By Joel Hastings
Nearly 100 growers, students and ag professionals attended a two-part workshop focused on agave, the plant grown widely in Mexico that provides the juice distilled to make tequila and mezcal. Known for its ability to thrive in climates with extreme heat and very little water, agave has attracted the attention of California growers who are looking for new opportunities in the face of reduced availability of water for cropping and forecasted increasingly high summertime temperatures.
The event was held on November 19. A morning session was hosted by Madera Community College with presentations by two plant scientists from a research center in Jalisco, Mexico. In the afternoon, Kevin and Eric Herman of the Specialty Crop Company showed visitors their 10 acres outside Madera planted this spring to agave, speaking about their experience as growers and their plans for expansion to a planned 60 acres.
In support of the Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program (MLRP) being offered in Madera County, the program was sponsored by the County Department of Water and Natural Resources, Madera – Chowchilla Resource Conservation District, Madera County Farm Bureau, Madera Ag Water Association and California Farmland Trust.
Morning Session at the College
College President Dr. Angel Reyna welcomed the group, giving an enthusiastic overview of his work to help develop an agave industry in Central California. He said our middle name is “Community” and we want to bring new opportunities for students and the agricultural industry. He said he has made several trips to Mexico to meet with academics, growers and processors. With some funding from grants, he plans to build a distillery on campus and offer a certification program for students. He proudly pointed out plantings of agave, even as part of campus landscaping.
Born in Mexico, Reyna came to the U.S. at age four with his parents who were farm workers. He worked in the fields himself until he started his college education. He earned his BA and MA degrees at Washington State University and his PhD in educational leadership at Northeastern University.
The campus opened in 1996 on a 114-acre site donated by local landowners. In 2020 it became officially part of California’s community college system and today is serving 6,900 full and part time students.
Speaking next was Stephanie Anagnoson, director of the county department of water and natural resources. She said that with the county sitting atop three subbasins identified as critically overdrafted by the Department of Water Resources, Madera is participating in MLRP to provide incentives and benefits to property owners who undertake projects that will reduce the use of groundwater. She said the deadline for what are termed “pre-applications” was coming up on November 22. Projects might include building recharge basins, converting land for habitat restoration and changing cropping patterns which is where agave comes in.
Next, two plant scientists from a research institute in Jalisco state – CIATEJ – gave an overview of the biology and physiology of the Agave genus. Dr. Anne Gschaedler and Dr. Antonia Gutierrez Mora presented detail about agave varieties, growth and reproduction, processing and uses for the juice and the plants themselves. The Latin derivation of agave means “noble” or “admirable” and it’s from the same family as asparagus. The plants take about six years to mature when the bulb or “pineapple” in the center can be harvested. It’s then cooked, crushed, fermented and finally distilled to produce tequila or mezcal. Other products include ethanol, yeasts, prebiotics or probiotics. The remaining fibers rich in cellulose can be used for producing certain cloths.
It requires about 20 – 25 kilograms of agave to produce one liter of spirits. Producers outside Mexico will not be able to use the terms “tequila” or “mezcal” for their distilled spirits due to trademark regulations. They explained that as the plants mature, suckers from the roots have to be removed each year but they in turn can be used as new plants, either for expanded plantings or for sale to other growers. The session at MCC ran from 9 until 11 a.m. including some time for questions from the audience.
Specialty Crop Agave Plantings
Most of the group then moved ten miles north to the farming operations of Kevin Herman and son Eric of Specialty Crop Company who farm extensive acreage across Madera and Fresno Counties, growing pistachios, almonds and significant amounts of figs, both fresh and dried. The group met at the corner of a ten acre field planted to agave in April.
Amy Siliznoff, executive director of the Conservation District, after welcoming the group to the farm introduced the senior Herman and posed practical questions about the operation here. Herman said he is intrigued by agave not only as a water saving crop since this ranch is short of water but also as a source of a distilled spirits. As a sideline, he has a wine label and is looking forward to experimenting with beverage production. He said he has arranged with Dr. Reyna to provide harvested agave to the college in exchange for a percentage of the resulting spirits to be distilled there.
He said he had cleared old fig trees from this 60-acre field, and he intends to put in 10 acres of agave each year for the next five years, at which time this first planting will be ready to harvest. He said he put in 600 plants per acre, about eight feet apart in 20-foot raised rows. He said the rows are wider than might be necessary on a new field, but he had underground irrigation for the trees and only had to replace the hoses. He experimented with the amount of water but through the summer the rate was one-half gallon per hour per plant, applied one hour per week. He said with the water saved on this land, he could apply water necessary for the trees on the rest of the ranch.
These plants are being raised organically, he said, both to provide a unique finished product and to reduce costs. He said weeds and gophers were a challenge and he had about a five percent loss of plants. This fall he laid down weed cloth on the rows. He was asked if this would interfere with the growth of suckers and he replied, “We’ll just have to find out.”
In terms of costs, he said the plants were eight dollars each or about $5,000 per acre, the drip hose and weed cloth were about $1,000 per acre each, so his investment is about $7,000 per acre. Going forward, the suckers off his plants will allow him to continue his plantings, saving that cost of purchased plants.
From a production standpoint, one mature plant or pineapple as harvested should produce about a case or 12 bottles of finished spirits. He said with five to six thousand cases per year, he wasn’t going to wait five years to figure out his marketing plan. He said as the industry matures in California, he would expect large distillers might emerge who buy harvested plants from growers, to produce and market the spirits, similar to buyers of wine grapes.
He introduced Stewart Woolf, an early grower with several hundred acres of agave west of Fresno. Herman said he had purchased his plants from him, thanking him for helpful advice. Woolf has been instrumental in forming the California Agave Council. Alec Wasson, the executive director, spoke briefly saying that there are about 100 members in the state including growers and several distillers.
There were no more speakers, but conversations continued, winding up about 1:30 p.m.
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Madera County is comprised of three subbasins, designated by the CA Department of Water Resources as critically overdrafted, and “high priority”: (1) the Chowchilla Subbasin; (2) the Madera Subbasin; and (3) a portion of the Delta-Mendota Subbasin. Each of these subbasins submitted a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) by January 31, 2020. These subbasins are required to achieve “sustainability” by the year 2040. The method by which sustainability will be achieved will be illustrated in the GSP, which was be drafted in partnership by the irrigation district, water districts, cities and Madera County. The Madera County Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) is administered by the Madera County Department of Water and Natural Resources: Stephanie Anagnoson, Director, 200 W. Fourth Street, Madera, CA 93637, (559) 675-7703 x. 2265 or (559) 675-6573. The County of Madera Board of Supervisors is the Board of Directors of the GSA for the three subbasins. The current board is composed of five members: Robert Poythress, chair, Letitia Gonzalez, Robert Macaulay, David Rogers and Jordon Wamhoff..
The Madera Subbasin’s DWR # is 5-022.06
