By John Wood, Certis Biologicals Regional Manager, CA South Central Valley
What better way to celebrate a new year than by bringing together a small group of friends? In California these days we aren’t gathering in person much, but I am excited to be bringing together a couple of my friends virtually to help make you more successful in 2021. I can think of no better New Year’s Resolution, can you?
That’s right—we are expanding the Expert team for this column this year. I think you’re really going to enjoy hearing occasionally from my colleagues Taylor Aguilera and Curt Nelson.
After all, both Curt and Taylor are lifelong agriculturists like myself and they are even native Californians, unlike me (the native Cajun). Both of them grew up on cattle ranches here in California and we all know how hard those ranchers work, right?
Taylor started her own herd of cattle when she was young and used it to help put herself through college, while also working full-time. She says without that herd she wouldn’t be where she’s at today. Here at Certis, we are proud that happened, too, so she could join our amazing California team of sales pros. Taylor even has family members that grow tree nuts, so she is uniquely qualified to share some on-the-ground wisdom straight from the orchards to you.
Curt also grew up farming livestock on his ranch, but I love that his experience with vegetables began when he joined his high school FFA chapter. Judging vegetables in FFA gave Curt the experience he needed early to understand the unique relationship of PCAs and California growers.
I’ve worked with both Taylor and Curt for many years after they joined Certis from other bio-based companies. Curt came over to Certis from Marrone Bio where he was a Regional Sales Manager covering all of Coastal California. Taylor worked as a Western Regional Sales Manager at Isagro before joining our team at Certis.
I truly value both Curt and Taylor’s experience with bio and I’ve seen them provide truly awesome input for their customers. I know that they are going to bring that expertise to this column, and you are going to be even more successful in 2021 because of it.
“I value Western Farm Press and I’m excited to be a part of the valuable information that they share with growers regularly,” Curt told me. “I am glad that in my job I can be an asset to growers and distributors about the tools that Certis has to offer. I enjoy learning more and this column will be a great way for me to merge those two passions.”
“Permanent tree plantings have always just been my favorite type of agriculture,” Taylor says. “Who doesn’t love a beautiful, healthy tree that produces year after year? Being able to connect with you tree nut growers out there will allow me to help keep these crops fruitful in our state.”
As a team, we’ve been brainstorming some brand new, exciting things that we can share with you this year. We’ll still be recommending products and talking growing season conditions, but now with an even broader scope since Curt and Taylor cover different territories and see different orchards than I do in their daily travels. On top of that, we’re planning to bring you wisdom from some others in the industry too, along the way.
Some things never change, though, and in that vein, you can still reach out to all of us with any questions, concerns or topics that you’d like to see us cover. Simply send an email to asktheexpert@certisbio.com.
Let’s get this new year started, together!
This series is part of a partnership with Tree Nut Farm Press. You can read the original here.