Good Fruit Grower

LAST BITE More Young Growers at goodfruit.com/yg Lacey Lybeck grower / Pasco, Washington age / 27 crops / Grapes business / Vineyard Manager, Sagemoor Vineyards family background / Lacey grew up working alongside her family on their farm, Hulbert Farms and Skagit Seed Services, in La Conner, Washington. " " " " " How did you get your start? As a recent graduate of Washington State University, I joined Ste. Michelle Wine Estates as an intern and learned from the best in the wine industry. I also did a stint working in grower relations on the Wahluke Slope. I'm still amazed that at that time I was approached with my dream job during a fi eld interview, just discussing business. I believe through my early work learning from other growers and cultivating relationships has led me to my position with Sagemoor. Did you always want to be a grower? In high school, I was sorting dirt clods looking for daffodil bulbs or counting onion seeds the size of a pinpoint. After high school, I wasn't sure I wanted to be in agriculture. I was resistant to the idea of being tied to a farm and living on the farm. It's such a lifestyle, not a career choice. In my crops 102 class at WSU, they covered viticulture for one week. At that time, I just fell in love with the concept of growing the best product possible, not for an amount or a certain set price, but to provide the best crop for a winemaker. What college programs continue to help you today? When I started picking up viticulture and enology classes, those subjects drew my attention along with joining the V&E club and horticulture clubs at WSU. I took every opportunity that came my way. My degree is in agriculture food systems, which is a little different route than most enrolled in the V&E program. I chose to add marketing and public relations into my coursework to get beyond just having a science based degree and to help me communicate science to the public effectively. How do you see the future of data use in farming? It's a huge component. When I was young, my grandfather, James Hulbert, used to keep a DayMinder that he started after re- turning from World War II. I could go back and look at frost dates, etc. It was our own Farmer's Almanac. We are pursuing our own applications with Allan Brothers, our parent company, to track anything from cluster counts to vine weights, tracking pesticide and water use, and build a database to look back several years. What can farmers improve on? As farmers, we don't realize that some people have never left a city. Some people have never stepped foot on a farm that's producing crops. I think farmers need to know there's a discon- nect between the work that they do and what the public thinks they do. Being able to communicate those issues and really share what you do in a way everyone can understand is key. " I fell in love with how pouring your heart into growing wine grapes is so tied to the end consumer. PLAY goodfruit.com/yg scan to watch the interview www.gslong.com SPONSORED BY by TJ Mullinax More from this interview and other Young Growers at goodfruit.com/yg. 46 MARCH 15, 2017 GOOD FRUIT GROWER

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