EMERGING TIMES …growing toward the future Volume 8 • Issue 3 | February 2019 SOUTH FLORIDA PRODUCTION CONTENTS J&J operates amid development pressure .... 2 A. Duda & Sons continues to build a legacy ............... 2 Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market offers education, homegrown produce ....... 3 Lettuce powerhouse TKM Bengard continues to excel .............................. 4 Teamwork, passion Class 8 members on their production tour of South Florida. This stop was at Lake evident in success of Okeechobee in Belle Glade. Left to right: Tiffany Dale, Florida Strawberry Growers Hundley Farms ................... 5 Association; Brittany Hubbard, S&L Beans; Alison Sizemore, Sizemore Farms; Juan David Castro-Anzola, PGIM Real Estate Finance; Cathleen Conley, A. Duda & Sons; Nick Growers working together Wishnatzki, Wish Farms; Jake Brown, Tater Farms; Chris Campbell, Lipman Family Farms; isn’t such a corny idea ...... 6 Josh Griffin, Grimes Produce Company; Zach Langford, Syngenta Crop Protection; Cooper Hopkins, Hundley Farms; Justin Newsome, Bayer CropScience; Breanna Lawyer, Corteva Satisfying our Agriscience; and tour stop host Eric Hopkins, Hundley Farms. sweet tooth ....................... 6 Tour of Southern Gardens Citrus shows casualties Thank you to these sponsors for the South Florida production tour: of citrus greening ............. 7 Southern Gardens juice is worth the squeeze ........ 8 Florida’s Natural Growers Foundation (Bus) Florida says, ‘We produce rice, too!’ ............ 9 Farm Credit of Florida and Ashley Layson Tour sheds light on sugar (Dinner) processing from grinding to raw ‘Sugar Mountain’ ...10 Glades Formulating and Frankie Montalvo Sunshine Sweet Corn (Dinner) Farmers work together for good of the industry ...... 11 Sunshine Sweet Corn Farmers of Florida ELDP News ...................... 12 (Lunch) Bedner Growers Inc. (Lunch) SUSTAINING SPONSOR 2 | Emerging Times • February 2019 J&J operates amid development pressure agriculture, and it was evident when also has diversified as a grower agent Class 8 visited with Shane Rogers (ELDP in the Southeastern United States and By Tiffany Dale Class 7) and Peter Hamburg during our procures in Mexico and Canada, allow- Florida Strawberry Florida production trip in January. ing them to diversify their operation. Growers Association During our tour with Rogers and As the residential area surrounding the Hamburg, Class 8 learned how J&J con- farm continues to boom, it is my hope tinues to operate despite the pressures the neighbors recognize the gems that arming in the Loxahatchee area is of farming, especially in a high-value exist in the fields in their backyards. no easy task. J&J Family of Farms residential area. J&J Family of Farms Fis no stranger to issues such as began as a produce brokerage house trade, consumer preferences, retailer in 1983 and now produces more than demands, and labor. To add to those 10 varieties of bell peppers, such as the pressures, developers are building Sunny Sweet Pepper, and other pro- million-dollar homes adjacent to the duce. J&J works to ensure a high-quality farms in Loxahatchee. Although the product and options through special- challenges are many, J&J Family of ized packaging sizes and value-added Farms stays on the forefront of the choices for its customers. Although the industry, meeting consumer demands Florida pepper market still faces grave and navigating policy issues to compete competition from Mexico, J&J contin- in the market. J&J Family of Farms is a ues to expand its options and offer a true testament of dedication to Florida quality product. J&J Family of Farms A. Duda & Sons continues to build a legacy Perry Yance, were a strong is located in the Everglades palletized and transport- team who began a small Agricultural Area, where ed the final product for By Juan David farm operation. With pas- the soil is rich in organic warehouse distribution to Castro-Anzola sion, hard work, vision, and matter – optimal for the customers. Although a large PGIM Real great ambition they built production of vegetables number of people still work Estate Finance an impressive agricultural and sugar cane. The tour during the harvest season, enterprise with operations included a visit to the celery they also use a harvesting lass 8 had the unique in Florida, California, Texas, harvest operation, where machine built specifically opportunity to visit Arizona, Georgia and Jones and Yance shared for the celery operation. CA. Duda & Sons’ op- Michigan. They are widely some insights into celery More of this new technol- eration in Belle Glade. More known for the production production and harvesting ogy may be used in the than 90 years ago, a father of vegetables – mainly at their 1,500-acre field. future to gain efficiencies in and his three sons began celery, sweet corn and According to Jones, man- the operation and mitigate building what is today one radishes – as well as sugar aging an operation of labor shortages, Jones said. of the most successful and cane, citrus and sod. In this scale requires a great It’s not every day that diversified agribusinesses in addition, Duda owns The level of communication and you find an agribusiness the United States. Viera Company, a large coordination. The celery company such as A. Duda The Duda brothers, as real estate company that harvesting crew made this & Sons that continues to explained by assistant farm is an integral part of their complex task appear to evolve and build a legacy manager Sam Jones and non-agricultural business. be an easy job as they cut, in farming for future Belle Glade farm manager Duda’s Belle Glade farm washed, packed, stacked, generations. 3 | Emerging Times • February 2019 Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market offers education, homegrown produce By Cathleen Conley A. Duda & Sons laying host to 13,000 to 15,000 visitors a year, from kindergart- Pners to members of the Red Hat Society, Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market in Boynton Beach is a unique local staple that offers field trips, private parties, U-Pick fruits and vegetables, and a fresh market with homegrown and locally sourced produce. The 80-acre property, a fraction of the estimated 1,200 acres farmed by the Bedner fami- ly in South Florida, features 35 different crops such as strawberries, peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes. “Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market has created a community connection,” says Marie Bedner, operations manag- er. “We take great pride in being one of the few remaining family-owned and operated farms in South Florida.” and Legg also discussed why they Class 8 was treated to a tractor tour grow the produce they do, indicating of the property conducted by Bedner it’s all driven by consumer demands and David Legg, educator. The class and trends. was offered fresh corn and tomato “When you shop at Bedner’s, you samples before receiving an can be certain that you are purchasing interesting produce “show from a safe and reliable food source,” and tell.” Among the items Bedner said. “Come in and give us a showcased, like leafy greens try. You’ll come in as a customer and and celery, was something leave as a friend.” new to many in attendance: Visit bedners.com for more purple cauliflower. Bedner information. 4 | Emerging Times • February 2019 Lettuce powerhouse TKM Bengard continues to excel maximize soil health. TKM Bengard is known By Chris for growing an excellent Campbell crop and meeting the needs Lipman Family Farms of its buyers and proces- sors. It handles the product from planting all the way to uck land, really cooling and packaging for muck land. The buyers/processors (de- Mmuck (as locals pending on how they want call it) is a layer of soil to receive the product). that was deposited from Once the product leaves years of Lake Okeechobee the field and arrives at the draining into southern cooling/packaging opera- Florida. The soil provides tion, it is vacuum-cooled to the perfect growing con- 34-35 degrees Fahrenheit. dition for many crops in Every pallet is tagged with the Everglades Agricultural an eight-digit code and Area. One local company, scanned into inventory. It is TKM Bengard, started out tracked until it is scanned in other muck-growing out and headed to a buyer/ areas in Ohio and Michigan, processor. TKM Bengard has then expanded into South kept up with all the latest Florida in the 1960s. on food safety protocols TKM Bengard is a and is Primus-certified. partnership between TKM Bengard has become the Basore family and a powerhouse for growing the Bengard family in a reputable leafy green California. Together they product and maintaining an have become the largest excellent level of quality. lettuce grower east of the Mississippi. TKM Bengard grows more than 100 million pounds of iceberg lettuce every year along with 15 different varieties of other leafy greens. In the 1990s, the company started selling bagged lettuce on the West Coast. Every five years it rotates off a piece of land to rotate crops and 5 | Emerging Times • February 2019 Teamwork, passion evident in success of Hundley Farms corn is picked mostly by automated they will replant right behind the harvest. harvesters and loaded into bulk trailers. Cabbage and green beans make up the The corn is delivered to Pioneer Growers remaining acres of their farm. By Jake Brown Tater Farms Cooperative, where it is graded, boxed Hopkins said that “teamwork is im- and shipped out to customers. portant.” The co-ops that are in place Hundley Farms’ sugar cane production work well because of the concern that is about 5,000 acres. It is processed by farmers have for each other. This team- undley Farms is a fourth- the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative. work is also reflected in the growers’ generation farming operation in The cane is rotated about every fourth cooperation on their crop rotation.