—story by Ross Courtney—pictures by TJ Mullinax and Ross CourtneyTom Gausman, outgoing vice chairman of AgriMACS, checks on work throughout an October go to to White Alpha Orchard close to Ephrata, Washington. Horticultural experience and smooth administration abilities helped earn him the 2024 Grower of the Yr award from Good Fruit Grower. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)Let’s get one factor out of the best way: Tom Gausman is a pleasant man. Everybody says so — shoppers, researchers, co-workers, opponents.He’s so humble and unassuming.He at all times asks what I believe, although he has extra expertise.I by no means noticed an individual so well mannered, by no means upset about something.It takes rather a lot to make him mad, and imagine me, I’ve examined him. (That’s from his spouse, Tracy.)Gausman, 71, has constructed a profession out of being “good,” mixing what enterprise lessons name emotional intelligence with old school arduous work and horticultural experience honed from many years spent constructing one in all Washington’s largest orchard administration firms.Now, as he transitions to retirement from his position as vice chairman of AgriMACS in Chelan, Good Fruit Grower’s advisory board has named Gausman the 2024 Grower of the Yr. The award honors modern and galvanizing growers, recognizing their efforts nearly as good employers, good stewards of the land and good companions to the broader trade. Gausman’s profession trajectory tracks a altering trade: from his roots on a small household farm to redefining what it means to be a grower in a consolidating trade the place orchard homeowners aren’t at all times placing their boots on the bottom. Highlighting his quiet management and communication abilities, the advisory board famous how these abilities helped him construct a group that produces high quality fruit for warehouses throughout the state on behalf of buyers throughout the nation.He’s fast to provide credit score to that group, however their success can be a credit score to his management.“If we have now a profitable orchard administration enterprise, an enormous a part of it’s the folks we’re in a position to appeal to to us,” Gausman mentioned.HistoryGausman grew up on a 35-acre apple orchard throughout a time when his household of six may dwell off such a small parcel, tucked towards a rocky hillside simply south of Oroville on the east facet of the Okanogan River. All the children helped. Holidays had been tenting journeys. Wages from summer time and fall orchard work nearly paid for a semester of school.“You couldn’t start to do this now,” mentioned Eleanor Gausman, Tom’s mom, who got here from a warehouse-owning orchard household that was a part of a community of small farms, warehouses and cooperatives within the Seventies Okanogan Valley heyday.Gausman appreciated his rural upbringing, however he noticed occasions altering. Warehouses started closing, and consolidation started taking its toll on the neighborhood and his household. His dad and mom farmed largely full time, however his mother, a registered nurse, took occasional hospital shifts to make ends meet.At high, Ken Gausman, Tom’s father, takes within the view of his former house and orchard throughout a hike in 2013, when the land was fallow in preparation for a replant. The farm has since been planted into trellised Honeycrisp, proven at backside on this 2020 Good Fruit Grower photograph. (Prime photograph courtesy Tom Gausman, Backside photograph Ross Courtney/Good Fruit Grower)He preferred horticulture, although, and after a stint as a ski bum in Idaho, he enrolled at Washington State College and earned a bachelor’s diploma in tree fruit manufacturing in 1977. He took lessons in nursery administration, too.He first labored in Skagit County in greens, then in a decorative plant nursery. His first tree fruit job got here within the Eighties as a area consultant for a Wenatchee packing firm. After 10 years, he joined a vertically built-in producer’s administration group, tasked with constructing a steady of outdoor growers and managing some captive orchards.A number of years later, the corporate bought to Dole, however he saved his job. That’s the place he met Tim McLaughlin, his eventual enterprise accomplice. Moreover working farms, Dole facilitated outdoors funding. Concerned with a number of the offers, McLaughlin and Gausman unknowingly started to construct their marketing strategy. One of many buyers urged the 2 pals begin a administration group unbiased of packing homes. They talked about it with their households and at first “chickened out,” McLaughlin mentioned. Because the century closed, nevertheless, Dole started to dump properties, so the 2 based AgriMACS in 2000. McLaughlin, who had an actual property license and enterprise acumen, served as president; the horticultural knowledgeable Gausman was vice chairman.“It was a golden alternative,” Gausman mentioned.On the time, outdoors funding flew “form of underneath the radar,” McLaughlin mentioned. A number of fairness teams and insurance coverage firms owned orchards. Even the state Division of Pure Assets invested in farming to assist fund public faculties. When it began, AgriMACS joined a small cadre of administration corporations in Washington, equivalent to Stemilt Administration, Clark Jennings and Associates and C.M. Holtzinger.
Good listeners make good leaders, as 2024 Good Fruit Grower of the Yr Tom Gausman of AgriMACS, proper, exemplifies whereas assistant orchard supervisor Sergio Lopez riffs about coloration improvement on Honeycrisp apples in mid-September at a Quincy, Washington, orchard. (Ross Courtney/Good Fruit Grower)
Collectively, Tom Gausman and orchard supervisor Jorge Acevedo take a look at the stress of ripening Honeycrisp apples in September at Monument Hills Orchard in Quincy, Washington. (Ross Courtney/Good Fruit Grower)Scale and smooth skillsThe new enterprise launched Gausman to scale. He had grafted and replanted small blocks, however funding corporations employed AgriMACS to carve orchards into uncooked floor a whole lot of acres at a time, generally with solely months of discover. Gausman established a fame as a meticulous planner, arduous employee and sound collaborator.Some initiatives have been powerful, constructed on floor he didn’t essentially select, however all of them turned out clear and productive, mentioned Jeff Cleveringa, a member of Good Fruit Grower’sadvisory board.“He takes care of it prefer it’s his personal,” Cleveringa mentioned.Cleveringa known as Gausman a quiet contributor, keen to study and share. At the same time as he transitions to retirement, he continues to take part in excursions and trade conferences. He hosted a 2022 Worldwide Fruit Tree Affiliation tour cease and was frank concerning the challenges of crop load administration for Honeycrisp. Gausman additionally has served on Washington Tree Fruit Analysis Fee committees, as president of the North Central Washington Fieldman’s Affiliation and as chair of the trade’s apple maturity program, a bunch of horticulturists who made statewide harvest timing suggestions.Tom Gausman leads a 2022 tour for the Worldwide Fruit Tree Affiliation at Monument Hills. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)“It was simpler when the state had solely two varieties,” he mentioned with fun. Stefano Musacchi of Washington State College calls Gausman a talented horticulturist.As Musacchi taught growers “click on” pruning for WA 38, the variability bought as Cosmic Crisp, he hinted to Gausman the approach may work on SugarBee, a cultivar with related Kind 4 progress habits. Click on pruning is “not intuitive,” Musacchi mentioned; making use of it to a unique selection took guts and talent. Gausman additionally collaborated with Musacchi on a analysis commission-funded venture about plant progress regulators. Giving a analysis group randomized blocks for trials causes disruption, however Gausman and the AgriMACS group dealt with that patiently and proactively, Musacchi mentioned. The futureGausman exits the trade throughout occasions powerful economically however thrilling technologically.On the financial outlook, he favors bringing again some type of collective home advertising and marketing and expects extra painful consolidation over the subsequent 5 years.As for tech, he believes robots will choose fruit … sometime.In the meantime, he’s a fan of labor apps and NDVI aerial scanning. One yr, his administration group relied on the imaging to determine areas of excessive vigor and, due to this fact, giant cherry measurement.The corporate additionally makes use of automated irrigation methods from Phytech and Wilbur-Ellis. To this point, AgriMACS lets orchard managers choose the methods.Tom Gausman shares a second of levity with AgriMACS colleagues Kyle Peer heart, and Cesar Ortiz, proper, in October at White Alpha Orchard. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)“What’s extra vital is that the blokes utilizing it comprehend it, perceive it, are comfy with it — extra so than which one’s higher,” Gausman mentioned.At present, the problem is selecting know-how that may repay. Gausman and AgriMACS have examined Monarch tractors and eyed Sensible Apply sprayers and the Prospr self-driving sprayer. His shoppers are curious, too, however need to wait out the financial doldrums earlier than shopping for costly instruments.These new applied sciences, and their related value tags, are only one thing more that makes it tougher for small farms to compete with company and investor-backed farms. However Gausman’s dad and mom don’t lament that their son didn’t maintain the household farm. Moderately, they laud outdoors funding and his position within the innovation it has delivered to the trade.“He’s been very profitable in what he’s doing,” Ken Gausman mentioned. “He has accomplished an excellent job.” •
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