Joe Pezzini, Senior Director of Ag Operations at Taylor Farming
Agricultural operations are familiar with adapting to environmental and regulatory pressures, but every hurdle vaulted often reveals another. “Growers are up against mounting challenges due to climate change, cost of production and diminishing availability of traditional tools,” Cadby said. “We see biologicals as an opportunity to address existing and anticipated gaps in pest management, crop resilience and yield efficiency, nutrient availability, and sustainability to ensure that our growers are properly equipped with the tools to address these challenges.” Overcoming these challenges with creativity and diligence is a daily priority for growers, especially if the grower operation is producing on 25,000 acres of farmland, 19,000 acres of which is organic. Taylor Farming is embracing biological and sustainability practices throughout its operations, melding the science and the art of farming: “Meshing the technology, the biologicals, with the ability to produce this competitively can be a challenge, for sure, but we feel like we’re up for that,” Pezzini said. As an example of some of the ways Taylor Farming is doing that, Pezzini shared that they’re “using biological products to enhance root development, mycorrhiza fungi. We use a number
of seaweed products to help control plant development, and there are products that will help stimulate uniform flowering. For example, for green beans, we’ll use that product to try to set all the beans all at the same time so we can mechanically harvest them.” In another way, they’re working with products and processes to enhance the microbiome of the soil. As a driver of the biological resources that have been added to the agricultural toolset, understanding the complexity of the microbiome in the soil is unveiling itself more and more every day with data analysis and scientific research. “There’s an entire emerging science around the biology of the soil and soil health,” Pezzini said. “That’s critically important in all farming, but especially in organics. We’re trying to study the soil, and there are a lot of companies [working on] understanding what the microbiome of the soil is – What are all the bacteria in the soil? What are the good ones...How do you stimulate that?” Along with riding out the process of research and development of these products, understanding how and when to use them also takes the same kind of attentiveness and patience. While the inputs may seem similar to traditional treatments on the surface,
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20 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com May | June 2024
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