if they already have a trellis system in place to support it.

Focus groups in Michigan, Washington, and New York wanted to know more: How much will it cost to establish and maintain? Can it be adapted to different size blocks and trees? How much knowledge and training will managers and field workers need to operate and maintain the system?

From the researchers’ point of view, the results will help them refine the system. And one more experimental possibility will be tested this year: Can the system be used in the spring to apply water as a cooling mist to delay bud development and avoid late spring freezes?

In Michigan, freezes were so devastating in 2012, there was virtually no fruit on which to test the spray system’s ability to control insect and disease pests. Most of that work was done in Washington. This spring, dormancy was extended by cold weather, but a damaging freeze did occur on May 13, so test conditions were in place.

Moreover, installations have been made at several growers’ orchards, so new tests will be made using field-scale, commercial conditions.

Evolved quickly

The project is being conducted in three states, led by project directors Drs. Matt Grieshop at Michigan State University, Jay Brunner at Washington State University, and Art Agnello at New York’s Cornell University.

Already 15 years ago, Agnello had tested a fixed-in-place spray system using irrigation lines and sprinkers to apply pesticides. But when the SSCDS systems were installed last year at Michigan State’s Clarksville Experiment Station and Washington State’s Prosser site, the design was far advanced from a few lines and sprinklers strung through the trees.

The new designs were the concept of John Nye of Trickl-eez Irrigation in St. Joseph, Michigan, and based on work done by Art Agnello and sprayer specialist Dr. Andrew Landers at Cornell University.

Some practical problems needed to be solved. While it seems simple enough to spray pesticide solutions through irrigation lines and sprinklers, what happens next? How would the lines be cleared out? If clear water were used to flush the lines, would it wash off the newly applied spray material?

A novel method was developed, which consists of two major components:

1) the canopy delivery system and 2) the applicator.

The canopy delivery system is a network of polyethylene irrigation tubing run through the orchard block in a continuous loop with an input and output line that attaches to the applicator.

The applicator consists of three major components: 1) a pumping system, 2) an air compressor and 3) a tank for mixing, providing, and recapturing spray material for the canopy delivery system.

The four-stage spray procedure consists of the ­following steps:

1) Charging: Spray material is premixed in the spray applicator and then pumped through the main line at low pressure (less than 18 psi).
2) Spraying: The return line is closed and pressure increased to greater than 30 psi allowing the check valves to open and material to exit through the microsprayers for the time needed to apply 70-100 gallons per acre (less than 15 seconds).
3) Recovery: The return valve is re-opened, and the air compressor set at less than 18 psi to blow any fluid remaining in the main line back into the spray applicator.
4) Cleaning: The return valve is closed and the air compressor set to higher pressure (greater than 30 psi) to clear any remaining spray material out of the microsprayers.

Materials

While the microsprayer emitters are well developed, it is not clear what kinds of materials might need to be used in constructing the lines. They researchers tested both rigid PVC pipe used in plumbing and flexible polyethylene hose.

The microspinklers were spaced three feet apart on drop downs three feet long.

There was a somewhat larger pressure drop on the flexible polyethylene hose. “These data suggest that PVC is a superior material for SSCDS plumbing,” the report says, but polyethylene is widely used for irrigation and growers are adept at handling it.

Details about the project, and the first report, are available online at www.canopydelivery.msu.edu.

By Richard Lehnert|July 1st, 2013

Goal is to perfect a Solid Set Canopy Delivery System for all sprays.

Think of all the materials you put on your orchard through your airblast sprayer: Insecticides, fungicides, antibiotics, chemical thinners, plant growth ­regulators, sunburn protectants, foliar nutrients, anticracking agents.

Now suppose that, instead of lugging them up and down the alleys in dozens of trips and thousands of gallons of water in all sorts of weather, there was a fixed-in-place spray application system that could do all those things—and others as well. How about dispensing pheromones using emitters instead of putting up twisty ties? How about cooling the orchard with mists of water, or applying water for irrigation or frost control?

And how about doing these things in seconds instead of hours—putting on all your fungicide at the exact proper time instead of dragging the process out as the apple scab and cherry leaf spot spores ripen and infect new tissue or the critical time for apple thinning passes by.

Developing such a system is the goal of a $4.5 million, two-year project funded last year by the Specialty Crops Research Initiative. The system is called the Solid Set Canopy Delivery System, using the image of a solid-set irrigation system suspended in an orchard canopy.

Dr. Matt Grieshop, Michigan State University entomologist, is lead investigator. Twenty-six scientists across the country are co-investigators, exploring the idea of installing a stationary spray application system in the tree canopy, supported by the trellis, that could apply spray materials in a fraction of the time it would take using a tractor and sprayer.

Modern orchard systems—with densely spaced trees supported by trellises—were designed primarily to improve production and make it easier for workers to access the trees and fruit. Scientists now hope to take advantage of modern tree architecture to deliver another benefit—the ability to apply pesticides to the orchard without needing to drive a sprayer through it.

Two-year project

Originally, Grieshop said, the grant proposal asked for $12 million and five years. Only two years were approved, with a proviso that, if the work looked promising, the ­scientists could apply for more funding.

The scientists jumped into the new project this year, hoping to generate the data that would extend the project, which they think could lead to a paradigm shift of huge proportion—but can’t be done in two years.

“Airblast spraying was designed for orchards with huge canopies,” Grieshop said, “not for fruiting walls. It is outmoded technology.”

In use for more than half a century, the airblast sprayer may go the way of the dodo bird, he suggests.

In field days in Washington and Michigan, the researchers showed just how much they were able to do in one year.

Horticulturists, entomologists, pathologists, engineers, and economists established replicated trials at Washington State University’s research orchards in Wenatchee (apples) and Prosser (cherries), at Cornell University and at Fowler Farms in New York, and at several sites in Michigan, including orchards at the Clarksville Horticultural Experiment Station, at the East Lansing research orchard, and at the Belding farm of Ed and Mike Wittenbach.

John Nye with Trickl-eez Irrigation in Michigan is involved in designing the systems and in testing them in the commercial orchards in Michigan and New York.

Dr. Jay Brunner, director of WSU’s Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee, said trials were conducted in Washington this summer to compare codling moth and mildew control in blocks where the pesticide was delivered through the solid set system versus by an airblast sprayer. Trials in the eastern United States are looking at how the different spray application systems affect control of fireblight and scab. The systems vary in design and type and density of emitters.

During a summer field day at WSU’s Sunrise research orchard, Brunner explained that the tubing the emitters are attached to forms a big loop. Once the loop is filled with solution, the pressure is raised using an air compressor, and the emitters all come on at the same time, delivering 100 gallons per acre of solution in 13 seconds. After the spray is applied, the solution in the system is recaptured, and the system is cleaned out with air.

In Michigan, experiments were set up in apples and sweet cherries, with the sweet cherries being grown in high tunnels. A few years ago, MSU horticulturist Dr. Greg Lang began work with the fixed-in-place spray system for sweet cherries in tunnels.

Two years ago, MSU entomologist Dr. Larry Gut began looking at delivering pheromones for mating disruption through a similar system.

Dr. Jim Flore said that disasters like the one that struck Michigan’s fruit crops this year because of very warm weather in March followed by April freezes may be preventable in the future. Research has shown that bud development can be set back two to four weeks by using evaporative cooling when temperatures rise above 50°F, he said.

Ines Hanrahan, with the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, will compare standard overhead cooling systems with the solid-set system for sunburn control. Typically, an overhead cooling system applies water for a 15-minute period when the temperature reaches a threshold. The solid-set system would apply water for only 35 seconds at a time but more frequently so the total amount applied would be the same, Brunner said.

Flore also envisions using the system to apply calcium sprays to prevent sweet cherries from cracking and to apply growth regulators such as ethephon.

Dr. Mark Whalon notes that, when moisture is adequate in the soil, nematodes can be used to eliminate plum curculio larvae pupating in the soil. Could this system provide that moisture?

Phil Schwallier, who works with chemical thinning of fruit and use of Apogee to shorten apple terminal growth, said, “This system should be used for everything. It should totally replace the airblast sprayer.”

MSU horticulturist Dr. Ron Perry was called on to work with engineers to develop the system itself. He was in charge of the installations at Clarksville.

MSU entomologist Dr. John Wise is studying deposition patterns. He wants to see how the application system affects the amount of spray deposited on the orchard floor and on the upper and lower surfaces of the leaves and how different kinds and placements of emitters affects coverage.

In New York, reservoir systems are being studied. Instead of filling the lines with spray material, reservoirs above each emitter could be filled with the exact amount of spray material needed to fill its space. Less material would be needed to fill the lines—a serious consideration. Perry said it takes 150 gallons of material to fill the lines in the two-acre test orchard at Clarksville, and 12 to 20 seconds to apply about 70 gallons per acre.

There was long discussion at the field day at the Clarksville station about how different materials require different levels of coverage on foliage and how the system would have to be operated differently to apply them.

Brunner said there are other issues to explore in the long term. For example, if an acre of orchard can be treated in a couple of minutes, can pesticides be applied at lower rates but more frequently?

“We’re thinking we can move more and more towards a low-residue approach, but that’s yet to be determined,” he said. “That’s not the objective of the current project.”

Grieshop and Wise both noted that wind affects airblast sprayers and the fixed system differently. A slight wind might help move the spray through the canopy when it’s applied by a solid-set system, Grieshop said. Airblast sprayers overcome the effect of wind by supplying abundant wind of their own.

Economists are also part of the project. The cost of installing such a system could be high but offset by savings in equipment, labor, and time—and the loss of fruit quality that can come from lack of application timeliness.

From “Moody on the Market”, by Pat Moody 01/22/2015

The legend of High Acres Fruit Farm in Hartford has a new milestone with the election this week of a member of the Meachum family to the chairmanship of the Michigan Commission of Agriculture & Rural Development.

Trever Meachum is Production Manager for High Acres Fruit Farm, and his election Wednesday has been announced by the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development.

Meachum comes from a family owned and operated farm that had its beginnings back in 1942 when Glenn & Catherine Meachum purchased 80-acres of land in Hartford Township of Van Buren County to raise peaches and cherries. Over the years since that foundation was set, the Meachum family has expanded and diversified the farm. Courtesy of the modernization of commercial greenhouse construction and design, the farm looks fairly different these days.

High Acres Fruit Farm now farms 2,500 acres of a variety of fruit crops along with vegetables and row crops including apples, plums, cherries, nectarines, strawberries, grapes, peppers, tomatoes, corn, soybeans, and wheat.

Meachum will chair the commission for the 2015-2016 growing year. The new Vice Chair is Fred Walcott, who works alongside his parents and two sisters at Valley View Pork, a family-owned 4,000 acre farm raising hogs, and producing corn, wheat and soybeans. The new commission Secretary is Dru Montri, who owns & operates Ten Hens Farm in Bath, Michigan. She has also been the director of the Michigan Farmers Market Association since its inception 9 years ago in 2006.

Jamie Clover Adams is Director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development. She says, “I’m grateful for the willingness of these individuals to serve Michigan’s food and agricultural community.” She adds, “Our state’s dynamic food and agriculture sector is ripe with opportunities and I look forward to working with the Commission as we continue our upward growth trend.”

Meachum’s family also owns and operates Meachum Farms Trucking and Paw Paw River Produce — a cold storage and warehousing facility. The farm launched the Spencer brand tomato label in 2005, a brand now recognized throughout the Midwest and East coast as a premium product brand.

The Meachum crew’s accolades also include the Michigan Farm Bureau Farm Stewardship Award in 2006, and a year later in 2007 the Master Farmer Award from the Michigan Vegetable Council.

The Michigan Commission of Agriculture & Rural Development is a bipartisan board appointed by the Governor with the responsibility to recommend and, in some cases, determine, policy on food, agriculture, and rural development issues.

In the photo accompanying this story on Moody on the Market.com, Trever Meachum is shown standing on the far right of the photo behind the cab of the truck.